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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:I finally ran out of apoxie sculpt and need to wait for more to arrive before I can finish my masks I put less curing agent in when it dries that fast, you can be pretty flexible with how much you add depending on the temperature where you're doing it. I also try to stay out of the sun, that speeds up the cure time like you wouldn't believe. Love that bondo.
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Jun 2, 2012 15:24
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I'm so jazzed, you guys, I ordered a vacuum forming box and frame this weekend! It's going to save me so much effort. I spent like 6-6.5 hours sculpting the wolf shoulder armor for my costume and it's not even done yet. I am so, so glad that I don't have to manually sculpt 2 of them, oh my god.
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Jun 4, 2012 17:25
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:I'm looking at that site you got the box from that you posted in the other thread. What size did you get? I spent 10 daaaaays on 2 pieces of armor and I have so much left to do it isn't even funny. I just got a new job that pays better so I might buy one of these as a gift to myself... Zeppelin Master, baby  I won a design contest (for my broseph Rufus en Fuego  ) in SAMart like 2 weeks ago and made $200 so that's my justification for buying it, my job is still poo poo, hah. I already have tons of silly plans to vacuum form all kinds of weird things once we're done with costumes.Other progress, here's a bit more Yoshimitsu printing! This time, the belt flaps:  I'm planning on finishing Yoshi's prints up this week, I have the skirt back and hem left to do. Plus, here is me holding the interior skeleton for Soul Edge!  Glad I'm not going to be carrying that beast around, eesh. The internal flat part is made of polycarbonate, it took basically forever to cut with a plastic knife.
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Jun 5, 2012 04:40
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Yoshimitsu screen printing is officially done!    Top one is about how it will look, except both tiers will have gold braided trim added. That leaves only Hilde's shoulder capelet thing to print, and I'm done with harassing my work for the whole summer! Vacuum former arrived yesterday, too, so I'm hoping to test it out this weekend. Exciting stuff.
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Jun 13, 2012 02:28
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paisleyfox posted:THIZZ- Those masks are looking rad as hell.  My boss lets me order materials at wholesale costs and use the shop and our screens for free. In the winter, when I don't work on costumes as much, I make all my own t-shirts. Screen printing materials are generally pretty easy and cheap to get, though, so I'll post a write-up of how I do my stuff, at least!But basically, if you can get access to screen printing equipment, it's fairly easy (unless you do a sadistic 9-screen nightmare print like my Hilde banner aaaargh). I made the art in Adobe Illustrator, using kanji fonts for the kanji parts and just drawing all the rest. Then you print off the art in black onto something transparent, like clear acetate film or vellum paper. I had to piece the skirt print together because it's bigger than 11 x 17 using scotch tape. Tape this to the back of your screen with the darker printed side facing the screen. This part is sort of counter-intuitive but it's the core part of the process. The way making a screen works is that each screen gets coated in a fluid called photo emulsion before you use it. The emulsion is water-soluble until it's exposed to enough UV light to cure it. So you take your uncured screen with the film taped to it and put it on a special light/vacuum table. The vacuum makes sure that everything stays still, and the light cures the whole screen except where the black parts of your printout protect it, leaving those parts able to be washed out with water. Once you rinse that part out, you're ready to go! Then I just printed the designs using whatever rubber squeegees we had laying around. No screen print ink is as metallic as we wanted the Yoshimitsu prints, so I bought a special type of heat transfer foil to press over the print. I used an antique gold shimmer ink just in case some of the foil applied imperfectly. Once I'd cured the print in our dryer, I used our heat press (which we usually use to apply vinyl names to jerseys) and pressed on the foil, which only sticks to screen printed plastisol inks. The Yoshimitsu stuff was actually very easy to do since it's all one-color and reasonably sized, it was much harder to print my Hildegard banner (2 feet long, 7 screens, didn't actually fit in any of our presses, ~18 hours of printing)  or the battle standard I made for our 40k group, which also was too big for our presses and had to be hand-set on the floor and now adorns the hallowed halls of our living room:  So yeah, not too bad if you, like, are a screen printer with a cool boss. Also ThizzFace, thozz faces look freaking awesome!! I cannot wait for the epic mustache. 
McPantserton fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Jun 13, 2012 |
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Jun 13, 2012 13:58
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Yeah, something like that is a great way to print at home, especially if you still get photo emulsion. I seriously hate screen filler, it's less accurate and it's such a pain to clean out of screens. I think the water-based inks that people would use at home are a bit less robust than the heat-cured ones I use, but you're probably not going to be running a costume through the washer anyway.
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Jun 14, 2012 20:11
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 Test pull! It's not perfect, and the wolf blank is a BITCH to get out of the plastic, but I've got a good idea of how the forming is going to go! I think I'm going to test the wolf head again with a thinner plastic and slosh resin inside it to make it a little more substantial.
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Jun 16, 2012 23:27
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The wolf started as a gatorade bottle and newspaper, then roughly shaped with paperclay, then the details were formed with modeling clay. Since the modeling clay shrinks and is stupid, I also patched it with bondo and fake apoxiescult (MAGIC SCULPT~) and gave it a nice sand. It basically took a ton of time and patience.
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Jun 17, 2012 07:35
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We're going to try out some varying grades of plastic this week/weekend, hopefully. I think the 1mm stuff I bought is going to be too thin for pieces that bolt to other pieces, but it'll be awesome for the super-detailed pieces. As for resizing the Rocketeer helmet, I think you will be looking at totally remaking it, unfortunately. The dude over at http://blindsquirrelprops.blogspot.com/ had the same issue with a Sauron helmet and he rebuilt it from the ground up.
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Jun 18, 2012 17:50
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What if you molded the helmet, then coated the inside of the mold with something to add material before you cast it? You'd almost certainly have to carve down the casting to get the details sharp but it might be easier than working from scratch...
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Jun 19, 2012 15:31
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If you like Adventure Time, most of the outfits are really easy and it's a tonnnnn of fun to wear!
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Jun 20, 2012 03:45
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I'm so excited, you guys, I finally found a friend who owns a lathe who's going to help me make my spear top and bottom! I was all ready to make my own stuff out of PVC and vinyl tubing so I'm really excited to have a method that's going to be both more solid and more accurate. Also, the Yoshimitsu printing is totally done!  I'm really proud of it, I think it looks really sharp! I started my helmet this weekend as well and I am really happy with how it's coming along, I think it's going to be really gorgeous once I'm finished. I also discovered that I have a deep and abiding love for Apoxiesculpt.
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Jul 2, 2012 19:01
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MajorGravy posted:How much do good quality lathes usually go for? I've been looking into picking one up, but I'm not sure of what brand or make to purchase. I'm honestly not sure. My friend's dad used to work in metal fabrication and that's why they own them, they seem expensive but I really haven't even looked into it much. Thizz, that OWNS! Seems like a lot of work but it is looking so, so good! I totally feel your pain with the double-sided nonsense, I wanted to die when we finished my first half of the Hilde banner and it was like, alright, SIDE 2  Thanks, Veila! I think printing can really add some nice, clean detail. When I finally get a real people job away from my shop, it's going to be a sad day.  Well, except for the theoretical pay increase...
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Jul 6, 2012 14:49
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The Werle posted:
Hooooooly poo poo, that is just the best thing!!
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Jul 6, 2012 23:49
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Never with pepakura, but I've built some armor in my day.  ...I kid, I kid, I'm working on a set of full plate right now out of vacuum-formed styrene and it's def not my first rodeo! What are you looking to do?On that note, we finally figured out how to get a (mostly) good pull from the former! Very reassuring, I'll admit with ~5 weeks until GenCon, it's pretty nice to know that my technique will actually work in practice! We also almost lit the former on fire on Friday night. Turns out drinkin' and heat guns don't go together well. Who'da thought?
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Jul 10, 2012 03:50
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Pagan posted:For my birthday, my roommate got me a working Airsoft version of the M4A1 Pulse Rifle, the gun used in Aliens. Some Colonial Marines cosplay (or even a working version of their kit for airsoft games) would be awesome. The only tricky part is the armor. Not super complicated, but I've never built armor before. Most of the RPF and similar forums are using Pepakura files and fiberglass. The pepakura doesn't look too hard, but I've never, ever used fiberglass. Looking at a lazy GIS, I'd probably start with EVA foam (yoga mats) and do it similar to the Mass Effect builds that are all the rage like this: http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/2010/09/n7-armor-dragoncon-2010-recap.html You'll probably be able to build it at a lower skill level, more safely, and for cheaper this way--you may want to (will probably want to) invest in a decent dremel, but that's maybe $30, way less than fiberglass stuff.
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Jul 10, 2012 04:14
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:the first side of the second banner is mostly finished: I barely had the patience to do that geometric line pattern on mine in vector format, much less by hand. Color me impressed.
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Jul 13, 2012 13:45
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RazorBunny posted:I love looking over my receipts from purchasing costume materials. Industrial supply catalog, hardware store, craft store, office supply store, sporting goods store... Ha, I throw mine away ASAP so I'll never know just how much my costumes cost.
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Jul 19, 2012 20:04
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RazorBunny posted:I used to, but then I had something kind of expensive that I decided wouldn't work out and I had a lot of trouble returning it without the receipt. This is true. I do tend to keep stuff around if I'm not sure about it, which is nice--I ended up returning a piece of wood that cost freaking $14 after I found a different board that was both better and cheaper. Mostly I'm just way, way happier not knowing how much money I spent on craft foam over the course of each summer.
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Jul 19, 2012 20:29
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I'm a pretty big fan of Arda, personally.  e. We also won a $1k sewing machine from them so that's pretty great but I buy all my wigs from them regardless.
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Jul 22, 2012 05:42
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RazorBunny posted:I wish I had taken some photos before I finished and trimmed them up. I tend to get rolling on a piece and forget that I had intended to do a guide for it Story of my life. I'm just too busy and I keep forgetting to take a lot of process shots. Our blog still sucks.Also my fingers are like... perma-grey with Apoxiesculpt at this point, ugh. I spent roughly 15 hours this weekend between building my arm armor and breastplate blanks and sculpting the wolf for my helmet. I am so tired.
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Jul 23, 2012 05:00
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:We finished both Yoshimitsus this weekend, juuuust in time for Otakon! Here is a bathroom myspace angle shot of Yoshi to celebrate. poo poo, son! That's freaking AWESOME. Anyway, with 3 Yoshimitsu costumes underway up in here, it only makes sense, haha. RazorBunny posted:
My last manicure before I got too busy to do my nails was China Glaze Trendsetter, a lovely mustard yellow that did not look good with streaky black paint all over it. Ewwww.
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Jul 24, 2012 04:53
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Veila posted:Well my friends managed to talk me out of my Tera planning which was easy as I now am debating between like five different options and still not knowing of a good con to take it to. Now apparently I am going to be completing a group from the really horrible anime called Black Rock Shooter.. I couldn't finish the first episode but they showed me the costume and I was in love. Love the shoes! I haven't seen Black Rock Shooter but there seems to be some cool cosplay from it, at least. My friend is building flexing claws for his Nightmare outfit and he did it by building a wood brace that straps onto his arm, then using tubing with slashed joints with cord threaded through to make the parts that move. That sounds really baffling so here's a picture:  You can see it best in the thumb part, that white PVC on the palm is a grip and your fingers loop through the ends of the cord, flexing the claws.
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Jul 27, 2012 20:49
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Veila posted:Yes the shoes are amazing aren't they i'm planning to attach carved wood base to some heels I have had the heel removed on. And yea the show is meh, average school girl angst but with cool nightmare battle deaths. But still meh. Different Nightmare, sorry, we're doing Soul Calibur  And no problem, we've been having WAY too much fun playing with it already, and I don't think the structure was very hard to build!
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Jul 27, 2012 21:07
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Well, I just lit my apartment on fire for the first time while costuming! Fortunately, the apartment, my body, and my costume are all ok, just a few char marks on my vacuum form blocks! Edit: DYING OF JOY. Look at my spear pieces that my friend lathed for me! I made the blade myself.   I just can't get over it, they are PERFECT. I had just decided to say gently caress it and bullshit the top and bottom cuff but then I discovered that my friend's dad has a lathe and they made these beautiful things for me. Seriously dying!! So happy! Also, I made this and vacuum formed it!  McPantserton fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 03:43
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:McPantserton, those look sooo good. Can't wait to see your SC cosplay. They look AMAZING! Especially that split face mask, good lord. My boyfriend is really irritated that you have pictures up before he finished his costume, incidentally, he's convinced that his won't be as good as yours now, haha! Seriously, great job!
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Aug 3, 2012 14:34
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:Thanks guys That sucks!! I had that with some wonderflex last year and it was harrowing. But I didn't notice until you mentioned it, no lie. My boyfriend wants to know what you made your wood arm out of! He hasn't decided how to do his yet.
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Aug 4, 2012 03:46
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You guys My cosplay group got accepted to run a panel at GeekKon this year! I'm absurdly pleased even through the intense stress and exhaustion involved in having to get my poo poo ready for GenCon, which is in a paltry 10 days oh my god. I am dying.THIZZFACE KILLA posted:Both are made out of foam/posterboard. The faux wood finish on the red Yoshimitsu is this faux wood grain vinyl sticker paper that we found in Home Depot called 'shelf liner' or similar. I think the kind that people use to make faux wood grain car interiors would have been a better choice, but we ran out of time to order any. That is clever as hell!! He's not sure if he's going to do a wood finish or go for a more metallic look instead, but if he goes for wood, he's doing it like you did. Smart!
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Aug 6, 2012 03:22
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I don't know what you mean!  This weekend is going to be one long day in the sun, beer in hand, and then we'll go to GenCon and it'll be butterflies and rainbows! Wee!e. This is what my apartment looks like right now. Ugh. 
McPantserton fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 15:43
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Nope! I hit a milestone today: all the pieces I need to vacuum form for my armor are actually vacuum formed and cut out! I'm now priming and painting frantically. Wee!
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Aug 12, 2012 02:25
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Forget burning the candle at both ends, throw that poo poo into the fire! It's actually shocking how long people can go on 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Here's a sneak preview of our hats! I actually discovered last week that my helmet didn't fit over my wig and had to saw it in half and put it back together. Fortunately Nightmare there is super good at costume engineering and walked me through my fit of despair.
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Aug 13, 2012 02:41
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Assuming it's the code one, it's a work shirt my boyfriend got for free as a team spirit sort of thing.
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Aug 13, 2012 03:06
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THIZZFACE KILLA posted:Continuing the Yoshimitsu bathroom pic tradition I see. I know, right? I want the Yoshimitsu 3-pack photoshoot to happen so bad. Somebody invent a teleporter, stat! Here's a sort of dark photo of my helmet all on its own.  So tired. Almost done.
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Aug 14, 2012 15:54
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GenCon is over already!? Bummer. We didn't place in the costume contest this year but I think our whole group did an awesome job. We don't have a ton of pictures up yet of the finished work, but here are the few that are on facebook already!   Nightmare and I look crazy bored.  Better one of Yoshimitsu  Shortly after this, I had to send my spear back to my room since it was apparently too realistic for the convention. The con guy: "Those other weapons are props. That's.... just a spear."  Soul Calibur: Extreme Beach Volleyball? McPantserton fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Aug 20, 2012 |
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Aug 20, 2012 02:47
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Thanks! I'm really, really pleased with how my armor came out (except I'm a bit boxier than the Hilde character model ). Anybody feel free to ask about any of our construction, all I ever want to do once these projects are done is go on and on about how we made them but nobody wanted to come close enough to Nightmare to ask!
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Aug 20, 2012 03:09
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Thanks, guys I was honestly a little bummed that we didn't place in the contest, but I think we all looked good, plus my construction has greatly improved--I have virtually no repairs to make on the plastic pieces of my armor. Yay! Also, I finally found a good picture of our Yoshimitsu:  My fiance
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Aug 21, 2012 02:54
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I'd probably just saw apart PVC pipe or wood dowels, myself.
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Aug 28, 2012 05:06
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Happy Landfill posted:Psychobabble! That is so cool!! Woohoo, Heather is one of my favorite video game characters of all time I usually default to one knee out and hands on the hips if I don't know how to pose, it helps if you have a prop to wave around like a fake lead pipe or something.
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Aug 31, 2012 01:18
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Mr. Mailman posted:How the gently caress did you not even place with those works of art!?!?!?! Seriously? Did Robert Downey Jr. enter the contest in his Iron Man costume?? Aww, thanks  I'll confess I was a bit disappointed, but I'm really proud of the work I and the rest of my group did and I had a blast, which is what's important. I'm running a panel this upcoming Sunday at GeekKon in Madison, WI about big costumes and armor, too, and I'm crazy excited for that!We do have a blog that we don't update enough and a Facebook that gets a little better treatment--we're the Foam Corps on Facebook and foamcorps.net. Incidentally, I was doing costume repairs for GeekKon today and I learned that I utterly loving hate Rustoleum spray paint. I was out of Krylon silver so I tried Rustleum, which I had laying around in my supplies closet, and it immediately bubbled/cracked like all over my belt piece! I ended up having to gently massage all the lovely paint off of the foam with a paper towel and acetone and it's still not as nice as it was before. Rustoleum sucks. Krylon forever!
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Sep 4, 2012 03:57
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I honestly think it'd be easier and cheaper to dumpster-dive for a refrigerator box, then spray paint it orange every time you wanted to wear the costume than to build it out of heavy-rear end plastic. That's what my friends and I did when we did henchmen for Halloween a few years ago. 
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Sep 6, 2012 17:47
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