Vader Accessories

I started some of the extra accessories for the costumes, Vaders shoulder armor, his chest box, belt, and Bat Girls utility belt. I wanted them more 3D, so I pulled out my 1 in thick foam. I try to keep foam on hand, you can do SO much with foam, it's fun. 

For the shoulder Armor I watched this tutorial on youtube. It shows you how to cut and measure the foam. However since this is for a 3 year old, I was not precise and detailed. First I took some scissors and cut the width of the foam down to 1/2 inch. I glued 2 pieces for a wire hanger to the back to give it a curved shape. 

For the raised pieces I cut outstrips and glued them on top in the right place with my hot glue gun.

Now if you have ever tried to paint foam it's hard cause of all the little holes on the surface. I wanted a smooth plastic looking surface to it, so I was looking through my stuff to see what I had, then I remembered I had this:

 Acrylic Gel Medium. This stuff is awesome. Most people use it for painting, but there are TONS of uses for this stuff. I originally got it for image transfer. It's suppose to dry completely clear. Mine never did. Not sure why, maybe cause MO is too humid.
    Essentially when this stuff dries it's like a flexible plastic. So I took my finger and smeared it all over the surface of my foam. It filled in all the little holes, and gave it a nice flexible plastic surface.

I also cut out little shapes for Bat Girl utility belt and Vaders belt, and covered them with the gel medium.

And for Vaders chest box thingy, I used a white colored pencil to mark where I wanted it, and I smeared the  gel on the shirt. (make sure to smooth it out before it dries)

 Gloss black paint was my BEST FRIEND for this stuff. Gives it a nice shinny plastic look (and yes, I happend to have some of this laying around too)

This is what the belt pieces look like after they are painted. COOL HUH! They feel cool too. Squishy plastic. The kids LOVE them, and I haven't even put them on their belts yet.

This is how the shirt turned out. I'm super excited about it...I just didn't think about washing it. I did get the paint wet with my finger after it dried and tried to wash it off, and it stayed just fine. So I'm PRETTY SURE it will be fine in the wash...but I just haven't tested that one yet. I will let you know when I do. :)

 This is the ensemble together. Well It's everything I have finished.

 Now that I think about it, You could just skip the foam, and paint everything directly onto the shirt with the gel medium.  It would be a pretty cool shirt to wear with the shoulder armor, chest box and belt all painted on there.
p.s. I tried painting the fabric with out the gel, it works, but it soaks into the fabric a little more. The gel gives it  it's own surface on top of the shirt and makes it look like a separate thing. PLUS the gloss paint wasn't very glossy on just the fabric. The gel makes it keep it's original look. It's like a primer for the fabric.

Total cost for this project $1.98 for the black turtle neck from the thrift store.