Chest Armor
The chest armor on Evil Ash's costume looks like a steel rib cage . John Hart, one of the artisans who helped make the Evil Ash Armor states, "All of the armor in the
movie was based on 15th century Italian and German armor. The chestplate is a placket (half breastplate) with sections cut out with a cutting torch to resemble ribs, there was nothing built up on it [bones].The original concept was fossilized armor, steel fused with bone, with the color scheme black and rust with a little bit of shine here and there. I designed the armor and sculpted the bone part of the helm, Jeff Hedgecock made the steel parts."
Images of the Screen Used chest armor and cape are in the Reference Pictures page.
I, personally, opted to just make mine out of plastic rather than steel. It would be lighter in weight for wearing and easier to work with. I basically decided to heat up a plastic sheet and form it into the shape I wanted. Note: when I made my armor, there were virtually no movie references for me to go by for making it. Everything I created was painstakenly researched from a VHS tape of "Army of Darkness".
I had a bodycast/mannequin aready made to my bodysize so I decided to make fake ribs out of tightly rolled up newspapers that were taped to the mannequin. These ribs would serve as the basis for my armor shape.
I heated up a sheet of plastic in the kitchen oven, sandwiching the plastic between two wooden frames that held the plastic taut and off the ovens elements while it heated up.
Once the plastic was hot, I took the frames of out the oven and slid the plastic out from between them. With gloves on, I proceeded to press the hot plastic onto the mannequin and in between the newspaper ribs, thereby shaping the plastic into the armored ribs needed. Very simple, very effective.
It took 3 people and 6 hands to hold the plastic in place all at once during the cooling process. It could have done it with one person, but it would have taken me longer to press the plastic down. I would have had to heat up the plastic one 6 x 6 square inch section at a time.
Do not try to do this pressing of hot plastic onto a human being. Please use a mannequin. You will most likely not hurt a mannequin, but the human body was definetly not meant for these kind of temperatures. The plastic needs to be about 350 degrees farenheit to start to melt.
Once you have the shape you want, cut the excess plastic off and paint as needed. Attach the leather straps to hold it to your body and VOILA! you have the chest armor.
The Chest armor I built measured up the front 12 inches tall. It wrapped around the wearer 14 inches.
- end chest armor -