Captain America & Captain Carter Accessories

Hi!

In this Instructable, I had help from Peggy Carter - from a different universe! On Earth-839, she's known as Captain Carter. She's into crafting and showed me how to make her shield and Captain America’s shield as accessories.

You can watch the video if you want to get some 1940s / Peggy Carter vibes!

Supplies

soda cans*
scissors
paper and pencil
glue stick or masking tape
round objects (see step 2)
silver packaging (see step 5)
needle / map tack
blue acrylic paint
clear nail polish
super glue
jump ring
cord / keychain, etc.
clear tape

* Find soda cans with lots of empty blue and red areas. For the silver parts, you can either use the inside of any can or find a can with a more shiny silver exterior.

Step 1: Cut the Cans

See how much you need for the biggest circle and cut out enough material. Then flatten it out by bending it over a thick marker or something similar.

Step 2: Sticky Templates

You can use different sized round objects for drawing the outlines of the shields or use a drawing compass.

Cover the metal with masking tape so you can draw the circles on them, or use a glue stick to stick paper onto the metal. Both options come off easily afterwards.

Step 3: Cut Out All of the Circles

Depending on what shield you want to make, cut out the according circles.

Step 4: How to Draw a Star

Let’s make the star on Steve’s shield next.

It was surprisingly hard to create a symmetrical star or even to draw one. This worked best for me:

I used the smallest round object to draw a circle first. Then I roughly marked the center. Next, I drew five dots on the circle and tried to space them out as evenly as possible. Lastly, you just need to connect the dots with a ruler. The dot in the center helps you see if it’s symmetrical.

If your first attempt looks crap, just try again! The star will never be 100% perfect, but you can get close.

Step 5: When You Wish Upon a Star..

For Captain America's star, I recommend using the shiny inside of a bag of chips (or as Peggy would say: bag of crisps) or something similar. For a more matte silver, you can use a chocolate wrapper for example.

Stick the star paper template onto the backside of the silver packaging.

Then cut out the shape using the smallest scissors you have (nail scissors for example).

When you're done, you can remove the template, but only if it comes off easily (we don't want to mess up the star).

Make sure that the star doesn’t go beyond the inner blue circle and glue it on with a glue stick or school glue. Be generous with the glue, because it can easily be cleaned off the metal with a toothpick.

We will seal that in later on, but first let’s create the Union Jack.

Step 6: Scratch the Union Jack

I’m using tape as a guideline for the bigger cross of the British flag. Then I use a needle and a ruler and scratch the outlines of the cross into the metal. Go over the outlines until you’re happy with them.

Then repeat that with the next cross and look at a reference for the details. Next, scratch the left-over areas because we will paint them blue.

Step 7: Paint the Rest Blue

I covered the red parts with clear tape and then I went over the whole thing with a thin layer of blue acrylic paint.

After peeling off the tape, you can correct with a toothpick and a needle. The thinner the layer of paint, the easier this part will be.

Step 8: Cover With Varnish

To protect the paint on all of the pieces, I covered them with nail polish. If your shield is for display only, you could skip this step, but I do recommend to at least cover the center parts.

I kept the pieces in place with a tiny roll of tape (which I did in a few other steps as well).

Step 9: Assemble!

After letting the pieces dry overnight, I roughened up all of the areas that needed to be glued with a needle. This is optional, but good practice.

Now it’s finally time to assemble the Aven.. I mean the pieces!

I used super glue and tried to use as little as possible, because the super glue I used dries white and is almost impossible to clean. But no pressure, right?

I recommend to start gluing from the center outwards, because that way you can correct asymmetries with your scissors.

Step 10: Double Sided Shield

You can make a double sided shield by super gluing a blue and a red soda can piece together with superglue before you cut out the circle.

Step 11: Poke a Hole (if Needed)

You could leave your shields as they are, but if you want to turn them into accessories, you will need a hole.

Since I wanted to pierce my double-sided shield, I marked where I wanted a hole with tape and made sure both sides looked the right way up. Then I pierced the outer ring with a map tack. This works well on a thick magazine or newspaper.

You will need an overlapping jump ring, because soda cans are so thin, they will slip through any gap.

I formed my own jump ring with wire. Be careful not to scratch the metal with the jump ring!