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Lightning Returns Shield Tutorial — Description
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Here's my very detailed "how to" on the Ligthtning shield:

The hardest part was determining the pattern. I had to look at many pictures and decide how wide/long I needed to it be based on my own height and armspan. Once I got that right, I scaled up a picture of the shield (because I suck at drawing) and printed it.

I then cut out the paper patterns and traced them onto craft foam (since I can't afford worbla ). The foam I used is all 2mm thick, except I doubled the layers on the black design for durability - meaning I had to cut four of those out and glue them together. I highly suggest Foamies craft glue for sticking foam pieces together. Tip: If you want the peak to show up on your shield, be sure to cut the pieces that will lay over the peak in half to keep that effect - otherwise it will look rounded or possibly even flat.

I coated the foam with 3 layers of hardening mod-podge and painted. I suggest using glossy spray paints on the pieces before gluing them to the base since it gives it a smoother, shiny appearance with no visible brush strokes.

I used cardboard for the base and layered it with the craft foam. I used spray adhesive (Elmer's craft bond spray) to glue the foam pieces to the cardboard.

I hot glued the black decorative things to the back, as well as two 5mm craft foam straps for handling. Depending on how you want to carry the shield, you could add either vertical or horizontal straps.

Finding the right material to place over the top part was difficult. In some pictures, it looks like gator skin; in others it looks like a grainy weave texture. While thinking this over and fixing myself some lunch, I found the perfect material lining the bottom of a drawer. It's called a "drawer liner" and is commonly made of PVC rubber.

Last but not least, the crystal. I printed a picture of the crystal, about 1.5" tall. Cut it out and taped it on. For a more blended effect, I dipped a paintbrush in some of the red spray-paint and carefully painted around the edges so that the tape wouldn't look obvious. This is what I did to my sword also.

Hope this helps those of you aspiring to create this awesome shield.