General Kael Armor

General Kael’s armor in the movie is leather with metal shoulders, shin guards, and a gauntlet cover on his sword hand.

• Front Chest Plate – 6mm EVA-50 High Density Foam, TNT Cosplay Supply
• Chest Armor – 6mm EVA-38 Foam, TNT Cosplay Supply
• Back Armor – 10mm EVA-38 Foam, TNT Cosplay Supply
• Chest Armor Scales – 4mm EVA-38, TNT Cosplay Supply
• Shoulder and Shin Armor – 6mm SKS Props HD-Foam and half round dowels
• Shoulder Spikes & Fan Symbol on Upper Chest – Foam-Mo Foam Clay
• Faux Rivets – Metal Sewing Buttons, Square Pyramid Rivets
• 3/4 Length Fleece Cape from Etsy
• Leather Sword Gloves
• Scrap Leather and Buckles
• Barge TF Contact Cement
• E6000
• Aluminum Foil

Patterns Used:

Chest Base – Evil Ted’s Basic Male Body Armor
Facemask – Kamui Cosplay’s Villian Mask (Modified)
Helmet Base – Evil Ted’s Viking Helmet (Lower Half, Modified)
Gauntlet – Freehand cut from 4mm TNT EVA Foam with scrap leather buckles.
Shin Guards – Freehand cut from 6mm SKS HD Foam

General Kael’s Chest Armor

• Front Chest Plate – 6mm EVA-50 High Density Foam, TNT Cosplay Supply
• Chest Armor – 6mm EVA-38 Foam, TNT Cosplay Supply
• Back Armor – 10mm EVA-38 Foam, TNT Cosplay Supply

The chest armor base is another one of Evil Ted’s patterns (Male Body Armor), resized to my dimensions and modified to fit the cut-out of the armor in the movie. The back of the armor is 10mm Foam. The front and back are attached at the shoulders and the thickness were chosen so the armor would have a similar weight and feel in the front and back. If I remember correct, the Evil Ted pattern actually closes in the back.

Chest Armor, “Leather” Scales

The scales were cut from 4mm EVA Foam. I used one foam scale as a template and used scissors to cut them out. I sanded the edges lightly with finer grit sandpaper to give it an organic, worn look. The leather look was achieved by crumpling and flattening a piece of aluminum foil and pressing it lightly with a hot iron. I had to scale the size of each piece to match the number of rows and columns of the movie version. Each one was glue at about 1/3 of the base and overlapped with each row.

(Tom usually paints my stuff because I have a color deficiency issue along with red-green colorblindness. He wasn’t too thrilled about having to paint the scales after they were assembled. I tend to get overzealous with the build portion.)

The Chest Plate Border

I used half-round foam to create a border for the chest plate. I would’ve liked to use something thinner, in maybe a 1/4 round version but… Con Crunch was on at this point.

The Chest Isignia

I learned a couple of lessons working with vegetable tanned leather. This applies only to me though, so if you find a method that works for you, go for it. I have a friend that teaches leather tooling classes and I’m tempted to take a class or buy one of his guides.

1. You really only need a few tools to accomplish this kind of work. I got really overzealous and bought a large kit with too many things to store. The metal tools get really heavy in a single organizing case. 
2. Get a leather scribe. Using a gel ink pen was a terrible idea. It’s especially bad if you’re planning to dye the leather when you’re finished. Luckily, might was painted with Angelus Acrylic Paints.
3. Don’t use too much water. It makes it too soft and hard to keep a print. Too little is also a problem as well, if it dries out before you can get a pattern to set. It also took a really long time to dry. Use a spray bottle. 
4. It’s way harder to do that it looks. I did a pretty terrible job, but it’s a passable specimen for a first attempt. (Actually second. I messed up the first one.)

Painted Chest Insignia

Painted with Angelus Silver Acrylic Paint. I believe it also got a clear top coat after the armor was fully painted. The paint pretty much covered up the pen marks. Pretty ‘not terrible’ for free-handing and zero experience.

The Fan Emblem

This took a few tries, but I made the Fan Emblem (above the chest insignia) from Foam-Mo Foam Clay. I rolled out several small lines of foam and curled them. I cut them in half to get the mirroring right.

Shoulder Armor

The shoulder armor was built from a should armor pattern, but I can’t recall which one. I believe it was a generic template. The spikes were made by pressing the Foam-Mo Foam Clay into Pyramid shaped silicone molds I bought on Amazon. They took quite a while to dry. The base is made from SKS Props 6mm HD Foam. To be honest, not my favorite foam to use.

Tom finished up the assembly and got it ready for paint. He used hot glue to simulate the welding lines in the movie prop.

Gauntlet

The gauntlet is designed from a generic gauntlet pattern, with extra pieces added to make up the finger guard. I used half-round pearls from the craft store for the rivets. I didn’t want to deal with the sound of rattling googly eyes every time I moved.

This one is coated with DAP Kwik Seal thinned with water. We’ve been trying out different seal coating products for this purpose. Tom gave it the standard metal paint treatment.

The Final Shin-sult

Apparently, I didn’t take many photos of my shin armor. They’re in storage right now and a pain to get out, so this picture will have to suffice for the time being until I can update it. I know they’re sitting a little high. That’s why the rest of the picture is there to distract you.