ABSTRACT
ABS (which stands for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene-luckily, you don’t need to remember the full name to be able to work with it!) is a durable plastic which is still easy to cut and mold using heat. It comes in various thicknesses, and can be vacuformed to create the various armor pieces. Vacuforming is a process that uses a specially crafted table or other flat surface riddled with a grid of holes and a vacuum mechanism that draws air through the holes from underneath. A vacuformed plastic piece is created by placing on the grid a positive mold of the desired item (often made from plaster or another molding material such as Ultracal), then draping a heated soft sheet of plastic over the mold and activating the vacuum mechanism to draw the air out through the holes and closely form the plastic around the mold. Once the plastic has cooled, it can then be removed from the mold, and trimmed as needed.
