Hylian Shield Tutorial part 1

So today starts the tutorial on the Hylian Shield.

First up I am going to bring up again that this is going to have a more real world color set and not as bright and clean as the game shield.

Each part of the tutorial will have a shopping list

Shopping list for Part 1
2 foam core poster boards
1 12x18 piece of EVA or craft foam, I used the thicker kind
A water spray bottle
Gold Leaf Rub n' Buff
A piece of newspaper
Pencil and a marker
320 grit sandpaper
Utility knife and scissors


To start, I unfolded the newspaper, and with some reference images, I drew out the basic shape I wanted for the shield. I then cut out the new paper.

Next I traced out the design onto the the first piece of poster board

I then used the utility knife to cut out the shield. I also used the sandpaper to sand down the edges to make them smoother and round out any jagged points

After this point, I felt I needed to make a second cutout of the shield in case of mishaps. I used the shield that I cut out of the poster board top trace the next one.

Now After completing the shield to beyond where part 1 of this tutorial without mishaps to the first cutout, I am glad that I made a second one for something else that will be in part 2 or 3

Once I got both traced, and the first cut out, I wanted to give the shield a concave look. To do this, I propped it up on some RedBull cans and wet down both sides lightly with water from a spray bottle. I then added some weight to the top so that when the water soaks into the poster board, it will give me the desired shape. I left the weight on the shield until it was every so slightly beyond where I wanted the curve to be. Then I removed the weights and let it dry.

During the time that the poster board was setting up for the concave shape, I took my foam and traced some templates for the different designs that go into the shield. I found a template on Google images that I liked and re-sized to fit. This took a lot of trail and error to get the size right, but I think it will be worth the hassle!

With the Tri-Force and smaller triangle cut out of the foam, I used some of the Gold Leaf Rub n' Buff to color them. I like the Rub n' Buff for this because you can give a lot of control to how much you want to use, and its a very nice and real looking color that will help with my desired finish. 

This concludes part 1 of the Hylian Shield tutorial
Stay tuned for part 2!