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Description
Quick armor guide of my Garen cosplay from a few months ago ^.^ this was my first time making armor and working with worbla. I did a lot of research ahead of time and compiled all the tips and tricks other cosplayers used. If you have any questions feel free to message or comment~ Facebook: Sayla Cosplay

1) Craft foam base: normal sheet of craft foam (yellow) like the one kids use with strips of 1/4" EVA foam (black) for the boarders - i needed them to be thick as garen's armor is supposed to be really thick

2) Craft foam details: this took a long time haha I cut out patterns on paper, then traced and cut out of craft foam and glued on following picture references. I also heated the whole thing and bent it a little, filling in the join cracks with hot glue. I also heated a metal tweezer with my heat gun and created dents and damage so it doesnt look too new. I kind of only did it on the boarders which looked a little fake in retrospect.

3) Cover in worbla: i did the sandwich technique which took up A LOT of worbla ;-; basically used 75% of a jumbo sheet for this set alone. Definatly will try to only do one layer and fold around next time T_T this took some time because all my pieces were really curved so i had to go in section by section and smooth everything out. Air bubbles can be heated, popped with a pin and smoothed out. I also added some more worbla details like the lines on the pauldron and stuff. Pauldron 'gems' are made from transparent worbla heated and molded to a ladle to get them round

4) Prime time: i primed with wood glue because gesso takes foreverrrr lol i think i did like 3 layers? maybe 4 :S when doing the last layer, take some water and smooth out everything with your finger. not as perfect as like 8 layers of gesso but i didnt have the time to do 8 layers of gesso ;-;

5) Spray paint: base colors of silver and gold sprayed on. 2 coats of a good brand is enough. I used Krylon. It dries really fast too

6) Weathering: acrylic paint is your best friend! added some black for that worn effect. It works well when you have a similar color to mix it with for blending. Like in the photo shown I used silver and black to get a little gradient in there. You can see the difference between the unweathered and weathered pieces

7) Coloring: the blue is a mix of silver and blue paints with black shading. the gold is weathered with gold, brown and brown-black. Everything is slightly highlighted with white for dimension

8) Gems are painted in on the inside and hot glued on. I also added the blue fabric in for the 'belt' after i took this photo. Also, the strap thing and the scarf clip I painted and glued in a small gem

9) Final product ^.^ I attached everything to my body with thick elastics and velcro
(Photo by Think.Nu )

Production costs:
>time spent on armor = 60hrs
>money spent on armor = $120

>total costume time = 87hrs
>total costume cost = $175 (not counting wig & contacts because I already had those)

Description
Quick armor guide of my Garen cosplay from a few months ago ^.^ this was my first time making armor and working with worbla. I did a lot of research ahead of time and compiled all the tips and tricks other cosplayers used. If you have any questions feel free to message or comment~ Facebook: Sayla Cosplay

1) Craft foam base: normal sheet of craft foam (yellow) like the one kids use with strips of 1/4" EVA foam (black) for the boarders - i needed them to be thick as garen's armor is supposed to be really thick

2) Craft foam details: this took a long time haha I cut out patterns on paper, then traced and cut out of craft foam and glued on following picture references. I also heated the whole thing and bent it a little, filling in the join cracks with hot glue. I also heated a metal tweezer with my heat gun and created dents and damage so it doesnt look too new. I kind of only did it on the boarders which looked a little fake in retrospect.

3) Cover in worbla: i did the sandwich technique which took up A LOT of worbla ;-; basically used 75% of a jumbo sheet for this set alone. Definatly will try to only do one layer and fold around next time T_T this took some time because all my pieces were really curved so i had to go in section by section and smooth everything out. Air bubbles can be heated, popped with a pin and smoothed out. I also added some more worbla details like the lines on the pauldron and stuff. Pauldron 'gems' are made from transparent worbla heated and molded to a ladle to get them round

4) Prime time: i primed with wood glue because gesso takes foreverrrr lol i think i did like 3 layers? maybe 4 :S when doing the last layer, take some water and smooth out everything with your finger. not as perfect as like 8 layers of gesso but i didnt have the time to do 8 layers of gesso ;-;

5) Spray paint: base colors of silver and gold sprayed on. 2 coats of a good brand is enough. I used Krylon. It dries really fast too

6) Weathering: acrylic paint is your best friend! added some black for that worn effect. It works well when you have a similar color to mix it with for blending. Like in the photo shown I used silver and black to get a little gradient in there. You can see the difference between the unweathered and weathered pieces

7) Coloring: the blue is a mix of silver and blue paints with black shading. the gold is weathered with gold, brown and brown-black. Everything is slightly highlighted with white for dimension

8) Gems are painted in on the inside and hot glued on. I also added the blue fabric in for the 'belt' after i took this photo. Also, the strap thing and the scarf clip I painted and glued in a small gem

9) Final product ^.^ I attached everything to my body with thick elastics and velcro
(Photo by Think.Nu )

Production costs:
>time spent on armor = 60hrs
>money spent on armor = $120

>total costume time = 87hrs
>total costume cost = $175 (not counting wig & contacts because I already had those)