So my PC is dead, a bunch of my references images are gone, and I can’t connect my phone to my laptop (which is how I take photos for some of my articles). That kinda put me in a cosplay slump. I’ve been so busy working on commissions that I would just be lazy and not do anything in my free time. Well not anymore! I am determined to get at least one cosplay finished this summer:
I saw this movie a few days after it came out last year, and as soon as the credits rolled, all I could say was “I’m going to cosplay Mako and nothing will stop me.” Well a few things did stop me, but that took a few days to run into. As soon as I got home, I started looking for references and poorly drew some out for myself. I had spare foam laying around, so I got to work and this was the result:
Hurts to look at, huh? At the time, I liked most of it, but there was a quite a bit off. There was really one thing in particular that kept throwing me off. Breastplates are not easy.
Well I mean they can be, but it depends on what material you’re using. My first attempt was all craft foam. Let me tell you, craft foam doesn’t take curves the way it needs to. I eventually found this neat tutorial on making foam breastplates, but unfortunately it was too late, I found a new solution.
I had remembered seeing a tutorial by putting plaster wrap over a dress form to get the shape, and got an idea there. First things first, my dressform isn’t my size, and I keep forgetting to put my duct tape form over it or to pad it out, so I did what most armor makers do, and made a new tape cast of my chest. After cutting it to shape, I put a few layers of paper mache over it to make it a bit more solid, then a nice layer of paper mache pulp. Once that dried, it was sanded, covered with some bondo, sanded more, more bondo, more sanding…and then I got tired of sanding and just put some joint compound to fill in any little dents and cracks until I got this: 
The rest I used the old pieces as patterns and used my beloved craft foam again, but this time I tried something new, yet cheap. I got the idea from how worbla is used; usually craft foam is sandwiched between layers to add depth, well I used cardboard instead, and it’s pretty sturdy if you ask me. 
So far I’ve only really gotten the torso armor and the bracers made (I’ll post photos of those next time), but I’m slowly getting back into cosplaying, and hopefully I can finish Mako this time. I think I’ve started this cosplay over maybe 4 time so far? I know for sure I have made 5 different breastplates…