40k Cosplay: Armor Creation for the Sisters of Battle Squad Pt 1
Today we’re diving deeper into the world of the fabulous Sisters of Battle Cosplay Group by Shawn Thorsson. Get a peek behind the armor as we look closer at how this massive undertaking was accomplished!
Back in September we got our first look at the Sisters of Battle Squad, which anybody who has ANY loyalty to the Emperor has been fawning over for months. (If not, SHAME ON YOU HERETICS). We’ve seen them out on the town, traversing the Cons, dropping in on public events, leaving no stone unturned in their search to route out the Heretics in the name of the great Emperor of Mankind. This month, we’ll discovering how these fantastic cosplays were forged, in the words of creator Shawn Thorsson.
The Inspiration
“Back in March and April I spent a few weeks of quality time in Malaysia on behalf of the US Navy. While I was there, I had a lot of time to contemplate my preparations for the Bay Area Maker Faire. This would be my eighth time setting up an exhibit and, as usual, I wanted to unveil something new as a part of my display.
Given that I didn’t have anything particular driving me toward a deadline this year, I decided to pull out something from my bucket list for this year’s Maker Faire debut. It’s a really long list, so this is usually a pretty tough decision. This year’s winner: the Sisters of Battle, also known as the Adepta Sororitas.”
“That’s a painted gaming miniature that’s probably just over an inch tall. For the past few years, I’ve had this on my bucket list for Warhammer cosplay projects. With all of the updates regarding the impending release of new plastic Adepta Sororitas models, I’ve finally gotten to the point where it’s made it to the top of the to-do list. Translating it into a lifesize, wearable costume in just under six weeks would be a bit of a challenge. Of course, being me, there’s no way I’d make just one.
Here’s a snapshot of how the first batch came out:
The goal: a full squad. The method: brute force.
The main problem with this plan was that I would only have six weeks to go from zero to wearable costume(s) if I wanted them walking around at the Bay Area Maker Faire. That, and I also had to prep the rest of my usual display items for the Faire.
Okay then.
Shoulder Armor
“The first thing that went to work on this project was Maria the Robot Whittler, one of my Carvewright CNC machines. I tasked her with making the shoulder armor. These parts were originally modeled for me by the good people at Do3D.com and sent along as print-ready STL files. After a bit of tweaking to make the thin walls into solid blocks, I had them looking like so:
Importing them into the Carvewright Designer software, I sliced them into sections that my Carvewright CNC machines could whittle out for me:
Importing them into the Carvewright Designer software, I sliced them into sections that my Carvewright CNC machines could whittle out for me. After gluing up all of the slices and a bit of sanding, they looked like so:
So we had to stage a quick test fit:
Nailed it.
After trimming the two halves and taping them together, I tried them on:
Satisfied that we had the right shape, I went ahead and solvent-welded the two halves together:
Then put a bit of work into filling and smoothing the seam:
The shoulder/collar assemblies, the lower shoulder armor plates, and the ankle parts were the only forming bucks that were CNC carved for this build. I used a completely different approach for…”
***To Be Continued!!!
More about Shawn Thorsson
He wrote a book! Get yours here: LINK
Sometimes he also has stuff for sale on Etsy.
~Join us next week for more Cosplay Coverage~
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