Loki’s Armor

September, 2014

After the completion of Loki’s Helmet and receiving the custom build costume, we were disappointed to see that some of the armor pieces on the costume did not have the same level of quality and detail as the rest of the costume.  So, we set out to replace and improve these items – specifically, the forearm and shoulder armor.

 

Forearm Armor

I purchased a 75 x 50 cm piece of Worbla thermoplastic to use to create the new armor.  We started by creating templates out of posterboard and getting the shape and design the way we wanted.  I traced the templates onto the Worbla using a wax pencil and used a pair of sharp scissors to cut the pieces.  I used a heat gun to make the pieces pliable and shaped them using a Pringles can.  We then cut long strips out of Worbla and layered them on top diagonally to give a 3D effect that matches the movie costume.  For the top decorative layer, I used a hole puncher on a strip of Worbla and then stretched it a bit after heating to give a nice effect.

 

 

We painted the armor using the same gold paint that we used for the helmet for continuity.  We went over top with a slightly darker shade of gold to add some detailed patterns.  We also added a small strip of small adhesive pearls and painted them gold.

The next challenge was to figure out how to attach the armor plates to the outside of the costume.  At first, we were going to use elastic straps and Velcro to attach, but then decided to create hoops and use some black ribbon to attach them to make it look more like real armor.  I cut thin strips of Worbla and threaded them through D-Rings.  I folded the Worbla around the D-Ring and then afixed them to the inside of the armor plate to provide 4 points to thread the ribbon.

 

 

Shoulder Armor

Next, we moved on to the shoulder armor.  The costume came with a shoulder plate that was attached to the sash.  I cut the foam of the shoulder plate and wrapped it in Worbla.  We then created a 2nd larger plate to go beneath out of Worbla-wrapped foam.  We rounded both over a Pringles can and layered them on top of each other.  This gave a nice effect of the sash going between the plates of armor just like the movie costume.

  

 

We painted the Worbla using the same gold paint and used the darker gold to add detailed patterns.  We used painters tape to protect the sash straps during the painting process.