Kevin Flynn build and lessons learned.

February 1, 2015, 8:19 pm

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This...


Was a pain in the butt and far too expensive.

So lets start with some research,


The fabric in the white robe was a booger to figure out if you're not a fabric expert. The large blobby things in the pattern (not the embroidery) are called "slubs". I looked high and low for days on the internet for this kind of fabric. Turns out it's upholstery fabric, but I was fortunate enough to find it on sale.



The Layout of the robes, tunic and pants were another matter all their own. After watching several "making of" Tron videos and the interview with the costume designer Christine Clark (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko3IXU0BZ1A) gave me the hints I needed.



It turns out the clothes are all variations on Japanese clothing. The Robes are a long long version of a Hapi coat with a custom collar. The tunic is a long version of a Kasode. The pants are flat front, baggy and it was easy to just use a PJ pattern :)

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Quints Blue Denim shirt and hat

February 1, 2015, 11:42 pm

≫ Next: "Courier Duster" Fallout: New Vegas, Lonesome road

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I'm trying to locate Quints USN Blue Chambray shirt with the correct pocket flaps. I'm pretty certain its a WW2 issued shirt. Does anyone have one or know where I could get one? I am not seeing them on Ebay.

Im also looking for this infamous hat with the pocket on the front and I am having zero luck. Any help is appreciated.



Thanks
-Brandon

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"Courier Duster" Fallout: New Vegas, Lonesome road

February 2, 2015, 8:17 am

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Hello, hello, RPF!

To get straight to the point, here's a little something I put together last year for Armageddon Expo in New Zealand!

We'll start with reference images of the outfit itself. One version worn by the game's antagonist; another, mostly identical version worn by the player chacter with a different symbol on the back to show your allegiance. I went with the latter.



Next, the things I didn't make. I bought a military style belt, tall leather work boots, grey cargo pants, a french military canvas pouch, a navy blue shirt, and five or six different second-hand belts of various colours and materials. These were all weathered to match my custom-made gear.

The coat:

Grey drill fabric, made from a modified simplicity trenchcoat pattern. (yeah, the Matrix one.)
Scissors, wire brush, then hearty applications of brown fabric paint to weather it.
The logo on the back was just a paper stencil and more fabric paint.


The under-shirt.
Started by weathering the navy blue t-shirt (sleeves cut off), then VERY sloppily traced and sewed two duplicates of it, using two different kinds of material that was originally meant to be a military scarf. Not sure of the actual term, one of my airsoft-playing buddies had extras.
I stitched the 3 shirts together, and mercilessy ripped into the top two layers with scissors, then squirted on fabric paint.

This part was NOT screen-accurate, but 2 layers of ripped shirt looked much better than the one I started with.

The necklaces. The larger, crescent-shaped one appears to be two pieces of metal with holes for electrical cable tying it together.
A bit of sintra and paint in place of metal - but I couldn't find electrical cable in the colours or width I wanted, so I used a couple of elastic cords to finish this. Fake dirt, rust, etc, etc.

The longer necklace has a pair of arrowheads attached to a length of brown cord. I used sintra plastic and paint again, but spent much longer with my dremel on these fiddly pieces. "Dirt", "rust", done.

I couldn't manage to find any pouches close enough to the game screenshot from an army surplus store, so I made some craft foam patterns, covered them with pleather and glued 'em together. Not a single stich in there.
Also had to make a rough 'harness' to keep the chest pouches and belt sitting at the same position as they are in the game, across my chest. The coat covers my shoulder strap.

Then, kneepads.
I was worried these would be heavy enough to pull my pants out of shape, so I used some good old EVA floor mats. I cut out ovals, then heated 'em up and forced the foam into an old half-finished helmet to curve them out. Added trim with thinner craft foam, then gouged lines with my dremel. I added staples and screws for detail. Painted, weathered, and epoxied on a couple of straps. The straps were purely cosmetic. These turned out so light they could be attached directly to my pants with snaps/domes commonly used on jackets.


Last piece of gear in this set is "Ulysses' mask" (supposedly a radiation mask) that I added ONLY because I saw it whilst buying spraypaint for this costume and its props.

Here's the game model:


Here's one I found:


Yup, 3M painters mask.
This got a paint, weathering, and some rugged fabric and duct tape straps.
I also learned that no paint I could find sticks to rubber! Harsh lessons.

Put it all together with my store-bought gear, a couple props I also made, and...







The pictures from the convention itself weren't amazing. Mostly taken with phone cameras, and my less-than-spectacular idea of spraypainting a rubber mask meant I had silver flakes around my mouth.


Well, that's my first costume I'm proud enough of to share! I'll respond to questions or comments as soon as I can, and I'll be posting up a prop thread soon featuring my free-handed Pip-Boy 3000 and the replica Greanade launcher.


Also, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for inspiring me to show off something I'm passionate about and had a blast creating.

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Ironman/Pepakura questions

February 2, 2015, 10:36 am

≫ Next: Colonist costume from aliens.

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First post here, sorry for the NEWB question. I am using some Ironman Pepakura files to build a Mak 5 suit. I was wondering if there was a thread of the rendered or finished pieces by piece and not per full suit. I want to be able to compare my foam folds and bends to see if they are being completed the correct way. The pepakura files are always a wire mesh, or less than finished imaging. If any of that makes sense? Thank you.

Colonist costume from aliens.

February 2, 2015, 4:33 pm

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I often see colonial marine costumes and i wanted to do something different and create a yutani worker or colonist costume but i have no idea where to start. If possible i was hoping you guys being experts might be able to point me in the right direction.

Saint Seiya Helmets (Pepakura)

February 2, 2015, 7:03 pm

≫ Next: Colored polyethylene foam (Sektor and Cyrax)

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Hello everyone,

I will try build all the most important helmets of the anime/manga Saint Seiya

1- Aiacos de Garuda:

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Colored polyethylene foam (Sektor and Cyrax)

February 3, 2015, 3:28 pm

≫ Next: Cosplaying American Soldiers

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Hello all! I'm currently planning builds of Sektor and Cyrax as they appear in Mortal Kombat (2011):

I'm planning on building the armor out of polyethylene foam mats, and here's where I've run into a problem: I'd like the foam to match the color of the armor (they won't have extensive paintwork, as I want them to be able to take a beating without worrying about damaging the paintjob.) I've looked and looked, but I can't seem to find polyethylene mats in any colors other than blue or green. The mats JFcustoms uses for his (awesome) builds would be perfect, but they don't appear to be sold in the United States. Would anyone have an idea on where to find the elusive colors of red and yellow?

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Cosplaying American Soldiers

February 3, 2015, 6:19 pm

≫ Next: Rasputin's mecha gloves from "Seed of Destruction" comic

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Just curious if you guys think it's in bad taste to Cosplay American Soldiers such as Chris Kyle. PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR POLITICAL OPINIONS.

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Rasputin's mecha gloves from "Seed of Destruction" comic

February 3, 2015, 11:15 pm

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The glove used in the movie adaptation of Hellboy is a beautiful thing, but I decided I'd rather build something closer to the original artwork. Here are the source panels:

There's an obvious blue vibe going on, with light or white components, lots of wires and cables, and belts and bands of various kinds.

I looked around online for potential components; one of the first things that came to mind were old glass insulators. While evocative and functional, it turns out that they're far too large. The next thing I thought of were ceramic post insulators. I ended up using a bunch of these, but they were too small compared to what I saw in the comic. I paid a dollar on Facebook and asked Mike Mignola what he had in mind when he drew them; he responded, "What you see in the comic is all I know about the glove. I was just drawing shapes." I started looking around for something the right size and shape and hit on Snapple caps. A long screw through the center and an optional mount formed what I called "snapacitors":

To make them match the ceramic insulators better, I used white epoxy gloss appliance paint to cover each cap before assembly.

Mignola clearly got ideas about the Ogdru-Jahad from Lovecraft's monster Cthulhu, who he imagines as a prisoner in the sunken city Rl'yeh. Rl'yeh, in turn, was built using non-Euclidean geometry. There are seven Ogdru Jahad; as a nice coincidence, there's a small finite projective geometry called the Fano plane with seven points and seven lines. The Heawood graph is the Levi graph of the Fano plane, and is visually interesting. I built one out of a rubber seal, some picture hangers and wire, some fork terminals, screws, and ground strap; I call it a "Heawood-Levi motivator":

For the cuff of the glove I used 6" PVC riser; I bought 24 inches and cut it in two parts, one 11 inches and one 13. This difference in length was meant to echo the first source picture.

Walmart had some nice quilted navy blue fabric; I cut a piece about eight inches longer than twice the length of the riser piece, wrapped the pipe in the fabric, pinned it close, then sewed it half way. I turned it inside out and sewed the rest of the way. This let me slide the fabric around the riser, then bring the rest of the tube up the inside, while keeping the rough seams towards the inside. I folded the outer sleeve in at the top and put small screws through it and some gorilla glue to hold it in place.

I bought several black leather belts at Goodwill and some black leather belt scrap off ebay. I wrapped a small one around the top and bottom and screwed it into place. Here's the first cuff starting to take shape:

The comics have several bands underneath the components, so I added more leather strap. It was too bland, though, so I got it wet and added tentacle monster detailing:

I wanted more than just snapacitors, so for variety I bought a box of possibly-burnt-out vacuum tubes.

To mount them, I took an Altoids mints box and cut six holes in the bottom and one slot in the side. I took some femo clay, put it inside, and pressed the tubes in from the top; then I opened it, peeled out the clay and baked it. Finally, I glued the clay in place with gorilla glue. The tin I painted, then mounted to the cuff with some screws. In the slot I put a cold water supply tube for a toilet; the silver mesh worked well with the ground strap.

I made a breaker bar out of some more leather to fill the area under the box. I had a friend with access to a lathe knurl some pipe for me and cut it to make some nice one-tube bases:

For each tube, I drove a screw partway into the cuff, packed epoxy putty aorund it, then put the knurled base over it and packed it full, then pressed the vacuum tube in. When the putty hardened, it bound everything together into a single component.

The other cuff had a lot of the same: snapacitors, post insulators, tubes in knurled bases, black strap with tentacles:

The few differences included cutting a piece out of the side so I could bend my elbow, a much larger vacuum tube, a relay, a buzzer,

and a tentacly tube. The base is the head from an old VCR, while the "glass" is really a 3-liter bottle preform. The tentacles are made of black and grey femo. To make the suckers, I made small balls of grey clay, then pressed them into the tentacles with the head of a pin.

To hold the cuffs up and to match the comic, I got some wide belts to strap around my biceps.

Both cuffs:


I bought some blue welders' gloves:

and some large chrome grommets for the palm.

The gloves in the comic are ridged, but I didn't feel competent to remake the entire back of the glove; instead I made a ridged pad out of the same navy blue quilt for the back of the hand. It also served to unify the color scheme a bit, since the gloves were a much brighter blue than the cuffs.

To make the robe, I got four yards of black cloth, folded it in half and sewed up the sides. I cut a hole for the head. I made the star out of blue satin ribbon and the dragon out of yellow cloth. I opted to leave off the swastika, since where I live, people are (rightly) far more offended by the actual atrocities committed by Nazis than the imaginary ones from comic books. Here's a half-done picture. I lost the picture where I'm wearing both and shaved my head, but will post it once I take another.

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Dain Ironfoot's Helmet

February 3, 2015, 11:59 pm

≫ Next: Dark souls 2 Faraam Pepakura file

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Here we go again! This time it's not so crazy, only the helmet (so far, but I doubt I'll ever go past it). I just couldn't NOT make this beautiful piece of dwarven gorgeousness.




As you can see his helmet is based on the basic Iron Dwarf helmet. The details differ from the art book to the physical version and film version (which I THINK was digital, based off of the physical one) I'll be grabbing any more reference I can find of behind the scenes, and I'm waiting for the bluray to be released for higher detail screencaps.

I plan to have the base of this done for Vancouver Fan Expo which is the first weekend of April, where I'm hoping to host a panel about LOTR related cosplay with a new friend. I don't need to have all the details done for the convention, but I'll probably be able to add some.

I'm hoping to step up my detail and painting work on this one. I cut a lot of corners with my last helmet, but this one is meant to be a show piece, so I will try to be more fastidious about the details and getting it screen accurate (within reason).

I also hope to keep better track of my time spent on the project, I've had a few people asking about commissioning a helmet, and I never have a decent response since I have no clue the time it would take me to make another one. So many by the end of this I'll have a commission price for Iron Hill helmets.

Check out my signature for my previous armour by the way.

Dark souls 2 Faraam Pepakura file

February 4, 2015, 2:59 am

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Hello all,
I am looking for a faraam helmet, I am not having the best of luck making one from scratch. If anyone has it and wants to share I would greatly appreciate it.

Predator costume build question

February 4, 2015, 12:44 pm

≫ Next: Talion "Shadow of Mordor" Cosplay

≪ Previous: Dark souls 2 Faraam Pepakura file

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Hello fellow ones!

Anyone knows how to get or make an undersuit and the body-netting for a predator costume?

The armor parts i can make using jfcustom's foam files :)

Thanks!

Talion "Shadow of Mordor" Cosplay

February 4, 2015, 1:13 pm

≫ Next: True Detective - Rust Cohle

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Hello everyone,
This is my first build as a member of this forum. I will be cosplaying as Talion from "Shadow of Mordor", for anybody unfamiliar with the character I have added screenshots from the game below. It will be a LOTR ranger style costume. This build will be mostly cloth and leather, but I am using EVA foam and Worbla for some of the accessories.

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True Detective - Rust Cohle

February 4, 2015, 3:12 pm

≫ Next: Ingrid (the Snow Queen - Elsa's aunt) from Once Upon A Time

≪ Previous: Talion "Shadow of Mordor" Cosplay

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Hi there. Im trying to piece together a new suit for general suit wearing purposes. And I'm inspired by Rusts suit from True Detective pictured below. I've got the dark blue cordury jacket, but I'm trying to find what colour trousers/pants you would call these? as well as similar shirt and tie.



Thanks for your help

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Ingrid (the Snow Queen - Elsa's aunt) from Once Upon A Time

February 4, 2015, 9:23 pm

≫ Next: Foam Build Question Advice please!

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I've costumed Juliet from Lost, so when my niece got me hooked on Once Upon A Time and I saw Elizabeth Mitchell in such a gorgeous dress... I started looking for an excuse. I found a convention close to us to go to, so my deadline is April 24th to get both this and a Snow White/Huntsman costume done for her.

But now that we just reserved a room for Dcon, I have another place to wear it! (Looking for other OUaT costumers!) I think for my husband, I'll make him be a grown up version of Jack Frost... gotta do the couple thing! haha!

So this is my build thread.

To take this on I realized quickly the fabric already beaded either wasn't going to look similar enough or was going to cost me $200 a yard. EEK!
http://bandjfabrics.com/fabric/hand-...chantilly-lace (They had it in white, but it was sold out)

So then I found this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER
And This:
http://www.target.com/p/threshold-fl...d_viewed|pdpv1

And figured I could make it work, and just, you know, bead it myself. HA!



So I also bought this pattern to help me with the basic structure:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The wave pattern curtain lace was very stiff when I bought it and I wasn't sure it would work, but then I washed it in hot water and conditioner and it softened up really beautifully. So - hit to those who want to soften stiff lace. :)

I have some transparent glass seed beads left over from Galadriel and then, remembering how difficult it is to string bead by bead, I bought these sequins and seed pearl beads pre strung - thinking it will help me do this faster:


Ugh, what a mistake:



The silver sequins are much too big and... too silver... so, now I have $15 worth of strung silver sequins, if anyone is in the market.

I asked Mdb and friends on a LOTR and Hobbit costuming group for advice and was put in the knowledge of mini-sequins and while I didn't get them prestrung, I found what I think looks much better:



And right now, this is how far I am - I should note that I am adjusting the neckline up:



I do have the pattern made for everything but the neckpiece and cape - going to tackle that in a week or so. Right now I'm enjoying the slow process of beading and sequin-ing. It feels like such an 'elvish' passtime... though I have to admit, the first few hours I felt extremely awkward with my thread getting all knotted up all the time. haha!

I have no idea how much interest there is going to be on this board for this costume, but figured, hey, I'm getting back in the game, I might as well create a build thread.

I do have a few other costumes planned for Dcon that I think will be of interest here, but we'll see if I can come up with the funding to get the materials in time. :D

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Foam Build Question Advice please!

February 5, 2015, 3:20 am

≫ Next: Help with props helmet Garo

≪ Previous: Ingrid (the Snow Queen - Elsa's aunt) from Once Upon A Time

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Hi guys i want to start using foam, but im at a crossroads. which is the better foam PE or EVA. As far as i am aware they are both closed cell foam but EVA is a little more squishy. What are the pro and cons of each one or is it personnel prefence.

P.S i want it to build JF's Foam unfolds

Thanks

Help with props helmet Garo

February 5, 2015, 3:40 am

≫ Next: Building jet pack using Eva craft foam / Worbla

≪ Previous: Foam Build Question Advice please!

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hello guys
I wonder if someone has that helmet file already planned or could help me make the props? :confused

thank

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Building jet pack using Eva craft foam / Worbla

February 5, 2015, 6:46 am

≫ Next: Building a TMNT 2014 Suit Using Paper Mache?? Is it possible?

≪ Previous: Help with props helmet Garo

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Hey guys,

Newbie here making my first scratch build project of a jet pack.

Decided to experiment with worbla. I was introduced to this material last year at the Toronto prop party event.



For this project i'll be using EVA craft foam and worbla.

Thought i would begin with the jet pack nozzle. Used EVA foam to create the shape of the funnel:




Wrapped worbla over the foam and tried smoothing it out, but this turned out more difficult than i expected. I wasn't able to maintain and consistency and smoothness working with the worbla after i heated it. Scrapped that plan and made two foam nozzle and shaped a piece of worbla between.

Turned out better than i expected:









let me know what you guys think.

Nozzle piece is just the beginning......

Any comments/advice/suggestion is welcomed.

Building a TMNT 2014 Suit Using Paper Mache?? Is it possible?

February 5, 2015, 10:13 am

≫ Next: Need suggestions for a relatively easy (with armor) cosplay!

≪ Previous: Building jet pack using Eva craft foam / Worbla

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So like the title would suggest, I'm looking for tips on making a TMNT muscle suit using just cardboard and paper mache. I've seen loads of builds on this site but I'm planning something much bigger, as illustrated by this terribly crude sketch I drew up on my phone.

I want to make an ultra-bulky, super-powerful-looking turtle suit (think Leo and Raph-size). I'm only around 5'8 (give or take an inch) so my ideal size for the suit is about 6'. Is it possible? Or am I just completely mad? If not I may just build a shell, cut some bandanas and make myself some weapons.

------ The14thDr ------

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Need suggestions for a relatively easy (with armor) cosplay!

February 5, 2015, 12:20 pm

≫ Next: The Free Cosplay Project

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Hey folks!
So I am new to this and have no experience wit foam smiting... But what I do have is around a month to get something ready and a strong will to learn and improve!
I was thinking of doing a Mass Effect N7 build, but it is too complex to be finished anytime soon and I think I'd rather start with something simpler... So I would very much appreciate suggestions for a relatively simple cosplay that does include some "armor" pieces to it!

Thanks in advance!

P.S
The more "pop" known would be better since I do want to win 1st prize in my office party! :)