Clash of the Titans - Perseus' Shield

 What we're working on:
In progress: Perseus - Clash of the Titans (2010)
Staging: 1) Andromeda & Medusa - Clash of the Titans (2010)
               2)Katniss Everdeen; Effie Trinket - The Hunger Games
              

So Guavious was home last weekend and I got to watch him create his shield! It was pretty impressive... Who would have thought this piece of armor would have only really taken one afternoon! Last summer he purchased a large piece of styrofoam about two inches thick. He then took a blow torch to it and it created the exact look we needed to make Persus' shield! So this weekend he purchase a much thicker piece of styrofoam for durability, approx 4 or 5 inches thick. He cut the top and bottom curves into them to mimic the shape of the shield and went to town creating the shape. The video below is how he created the edges. He had to be really careful with the flame! And I'm going to CYA and say "Don't try this at home!"

He then used the flame to carve out the base of the shape. It took a couple of passes to get the dimension and the look that we wanted, but you want to take your time. If I've learned anything it's that you should start your definition slowly. Not only so if you make a mistake you can work around it, but also you don't go to far! All the ridges should be fairly equal, from what I observed, and that's just for stability's sake!

The Styrofoam was pretty hot so it took about an hour to cool off, he then took some different acrylic paints to create the different layers and dimension. The base is a mixture of Asphaltum Americana Acrylic paint (Grey/Brown), and Lamp Black Americana Acrylic paint. Once that dried he then used Dazzling Metallic Elegant Finish Acylic paint in Dark Patina (greenish) to add highlights and extra dimension.  On the left is just the black and grey/brown, below is the green highlights.



After letting it dry overnight we then attached a piece of construction quality aluminum to the back to mimic the mirror. We were originally going to buy and adhesive mirror for the back. One of those decorative wall stickers? But those are EXPENSIVE for anything larger than their standard size, and the shield is anything but standard size!

Haven't really done anything this week for Andromeda and Medusa.... So moving on to the Hunger Games. Effie Trinket's Eyelashes arrived! YAY!

So in three weeks we've been able to get 90% of Perseus complete! Woot Woot!