mandag 27. mai 2013

Elvish Pauldrons

It was fun being an elf, but more armor is better. This pauldron is made out of cardboard and faux leather, held together by glue and studs. I have previously made an elvish staff, tutorial here.

Tip: If you only make one you don't have to struggle with making a symmetrical pair.

Pauldron


Start by cutting out the shapes you need in cardcoard. I wanted five layers and a ring going around my upper arm. 

For the top layer and the ring around my arm I wanted more details. I glued on strips of foam mat in the pattern I wanted.  

And then I covered all the cardboard pieces with faux leather. For the pieces with foam strips I was careful to glue down the fabric as close to the details as possible and making sure it stayed glued on.  

For the edges I glued on a ribbon. Note: before you do this you should glue on another fabric on the backside of every piece, since you will see the underside from some angles and it is easier to glue that on before you attach the ribbons. 


Then do a test assembly. All the pieces are held together with studs, also know as brads a reader was kind enough to tell me. I love it when you help me make the tutorials better, and when I get to learn what the materials actually is called. 

Seen in use in the picture below. 

The pauldron is attached with a faux leather strap going under the arm on the opposite side and fastened with a buckle in front. 

On the backside the strap is only glued on. Use a dry brush and add some gold paint to highlight the details. For corners and edges that do not look perfect use studs or cardboard ornaments painted gold to cover up as you can see on the picture under.

Update: Here is a little more information about the studs I used. The larger ones are called furniture studs or upholstery nails, and can be bought at a hardware store, craft store or on ebay. I used pliers to bend the ends when punctures though the pauldron. 

The smaller ones I am not 100% sure what is called, but I bought them at my local craft store Panduro in Norway. 

Edit: I got information in a comments that the small ones are called "brads" -  you learn something every day :)


In action


I have also made a set of Skull Pauldrons for my Death Elf costume. 

21 kommentarer:

  1. I don't know what they're called elsewhere, but I know those smaller studs as "brads." Hope that's helpful! This is a great tutorial. I'm looking forward to trying the technique with various armors.

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    1. Thank you, that helped. And awesome to actually get to know what the materials are called. Maybe I will make a sum up blog post of what all the stuff I use is called :) thank you

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  2. Totally LOVE, Love, love your project board and keep going...Keep it epic!!!

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  3. I absolutely love this, how did you make the pattern for it, and is there any chance you could post up the pattern you used?

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  4. Har du noen tips om hvor man kan få kjøpt falskt lær nokså billig her i Norge? Eventuelt noen pålitelige nettsider?

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    1. Jeg kjøper fra rainbow tekstil, Saab tekstil eller stoff og stil. (Oslo) men finnes sikkert mange andre rimelige steder :-) har aldri kjøpt stoff på nett

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  5. You say "Start by cutting out the shapes you need in cardcoard". Do you have the patterns you worked to at all? It'd be handy to know what shapes need cutting out.

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    1. Hi, I just found the shapes through trial and error. If you have limited materials, you can try to make a scaled down mockup to find the shape you want. :)

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    2. I wouldn't know where, or how to start. It's ok though, we're getting something similar handcrafted for us pretty cheaply. But, I've just stripped the leather off of an old sofa, so it'd be nice to have some kind of pattern to use it up with. But making my own patterns is out of the question. As I say, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

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  6. Hi Chrix, I'm making a dark elf (or a dark fairy, not sure yet) costume for my girlfriend and i was looking for a simple, good looking, easy to make shoulder pauldron for her and i just found your site and your tutorial...absolutely fantastic!! That's exactly what i was looking for! You're very talented, thanks for sharing, i just showed my girlfriend a picture of the pauldron and she's now glowing with happiness (and me too, of course!) Keep up the great work, you're awesome!

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    1. Wow, thank you <3 And good luck with your build. Dark Elves are awesome

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  7. Hi !
    Thank you firstly BEST EASY Tutorial for a Mum !
    Secondly. In Australia We call the little Pins Push Pins or Split Pins ( Because they Split). They also come in a variety of Gems on top over here.

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  8. Hello! great tutorial! i just am a little more curious on you assemble everything. like how do you attach the panels to each other.

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    1. With brads. Alsovi made a lining underneath that I glued too all the pieces for extra hold.

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  9. Hi Chrix,
    I really like your Pauldron and decided to make one myself. Although I did mix it up a bit by combing the idea with 'Cardboard's' Chest plate scales to get a Dragon Scaled Pauldron.
    I'm surprised how easy these are to make and an really impressed the way it came out.

    I really love your 'Cardboard' costume because cardboard is such a good material that is also really easy to get. I hope you make more projects/items with cardboard as a major material. :)

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    1. Hi, thank you for you kind words :D and Dragon scale pauldrons sounds awesome. As you might have guessed, I love working with cardboard. I want to make a complete Tyrande Whisperwind cosplay out of cardboard, just need the time for it ;-)

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  10. What did you get the cardboard off?

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    1. From cereal boxes and frozen pizzas :)

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    2. Denne kommentaren har blitt fjernet av forfatteren.

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    3. Just rolled :) If you make them a little wet and then let it dry while rolled it will keep its shape :)

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