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Hey guys. I'm not a cosplayer or a costumer, but I want to play with LEDs and since I'm crazy, making an LED matrix-embedded helmet seems like the way to go. I've got a general idea about how I'm going to proceed, but there are a few points I'm not sure how to go with. I'm carving the bulk of the helmet from sheets of plain craft store foam. I've used my fencing mask as a rough template for the inside, and I'll carve the exterior once I figure out the form I want. The big grey area for me is the finish. Ideally, I'd like a mirrored surface over parts of it but I don't know how I'd go about doing that, or if it's even possible and/or affordable. I'd be willing to settle on a high-shine metallic spray paint if mirrored can't happen. At the very least I feel like I'd want a clear plastic form over it for protection and a bit of gloss. Any suggestions?
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Sep 14, 2012 01:37
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Finally a progress picture for you guys. I give you my Black Gold Saw sword. All 7' of it. It's actually cut out and I have installed a pvc pole in the design for extra support. It also has some foam spray on part of it I will take more pictures after carving it tonight. I'm pretty giddy to have something other than sewing to work on. OH and I almost forgot for the TWEWY fan this is the best pic I have of my Shiki costume with Mr. Mew hopefully I get better later. 
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Sep 14, 2012 19:18
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I have a question for a possible Captain American costume for Halloween. How exactly would one go about making the shield? I was thinking of placing a large cardboard or foamcore circle on like...a trashcan lid or something, but it seems kind of flimsy and wouldn't have the nice angle that Cap's shield has.
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Sep 14, 2012 19:32
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cool kids inc. posted:I have a question for a possible Captain American costume for Halloween. How exactly would one go about making the shield? I was thinking of placing a large cardboard or foamcore circle on like...a trashcan lid or something, but it seems kind of flimsy and wouldn't have the nice angle that Cap's shield has. You could use foam and heat it up to help it hold the form to make the foam more durable add a fabic layer to the back then put a resin coat on it.
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Sep 14, 2012 20:01
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Veila posted:You could use foam and heat it up to help it hold the form to make the foam more durable add a fabic layer to the back then put a resin coat on it. Much obliged! I'll look into the materials after work.
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Sep 14, 2012 20:07
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I have a friend that reinforced a children's sled and added EL wire for extra pizazz for his CA shield.
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Sep 14, 2012 21:05
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Veila, you make a really cute Shiki and I love how it turned out! Can't wait to see more pictures! Edit: also, does anyone recommend a good paint for painting on plastic? I bought some cheap-ish reading glasses for my Persona 4 costume and was just wondering if there was something that would work better than acrylic...unless acrylic is totally the way to go. Happy Landfill fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Sep 15, 2012 |
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Sep 14, 2012 22:46
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Veila, you are mad adorable  That sword is going to own!Here's my cosplay coup of the day. I went out thrifting hoping to find some vintage fur coats to cannibalize for a project and instead I found this:   LOOK AT THIS DRILL. It's a million years old and made out of cast iron and basically is just from Fallout 3, and it still works just fine! I don't have a drill either, I usually just use my dremel but seriously. What sold me on it for sure is that it still had the chuck key included. Best tool I've found at a thrift store in a long time. $5.99 well spent IMO!
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Sep 16, 2012 06:56
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I'm restarting my aborted attempt at making some power armor and I need some advice. The average Space Marine is about 7' to 8' tall and in pursuit of verisimilitude I'd like to come somewhat close to that. I'm already 6'3" so its a question of adding anywhere from 9 to 18 inches. Closer to 9 is more feasible proportionally but the taller the better. The best attempt I've seen has been this:  Though I want to do something Chaos-y, so my crude mspaints hopefully will kinda drive what I'm trying to accomplish:  I'm going to have my eyes sitting low in the helmet, around the grilled area with padding, a battery and some LEDs for the eye lenses above me. In order to make it look less wonky, I'm planning on incorporating the collar like so:  but without the divot in the center, instead I want to buy a cheap MP3 speaker so I can blast snippets of this. I've built some greaves and other small things from my last attempt last year but my idea for the leg pieces this year are to build the greaves and boots around a pair of drywall stilts and use my off center head to subtly lengthen everything. Arms are my biggest concern now, I figure mounting the pauldrons so that would aligned with where my shoulder joint would be if i was a 7 foot tall superhuman pouring out of the hell dimension after 10,000 years will help give the impression that my upper arms are longer than they actually are while my forearms would be wearing prop lightning claws which look something like this:  so hopefully they'll throw the perception of my arm length off. As for construction, I was thinking of building a skeleton out of wood, then filling it with cut insulation foam and over that some bondo and paint. Weight not so much an issue, mobility only needs to minimal. Any more obviously would own but I'm mainly going for the photo op/standing around angle. I've got better drawings at home so I'll attempt to upload them to better explicate my ideas if there is any interest. Any comments, ideas or suggestions? Also does anyone have any experience with pearlescent paints? this is the color scheme i am going for and i think a pearlescent effect would be killer: 
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Sep 17, 2012 19:45
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McPantserton posted:Veila, you are mad adorable Awe, you make me blush and that drill is an amazing find!! Ours is new and made of plastic/resin, but drills are a girls best friend for costumes and house repairs! As for the sword I ran into a problem with my foam forgot to label the bottles on purchase and well one ended up not filling out right so I am planning to grab some more and give it another go this week(end). Hopefully I should have a few more shots meaning stuff is forward moving again.
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Sep 17, 2012 19:52
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Ingo Pech posted:I'm restarting my aborted attempt at making some power armor and I need some advice. The average Space Marine is about 7' to 8' tall and in pursuit of verisimilitude I'd like to come somewhat close to that. I'm already 6'3" so its a question of adding anywhere from 9 to 18 inches. Closer to 9 is more feasible proportionally but the taller the better.  Ours is a pvc and pink foam skeleton wrapped in plastic with a lot of foamcore for the inner structure. Few images:   Pictures are a bit herpaderp but you get the idea. We built a platform up of foam sheeting, the feet are mounted up in the leg armor. I'm just telling you now, don't do wood, weight is definitely an issue no matter what you think now! Just think of the number of metal fittings you'd need to fix together a wood frame and what that portion would weigh.
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Sep 17, 2012 20:32
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I've recently got it into my head that I'd like to make a spiderman costume - I was originally going to try and do it for halloween, but after a fair amount of research on various replica / costuming sites, I decided to buy a cheap one this year and make a better one for next year or maybe comic-con... plus, after talking to my wife about it, she'd like to do something similar as well. I'm having a hard time finding a place that does custom dye-sublimated full-body lycra suits, though - does anyone have a place that they'd recommend?
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Sep 18, 2012 04:10
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Artemis J Brassnuts posted:I've recently got it into my head that I'd like to make a spiderman costume - I was originally going to try and do it for halloween, but after a fair amount of research on various replica / costuming sites, I decided to buy a cheap one this year and make a better one for next year or maybe comic-con... plus, after talking to my wife about it, she'd like to do something similar as well. I asked my friend's, they gave me a few to avoid, but this guy kept coming up. http://www.spidey4fun.ncable.net.au/ You can always check out the vendors reputation at the RPF, which I throughout recommend. I wish I had. I got ripped off by a guy who I later found out was well known for taking people's money then never delivering.
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Sep 18, 2012 16:09
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Hey McPantserton, what kind of fabric is your Ashlotte's leather bodice/skirt part made out of? It looks really nice and expensive in pictures. Is it upholstery fabric? Where did you buy it? I really want that fabric 
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Sep 19, 2012 03:59
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Killer_Frost posted:I asked my friend's, they gave me a few to avoid, but this guy kept coming up.
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Sep 19, 2012 07:18
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:Hey McPantserton, what kind of fabric is your Ashlotte's leather bodice/skirt part made out of? It looks really nice and expensive in pictures. Is it upholstery fabric? Where did you buy it? Yeah, she said it's upholstery fabric from JoAnns that's normally used for covering outdoorsy stuff like picnic tables or motorcycle seats. Apparently part of why she picked that particular fabric is because most of those kinds of vinyls are backed with flannel stuff, but this one wasn't.
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Sep 19, 2012 15:36
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Artemis J Brassnuts posted:According to his site, he's only doing non-licensed customs now. Thanks for the starting point, though! I just shared the link a friend gave me... I've never ordered one. You can also ask my friend... You can find him at 4th Wall Designs on fb. He's got a few, he at the least might be able to tell you who to avoid. I know he had a bad experience recently with his Electro and Owlman suits. He told me who he was going with for the new ones and I'll be damned if I can remember it. Lol
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Sep 19, 2012 19:48
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I've decided to make the chain mail skirt for my White Witch costume by knitting it in a single-strand cotton yarn and then painting it silver. I've seen people use the technique with sweaters to create passable mail shirts. I did a little fuzzy math and this thing is going to require something in the neighborhood of 25,000 individual stitches. Woo. Any suggestions for a good paint for this? I'd prefer spray paint, but brush-on would be workable as well. I don't want to use regular ole hardware store spray paint, I can't handle my skirt smelling like that the whole time I'm wearing it. Is there a good spray paint for fabrics that doesn't reek?
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Sep 20, 2012 03:34
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RazorBunny posted:I've decided to make the chain mail skirt for my White Witch costume by knitting it in a single-strand cotton yarn and then painting it silver. I've seen people use the technique with sweaters to create passable mail shirts. I did a little fuzzy math and this thing is going to require something in the neighborhood of 25,000 individual stitches. Woo. I've seen people take just a regular fabric paint thin it down with water and spray it that way.
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Sep 20, 2012 04:55
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Killer_Frost posted:I've seen people take just a regular fabric paint thin it down with water and spray it that way. Yes. This is how most theater companies do chain mail. There was this awesome armor fabric at Joann's the other day that was really quite awesome. It looked like scaled armor.
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Sep 20, 2012 05:04
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Killer_Frost posted:I've seen people take just a regular fabric paint thin it down with water and spray it that way. That sounds perfect.
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Sep 20, 2012 06:29
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So I'm making a mask and I want to put a really cool, intricate design on it. The mask is curved so I don't think I can really stencil it, which sucks. Does anyone know how I can maybe transfer an image onto there from paper or will I have to paint something on there directly like I suspect I will?
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Sep 20, 2012 06:37
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Pick up some carbon paper, you can still get it at office supply places.
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Sep 20, 2012 06:39
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Can I wipe off carbon paper if I don't like the design? I really don't want to screw up the mask--so much so that I'm debating leaving it black and silver just so I don't have to worry about making it look good. The mask in question:  It looks worse than I remember, although I don't know if that's because that's not a great angle/picture or if it's just bad. It's a learning experience.
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Sep 20, 2012 06:47
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Carbon should come off extremely easily, but if you're worried about it, you could look for dressmaker's tracing paper instead. It's a little pricier in my experience, but it leaves a very faint chalk-like line that wipes away easily with a damp cloth.
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Sep 20, 2012 06:50
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Okay. I'll look into the carbon paper and give that a try.  Thanks!
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Sep 20, 2012 06:51
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This new smooth Wonderflex is loving amazing...
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Sep 21, 2012 00:08
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Next project is getting underway-ish! (Except I have my graduate proficiency exams starting this week, ugh.) I'm trying to use up my Wonderflex for a fun throwaway project for AnimeCentral. I think I should be using the other side as the top, though, those threads are killing me!
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Sep 26, 2012 21:25
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Progress so far on the White Witch crown (forgive the lovely cell phone pic):
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Sep 27, 2012 00:01
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RazorBunny posted:Progress so far on the White Witch crown (forgive the lovely cell phone pic): That is SWEEET. I am still trying to figure out the best/cheapest way to accomplish a slave Leia it isn't for a con and it doesn't need to be 100% accurate. I did find a tutorial that uses the craft foam so my question is- how easy is it to paint and mold and how much use can you get out of a costume using it. This would really only be for the front and back of the hip piece.
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Sep 27, 2012 00:29
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I need to start working on the poo poo for my next con in November, by this weekend if not sooner. Hilariously, I have no idea what I'm wearing for Halloween.
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Sep 27, 2012 04:03
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:I need to start working on the poo poo for my next con in November, by this weekend if not sooner. Hilariously, I have no idea what I'm wearing for Halloween. We never put much effort into Halloween because it follows so closely after DragonCon and we're usually burned out on costume stuff. I think my husband is going to do his Harry Dresden because he got super excited about it and threw it all together really fast, even if it was originally for con. I think I'll probably bust out one of my old ones if it comes down to it. My friends are doing a carnival-themed party and I have a Tattooed Lady costume that I put together for a similar party last year. It would be amazing if my White Witch costume was done in time, because I think she's terrifying, but I have no illusions about it being ready. The skirt alone is taking a million years to make. I'm going to have arthritis in my hands by the time I'm done with this costume, I swear.
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Sep 27, 2012 05:08
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We always do fun but lazy-ish costumes (for us, anyway). I happen to live in Madison, Wisconsin, home of the Halloween mega-riot-bash, so Halloween is always kind of a big (read: drunk) deal. Last few years, we were Batman villains, Monarch and Henchmen, AT-AT walkers (awesome 2-man box costumes) and the Deathstar, Doctor Horrible/Captain Hammer, and last year we got together a group of about 10 Creeps from the Lonely Island video. This year we're thinking we might make a giant Trojan Horse out of cardboard.
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Sep 27, 2012 05:29
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I've been trying to get into costuming and after a few mediocre attempts at easier costumes, I think it is time to challenge myself.  This is Trill from Torchlight. He's a robot bard with a pipe organ on his back, an accordion for his right hand, and a drum for his left hand. I could probably rig up a backpiece with pvp pipe, but I'm at a loss for what material I could even use for the rest. I'm thinking foam but I'm not sure if that would look good in the finished product. Anyone have any ideas working with something like this? Given how clunky the costume would be, it'd have to be lightweight.
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Sep 27, 2012 05:36
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I got lazy and forgot that screamfest was this weekend. Any one have some suggestions for quick cheap horror themed costumes I could wear? I was thinking just getting a cheap white mask and doing up a marble hornets maskey outfit.
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Sep 27, 2012 16:10
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I'm trying to get one of my November convention costumes done early so I can wear it for Halloween then at Izumicon. I feel bad for being so lazy for Halloween. Though I am kinda stuck progress wise until I get cash or clean my craft room so that I can reach my sewing machine... why is it always this messy after summer?
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Sep 27, 2012 16:22
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So I kind of lived in a pop culture cave this summer and just got around to checking out Brave. Good god. Disney finally made a princess who looks like me. Same face shape and unruly red hair and everything (my eyes are green, though, and I won't be wearing contacts because they're annoying and I seriously doubt anyone's going to care). I can't loving pass this up.  Going to the fabric store, like, right now.
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Sep 27, 2012 19:00
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McPantserton posted:We always do fun but lazy-ish costumes (for us, anyway). I happen to live in Madison, Wisconsin, home of the Halloween mega-riot-bash, so Halloween is always kind of a big (read: drunk) deal. Last few years, we were Batman villains, Monarch and Henchmen, AT-AT walkers (awesome 2-man box costumes) and the Deathstar, Doctor Horrible/Captain Hammer, and last year we got together a group of about 10 Creeps from the Lonely Island video. This year we're thinking we might make a giant Trojan Horse out of cardboard. I'm pretty sure I spotted you guys last year. This year my friends and I are doing Adventure Time for FreakFest. Mostly easy costumes, and nothing we'll be too invested in if something happens to (somebody pukes on) them.
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Sep 27, 2012 19:13
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All painted up: 
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Sep 28, 2012 14:00
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Almost done the satchel for my Flynn Rider costume. Just need to sew on some sort of button and I'll probably sandpaper it a bit more for wear. 
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Sep 28, 2012 15:00
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