Joshmohr:
I just got 20 new boyz, and im wondering if anyone has a idea on how to make some shoulder pads out of plasticard… A link, or friendly advice?
Thanks!
Nicodemus:
I’m out of the country right now so I can’t cut plasticard and take pics… so drawings will have to suffice:
1. Cut your piece of plasticard into the basic shape you want the shoulder pads to be. If you’re feeling extra creative you could do two layers of plasticard of different sizes to give a slight stepped effect, but the more layers you have the thinner you want to go. 0.5-1 mm at the most for a single layer, less than this for multiple. You could also just cut thin strips (or you can buy plasticard as thin strips) and glue them on as a border on the bottom side that sticks out.
2. Cut notches and other bits of ‘battle damage’ into the armoured shoulder plate where they might have come into contact with weapons, etc. Go random here and I suggest even sanding the edges down so the un-battle-damaged areas aren’t squared-off, but look slightly tapered and less “new and unused looking” depending on the look you want.
3. Find a thick popsicle stick, pen or rounded pencil, etc. etc. and press the piece around the cylindical body to give it a rounded shape, more befitting a shoulderpad look. You could also GreenStuff a bunch of cylinders, or skulls (or cut the face off existing plastic skulls that you may have) or anything else you want and then glue them on to the plasticard.
If you want to do extra stuff, consider making a very thin sausage of GS and using lots of water roll it out flat with your cylinder so that you have the makings of leather straps. Once your shoulders plates are glued on to your figs you can use a bit of Krazy glue to attach one end of the GS strap to the crevasse under the plate where the plate and arm meet, fold it around the arm and glue the other side up out of sight as well. If you’re feeling creative a few very tiny pin-width-sized rolls of GS can be cut to make the basic shape of a buckle for the leather straps.
Hope that helps!
~N
Joshmohr:
Thanks! Great guide, I’m gonna try it RIGHT now!
Grimstonefire:
It might actually be easier to make them out of plastic tube, as you don’t have to bend it then. 
Thorne:
I love Nicodemus’s tutorial but I have used plastic tubing and drinking straws in the past like Grimstonefire’s advice the big Mcdonnalds ones work a treat.
Joshmohr:
So here’s how i did it: Take three thin layers of plasticard, make each as big as the pad. wrap it around a pen, hold it in place with a wire. hold a lighter near it VERY CAREFULLY, and allow it to melt for about three seconds. Then, once you have the first formed layer, glue on the other two. hold them in place on it for about a minute.
This work’s fantastically well.
Da Crusha:
neat thread it is something that I must consider for my blood bowl orcs.
snowblizz:
It might actually be easier to make them out of plastic tube, as you don't have to bend it then. ;)I've tried to do that and it didn't work very well for me. The problem I found was that 1) you need to "slice" the tubing accurately if you want to have several similarly sized pads, and I never seem to be able to do this. 2) you'll only get 1 pad out of each slice, since you're probably going to need more then a 180 degrees out of the circle. I tried to make two halves out of each slice but again it was almost impossible to get an accurate cut.
Grimstonefire
I was making a bit smaller pads for Chaos Dwarfs and trying to maximize the usage of the plastic tubing so not all problems need apply.
Though with a bit larger tubing than I used, eg for Orks it might be easier to achieve. And the need to be neat is much lessened.
Joshmohr:
I suppose that if you make two-three shoulder pads, you could make a greenstuff mold. It would work pretty well, i think.
Fequiil:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/go.php/go/articlephp/aid/739?
for the ones that didn’t know how to make a green stuff press mold.