Jump to content
  • Announcement

    Welcome to the forums!

    If you are a newly-approved member, make sure you check out the New Member Checklist!

    If you are a Detachment member and can't see the member-only area, post here for access.

    -DV

Sintra Vambraces Tutorial - Darth Revan


Guest Anonymous

Recommended Posts

Guest Anonymous

I am experimenting with Sintra vambraces for my Darth Revan costume, inspired by this tutorial by Nocturne_uk, who used the technique for his Special Ops Scout Trooper for the 501st.

 

http://z11.invisionfree.com/501st_Spec_ ... wtopic=139

 

In my next post, I'll show the beginning of my own WIP. I will add to this thread as I continue, and hopefully this may be of help to someone in the future.

 

- Carolyn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

Closed Cell PVC (Sintra?)

 

Sintra is available in thicknesses from 1mm to 19mm (but 3mm and 6mm are the most common), and a dozen colors (white is available in all thicknesses, the other colors just in 3mm and 6mm. For Revan's vambraces, I am using 3 mm Sintra in black.

 

Sintra is a thermoplastic, and starts to soften at about 150? F. This means that you can easily heat up thin (3mm or thinner) pieces of Sintra? and mold them as needed. To bend a piece of Sintra, you just boil it in water for 10 - 15 seconds (the length of boil determining how soft the material gets). After boiling, remove the piece with tongs (gently, so as not to leave an imprint of the tong in the piece), quickly bend it to your desired shape, and freeze it in shape with cold water. If you mess up, it's no problem -- keep your water boiling, and you can just repeat the process.

For what it's worth, you can bend thicker pieces of Sintra as well, although boiling water probably isn't hot enough to do the trick.

 

As a note of warning, be careful not to crush Sintra while you're handling it -- crushing destroys the material's internal cell structure, leaving you with a very flexible and essentially useless mess.

 

The following images show the beginning of my experiment in making Darth Revan's vambraces from Sintra - my first edition of the costume had the vambraces made from 2-part resin, and it was not very successful due to miscalculations on my initial sculpt, the weight of the resin, and other difficulties. I thought that Sintra could be a viable alternative and so far, I'm encouraged.

 

normal_WebVambracesSintra%20001.jpg

 

Here you can see the heavy paper template still in its "vambrace" shape. I made it by wrapping the paper around my arm, wearing what I would wear under the vambrace while in costume, and taping it closed into the proper shape (allowing for enough room at the wrist to pull it over my closed fist). I then cut the template open down the "underside" of it so I could fold it out into a flat template. What you're seeing here is the template RE-taped closed so I could test for fit.

 

normal_WebVambracesSintra%20007.jpg

 

Very complicated looking, eh? Lots of supplies needed - not! The Sintra, in a flat black sheet, the template, a pencil to trace around the template, and an X-acto knife to do the cutting. Incidentally, go with a heavier utility knife. I did later and it really sped up the cutting process.

 

normal_WebVambracesSintra%20002.jpg

 

This is the piece of Sintra that will become a vambrace, cut from the Sintra sheet using an X-acto knife (I tried other methods, but the knife was the best - Sintra is relatively easy to cut if you score it repeatedly with the knife). It will need to be sanded to remove rough edges.

 

normal_WebVambracesSintra%20008.jpg

 

I shaped the vambrace around my arm by placing the Sintra into nearly boiling water in a stock pot on the stove. As soon as the Sintra softened, I pulled it out with tongs (and fingers - it was hot but not unbearable) and wrapped the Sintra around my arm (while wearing all the clothing that would be under the vambraces as part of the costume). That got the rough shape, but as you can see, the edges aren't matching up quite right and the shape isn't exactly symmetrical.

 

I tried just dipping it back into the water to refine the shape, but it gets soft so quickly it'd just unfold almost instantly, losing all the curve! Finally, I hit on holding it together with rubberbands. Then I could put it back in the water and refine the shape to make the edges match without losing the initial work I'd done. As a warning, however, the rubberbands DID leave a faint imprint in the surface. I will have to see how noticeable that is when the piece is completed, sanded, detailed, and painted.

 

normal_WebVambracesSintra%20003.jpg

 

These photos are just to show the raw shape of the vambraces. They're just large enough at the wrist to slip on over the gloves (taking them off, I've found it's easier to remove the glove first!). They fit snugly and don't seem very inclined to roll around on the arm, although it's possible that will be a problem. I'll keep you all posted. One HUGE advantage (other than the fact they FIT right) over my resin-cast vambraces from my first attempt at the costume is that they are significantly lighter. You can see some discoloration caused by dipping the Sintra in the hot water...won't be a problem for me as I'm painting them, but if for some reason the plan was to leave the Sintra unpainted, this could pose a difficulty.

 

normal_WebVambracesSintra%20005.jpg

 

Sintra Vambrace - underside, showing join

You can see here the underside of the vambrace and the opening along it. Because the vambrace fits pretty tightly, I may leave it open to allow a small amount of flex when pulling the vambrace on and off. I might also experimentally use Magic Sculpt to fill the gap (but not pulling the edges together, which might make the vambrace too narrow) so that there is no visible seam. I think I will try both approaches and see what works best. This gap will show up more strongly when the vambraces is painted.

 

Next step will be to sand the rough edges on the vambrace and the surface, then to begin adding detailing with Magic Sculpt. I'll post again when I get to the next stage.

 

- Carolyn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

One trick I've used with Sintra. The stuff I buy from US Plastics has a very thin scratch guard on it (kind of like the cling covers on an LCD). I actually spray adhesive my template than stick it to the scratch guard. That way I don't have to worry about it moving around when I am cutting around the template and since the scratch guard is removed, nothing is left on the Sintra.

 

Also, I have heard that if you get Sintra over 300 degrees that the cell structure inside it can break down, so be careful if you use a heatgun on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...