Plastic shield bosses

Community Gear
#1

For the past year or so I’ve been building corflute roundshields, using cheap plastic bowls as bosses. These look great, but at Kingdom on Sunday I discovered the flaw in the plan:


Fortunately, I’ve recently discovered a solution: thicker bowls. I acquired some at K-Mart last month, when I couldn’t get any of the “normal” ones; they have the added advantage of not having a rim round the bottom (which I normally hacksaw off). So they should be much quicker to make: just edge and paint.

Another lesson is that spraypaint isn’t up to the rigors of combat; being a thin layer, it comes off quite easily. Fortunately that can be fixed with a paintbrush.

#2

You shouldn’t really be using hard plastic in a focal point on a shield - you can cut foam to get the exact same shame and make it way more friendly to faces.

#3

Derek makes his out of camp mat (I’m betting he has instructions on here somewhere). The one on my shield seems quite sturdy, maybe give it a go making one that way and see how ya like it?

#4

tinyurl.com/6ncduy7

#5

Or here without the urlspam (bloody tinyURL).

I tried foam in the beginning and found it to be very fiddly. Plastic bowls were easier, and met with community approval at the time (hell, they were suggested here).

#6

[quote=“IdiotSavant”]Or here without the urlspam (bloody tinyURL).

I tried foam in the beginning and found it to be very fiddly. Plastic bowls were easier, and met with community approval at the time (hell, they were suggested here).[/quote]
2007

2010

so this will change again in 2013 (probably).

#7

I understand from Teonn that people have been moving towards all-foam shield construction, at least as players (and I’ve seen some of these shields, and they are indeed pretty). This is great, but here in Wellington we’re still trying to build up a pool of basic gear. Which after the Kingdom experience, obviously needs to be expanded.

#8

I’d be inclined to avoid plastic too. Breakages might be possible even with a heavier plastic, for example from falling on it. Split plastic can have sharp edges that may hurt people & weapons.

Derek posted a pattern for making foam shield bosses here:

I’ve used this a couple of times, worked fine. Can use the same foam and glue as for the rest of the shield. The only trouble is in getting the inside edges of the boss to stick together fully when they’re under pressure to spread. I just spray-painted my shields, but latex would cover up a fair amount of errors in the boss gluing. And they don’t use much foam, so could always make a few and use the ones that come out best.

#9

I guess it would be nice to produce some recommended guidelines for making common larp gear as a PDF or something, and maybe post them on the NZLARPS site so they’re easier to find than a forum post. Then they could be kept up to date as consensus changes on best practice.

Having said that, there are a lot of other documents it would be nice to produce like a how-to guide for running events, but efforts tend to start enthusiastic then peter out. Which might help explain why it’s still hard to find good guides for this stuff online. Be nice if we could buck that trend.

#10

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]I guess it would be nice to produce some recommended guidelines for making common larp gear as a PDF or something, and maybe post them on the NZLARPS site so they’re easier to find than a forum post. Then they could be kept up to date as consensus changes on best practice.

Having said that, there are a lot of other documents it would be nice to produce like a how-to guide for running events, but efforts tend to start enthusiastic then peter out. Which might help explain why it’s still hard to find good guides for this stuff online. Be nice if we could buck that trend.[/quote]

This is currently being worked on.

#11

Cool. Crafting guidelines, not safety guidelines though, right? That’s kind of another story.

#12

Both

#13

I find reading and following the glue instructions really helps.

For EVA foam:

  • Apply the glue twice before sticking the edges together, because it’s really a really porous material.
  • Also, try to get a very even coating of glue.
  • Lastly, once it is dry, try turning it inside out, the inside edges tend to stick better.
#14

Why not just ADOS foam over the bowl?

Additionally regarding the paint surface; Use some 100-125 grit sandpaper on the surface first before painting and that will help adhesion significantly.