Reddit mentions of Dap 12372 CrackShot Spackling Paste 5.5-Ounce

I love art. Hi

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like art is my favorite

A standard sized plaster wrap package will be about 10 dollars, but depending on how large your shell is going to be or how much armor you are going to make you will be needing much more than that. Standard size plaster wrap
This amount of wrap will do about 10 regular thickness masks (if that guesstimate helps?). I would buy the regular size plaster wrap and test it out, this will also help you determine how much more wrap you are going to need. If you need a lot buy in bulk, the price per amount of wrap goes down considerably the more you buy, rather than buying a bunch of the regular size.

Tutorials-
These two go over the basics of plaster wrap with the example being one of the most traditional uses of plaster wrap.
part one of traditional use of plaster wrap
part two of mask tutorial
Now I couldn't find a tutorial for the armor bit but I can explain as best I can. As the link below mentions to make armor bits you're going to need a frame or base shape for you to put the wrap on top of. Traditionally the base is someone's face or hand. The site below mentioned chicken wire being used as a base. For my base I used crumpled newspaper, masking tape (to hold it together) and plastic wrap(to keep the water out of the newspaper). I built up the shape (squirtle's shell) by adding more paper or punching down budges (haha, it was getting a little to close to the con for my comfort). Then I built a couple of layers of plaster wrap and let it dry. Be aware that that using a non-breathing base like this will take a day or more to dry fully.
this tutorial goes over surface finishing technique that i used
I used a spackle plaster for filling nail holes in a wall to cover the gauze texture and give me a surface to smooth (sand) and paint. (what was nice about the stuff I used was that it went on pink and dried white). I put the plaster on top of the wrap as smoothly as I could without fusing with it too much. I then waited for it to dry. Now I had to do a couple of layers. The first one is for filling all the divets and dips. Take a medium grit sand paper and smooth until you've got the right shape. The second, third (etc) layers are for finer and finer details. The more layer you do, the finer sand paper you'll want to use. Keep sanding until you are stratified with the smoothness. If you have OCD like me, then you can use a additional technique of primer-ing the piece then gently sanding to check for highs and lows. But this is not necessary.

I used a product like this

Aha! So I found it! By luck! I had seen this before a long time ago but didn't bookmark it.
Armor making tutorial There is a translation in the comments below. Though it's not a very good translation you'll get the gist of it.

Painting the piece.
Gently dust the surface. Primer all of the pieces in the most suitable color (black, gray, white). Then paint them. Then seal with a clear.
A can of spray paint costs about 5 bucks in my area.

A very very very rough estimate for everything would cost about 50 dollars. (£30 ).
Hope this help. Let me know if you need clarification.

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Put paste into holes. smooth and make flush with wall with the knife. sand and paint.

or

B) the more labor intensive but correct way.

Get a ready-made drywall patch. These are available at big-box home centers and hardware stores. They use a peel-and-stick, metal-backed patch for added strength.

Clean up the edges of the hole. Trim away frayed edges with a utility knife and press back into place any small chunks still hanging by a flap.

Cut or shape the patch carefully to fit the hole. Make sure to leave extra backing all around the patch to attach to the drywall surrounding the hole.

Clean and dry the repair area to allow maximum adhesion. To clean greasy areas (as in a kitchen), use trisodium phosphate ("TSP"), which can be found at most paint centers. Warm, soapy water can do the job, too, but don't let the drywall get too wet.

Apply the patch to the wall and smooth the taped edges with your putty knife. This will remove air bubbles.

Use a wide-blade putty knife to spread a thin topcoat of joint compound (sometimes called "mud") over the area surrounding the repair. The aim is to create a smooth transition between the patch backing and the surrounding wall. Because the patch backing lies on top of the existing drywall, there can be an unattractive layered look to your work if you don't do something to disguise it. Therefore you must learn to apply compound around the patch in such a way that the patch backing is "feathered" gradually into the rest of the wall. With practice, you'll learn the technique of making this transition smoothly. It will often require more than one coat of mud.

Example: If repairing a 2- to 3-inch (5- to 7.5-cm) hole, you will want to use a 10-inch (24 cm) putty knife to apply a skim coat of joint compound as a final topcoat. Remember to "screed" (gently scrape) the mud in one smooth, final stroke.


Apply a liberal amount of non-shrink joint compound with a putty knife. Wider putty knives will produce smoother results.

Smooth the compound with the putty knife. Pull the blade toward you in one steady, smooth motion, letting the knife make a 30-degree angle with the wall. If your finish doesn't look smooth, simply wipe off the blade, wet it and scrape the wall again. Make the mud as smooth as you can, but don't worry if it's not perfect. You will be able to sand the compound later when it's dry (although this can create a bit of a mess, so it's best to leave it as smooth as possible before it dries).

Let the patched area dry thoroughly before applying additional coats or sanding.

Once the compound is dry, lightly sand the area smooth using drywall sandpaper attached to a drywall sander. (Regular sandpaper will work, just not as well.) If there are large blobs or strips, shave these off with the putty knife first. You want to create as little dust as possible.

Hide minor imperfections with an ultra-thin topcoat of joint compound. Apply this topcoat over pin holes or hairline cracks as if you were trying to scrape it all off with your knife without leaving any behind. With experience, this step can often be accomplished without additional sanding.