It has been forever since I’ve actually posted to this blog. I always write things up then don’t post them. I’m never sure why… it is just what I do.
But that isn’t really very interesting.
With the anime for Tate no yuusha (Rising of the shield hero) I figured it was no time like to present to do write ups for the Naofumi cosplay I made nearly two years ago. It has served me well at conventions getting occasional “Shieldbro!” reactions but I really noticed the huge up-tick in people knowing what I was cosplaying at the convention I recently attended.
I’m quite happy with the anime so far. It is well animated and it seems to be being taken well too (:
But blah blah blah.
This first post will be just on the shield, then I’ll delve into the rest of the cosplay.
First a picture of my full cosplay just… because.
Credit for the photo & editing goes to my friend TinyChampion. Her links are in the side bar.
Close up of the final shield:
You can see more item-by-item pictures of my Naofumi items in my gallery up in the navigation bar.
The pattern for this is available in my etsy store here.
It has a set of instructions that come with it but I wanted to write a more detailed (with images) post that may help anyone who gets the pattern or is looking to create their own. Many people (myself included) follow along better with actual images.
I used ½” thick floor mats) then 2mm craft foam for detailing. It is also possible to carve or route the detail into the shield.
I used a silver sharpie to trace my pattern pieces on the floor mats then cut out all the pieces using my knife. Either an exacto blade or utility style knife will work for this; just make sure it is sharp so your cuts come out as clean as possible. I recommend using a metal ruler on the straight cuts to make sure you are cutting perfectly straight. Any rough edges can be sanded and head fixed later on so if your edges are a bit rough, don’t worry!
Cut the base of the shield (entire outside piece and two of the side piece). You will end up with the below.
Cut the side edges of shield to a 45 degree angle, or as desired
I used contact cement to glue these pieces together on my final item, for the one in the images in this tutorial I used hot glue. I’d personally recommend using contact cement or super glue as hot glue can be a bit messy at times and often isn’t optimal. Any adhesive you like works as long as it is quick-set.
This will give you your base shied
From here I cut my detail out of 2mm craft foam. For this tutorial I used craft foam with an adhesive backing for my own ease, for a final item I’d recommend at least re-gluing the edges if you use the same item or gluing it down with something like tacky glue quick grab, contact cement or super glue. Just make sure it adheres down flat as this will be your final outside surface
This picture is just with the main body’s detail pieces on; I added 2mm foam onto the sides as well to create all of the dropped areas. Ignore my one little poorly stuck down spot :p
If you have any small seams you need to hide a caulking product called quik seal does a great job at hiding seams while staying flexible. Apply it then smooth it out with a bit of water, it sets quite quickly so act fast if you need to smooth it.
From there for my own build I heat sealed the foam then coated it in three coats of flexbond. Flexbond is really nice to work with as it takes to gentle wet sanding with high grit sand paper really well. It re-activates a bit with water allowing you to re-smooth it and hide brush strokes. For anyone doing builds in winter, without outdoor access or for whom plastidip isn’t accessible (I mean Canada, right? $23 a can pft) it is great stuff that keeps its flexibility. As positive of an experience as I have had with white glue over the years I find it doesn’t age well and becomes prone to cracking over time.
Once fully sealed I painted it with 2 coats of Mr. Color C2 Black, taped off the black areas (the channels) and painted it with 2 coats of Mr. Color C8 Metallic Silver. Metallic colours come out better if they are done over a black base, it gives their colour more depth. A few days after painting I lightly buffed the silver. There’s another line of Mr. Color that I’ve worked with that is intended to be buffed – and it looks great once properly buffed – but it wasn’t the look I was going for on this shield.
For the centre ball I took sand paper to rough up the inside and outside plastic both to prime it for taking paint and airbrushed a medium green inside of it, then a different translucent green on the outside. Once the anime came out I noticed the matter of the shield lighting up and made a quick LED circuit for the inside of it, which sits inside the ball. It is composed of two CR2032 (3V cell batteries) in a small case and 4 LEDs in two parallel circuits.
Once painted I roughed up a few spots on the shield that I wanted to glue my strapped down to and using hot glue attached the nylon strapping that I use to hold it.
Please don’t mind the slightly dirty appearance of the strapping, it has been through many cons now. This was taken prior to me adding my LEDs in.
The strapping is set up such that I can grip the shield in the standard forward facing manner but also have it hang on my lower arm. It’s quite comfortable and light to carry around!
And yeah that’s that. Next post should be on either some of the armour or the clothing pieces.