Mini Ninjas version 1.5

This is a little post on some upgrades to the Mini Ninja's Samurai armor I have done since Dragon*Con.





These pieces are shoulder pieces that connect the front to the back pieces of armor. I originally had these covered with joint compound but since these pieces flexed a lot the joint compound didn't stay. So for the modified versions, I took off all the joint compound and decided to go with craft foam. I then sealed the craft foam for painting with a glue mixture of fabric glue, sobo glue and water found at Amethyst Angel's website. After 7 or 8 layers of sealing the craft foam, I painted the pieces to match the other pieces.



The masks needed some ventilation so I put in some holes around the mouth to hopefully help with the ventilation. Its not pictured here, but I also extended the sides of the masks so it covered the ears and more of the jaws.


Next are the flags that you see the samurai have in the game. When I was researching the samurai armor, I saw how the flags were attached to the armor and used that method.

What you see here is the pattern I made to construct the boxes for the flag poles.


Using some papercrafting and origami experience, I made these out of 3 layers of wonderflex.


Painted, drilled some holes.


All flag boxes are held to the back of the armor with some bolts I got from Home Depot that I had to slightly modify. I also had to layer some craft foam together to fill a 3/4" gap between the armor and the boxes themselves.


The flag poles are 5/8" dowel rods which I just painted black and they go straight down the back of the armor. The flags themselves are being done by Bethii Chan.


This is a papercraft project I decided to start during sometime during the week of X-mas. I won't be giving much information away but I will tell you that this is a Dark version of a character and what you see here is nothing near finished! I found the pattern online so I don't take credit for it, and thought it would be a challenge so I went on a printing spree. :p You can take a crack at guessing who this character is if you want.

Finished samurai armor

I didn't get to post an entry earlier because I was working up to the last day before I left for Dragon*Con and I just got the pieces of armor back just yesterday and finally got a chance to take pictures. Over all I'm pretty happy with the results and have learn a lot about how everything worked out. The pieces of armor have taken some battle damage but I've already have plans to change some of those faults. :) Sorry for not having more in-progress pictures but I kept forgetting to take pictures. So here we go.


Here we have the two shoulder pieces and the 4 hip panels. The hip panels are basically stapled to leather belt and instead of a buckle I used industrial strength Velcro. I think the pieces pictured here are the other set I made. The layer are as is, wonderflex, 2 layers of Joint Compound, Mod Podge, 2 layers of paint and 2 layers of clear. This set I put Mod Podge on to help with the flexing of the pieces and I am glad I did that. On the shoulder pieces I had to use a glue brush to apply joint compound on the top because the piece bent at a 90 degree angle and had eyelets sticking out. That was kinda odd because you should use a drywall knife, but it worked. :p After all the painting, I laced the pieces with laces used for lacrosse sticks.






Here is pictures of how the front and back pieces of the armor. Each piece has 4 layers of joint compound. I bought a 12lb bucket of joint compound from Home Depot and there is probably about 2lbs left. Joint compound was actually a good decision. It went on easy, dried fast and is very sandable but not flexible, but I've already thought of and alternative for that. The two pieces are held together with a hinge with a brass rod, for easy break-down. Two pieces bridge the front and back pieces of the armor that also hold the shoulder pieces in place. These two pieces are the ones that flexed the most and have suffered the most. All of the pieces of armor are 'buttoned' together with 'frogs' that I bought at G-Street. Finding the correct lace length for the shoulder area was rather time consuming. With everything on, its actually not that heavy at all.








For the face mask, I just paper mached a balloon. Hot glued an elastic band on the back. The eye and mouth holes are covered with a black lace material that I found at Michaels. Since I did not want the yellow eyes to actually sit where the eyes actually are, I took some artistic freedom and put them right below the eyes. The eyes are LED pendants with white lights. I had to buy some white LEDs because the pendants are actually colored. I didn't paint the pendants and used a yellow plastic file folder so when the LEDs are on they are yellow and not white. I will be putting more holes around the mouth area to add more venting for the mouth. I am actually thinking about getting a walkie talkie with a headset for communication purposes. Can't actually hear the other person with a mask on. :p






This is one of two sword I had to make. The scabbard is three pieces of flora Styrofoam shaped with sandpaper. I took a hot knife to groove out the styrofoam for the blade of the sword. The 3 pieces of styrofoam were then covered in wonderflex. The handle part is also made of styrofoam and covered in wonderflex. The blade is basswood and blasa wood and a lot of sanding. Primed, silver paint, masked off so I can imitate the metal being sharpened then coats of clear. The knots on both the handle and the scabbard are done by me through the wonderful youtube. :) Nothing you can't find how to do on youtube! Oh, the finger guard is all balsa wood. My intention was to make two swords that would pass for real ones. I've gotten some pretty good feedback on them so I'm pretty happy with them. :)




Finished! :D For the fabric part of this costume please visit Bethii chan's blog.


Photo taken by Jeremy Zeigler.




I haven't decided yet but this might be my next project. Double kudos to anyone that knows what this is.





I'll try and keep more updated entries. I'm currently working on small papercraft projects right now. I'll post pictures of two of the bigger papercraft projects when I get to them. Whenever that is. Till the next time.

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Almost time.

Wow, last update was in March! :p Was either too lazy or too busy to update.... or maybe both. :) Well, with due dates looming, I've picked up the pace. Not just working on the weekends anymore. One thing I can't really believe is how long its taken to get where I am right now. :| Technically it shouldn't have taken this long but the details that have prevented me from going forward have been solved and things are flying now. So I'll try to keep everything short.

This is the front and the back of the armor at it beginning stages. I have doubled up on each lame so its pretty sturdy. The white stuff thats on the armor is paperclay. I was using it to fill in indentions, so its smooth.




I bought these cheap helmets on amazon to make the samurai helmets. Now they are kids costume helmets so I had to modify the helmet to fit my bigger head.




These are the four sections that will make up the four panels that go around the waist. I chose to not double up on these panels because I want it to move with the body.




This part is what goes on the front of the helmet as the helmet decoration. The three yellow pieces are craft foam and the white piece are those plastic for sale signs you can buy at Home Depot. Everything was just hot glued together.




Since the helmet is too small for my head, I had to make the the helmet bigger. I cut the helmet in half and extended it by 1.5". The extension of the helmet I recreated with wonderflex and added the four lames to the back of the helmet as part of the helmet.




Here, I have a near finished helmet. While trying to make paperclay into a paste where I can apply to the surface of the wonderflex to rid of the texture of wonderflex and not using gesso like other people have used, it reminded me of joint compound. I opted to not go with gesso because it would require a lot of layers where as joint compound would only require a couple of layers. So the helmet has 2 layers of joint compound on it, I think (can't remember :p). Primed, then painted two layers of an acrylic dark navy blue, then two coats of clear. Drilled 4 sets of 6 holes around the helmet, then cut and glued in yellow lace to make it look as the lames are laced together.




The finished helmet. Its not really to a standard I like, but I'll keep it. I will have to say that it needs another layer of joint compound. The result of sanding has caused the nylon grid on the wonderflex to fray and I will be spending more time on sanding to smooth out the imperfections. You can also see the brush strokes, I will have to find a method of minimizing brush strokes. The helmet ornament had to be sealed before painting because of craft foam being pourous. It is sealed with a mixture of fabric glue, sobo glue and water. After applying about 7 layers of the glue mixture, I applied two layers of acrylic floor wax because of all the glue in the solution has made the piece quite tacky. Painted on the gold, then applied 2 more coats of the acrylic floor wax to really seal out the tackyness.




Here is what I've done today. On the left is the back of the armor and its first layer of joint compound that will be sanded tomorrow. On the right is the front of the armor all sanded down and with 4 layers of joint compound. The holes have eyelets on them also. Tomorrow will come painting and more sanding. There are other pieces that I have made but I didn't take any pics of those pieces.




So there you have it. Your pretty much caught up with my progress right now. Hopefully, with the next update, I will be finished with both suites of armor....... I'll also share what the next few projects I'll be working on are next time.

A little side project:
I had to make a sheep that drowned for my cousin. Why? Because we were playing Worms and she had no idea what the sheep does and threw the sheep into the water and drowned. The color on the face isn't paint but make-up. :p The great thing about this sheep, I mean Ram, is it baaas. :p

Helllloooo

Decided one day at work that I was gonna make a blog for all things made and/or modded by me, so here I am.

What I'm working on now is a mock up of a suit of samurai armor. Its not gonna be an authentic replica of one, but one that is a bit simpler to match a game.

Found a pattern for a 'Hotoke Do' at this place and modified for my body size. Was gonna make the whole suit out of craft foam but decided to try my hand at Wonderflex. This stuff is great! No glue needed cuz it bonds to itself w/ some heat. It stays in any shape you put it in and when it cools, its pretty rigid.


This is the front piece of the armor. After finishing, I thought the 1 layer of wonderflex is a little bit flimsy, but after doing the shaping its not bad.














This is the back of the armor. For this one I decided to double up the layers to see how things would turn out. This back piece is really hard. It'll take a punch, maybe even a stab from a tiny knife or something. There is enough material there to make two so thats alot. I don't know if I want to use 2 layers or not. Shaping this back piece was interesting. Had to shape it myself to myself by myself. Fun fun fun.


I've got a hinge that I'm ready to put in and will be testing the lacing w/ shoelaces. Next is making the two shoulder panels, then the 4 panels that go around the hips.

I am working on a katana too. The prototype sword is basically done and I have what I need to start on teh scabbard. Pics later.


On a little side note, I caved in and bought this Bubble Gun at Michaels. It was out w/ their spring stuff and it was only $5. Now it doesn't have the cool LEDs in it but it does shoot out a nice steady stream of bubbles though. Gonna see if I can incorporate it into my steampunk some how.






Gonna get back to work.