Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Medieval Shield
The final week of Wesley's Renaissance Festival, I bring you what many of you have been requesting for weeks since I first started doing some of these medieval props, the basic Medieval war shield. Well I thought and thought about how to do this, and finally came up with an idea that I think would work and not be super expensive, so here you go, hope you enjoy it, the Medieval Shield.
First start out with a normal piece of foamboard, and bend it verticaly down the center as evenly as possible. You might want to rub down the center with a bottle, or a wooden dowel to try to make a slight indention into it, then maybe push into it with your fingers from the back, while holding the front on your hand as you slowly bend it outwards. Then slowly begin to bow it, bending it ever so slightly. You don't want to bend it a lot or it will make the foam board crease and create lines and wrinkles instead of smoother more metallic looking bends.
Next for the bottom edge I measure the edges to try to make them even and as balanced as possible, then sketch the outline for the cut with a piece of chalk.
I cut off one side with a utility knife, then simple flipped the piece I cut off over on the otherwise and used it as a guide so that the angles of the cut would match. This makes it much easier.
Don't throw away the angles you cut off, i'll explain in a little bit.
Get some kind of blunt object, like a thick wooden dowel, or a hammer, and hit the edges to give them a smoother look. Then hit the front of the shield to give it some dents and wear and tear so it doesn't look to smooth and perfect.
I then combined Titebond Original Wood Glue (Elmer's Original Wood Glue also works), gray acrylic craft paint, and sliver acrylic craft paint. The wood glue makes the paint tackier, and lets you tease it up a bit and give it a more iron metal worked textured, it also soaks into the paper, and helps give the shield some reinforcement once it dries.
Next, I took another sheet of foam board, and sketched a circle on it.
Then I cut it out, bending it to the same angle as the shield, and giving it also a beaten textured look. I then measured from almost to my elbow to my fist, (the white marks on the circle), where i'm going to thread the arm supports.
For the supports your could use duct tape, but I wanted something that would be a bit tougher, and fit a bit more snuggly, so I bought some elastic straps. You can find these at any decent fabric shop, and at most any superstore like Wal-Mart or Target.
I then cut slits where I measured earlier, and pushed the elastic through, anchoring it on the opposite side with wads of plumbers epoxy.
And while the Epoxy is still pliable, I pushed it into the shield, holding it firmly so it dries solidly against the shield.
I then reinforced the back of the shield with a combination of plaster, acrylic paint, and wood glue. Similar to the mixture I used on the outside of the Right Hand of Doom. The combination was 1 part water, to 2 parts wood glue, to 2 parts acrylic paint, to 1 part plaster mix. I should be kind of lumpy, and look a little bit like wet concrete mixed with dark gray mashed potatoes. I just rubbed it into the back and let it dry and harden.
After it dried, it's now nice and rigid and strong, so I brought it out to give it a very very light spraying with silve metallic spray paint.
I then put a very thin layer of dark silver paint on the front, so in all of the pits and dents I made earlier in it will stand out because the paint doesn't get in there, and so they are shiny and silver and really look like strike points where the paint has chipped and cracked.
I then took those pieces that I cut off of the bottom earlier, and I attached them to the top with some Plumbers Epoxy I have left over, giving them a lighter more silvery paint job.
I then painted the arm straps on the back with brown paint to make them look like they are leather straps.
Then the front I gave it a final Medieval crest paint job. You could paint eagles, dragons, knights heads, wolves, stars, lines, or all sorts of things that look right to you, I suggest doing some research and finding some colors and symbols that you like the look of, and using lots of real shields as reference for this one to give your shield that extra bit of detail that will really sell it as a real shield.
And there you go your very own Medieval shield that can take impacts, and won't cost a ton of money.
combat, armor, medieval, fighting, european, blue, crest, heater, kite, shield, knights, ancient
i did not know you made that but cool
Awesome.
I like these :) so many good ideas for Halloween and school plays :) Thank You, you talented, goodlooking man :)
thx
looks great ... will be used for the orcs in our next fantasy film :)
great build, but i think it looked better before you added the crest paint job
Yea me to, but the solid paint job is more realistic. But I agree, it looks better without any paint (to me at least) which is why I used it for the intro picture at the top.
Looks great!! A really nice set of builds, Wes!!
pretty cool!
3rd
Awesome one wes! This looks superb!
Totally Schweet, nice job...again