#armor tutorial

This tutorial will cover the creation of everything you see in this photo except for sleeveless gloves (lol), and the mask, which is real metal and was commissioned from Hollowearthworkshop on Facebook.

To make the pauldrons and the elbow armor I bought and repurposed elbow and knee pads from the thrift store. I cut off all of the fabric so it was essentially just the plastic shells left. I set aside the velcro for fastening the elbow pads later.

In my first go at this cosplay, I painted the armor/knee pads with acrylic paint and cut out a piece of large foam to be her front armor. I then lined them with a silver acrylic paint outline. As a final touch, I coated it in mod podge to keep it from chipping.

I sadly do not have photos of when I made all the red armor straps/fasteners but to make them you essentially just have to sew so many tubes, turn them inside out, sew the open side closed, and iron those babies to hell and back. For the criss-cross back piece, I sewed the wrong sides together so it would make an infinity sign or figure eight. To put that piece on, I put it on like backpack straps.

In total, she has the crisscross back piece, a red strap on each shoe, red straps securing her elbow armor, red straps securing the shin armor, and a long piece that ties around her waist securing her armor and sword.

For the waist piece, I made it wider than it should be because it gets wider towards the end. To do this I just folded it to be smaller on my waist and ironed it to stay folded and left the ends unironed so it would be larger at the tips.

I do recommend that you make the fabric pieces that will be on your back and elbows a bit larger than they need to be (half an inch or so) so you have room for movement! When my elbows are bent I need more fabric than when they are straight, and since I used cotton there is not much stretch to them. To keep them from sliding I safety pin them to my shirt.

Speaking of the shirt, I went for a fairly easy route to make it. I just bought a rigid black turtle neck from Value Village and painted the details on with puffy fabric paint for the red to create the illusion of a seam and then used regular gold fabric paint for the gold accents. For the button, I just found a silver button at Joann's that was the right shape and sewed it on.

DO NOT LET THE PAINT DRY BEFORE YOU TAKE OFF THE TAPE! For more crisp lines take the tape off while it is wet! I taped my shirt down to the floor so it wouldn't move around and smear and kept all roommates and animals clear of the area until it had dried.

For the sword, I really lucked out and found a cheap katana at a thrift store that I just painted with acrylics and then sealed with mod podge. It was super fun to do and I was pleased with the outcome. Plus, her katana is way easier to make and store than hiraikotsu lol.

(This is the photo I used as a reference for the back of her armor)

Now, you can stop there for her armor and have a fine time. It definitely worked for me. I used basic pink leg warmers for her shin armor and called it good because that is what I had the time and resources for. However, if you have time + resources to vamp it up more, here is what I did.

I bought Artminds modeling foam from Michael's and sculpted it onto my preexisting armor to make it smoother in an attempt to get rid of the obvious knee/armor pad look. I really recommend using water to smooth it out while it's still wet. It'll be sticky while working with it but it makes it sooo much more smooth. I personally didn't have the correct tools to sand it out after it had dried so this was a great way to get the final product to have a nice finish.

One thing that I disliked about my first attempt was that the pauldrons were way too small. So while I kept the elbow armor the same size, I drastically built out the pauldrons by an inch or so, checking how they looked in the mirror periodically to make sure I wasn't going too big with them.

they got a little turtle-y and I found I had to reshape them every few hours to make sure they didn't dry in the wrong shape. I did find it useful to make one at a time and use the one I wasn't working on as a mold by covering it in plastic wrap and placing the one being worked on over top of it.

Once I got them to the right size, I rolled out a piece of foam to make a long cylinder and then carefully applied it to the edge of both the pauldrons and the elbow armor. This takes a lot of patience and water was very useful during this stage to help smooth it out. I found that the modeling foam lost shape easily and when picked up to move around it would stretch out and get super thin in spots.

To fix this I would scrunch it back together in the too-small spots and in areas where it was larger than it should be I gently pulled and rolled it to the underside of the armor so I could keep the cylinder shape but move the excess foam somewhere it wouldn't be visible. This also kind of helped to attach it more securely (I think...).

I once again used pink acrylic paint, silver metallic acrylic paint, and glossy mod podge to finish them off.

I think this system worked out pretty well and I am much more pleased with the armor now than I was before!

The elbow pads were easy to attach because I super glued the velcro from their old fasteners to the inside of the armor and to the red fabric fasteners.

Velcro wasn't really a possibility for fastening the pauldrons because of how much they curved so I had myself a little reduce-reuse-recycle moment and mod-podged some thrifted doilies to the inside of them. Doilies or mesh would work super well for this, basically, the goal of this is to make something that's easy to get a safety pin in and out of and that is flexible so that it still sits correctly on your shoulder.

I also... marked which way the armor should be facing up to look best on my shoulders so I wouldn't forget in my sleep-deprived getting ready for con haze.

For the shin and front/back armor I... made my own patterns using printer paper, a ruler, and a sharpie.

For the shin armor, I measured my knee to make sure that the piece that would be covering it was both long and wide enough (I did four inches) and then free-handed the approximate shape of my knee. I made the band of the shin armor waaaay longer than it needed to be because it's way easier to take them in than to make them larger.

The most ingenious moment I had during this was making the band go up higher than it should so I could make a little flap to hem it down so I wouldn't have to worry about raw edges. (It was cut along the knee piece to make it a clean fold).

I used quilted pink cotton as my fabric for a fun texture. Her armor is demon hide and this fabric is used for making armor padding that you wear under chainmail so it was fun to make armor out of something it's actually made out of!

After I cut out my fabric with my nifty pattern, I used silver metallic bias tape on the applicable areas. I very sadly learned that the only place you can buy silver metallic bias tape, not in bulk from amazon or from etsy is... Hobby Lobby... so there is that

Then I got to sewing that bad boy! Here is what the back side looked like. I decided to hem the raw edges on the bottom just for my own peace of mind since it won't be visible/it'll be tucked into my boots. It's the thought that counts, I guess.

Sewing bias tape is pretty simple, you just stick to the outskirts of the bias tape and go slowly.

I measured and re-measured to make this... so many times. I still think I should have gone thinner on my final product but... I digress. To make this pattern I essentially just made a very top-heavy cross or t shape and then connected the bottom into a triangle and made a rectangle on top that I rounded the top of. The inner lines on this pattern were me testing out the idea of a smaller size that I did not end up going with.

I did try on and test my patterns before I cut/sewed anything and I highllyyyy suggest this. I do not have a photo of me sewing her groin/butt armor but it was essentially a longer more convoluted version of the shin armor but this time with a point! Points may seem scary but you just have to fold the bias tape on the point and pin it carefully before sewing it. I did leave all the edges raw because they would be covered completely by bias tape anyways and it would have just been a waste of time.

One thing I will say about the actual design of Sango and her armor is that the back piece of armor does not have a rounded top and is much shorter... I, however, did not fully process that information before I made both pieces to be the same so I have decided that I will not care about that.

I'm still really pleased with the outcome!

And that is how I made and updated my Sango cosplay at different skill levels! For her pants, I just wear black leggings.

And then here are my cosplay test photos! I have yet to take the new and improved version to a con, but will very soon!

**Note these photos were taken before I figured out the doilies method so the pauldrons are not fastened as securely as they normally would be**

The contact lens I am wearing are the Geo Princess Mimi Chocolate Brown (Bambi series) from Pinky Paradise :)

First, buy the rings.

I used Chainmail Joe 16AWG/18SWG 1/4" in silver. I got them on Amazon, here (link).

This is their size chart. You can see that my ring is on the spot that says 4:

Next, you take 1 ring (which you open) and 3 closed rings. You loop the closed rings through the opened ring

Then, close the opened ring. I like to use a knitting needle to hold the rings steady.

I get a second opened ring and loop two closed rings through.

And I attach it to the last set of rings.

Continue to do this until you reach your desired length.

To add on, begin your next "string" using the same method as above.

You take another open ring and loop it through two rings from the old string and two from the new one. You can see which rings to loop it through in the photo above.

Loop the open ring through those two rings like so

And then close that ring. It should look like this when you are done

You continue the second string, attaching it to the old string, and continue on. Remember to take it slow at first and pay attention to the pattern to make sure it is consistent, and look at my first picture as reference. The placement of the rings should look consistent across the chainmail.

Anyways, I hope my mini tutorial is useful, and you can always look at other tutorials and videos to get a better idea, although I have had little luck with such things because they add on 5 rings at a time while I add only 3 which I have found is faster and less confusing

So, I wanted to be Lance. (He’s meh fave) I knew nothing about how clothing worked though, and even though I knew I’d be working with foam, it still needed to fit into the right shape and size. Now, I donno about you, but this was the hardest part for me. This was the part I wished someone could just give me and I could adjust, or something I could print out, idk. I didn’t have that, so I basically spent hours looking at different pictures of the armor and using trial and error to see what worked and what didn’t. I obviously ended up with templates, although I made them in a very particular way. This is a very effective way, in my opinion, to make particular shapes for YOUR body type. Looking into it, I found many templates changed size, but not necessarily SHAPE. Sometimes, someone needs that same length and width, but they may need more curve to the sides of the template. Or perhaps someone needs more width but not more height. See what I mean? Bodies are different, and need different templates. You can make them however you please, but I used this method:

1.) Wrap the part of your body the templates for in saran wrap (make sure to go a bit higher and lower than the actual piece needs to be!)

2.) Wrap that saran wrapped sweaty limb in thick tape (I found that blue tape is good because its easy to cut and light, but its also not that sticky)

3.) Eyeball the cuts the piece has to have. When it comes to Voltron armor, there’s lots of random cuts for design purposes, be careful not to accidentally put the shape in the wrong place. Once you understand what goes where, sharpie the lines of where you’d need to cut. (Do this WHILE ITS ON YOUR ARM. You need to know where cuts go in relation to other cuts!! If you move or twist the cast after already making a cut, you won’t know if you’re right about the next one. Generally, its good to have help with this part)

4.) GENTLY AND C A R E F U L L Y cut through the BACK of the cast, (the side not facing outward), and take it off. PLEASE ONLY MAKE ONE, CLEAN CUT ACROSS THE BACK. DO NOT CUT BOTH SIDES OR IN THE FRONT! After cutting and cleaning the edges, wrap it around that limb again to see if it fits nicely. (You’ll want some extra room) 5.) To complete your template, lay it FLAT against a sheet of cardboard. (I would not recommend paper, its too flimsy) It may look really weird, but remember, if you did it right, you already saw what shape it eventually becomes when put together. Make sure to pin it down to the cardboard so it doesn’t dance around, ruining your shape. Its very important to trace the EXACT SHAPE, so spend good time flattening your design best you can. This isn’t about cutting, you shouldn’t cut it more than you already did. After you’ve secured your cast, trace the shape carefully and cut out the cardboard shape.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU COMPLETED YOUR TEMPLATES!!!

I don’t have pictures of my templates as of now, but I could get some. If anyone actually wants the exact templates I used, I will give them to you. I could edit this post or just send them to you, if anyone wants them, that is. (I didn’t wanna go through the trouble if no one wanted them, remember: I’m lazy) Like I said, I’m no expert, but they made soMETHING. So if you do want them, shoot me a message!

After I went through that step, which took the longest despite just using cardboard, measurements, saran wrap, tape, and a sharpie, the next step was to hold down the cardboard onto the foam and trace and cut. It sounds simple, but its more time consuming than it sounds. Seriously. Be careful with your speed and where the knife is actually digging. I used an angular box cutter, which cuts a bit more off the trim than it may appear at first. Just in general, make sure you know what your tools do and make sure you cut ON THE LINES. If you for some reason can’t, always cut OUTSIDE the line. ALwaYs. You can always trim stuff down, but you can’t put it back. After you cut out the templates in foam, make sure to sand the edges. This step isn’t really necessary, though it improves the overall look of the completed project! Also, please REMEMBER TO MARK YOUR LEFTS, RIGHTS, FRONTS, BACKS, UPS, AND DOWNS!!! THIS IS SO IMPORTANT I CANT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!

I would like to give advice about the circles on the boots: CIRCLES ARE HARD. Too often, I think, people underestimate how hard it is to actually cut out a circle. I remember being so PiSsEd about the circles, I made a Special Guide™ to them. Because of the thickness they needed to be, I cut out 8 identical circles so that I could stack 4 as one, of course, you need 2. I used a cup for the measurements. I found a Starbucks cup works extremely well for this, because the top is nice and wide, and the bottom is smaller and oddly a perfect size ratio for the Voltron boot circle light thingys. Its also plastic, so damaging the cup, (you definitely will), isn’t that much of an issue. Basically, I placed the cup upside down, (top of cup on foam), and traced around the top with a sharpie. I then flipped the cup, (bottom of cup on foam), centered it best I could, and traced the bottom of the cup in the middle of the circle. Then I cut them out and tried to sand them to a smooth, even shape of equal size. Cutting out the middle was INFURIATING, though it got done. You will find your circle to be very rugged and uneven after being cut, which is why sanding the edges and inside is basically essential. A good system, I found, is to sand each circle individually, until its smooth and round, then to place all circles stacked upon each other, and sand those to about an even size and shape. This will probably never end up perfect, but its all the way on the bottom of the cosplay, so its not that noticeable.

After your final foam pieces are cut out and sanded to be smooth, make sure you test how they all fit together and how they fit on your body. Skipping this step is just plain stupid, and let me tell you why. Even though you may have tried on the cast and cut the shape out correctly on the cardboard, remember, this final size has gone through 3 different cuts, every material likely to have a different thickness. There’s actually a VERY HIGH CHANCE it won’t be as comfortable or fitting as it was before, and that’s normal. To fix that, you can try to add more saran wrap and tape to the cast you had and remake the shape. I had to do this a few times, mainly with the thigh guards and upper arm guards. So, a good idea I think, could be to leave reasonable room in the cast when you first make it. Don’t make it as snug as you want it to feel in the end. Remember, saran wrap and tape is gonna be a HeCk toN thinner than 1 inch thick EVA foam. So yea, please piece it together and see how it all fits.

Once you’re completely happy with your pieces, its time to glue them together! Now, an important part of this would be how you plan to actually put the outfit on. In my cosplay, I just kinda wiggle in through the bottom, kinda putting it on like a dress. The rest of the parts slip on their respective limbs in their respective order. I wanted something easy and simple, so I went with it, though feel free to change how you choose to put it on! Remember though, if you change how its worn, chances are it’ll also change how you should glue it. I recommend using Barge Glue, because its the strongest thing out there, this stuff is Solid. Careful though, its extremely toxic, so please remember to only use it in a ventilated area. Glueing is pretty self explanatory, though the amount of time I had to press sides in on each other before letting it cure on it’s own was a bit longer than expected.

Glueing will take a while, since you need to wait for the glue to cure, which for Barge is about a full day. But once its done, its done, and that stuffs not coming apart anytime soon! After glueing is shaping, which was fun for me simply because it was a break from all the hard stuff. Heat shaping is kinda a thing you eyeball, I don’t think you can do much else to prepare for it. You do need a heat gun, which is basically a hairdryer on acid. You can get one on amazon for 30 bucks. Basically, whattcha do is hook up the heat gun and use back and forth motions over your pieces. Make sure not to get too close, cuz you can burn and/or melt the foam! Also make sure to do it evenly, sometimes there’s a really soft, bendy side with hard spots all around it. That’d be because you weren’t using the gun evenly. Remember, even if you’re not gonna actually SHAPE a piece, you still have to HEAT THE WHOLE PIECE, INCLUDING THE INSIDE. This is because heat, once cooled back down, causes the pores within the foam to seal, making the piece much more solid in its shape.

After heat shaping comes the dreaded yet important job of pAInTinG. There’s a reason they call it that, kids. It definitely brings on the pain. Now, being new to all this, I had no idea what paints were better, how to seal proficiently, which shades of colors to use, any of that stuff. So, naturally, I turn to my good friend, the Internet. There’s a ton of stuff on painting, but I was on a budget, (I’ve already spent over said budget), and I had only a week to finish before the con. So, I look for a quicker alternative to the water and glue stuff, which I find in Plastidip. When I read about this stuff, I thought it was a gift from the automotive gods to my undeserving soul, like, everyone was raving about how great it worked and how it was not only a paint found in multiple colors, but also a sealant and weather proofer. Personally, I do not recommend it. I wish it worked as good as people claimed, but unfortunately, that was not the case. I found Plastidip reacted chemically to the EVA foam, despite the many times I read it didn’t, and it was also splattery and goopy, dripping from the pieces I worked so hard on as it dried. In the end though, it did color my pieces a nice, thick white, and it did seal the foam in an almost elasticy casing. However, it also had small, black holes from where it reacted with the EVA, and bumpy, uneven layers of the stuff across every piece. Though that may have something to do with not having a room temperature environment to use it in. It was cold outside. Idk. After that disaster, I painted all the blue parts with acrylic paint, which I loved, careful to use tape along the edges so as not to get paint where I didn’t want it.

After painting would be lighting, which I actually have yet to do. I couldn’t really finish that before the con, (I was actually still glueing stuff together the DAY OF), so I’m gonna get to figuring all that out for Halloween. Because of the amount of effort, time, and money I spent on this cosplay, its gonna be worked on and constantly improved as time goes on. I never really could finish the whole thing in 3 weeks, so its got a ways to go. And don’t worry, I’ll update it here!

So that’s about it! I had a blast at the con, although it did do an insane number on my cosplay… And I look forward to working on lights and Lance’s gun!! Thanks for sticking with me, feel free to share this information with anyone, as its here to help. I’m also totally up for questions or just long discussions about this if you want to know anything from my experience that wasn’t here, so hit me up!!