Lou, KY Costuming Thread!

haha i was only messin with ya... it was good work man

 

So, does this thread have to be about Star Wars costumes? I know it's a Wars board and all, but I'm working on something outside the saga that if it turns out the way I envision, it's going to be awesome.

(By the way, anyone have a good cape pattern they like?)

 

Nope, post away. Even if it isn't Star Wars we can always learn something from other people's efforts that may help us later.

 

I have so many half started costume projects, it?s becoming more of a burden than a pleasure. My basement is starting to resemble an episode of ?Hoarders: The Costume Edition?. I?m so intimidated by my stack of projects I don?t know where to start so it just sits longer. Easier to sit at my computer and try to advance another level in ?The Old Republic? and achieve a feeling of accomplishment and positive self esteem that way.

Normally I don?t like to share my in progress projects because then when they don?t turn out I have to admit I failed. But I?m going to try it a little differently for right now. I?m hoping by sharing it will give me a kick in the butt, make me accountable to myself and the fear of public failure motivates me instead of holding me back.

So, my biggest upcoming projects In order of most close to finished to least finished?

Tie Pilot-I just need to attach the shoulder straps to the armor and pimp out the helmet a little.

Stormtrooper-The armor I got isn?t good enough for official 501st acceptance but I can still wear it for fun. It has to have some issues fixed before I can wear it though. If can?t fix it I can still use the parts for a kilted trooper or Death (zombie) trooper

TOR armored jedi -I?m slowly acquiring what I need.

Custom Mandolorian - I have everything, I just need to pick my colors and put everything together.

Royal Guard- I have the helmet (a very nice one) I need to find someone reliable to commission for the robes. I have a partial set but I need a complete set. I also need to figure out a force pike.

Secret project #1 (rhymes with ?Fett?) if there?s time

Plus a have a bunch of smaller half finished projects like a Rebel Pilot helmet, a General Veers helmet, Imperial Officer rank badges and various holsters, blasters and leather projects.

I?ll probably still jump from project to project to keep things fresh for me but hopefully I?ll start chipping away at things soon.

 

If it helps any, you are not alone in your costuming dilemma. Between Appo and I, we have ::


An Episode III "Attack Of The Clones" set of Clone Commander armor unfinished. (Appos)

A Darth Traya unfinished.(mine)
A Scout Trooper unfinished. (mine)
A Mandalorian Sniper unfinished. (mine)
A Darth Zannah battle curras unfinished. (mine)

Mika, you introduced me to costuming. What have you done to me?

 

let's see:
Lord Vox: Custom Sith, finished, but I am toying with the idea of tweaking it a bit
Darth Maul: In progress, almost there. almost there
Darth ************ : Custom sith lord. mostly secret. will reveal when finished
Mando: In the pipeline, but sitting on the back burner. No work yet. Still just on drawing board, going through planning and review. I know what colors i want to use though.
Various random static sabers: as the fancy hits me. I have one, will post pics at some time. Have an idea for one made out of bamboo.

 

I've actually been getting some work done recently and have some progress to post...

I've repaired a couple of broken Imperial rank badges I had and commissioned some Royal Guard robes but they're six months away or so.

I also put this together...
[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/277.jpg]

for my post trash compactor/escape from the Death Star Han. I got the canvas belt from one person, the ammo belt from another and the drop boxes from yet another to put it all together. To make it complete I still need an E-11 (I'll probably just use a repainted hasbro) and holster.

Also to solve some of the storage problems with my Imperial Officer I stole someone else's idea and got some plain silver cigarette cases to use as belt boxes. I just attached a belt clip to the back. You can see they're perfect for holding credit cards, room keys and a little spending money.

[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/275.jpg]

[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/276.jpg]

That's all I have time for now. More to follow soon.

 

Okay, now the "Duct Tape Dummy".
I'm gearing up to start putting together my TOR jedi and when I do I'll need to figure out some kind of shoulder rig system to hold the chest armor in place. Since most of the time I'm working on costumes by myself I need a dummy to work off of. I have a couple but they're smaller in the chest than me and I need to fit whatever needs working on to myself...enter the duct tape dummy. There are a lot of tutorials online and some people make whole body ones to display their costumes on but since I'm just starting out I'm going to stick to an upper body dummy. First I put on an old T-shirt and had Mrs jedimika wrap me up in duct tape (use whatever color you like ) nice and tight to get a good fit. She then cut me out and I put the shirt over a frame of PVC pipe that I had made.

[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/268.jpg]

[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/270.jpg]

Then I just sealed the bottom and arm holes with more duct tape (I used 1 roll for the whole project) and started stuffing the shirt through the top with poly-fil from a craft store. Then when it was nice and full I sealed up the neck.

[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/274.jpg]

And now I have a nice chest dummy that's my (near) exact size I can use whenever I need to fit things to me. For instance...I added some velcro to the shoulders of my jedi costume so my tabards would stop slipping...
[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/315.jpg]

I can also put a shirt on the dummy and position patches with confidence since the shirt will hang on the dummy the same way it hangs on me...
[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/349.jpg]

And I was able to fit the shoulder straps of my Tie armor and know it would fit me the same way...
[image=http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/jedimika/Costuming/348.jpg]

If I ever get to doing some leather armor I'll be able to cut and shape the leather to my size and shape. So you see the duct tape dummy really has a lot of uses and I've already got a lot of use out of it. I'll probably eventually need to do the same thing for my legs to make sure the TOR jedi thigh and shin/calf armor pieces are fitted to me as well. Then maybe someday I'll go full body as well to display some of my costumes.

 

coming from years in the SCA, let me just say this:
Duct tape dummies are awesome. someone find the person that first invented this, and buy them a beer.

 

Awesome, I'm going to make one of these for myself and Appo. They're the best thing since popcorn.

 

I do have a post to make about the Clone Wars Jedi General forearm armor I made for our TPM outing but with the forum move coming up I'm going to wait in case any data is lost. Stay tuned.

 

Hey guys,

Eric here. What do you think it would take for me to get into a Imperial Officers Uni?
I am size L in shirt and 34 waste.

 

Sounds like about my size, how tall are you? I'm 6 ft. The reason I ask is the Museum Replicas Imperial Officer large size fits me pretty well. Only needed a few alterations. See a few pages back in this thread. If you don't have that much to spend and you don't care about 501st acceptance you can try the Costume Base version. It's sizes are a bit odd though. I wear their tops in a large but their pants in a medium. Or if you know a seamstress you can get a tailored uniform.

 

Well some of the data, mostly pics, didn't translate over so great but rather than start a new thread I decided to keep this one going so we can see how far we're come.

So, Jedi General forearm armor...it's been so long some of the detail work is hard to recall so this will probably be briefer than I intended but here we go...

This was the first time I put together armor from a rough kit. It was also the first time I was trying "Seamless" armor. There are several ways to do it, the way I used has some limitations I've since learned but it worked pretty well.

First the kit...

As you can see this was a rough kit so I had to trim and fit the armor to the length and circumference of my forearms.

The rough trim and fit...


Then I glued the two halves together with some super glue and used some "Zip Kicker" to speed up the bonding.



Then some better trimming...


You'll want to reinforce that seam so you mix up some two part epoxy and use it along with some fiberglass tape on the inside seam...




Now the really fun part...Bondo the outside seams. What you're eventually going for is for the two halves of armor to look like one seamless piece. So, first application of Bondo...


Then rough sand it...


Then you want to prime, sand, prime, sand and keep repeating until it's as smooth as you can make it or you run out of time before your event and say "good enough" and paint it your final color.





You can see the seams still look pretty rough on the finished forearms. But not super bad for my first try. I've since learned you don't want to use bondo on any armor that's going to flex a lot because it will crack. For those pieces you want to use other things but that's a post for another day.

 

Yea Mika that is some rocking forearm armor.. Nice job.

 

Pretty cool! And no unlike modeling. Good job Boss!

 

OMG!!! MIKA!!

LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU, IT'S SOME KIND OF OUTER RIM CREATURE ABOUT TO ATTACK

CA levels his blaster and blows the vermin out of the picture...

No thanks needed here Mr. Jedi Just doing my job..

 

Newest costume...a ROTJ version Dengar (no backpack, no head wraps).


I can't claim credit for this, I actually bought this second hand off of the 501st boards. This is one I've been wanting for a while and they don't come up for sale very often so I was lucky enough to get it. Although it doesn't say "hug me" to kids it's still a face character that will look even better the older and more ragged I get. It still needs a couple of tweeks to make it comfortable for me but I'm pretty happy with it. I may not have put the hours in building this but I put the hours in at work for the money to pay for it

 

I would hug you DengarMika

 

(ok, Mika this is not a crack at all on your costume: because you look killer in it.)

What DID Dengar wear on his feet in the movies?

I can't find a color pic of his feet. Did he wear grey boat shoes?
He was always one of my favorite bounty hunters; but his costume, as I have looked at it to paint figures of him, is kind of a hodgepodge.

Lucas: John, I need a bounterhunter pronto!
John Mollo: Ronto?
Lucas: I said Pronto! (Hmmm, Ronto, I can use that 20 years from now)
John: Well, I got brown paint, snow trooper armor, general veers's chest plate, some grey boat shoes, and a lot of Charmin.............

 

Yup, grey mocs



Yeah, it's a hodge podge for sure, that's why it's kinda rare. You have to use parts from different kits plus come up with custom stuff too.

 

Interesting.
Again, I didn't want to come off that your awesome costume was anything but awesome bro. But, huh... yup grey mocs. Well, looks like I got some more painting to do.....

 

Cool costume Mika,

I'm sure you know what kind of shoes he wears and are just testing some of us.

 

Some amazing McQuarrie Concept Stormtroopers put together by 501st members for CE2. Very drool worthy.



Just wait, one of these days one of these guys will need money and put it up for sale and I'll get it. I'm too big to fit it but this is one I would for sure put it on display.

If you're interested there's a long forum thread on the 501st Stormtrooper forums that shows the process from idea to concepts to making the molds. It's amazing to me how some people have the talent to take some drawings and make something "real" out of it.
http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/22683-ralph-mcquarries-concept-stormtrooper-armor/

 

Awesome costume Mika! Dengar is a bounty hunter who doesn't get much street cred , but of course if you are in with the likes of Boba Fett, Bossk, and IG-88, you kind of have to take a back seat.

I purposefully left out Zuckuss and 4-LOM because I really don't like them all that much....lol!