Ok, here's that mini-tutorial I mentioned. First off, the material I use for padding...
This is called Poly-fil foam. It's mainly used for furniture padding and other random crafts. It works perfectly as a padding for this armor.
The first thing I did was figure out the shape. I did this by cutting a square section that fit around my forearm and shaping it by placing it into the armor and trimming. This is what I ended up with...
Now, that would be good enough for a lot of people, but frankly, I can't stand the feeling of that stuff. It has a habit of snagging on the rough parts of my skin, and every time I would put my hand through, I know I'd cringe. The feeling of this stuff to me is like nails on a chalkboard is to others. It's great stuff, I just don't like the way it feels, so, I cover it in some cloth...
I cut a section of black cloth large enough to fold over the foam piece...
Then I pin the sides together...
...and sew two edges, leaving an opening...
Then I pull out the poly-fil foam, turn the sewed up cloth inside out, and reinsert the foam so the seams are on the inside of the pad. Then I sew up the remaining side. I do this for both shapes...
Now comes attaching the padding to the inside of the armor. For this, I use velcro...
I cut a few strips to size for each piece...
Now, this is where I may get a few concerned comments about how I do this. I could sew the velcro onto the pad, but the type of velcro I have (which was free for me) has sticky, plastic backing, very difficult to punch a needle through, so I glue...
Yup, hot glue holds onto this stuff beautifully...
Finally, one by one, I pull the backing off the connecting pieces of velcro, add some glue and put the padding into the armor, attaching the velcro to the inside...
And we're finished...
And here are a few shots of the gauntlet on my arm...
Keep in mind that this is the way I install my padding. The reason I use velcro is in case I ever need to clean or replace the padding for any reason, it's removable.
Anyway, hope at least someone enjoyed that. Of course, that means that my gauntlets are finished. I should have an updated completion picture up soon. As I've mentioned, it's been far too hot outside to bondo my biceps. It's really starting to be a problem. I leave for vacation on Saturday and will not be back until the end of the month, so it's likely that I will not get to work on my biceps until then. Hopefully the heat breaks by then.
Let me know what you think.