Making costume armor

I have decided two things: one, that to give my brain something to shift gears to while I'm working on my current writing projects (specifically, the edits of Adonis and Puzzle House Blues), I would like a project to do with my hands, and two, that I've decided what I want to be for Halloween this year. To combine these things, I've decided I'm going to learn how to make costume armor out of craft foam and paint it to look how I want. I won't tell you what I'm planning to be so it'll be a surprise when I'm finished, but needless to say, it involves armor.

To that end, I've been looking up tutorials on how cosplayers do it. (If anyone has one to recommend, please do.) The technique I'm trying involves covering your dress form with aluminum foil and then duct tape to get the shape you want for the armor. Then you cut the piece out and lay it on paper to trace to make pattern pieces. The pattern pieces will be used to cut the parts out of the foam.



Here's Adelaide, in her foil-and-duct tape mold. Next I will take a silver sharpie and draw the outline I want for the breastplate. I wanted it to have a feminine shape, like it was made for a woman, but I didn't want it to have, like, modeled breasts or anything. I hate that, it seems like it would deflect blows straight onto your sternum. :-P I'll also delineate the pieces that will need to be seamed. Then I'll cut it apart, lay it on paper to be traced, and cut out my pattern pieces. I still need to buy foam, so I think tomorrow I'll go to the craft store and see what will work.

This will be a fun project, which I'll document here. This could also be very useful for costuming She Kills Monsters! So I'd better get cracking on figuring this out.