Does anyone have tips on cheapo shield making? I'm making Pyrrha's shield from Soul Calibur 5 (same as Sophitia's old one).

I was planning on casting it in resin + fibreglass but the materials cost for resin + silicon +fibreglass is sky high. I've been looking at Volpin's tutorial here using wood + foam but the special resin he used to seal the foams looks pricey too.

http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/2011/01/cassandras-nemea-shield.html

Can foam be sealed with anything else which is sandable or is there any other way of making this?

I have a way over this as well.. Since I was gonna do Patroklos at one point..

Recommend using foam board and working on the structure with a hot air gun.

Or a MASSIVE plastic plate...lol

Thanks that could possibly work... I have both foam board and sheet plastic available so...

I am currently making Sophitia's props, and I have been using Kamui's method of foam, paper mache etc. ( http://www.kamuicosplay.com/p/tutorials.html ).

Basically, you'd need a base circle (wood, cardboard, whatever is easier/cheaper for you), spray the expanding foam on top, wait for it to dry, carve it into shape, add paper mache coats, then paint.

I haven't done the shield yet, but I used this method for the sword ('cept with 6mm plastazote instead of expanding foam because it was easier due to the shape of the sword) and it has worked. Means it's nice and light too. And it's relatively inexpensive compared to other methods.

You could try using a toy shield (Captain America for example) as a base and build up onto that ^^ should be pretty cheap but effective and would save a lot of hassle trying to get the right shape
As for sealing foam, I know that you can use Gesso, which can be sanded aswell