Starguard Hand Made Steel Round Shield with Painted Star and Concentric Bands | 24 Inch Diameter | Leather Arm Straps and Polished Rim | Cosplay and Display Gift | RK-1988

A twenty four inch round shield with a formed steel face, a shallow convex dome across the whole disc and a hand painted design of concentric red and white bands running out from a blue centre. A white five pointed star sits in the middle of the blue field. The extreme edge is left as a bare polished steel band, so there is a bright line all the way round where the paint stops, and the back carries leather arm straps for carrying it in costume.

The paint is brushed rather than sprayed and the finish is knocked back slightly rather than left showroom clean. That is a deliberate choice. A perfectly flat colour reads as plastic in photographs, while a surface that carries a little brush direction and a little wear picks up light unevenly and reads as metal. Look closely at the red and you can see the strokes running with the curve of each band.

Made and finished in Memphis, Tennessee. It arrives with the dome formed, the rim dressed, the design laid out and painted by hand and the straps riveted at the back.

Specifications

Why the face is domed and not flat

The single most useful thing to understand about this shield is that the face is not flat. It carries a shallow dome, and that dome is doing structural work out of all proportion to how subtle it looks.

A flat sheet of steel is easy to bend, because bending it only asks the metal to hinge along one line. Curve that same sheet in two directions at once and you have to stretch or compress the metal to flatten it again, which steel strongly resists. This is why a flat sheet of paper collapses under its own weight while the same sheet curved into a shallow arc will hold a coin. Engineers call it double curvature, and it is the reason a dished shield, a car roof panel and an eggshell all feel far stiffer than their thickness suggests.

How the bands are laid out

Concentric ring designs look simple and are unforgiving to execute, because the eye reads a circle far more accurately than it reads a straight line. A band that varies by a couple of millimetres in width across its run is immediately visible as wrong, even to somebody who could not tell you why.

The way round that is to work from the centre outward rather than from the rim inward. The centre disc is set first, then each band is struck from the same fixed centre point, so any small error stays concentric instead of accumulating into a wobble. The star is laid out last, on its own centre, with the five points set on a circle rather than measured off each other.

The bare steel at the extreme edge is left deliberately. It gives the paint a clean stopping line rather than a feathered one, and it means the part of the shield most likely to get knocked against a wall or a door frame is bare metal rather than a chipped painted edge.

What this shield is a replica of

Plainly stated: this is our own hand made replica of the shield carried by Captain America, and it is an independent interpretation rather than a copy taken from any studio drawing or measurement. We make it in our own workshop, we make no claim to any connection with the films or the comics, and the proportions are ours.

Read it as a well made round shield in a shape everybody recognises. That is what it is good at, and it is why it works as a costume piece and as a wall piece.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this shield the painted face is left alone and engraving goes on the bare steel of the back or inside the rim band, which keeps the front reading clean. There is more detail on the engraving page.

Wearing it and displaying it

The straps put the shield on your forearm rather than in your fist. Your arm goes through the wider strap and your hand closes near the rim, so the shield lies along the line of your arm and stays where you put it. That is what lets you hold a pose without the shield swinging, which matters more for photographs than most people expect.

Set the straps so the rim sits about a hand’s width past your elbow. Too far in and the shield covers your own face when you raise it. Too far out and it hangs off your fingertips and tires you within minutes.

On a wall, hang it from two fixings rather than one. A single central hook lets a round shield rotate every time a door slams. Two points set level, roughly a third of the diameter apart, hold it square for good.

This is a display and costume piece. It is not protective equipment, it is not built or tested for contact, and it must not be used for sparring, reenactment, blocking or anything thrown at it.

Care

Wipe the painted face with a dry or barely damp soft cloth. Do not use a household cleaning spray on it. Most of them carry solvents that will soften a paint film and leave a dull ring you cannot polish out.

The bare steel rim band is the part that will rust if you let it. Give it a wipe with a lightly oiled rag every few months, more often in a humid house or if it has been handled a lot, because skin leaves salt on bare metal. There is more on looking after finished steel on our steel care page.

Feed the leather straps once or twice a year with a proper leather conditioner. Dry leather splits at the fold and at the rivet holes, which is exactly where the load sits.

Store it flat or hung, not leaning face down on a hard floor. The rim is the strongest part of the shield and the painted face is the softest, so let the rim take the contact.

Made in Memphis

This shield is made in our own workshop in Memphis, Tennessee. It is not drop shipped from an importer catalogue with our name added at the end. The disc is formed, the rim is dressed, the design is set out and painted, the finish is sealed and the straps are cut and riveted by the same small crew, and anything that comes out wrong does not get boxed.

That is why the lead time is what it is. Processing runs one to two weeks before the shield leaves us, longer if you have ordered engraving, because the layout gets drawn and checked before anything is cut. Shipping inside the United States is free. Returns run for seven days. The lifetime warranty against defects in our work covers the forming, the paint adhesion, the rim and the strap fittings, with no end date and no receipt needed.

A note on handmade variation

This shield is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The design is painted by hand, so brush direction, the exact depth of the red, the precise width of each band and the pattern of the light wear will differ a little from shield to shield. The dome is formed by hand, so the highlight sits slightly differently on every one. The diameter, the design and the build are the same every time. The character is not, and that is what tells you a person made it.

Frequently asked questions

Is this Captain America shield replica an officially licensed product?

No. This is an independently made collector replica produced in our own workshop. It is not an official or licensed item and it is not connected to, endorsed by or affiliated with any film studio, publisher or rights holder. You are buying a hand finished shield shaped object from a small forge, and we would rather say that plainly.

Can I use it for protection, sparring or contact of any kind?

No. It is a display and costume piece only. It has not been built or tested to take impact, it is not certified for any sport or combat use, and nothing should be swung at it or thrown at it. Treat it as a prop and a wall piece.

Will the paint chip?

It can, like any painted finish, if you knock it against something hard. The bare steel band at the rim is there partly to take those knocks, and it is why we leave the extreme edge unpainted. Handle it by the rim and the straps rather than dragging the face across surfaces and it will stay clean for years.

How is it held?

On the forearm, using the leather straps riveted to the back. Your arm passes through the wider strap and your hand closes near the rim. It is worn along the arm rather than gripped in the middle, so it stays steady and does not swing on the wrist.

Can I get a name or runes added to it?

Yes, on the back or inside the rim band rather than on the painted face. That keeps the front of the shield reading cleanly while still making it personal. Use the rune converter on this page for Elder Futhark, or send us your own layout.

How long does it take to arrive?

Processing is one to two weeks in the workshop, a little longer if engraving is ordered. Shipping within the United States is free, and tracking is sent as soon as the shield is packed.

What is in the box

• One twenty four inch formed steel round shield, hand painted
• Leather arm straps, fitted and riveted at the back
• Elder Futhark rune engraving or your own design where ordered
• Care card for the painted finish, the bare steel rim and the leather
• Made and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See the rest of the cosplay and movie replicas, the wider round shields and the accessories. There is more background in the guides.