Sister of Battle - New to This!

[1nf3kt]

Hey guys. New to the site, and new to costuming.

So I have been in the planning stages for a while now, trying to determine the best way to go about constructing a Sisters of Battle costume by researching the past successes and mistakes or various people on various boards. I think I have figured out how I want to start construction, but I had a few questions about people's experiences working with certain methods, and figured I would start a thread to get some insight.

1. Worbla's Finest Art - A cosplayer friend of mine swears by this stuff, and claims it's the easiest stuff possible to work with, especially for people new to costume crafting. Do any of you guys have experience with it, and if so, positive or negative? I do not have the space or resources to do anything that would require a garage type workspace, so I'm trying to figure out the "neatest" way possible to do this with the least possible amount of toxic fumes (read: Zero.) [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

2. Unfolds - How do you do these? Are there places to download them and print them out? For the larger pieces like the shoulders and mantle, would it be possible to get a printout and use it almost like a pattern, since the pieces are large enough there isn't a lot of assembly?

3) Kobra Cast - Has anyone used this stuff for detailing? One example I saw (of a girl making WoW Death Knight armor) was it being used to form details on the Worbla such as skulls and other things. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be possible to use this stuff for the top part of the purity seals/fleur de lis/skulls/small detailing? Apparently it's actually used to make casts for broken bones, so it hardens to the point of indestructibility. How fast it hardens could be a problem till I'm more experienced with using it, though. [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /> I hear it's fully set in about 5 minutes.

4) Purity Seals - Paper or cloth? I was thinking stencil/fabric paint on tea-dyed cotton, but wanted to get the opinion of the more experienced.

5) Paints - Best ones to use? I have an OVERABUNDNCE of GW paints (been playing Warhammer for years), and some Army Builder primers and such.  Not sure how they work with the Worbla, though?

Any advice/help/shared experiences are welcomed. This is my first go around, but I want it to be a good one. Ideally, I'd like to have this costume finished by fall for the cons that happen around that time of year.

Thanks!

[PaperJack]

3 and 1. Use whatever you feel comfortable with and produces good results. Don't be afraid to experiment.

2. look up "pepakura"

5. Best paints depend on the material

[1nf3kt]

I'm not comfortable or uncomfortable with any particular thing. I was asking if people had experience using the materials I have mentioned, so I can get an idea of what I'm dealing with.

I know what pepakura is... I was asking how effective it would be to use as a pattern if I'm not going full bore with fiberglass and Bondo.

The paints question was more in line with the Worbla's/Kobra Cast line of thinking, again more if anyone had worked with these materials and what paints I should steer toward or stay away from.

I'm not sure if perhaps my post wasn't clear or detailed enough... but that wasn't a really helpful response...  [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' />

[wookieegunner]

For 1 and 3 I can't answer for the others:

2)  There really isn't any Sister's of Battle Pep files that I've seen.  It's all pretty much scratch built at this time.  That being said, there are people who do use the Space Marine pep files to do what you are talking about (usually with the foam puzzle style mats).

4)  I've seen both.  Most people use cloth for the ribbons.  I used cotton fiber resume paper (I was making 50 sets for give aways and so being able to send it through a laser printer was needed.) and it worked fine.

5)  Honestly I would stay away from those paints but not for why you think.  Miniature paint is very expensive for the amount you get and you will be using a lot of it.  For example, think about how much silver paint it takes to weather an entire IG armored company.  That is about the amount you will need for your bolter.  Now multiply that by all your amor.  I tend to use standard spray primers craft paint when I'm working with Sintra (a different type of plastic people use for armor building.)  That being said, I do use the paints I have excess of (or sometimes in the case of GW has started to dry out that I'm afraid will mess up my models but is still usable for larger things.)

[Deetoz]

1. I use foam tiles, and they look something like this:
I manage with around 6 square meters of room, even though it can get very messy, fast.

2. Unfolds are basically breaking down a 3-D model in Pepakura Designer and putting the pieces onto paper. There are plenty of different pepakura files, already unfolded, available on this forum.

4. Comes down to what you prefer. Just know that paper will be ruined fast. Fabric won't.

5. I use the GW paints for detail work, like battle damage on my gloves. Never to paint a whole piece. It'd be way too expensive.. And time consuming.

[1nf3kt]

Yeah, that was kinda what I meant... I have so many of the GW paints I don't know what to do with them all, and some of them are to the point that they are getting a bit old. (Not really to where I'd paint my models with them anymore. Would be good for details and such, I was thinking.

 I'm leaning more twd the cloth for the seals, not because I prefer the way they look (I don't have a feeling one way or the other), but because I think they might be less likely to get messed up wearing the costume all day.

[1nf3kt]

Guy at my work uses the foam tiles a ton. This was him at our Halloween shindig this year:

http://www.therpf.com/f24/rsloan76s-2012-h...ry-adam-165029/

He swears by them. Are they safe to use indoors? or is it necessary to bend them with heat? I'm concerned about fumes in an enclosed space as I'll likely be working on my kitchen island mostly.

[CLOTHAR]

You can buy the foam in larger rolls too.  Look at home hardware type stores, or even walmart in the flooring mats.

Foam is great to work with.  You can shape it pretty well just by stretching and bending it with your hands.  But a heat gun will help it to hold shape better.  Unless you overdo it, the fumes aren't bad.  You could probably get away doing it with a fan and an open window.

I don't know much about the other materials you listed.

As for unfolding, I am not sure of many SOB models floating around.  But you can probably learn how to rip the models from the Dawn of War games.  Try search some mod forums for that game.

Or you can make your own tempaltes from scratch.  Rough them out on paper until you have somethign you like. Then use those templates on foam (or other).

Have fun.

[Tango89er]

I have Sister of Battle files in my unfold thread here

Honestly though, the poly count is so low, you're probably be better of freehanding most of it with foam anyway

[1nf3kt]

@Tango89er - I actually found your SoB files and I'm planning  on using them at least as a reference. i also found some someone else put up there and I'm going to see about a combination of the two and figure out how to make them work together.

My main concern is flexibility and how to make all this at least moderately comfortable to wear. A friend of mine here at work is really into using the foam and he also said that fumes aren't much to worry about unless you're full-on cooking the stuff which you really shouldn't need to do.

I've ordered a sample of the Worbla's FInest Art (for an astounding $18 for a piece roughly the size of a sheet of printer paper-- Yikes!) and will see how it does with something simple. I should have enough to get the basic form of a bracer down I think. There also seems to be a method using two pieces of the Worbla's with a thin sheet of craft foam between them (for stability I gather) since it comes with a thin layer of glue spread on one side already.

The glory of it is that any leftover pieces can be heated and molded into a form of clay-like stuff I can use for detail work, which I like because with the price of this stuff I want as little waste as humanly possible. (It's not that cost is a major issue, it's that I hate spending money on wasted bits! [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> )

They also have something called Worbla's Deco Art Pellets which can be heated (something like friendly plastic, I guess?) in hot water and form a semisolid moldable mass that can be used to form details as well. I plan on trying out some of that but thought to start with the Finest Art and see how that works first and what I can't do with it (to see if I'll even need the pellets at all).

This is the piece that piqued my interest in using this stuff:
Worbla's Finest Art - Death Knight Breastplate

[Imperial Gothic]

You should have a look at our Celestian, it's in the costume gallery ^^ It's a foam build and pretty easy to do

[1nf3kt]

Question- Imperial Gothic - Did you do the shoulders and neckpiece as one piece, or as separate pieces?

[Imperial Gothic]

Every piece is a seperate item [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> You can look at the build pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1...98632023&type=3

Feel free to ask if you have any questions [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

[1nf3kt]

Yes, a few more.

How do you attach the pieces so everything is not loose and falling off? Clips?

How heavy is the armor when made with the materials you use?

What are your purity seals made of? Resin?

(I'm sure I'll think of more...)

[Imperial Gothic]

The shoulders are pressed down on the collar ledge and held in place by the cables - They sit perfectly and do not fall off despite heavy duty jumping. The backpack is held up by 4 'spikes' that go out from the backplate - whilst the backpack is held in place by 4 cables that connect it to various ports on the torso armour.

The chestplate is wrapped around the chest and held by a strap and made to fit with a clip down into the cleavage area of the corset.

The thigh plates are held up by straps to the belt, the shins are held by elastic bands and otherwise screwed in place on top of boots.

Arms are held up by padding.

All of the armour is earthquake tested and dumb-ass retard-touchy fan safe. It's also allows for great mobility and rather awesome poses. (Jumping, running, crouching, kicking ect.)

The armour is pretty lightweight - it's around 2-5kg on the torso, with about an additional kg for legs/arms. so all in all, very lightweight ^^

The purity seals are made from formclay also known as baking-clay-putty - easy to make - the stamp itself is freehanded with sculpting tools - the paper is thin leather.

More? [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />