Hiccups Dragon Scale Pauldrons - Hiccup Cosplay - How to Train Your Dragon 3 Hidden World (HTTYD3)

Hey Cosplayers! In today's Apprenticeship I'm going to show you how I made these snazzy Hiccup Pauldrons Using What The Foam and Foam-Mo.

Before you jump in and start Cosplaying like a Boss! Here is a kit of all the tools and materials I used to help you easily re-create this project!

You can check all the supplies I used on this project right here: https://kit.co/CosplayApprentice/how-to-make-hiccup-dragon-scale-pauldrons

As you know, all my projects are based on the patterns I create for you guys. So, to start, all you have to do is get your patterns ready! Get the Pattern Here. Print the pattern pages out on any printer using standard 8.5"x11" paper.

Then, you want to tape the pattern pieces together.

Don’t forget that you can always watch the video and get an idea of how to do it!

Remember to also cut out all of your registration marks. A pattern notching tool will make this go much faster!

Super Secret Win Sauce- If you are a second-tier (Cosplay Apprenti) patron on our Patreon you get unlimited personal access to ALL of my patterns!

In this case I am using 4mm and 2mm W+F (What the Foam). I start by pinning the patterns to it and tracing around it with colored markers.

I like to color code my outlines by the type of cuts I am going to have to make (straight, inner/outer bevel etc.). This is very helpful to remind me as I begin to cut this out.

Now, you have to cut out the patterns you transferred to the W+F.

With all your pieces cut out, add any detail/scoring cut lines into your piece while it is flat and easy to work with. This part can be tricky because you will be scoring the foam about 1/2 way without cutting completely through. If you nervous about this then practice the technique on a scrap piece of foam to help you get a feel for controlling knife blade depth.

We can make this EVA foam look like leather using some crumpled up aluminum foil and a hot iron. There are some do's and don'ts for this technique so I suggest watching my tutorial where I show you how create a realistic leather effect.

Press the hot iron onto the tinfoil over the foam to impress the leather effect.

To make this 2D pattern into a 3D curved pauldron you will have to heat up the foam and shape it. You will get a pretty good idea of the shape you are trying to recreate in the minute 4:02 of the video.

You should have the pauldrons mostly in the shape you want before you glue up the darts. These pictures give you an idea of what you should be after.

This technique will give this piece of the pauldron a padded leather look and here is how it's done.

Heat up the leather to make it pliable.

Bulge the foam slightly by pressing the rounded end of a screwdriver handle (or honing knife handle in my case) along in between the scored lines you cut earlier. Don't over stress the foam and rip it. You are just trying to give the foam a little memory for which way you want it to bulge. The effect will still look kind of weak at this point but that will change with some hot glue.

Pinch open the scored lines and fill them with hot glue. This part takes a little patience. I found it works best to do one line at a time. You have to wait for the hot glue to set up before moving onto the next section of line or when you let go the hot glue will all squeeze out.

Padded leather DONE! Nice work!

It's time to glue the inside darts to hold the concave shapes permanently. This will require using contact cement so use a proper mask and work in a well ventilated area. Never used contact cement? Better watch this first:

These handy little squeeze bottles make applying glue to the seams clean and simple.

After letting the glue set up, start at the inside corner of the dart and press the seams together as you work your way out. Use the registration marks to help you keep everything aligned. EVA foam will have some give so you can stretch as needed to keep both sides matched up.

Then glue up and add the layers on next.

For large surface areas I drizzle a bunch of glue out and squeegee it around with a scrap piece of foam until it covers the entire surface that needs to be glued.

Line up the layers and glue them all together.

Now its time to use the cool "leather straps" you created before. Use them to assemble the different parts that are marked for it.

I cut some cross-hatch score marks into the foam where I am gluing the elastic straps. This will help give more surface area for the hot glue to seep into and creates a better bond.

The leather straps will hide the elastic.

Cross-hatching scratching all of the areas where the scales are going to be placed will make a better bond when squishing on the scales. It takes some time so I recommend having a good TV show, movie, or podcast playing while doing this prep work.

Once all the marks are scratched, it's time to add the scales. I'm using Foam-Mo (available on Amazon), which makes this process incredibly easy!

Just get some Foam-Mo, add some water, mold it, put it in the right place and add a little bit of water to polish the scale look!

A rotary tool and stone sanding bit will help create the rounded edges, scuff marks, and scrapes that will give your pauldrons the convincing real world worn look. My hiccup breastplate video shows some good examples of how to create that look.

Add scuffs and nicks around the edges. Start light. You can always make another pass to add more.

First, use some Plasti-Dip to create a good flexible primer coat and base color layer. I recommend at least 2-3 coats.

Then use a small paintbrush to paint the scales with a gloss black acrylic paint and give them a shiny look.

Paint the red accents the same way but using a matte red acrylic. This took me 3-4 layers to get the coverage I wanted, which was not fully solid red but a red with some faded spots because Vikings paint probably didn't cover super well. You can also add some brown paint rubbed lightly along your battle-damaged areas to make it look like the raw leather is showing through.

If you create these I would love to see your work, so, please, send me pics of your handiwork on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cosplay_apprentice/.

Also, join me on my weekly YouTube Live Stream, every Thursday at 8 pm (PST)