Piiiiuhhhhh, long time I had no time to craft something Borderlands related, but now the time has come to built a second Aspis shield and I thought you guys might be interested how I do this^^
Its not a very detailed tutorial, more a workthrough, but maybe some points will help the one or other cosplayer to get her Aspis done fast & effordable.
Here my first done Aspis shield prop. This is what we´re going to craft again now^^
What do you need?
Checklist:
- Rubber foam sheets / Worbla /Cardboard/ Neophren plates / foam plates - any of these materials work. I used Rubber foam sheets, 2mm strong.
- Hotglue
- Cutter / scissors
- Paper, A3 or bigger, for cutting templates/stencils/patterns (which word is right here???!!!)
- Paints (I only use Citadel-Colors from GamesWorkshop, but acrylics work too)
- Plastic cover from a sweets bucket / any round plastic about 8-10inches diameter
- Velcroband (for wristband)
- 2 magnets (to attach Aspis on the wristband)
- Alot of time
- A certain portion of Badassitude
I use hotglue because its best for foam materials, but don´t let it get to hot! It might melt your foam or plastic. Mostly I use hotglue because it comes with a gun. Who wants to use a glue stick when he can get a gluegun?!
Well, here a picture of all things I use this time
The white patterns are the old ones I used for my first Aspis. Its quiet a bitchy work, since I did it with pen, ruler and compass, but if you good in digital stuff it should be an easy task to make patterns.
Currently I work on bigger patterns for a slightly bigger Aspis. This beauty will get 30cm in diameter, a tad smaller than the real thing.
To the paints: Yes, I do it with 5-7 colours. You can use more of course, but I rather mix them.
Soooo, lets pretend you have your stencils/patterns done and cut them out. Now lay them onto your foamplates, take a pen and draw arround.
Done? Awesome! Now you should have the outlines of the single parts you´ll need for the Aspis
These are as following:
-Big Base - 23cm diameter
-Outer Ring - inner diameter: 17,5cm ; outer diameter + spikes: 28,7cm /30cm
-Big inner circle - 14,5cm diameter
-Small inner Circle (will bear the Omega logo) - 9,5cm diameter
-Small details to set on the outer rings “teeth” (grey in the picture below!)
- Plus: at best one additional big base you set on the backside for more stability.
The plastic topper will be your backbone, giving the whole thing some strength. If you use cardboard it won´t be neccessary.
Cutting rubber foam is a nasty thing, especially when it comes to perfect circles. Don´t gicve up early, you´ll have to try more than once, believe me.
I cut 9 circles, only three were okayish, one good.
Sooo all parts are cut out, first big step is solved. Now comes the hardest nut, painting the BL-style. If all goes as planned it will look like this:
I´m already now at the paintjob and made some pictures I´ve to look through before I continue this workthrough.
You´ll get a color list for Citadel-Colors and I´ll try my best to show some nice easy techniques for painting.
Soooo, here photos of the brushes and paints I will use for the paintjob.
If you use Citadel, here a list of colors you´ll need:
Minimum:
- Ceramite White
- Abaddon Black
- Mephiston Red
- Dark Reaper
- Russ Grey
- Celestra Grey
Additionally:
- Wild Rider Red
- Mechanicus Standart Grey
- Macgragge Blue
- Thunderhawk Grey
Since rubber foam sucks alot of paint you´ll have to paint in several layers, especially when it comes to paint with bright colors on dark foam. (for example: red paint on black foam = min. 3 layers)
CitadelColors are just BADASS, but they are badass expensive - for base painting you´ll empty the one or other bottle, each costs about 4,50$…
- Pros:
- great colos
- mixable
- mixable with water (no nitro needed to clean brushes!!! Revell sucks!)
- works on everything. Really. Have not found a surface that does not work yet:D
- Contra:
- Expensive
- Expensive
- Dry out if you let them stand arround to long - add a few drops water once a month!
- Expensive.
If you use acrylics you should water them down a little, to avoid that the layers get to thick.
Brushes I use
For the base paintjob take cheap school brushes - you´ll pay a fortune for artist brushes for nothing. For ground painting use a big soft brush.
For details, lines and outlines I use
-Citadel Fine Detail Brush
-Vallejo 4
-Vallejo 5
For dirty accents I use a old shabby Vallejo 2. You can use any old shabby brush.
More follows asap!
I´ll edit this topic as soon as possible!
If theres any question just leave a comment ^o^/
That’s some serious dedication, but with a talent like yours I don’t doubt that it’ll look even better.
I´m so happy how it turned out, I had my doubts if I could do this again…My first Aspis was already a pain in the butt, but doing things twice exactly the same way is even more painfull sometimes >.<
