It was a wonderful experience for me yesterday when I was told by my friends that there was a Gundam display event being held at West Coast Plaza Singapore. Though it's quite a bite size event, what interest me was the making of the cosplay parts that resembles a section of the armor. My cosplay suit went to a halt because I can't find the right materials for the armor of my Zaku Gundam suit. So after these event, I may now need to source for the appropriate materials for it and hopefully able to build my own soon...
Speaking of which, let's move on to the construction part. What he's doing now is cutting out a sketch that resembles a wrist armor. Then after the template of it will be drawn out onto a soft spongy material. This material will act as the costume to be worn by the cosplay and as it's make of soft material, it fits on easily and to move and work with.
This spongy material is being brushed with a industrial Adhesive type of glue to get that sticky surface. The material is set to dry first before using the cut out template to outline the shape of the armor before cutting it out. The Adhesive is used later on to stick a shiny material as the surface for the sponge to give that armor look finish.
This is theoretically how the armor for the wrist armor looks like after wrapping the spony material up with a shiny material known as Vinyl or preferably known as PVC in Singapore. I heard you could find them in Art Shops or Clothing Stores but I guess I should check them out too to find out more... And of course to hold the shape into place to fit your wrist, rivets and pins are used.
A typical finished product of the hand armor should look like this and it looks pretty cool as it fits nicely to the entire hand. because it's made of sponge and PVC, it is easily adjustable and to move. Watching this really inspired me a lot to make my very own... I guess I should go and try it out myself sometime...
But... these are all for cosplaying only. What about Gundam? Well seriously they are actually make of the same material as you've seen above. Believe it or not, the entire gundam cosplay is actually made of sponge and PVC with a couple of hardboard here and there...
Upon further inspection, you can actually see that the parts are all joined together using Velcro and clips, zippers, etc so that the cosplayer is able to don it on easily. Seriously it takes a lot of time, hard work, patience and measurements to get it right... Really impressive.
And in order to make the height of the Gundam feet, canvas shoes are glues onto hard boards and covered up with the Gundam legs as seen on the above picture.
By far the hardest part to make would definitely be the helmet and believe me, these are also made from the exact same materials you've seen above. Except that they are bended and shaped like this with many layers to make it sturdy.
A example is shown as above where many of these spongy and PVC layers are pasted together in the form of a circular shape to look like a helmet. This is seriously a complex task and unless you are so experienced with it, I heard that they could do it within a day...
And finally would be the weapons and props... Yes and again, Vinyl and Sponge are used with a couple of cupboards, etc. This is really a big learning experience for me and now after so many examples and such, am once again inspired and eager to do it asap... Exams are around the corner though so may have to wait till 2 months time or so though... Anyway, this event will last till next weekend so ya might wanna drop by West Coast Plaza to take a closer look at how it is done and learn more tips about making your very own cosplay armor.
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