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[Laaran Kar'ta]

Okay, I've seen a lot of tutorials to assist in the shaping of female Mando chest plates.....and I've tried a lot of them too. And I don't know if anyone has posted this one before but I wanted to share my success. (And FYI, I'm not sure if I posted this in the right area.)

One of the OM for my local clan mentioned using casting tape for the form of his wife's chest plate. They looked beautiful! But I couldn't seem to find any good tape. So I found "...Craft Wrap - Plaster Cloth Gauze Bandage..." on Amazon. It's only $6.95 a roll and it says they mostly use them for pregnant belly casts. So I thought, "What the heck?"

My rolls came in today. These are my rolls:


So I got out an old bra. My thinking is that it should be one similar in size to your daily wear bras. You can fit smaller jubblies in bigger plates but not bigger into small plates. So beware of sports bra issues which can....compress things. Then I got a good sized mixing bowl from the kitchen and put about three cups of water in it. Once that was done, with DRY, GLOVED hands I cut my plaster bandages into 6" strips.

*You may want to put a towel down as I had a good bit of drips as the process went on. I also did this in the bathroom to minimize chaos and also have a mirror to look at myself.*

Then I took a single strip, gently dipped it in the water and then applied it to myself. I didn't think it needed explaining, but you should be wearing only the bra at this point....bottoms are optional... The package says not to leave the strip in the water for more than 3 seconds but a simple dip and go worked fine for me. Then i just started gently layering. Start with a single layer and then have a go at two or if you're feeling adventurous, three. I'm pretty tall and about a C cup and I used whole single roll with about two layers in general. make sure you don't let you bandages wrinkle up or fold in on itself. You can press them down pretty good and they'll stay in place.

Once you're done, let it dry for about ten minutes (or until it feels hard). Then you can GENTLY peel it off. It will stick to you but don't freak out. I did a few shrugs and it helped loosen enough to get my fingers in and peel away. The bra you wear is gonna stick the worst. But again. Be Gentle. This is only plaster. I actually had to unclasp mine to get it off.

My finished product:



I'm gonna hit it with some resin tomorrow to give it some real strength. But I think it was a great success. And the up side is that I did this by myself. So if you don't have some helping hands it was super easy. I hope this helps!! Cheers!

NOTE: You have to put resin or some supporting agent on the cast or it will probably disintegrate. The left over plaster on my skin came off as soon a the water hit it. I'm putting the resin on today and will give further updates later.

Also sturdiness is dependent on layers. the edges of mine snapped but the main parts are super solid this will hopefully be improved by the resin, as I hope to make this a permanent form of myself. If you don't have resin, I would suggest two layers of really good duct tape. Resin doesn't really like cold weather so results can be mixed. I had this issue so I'm gonna use both resin and duct tape.

[Malakier Vhett]

OO! This could also be used to make casts of legs, knees, forarms, etc!

With a little work you could probably use this to intern make an image of your chest (or whatever part of your body you did with this technique) for molding future sets of armor to (whether with this material, or out of other materials). Just a thought.

For example, when I get a chance I think I'm gonna try making casts of my forearms with this, and use that in turn to form the aluminum for my gauntlets to.

[Havelock]

So awesome.  Thank you!

[Straka Zulu]

Bookmarked.
Might help if my wife decides on a second kit

[Mavik]

How sturdy is the plaster after you put the resin on it? I definitely see it being useful I would just be a bit worried that it would be very brittle. You could possibly lay fiberglass to help strengthen it as well if that were the case.

[Laaran Kar'ta]

How sturdy is the plaster after you put the resin on it? I definitely see it being useful I would just be a bit worried that it would be very brittle. You could possibly lay fiberglass to help strengthen it as well if that were the case.

And enter my update

NOTE: You have to put resin on the cast or it will probably disintegrate. The left over plaster on my skin came off as soon a the water hit it. I'm putting the resin on today and will give further updates later.

Also sturdiness is dependent on layers. the edges of mine snapped but the main parts are super solid this will hopefully be improved by the resin as I hope to make this a permanent form of myself.

Yes I'm posting this note in two spot but....yea.....humans....lol

[Malek Dair]

Great tutorial! Bookmarking this for future reference...may or may not be leaning towards rolling a full metal legacy kit next....

[Mirsheb]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS. I'm starting work on my (first) armor set this weekend, and the chest was frightening me the most.

Bookmarked for future reference. You're fabulous.

[Laaran Kar'ta]

No problem!! If you don't want to put resin on it I would suggest good duct tape as an inexpensive alternative. Its a little chilly out the last couple of days and I've noticed mixed results with my resin projects. Happy crafting!

[Erio J'uni]

Chameleon, you are fantastic!  You're building epic stuff and helping to educate others.  Bravo!

[Kris Jasra]

Hmmmm, plastercast. Should have thought of that. My tape attempt failed as it got knocked out of shape while 'glassing.

However, that did mean my housemate went out to the garage for a couple of hours and made me (his words here not mine) boobiquin. 1.2mm aluminium hammered out cast of my chest. It's very weird, like a silver whiteboard that I can draw on and use for fibreglassing on

[SkiBlue1737]

This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

[Laaran Kar'ta]

Hmmmm, plastercast. Should have thought of that. My tape attempt failed as it got knocked out of shape while 'glassing.

However, that did mean my housemate went out to the garage for a couple of hours and made me (his words here not mine) boobiquin. 1.2mm aluminium hammered out cast of my chest. It's very weird, like a silver whiteboard that I can draw on and use for fibreglassing on

I'm absolutely dying!!! LOL *boobiquin* is the most awesome word to wake up to. 

My duct tape dummy is great for helping with positioning but its not good for forming.

[Kris Jasra]

This is Boobiquin. In all it's 34DD glory (formed to a sports bra and leather mando vest so none of that underboob shelf) currently set up for fibreglassing an early crusader chest plate (card shaped to fit then duct taped down and blu-tack to stop the resin running and give the plates an edge. Sticky side of the duct tape just peels right off the metal and the silver side peels off the fibreglass)

[Laaran Kar'ta]

Nice! See this is exactly what I want to do. Mine's not all fancy and metal tho like some people....