Injustice: Wonder Woman

I needed to actually make a costume on a deadline, which I've never done before, so I picked up the Wonder Woman costume from Injustice!

The pattern:

I used instructions from Tayla Barter's "Craft Foam Breastplate Tutorial" on YouTube ( http://youtu.be/hj-WC35cxgs ) to make my template. This has been the best template I've made and used so far. It's also the first one I've actually followed all the directions correctly, so correlation...causation...you know.

When I cut the pieces apart, it was really a guessing game as to what should and should not be separated...I don't know if I made the right choice, but it's what I did.

The Foam

I laid the three flat pieces and cut them from my foam: 5/16" EVA foam mat from Harbor Freight (sorry, no photo). Friendly reminder: keep a sharp blade on your knife! A dull blade will start giving you ragged edges. The minute it starts getting ragged, change your blade.

The Cups

I bought styrofoam balls from Hobby Lobby to use as forms for the cups of the armor. I used the same process from the aforementioned video to shape them. The only issue I had is that I didn't shape the top inner corners enough, so I have to go back and reshape that section on my completed piece (not ideal).

Construction

Of course, I used hot glue to put it all together. I then took Foamies craft foam (also from Hobby Lobby) and cut the details. If I were making this for competition use, I would have sculpted the details on top to keep the rounded look of the details. For this, it will have to be flat.

The Star

...was awful. After MANY attempts to draw or cut a decent star, my friend thought of using a cookie cutter as a stencil. Best idea ever.

So I traced a cookie cutter, cut out my star, and started finishing it off with a Dremel tool. It was a hot mess.

After 2 weird starfish stars, I cut another star out of the Foamies craft foam, cut the pieces of it apart, then glued them on top to make a smoother, embossed-looking idea. Again, I would sculpt this piece if I were putting in a competition. For now, quicker is better.

The Finished Build:

I'll do corset lacing up the back even though her actual costume has belts (again, time constraints...). I need to heat and shape the top on either side of the eagle head to curve back in towards me a little more.

What's Next:

I'll prime/seal the piece with PVA glue and then paint it with metallic acrylic paint. I haven't decided yet if I will use my Dremel tool to put textures onto it or if I will paint the textures on. Time is a big deal here, but I don't like cutting corners, and I've already cut a few.

TTFN!

Visible progress for once

Huzzah, I have paint on it!

The silver is Dupli-Color Perfect Match in some silver that I can't remember the name of. I'll tell you later (I hope).

The red is a Rustoleum acrylic enamel and it is not as pink as these pictures make it look.

That's a little closer...

I don't like how cartoony the red is, so I'll have to see what I think after I weather it and add battle damage. I know for sure that I will be using a deeper red with a shimmer to it on the final project. I'll likely use a Dupli-Color for consistency.

"Fast dry" my foot; that junk took 3 hours to set. It was also about to rain, so humidity was a factor.

Next step: acrylic paint to weather it and a clear top coat for protection.

TTFN!

Breathing Again: Learning from my mistakes

HOWDY, CAMPERS.

I would like to reinforce how pleased I am that I found locally supplied EVA foam (harbor freight foam mats). It's holding its shape very well. In fact, I'm thinking I may need to get some forms to shape my pieces on top of. The big curves are hard to shape by hand. BUT I am really pleased with this material.

So after Tuesday's brief update about never putting primer on Plasti Dip, I have re-done the plastic coating and begun painting.

You may notice that the spray can featured in this photo is not, in fact, Plasti Dip. This is Rustoleum Peel Coat (which is the Rustoleum version of Plasti Dip). I prefer Plasti Dip for the following reasons: Plasti Dip gives a thicker coat when you spray it. It also has a more directionally focused spray that I feel is easier to control. The Rustoleum spray is more fine, less directionally focused, and gives a more watery coat that does not cover as completely as Plasti Dip.

Another thing to note is that all of the mistakes and damage I've done have made this helmet look a little...worn out to say the least. Peeling the Plasti Dip took off some of the PVA coating. I didn't replace it because I'm curious to see how the end product looks with and without the PVA coat. I'm also looking forward to weathering this helmet like crazy. I will add some battle damage and practice different weathering ideas just to see what looks good.

And then there was PAINT!

I chose a shimmery finish for my silver paint, and I'm still not sure if it was the right choice. We will see once I get the red paint on how it looks.

I'm looking forward to another update.

DO NOT USE PLASTIC PRIMER ON PLASTI DIP

That is not what it is for and it will ruin everything EVERYTHING.

Lesson learned. Starting over.

Rescue Update - The Practice Helmet

I finally found some time! I put a fresh coat of Plasti-Dip on the helmet - 3 coats total. Unfortunately...I did this at 7:00 last night. Gnats apparently love Plasti-Dip and get stuck in it for kicks and make it gross and ugly when I have to pick them out!

Freshly covered in Plasti-Dip, it looks pretty slick. Get it? Slick?? Ha, I'm hilarious.

I still need to put plastic primer on it and then I can add the paint (finally!).

My next post will be the primer and paint update, so for now, have some more angle shots of the helmet.

Another way to not make a helmet.

What is this, I don't even.

Okay, so I'm working through my "practice" helmet, which is pretty good but not nearly the quality I want. I picked my paints, and I'm ready to prime it.

The current helmet...well, there's a lot of problems.

Everyone get ready to laugh at my massively idiotic, biggest mistake.

THIS IS OPEN CELL FOAM. I AM SO DUMB. Don't stop reading just because I made the most basic mistake ever, though...There's more to come!

Here are the rest of the problems (none so bad as using open cell foam):

1) I used 1 cm thick foam. Just bad from the start... The first time I couldn't get a curve to hold should have been a red flag that sent me running. It was hard to cut as it dulled the heck out of my blades and was nigh impossible to shave down even with brand new blades.

2) I opened the paper helmet and just traced it out on the foam then cut it. It was lazy, and it didn't give me a reliable piece.

3) ANGLES. When you work with paper or thin craft foam, cutting it is crazy easy. When you work with thicker foam, the angle of the cut is suddenly VERY important. Assembly was difficult on many of the seams.

4) I'm a spaz. I burned myself about 35 times every time I sat down to work, and if a seam didn't quite match up, I just sort of filled it with hot glue.

Oh well. Here's some more pictures of the fail.

The weird alien shape of the helmet makes the cheeks extra pinchable.

TTFN.

Forward Progress

I reprinted the pep file scaled up, and it's awesome. Nearly a perfect fit, and I don't think I will need to work out an opening system to get it on and off!

As big as a car, apparently.

I actually really like how the shape of this one turned out. Much more intentional than the first.

As for the first helmet, I have added a PlastiDip coating, and, except for the ear areas, it looks awesome. The ear areas are very rough because I oversprayed them trying to get into the bends and crevices...lesson learned!

Spraying on the PlastiDip; the front and top look great.

It's hard to see, I know, but I'm immensely pleased with how the mask portion turned out.

I'm a little less pleased with my poor spraying skills here....I wonder if I can sand that down.

Honesty is telling the internet how bad you are at spray paint when you're trying to pass as a competent cosplayer.

Two steps forward, one step back.

I am backtracking on Rescue just a little bit. I coated the helmet with PVA glue (diluted wood glue in this case), and opened up the back a little bit more for ease of access (to put it on). Then, when I tried it on, the glue cracked (crazed?) and it fit, but it was a huge pain to put on and wear. The chin also rubbed rather annoyingly on my chin/neck and we just weren't having that.

Not pictured: my head.

I went and bought Pepakura Designer so I could scale the armor up a bit. I basically went by percentages instead of measuring exactly for every dimension of every piece (the armor was designed for someone 5'7" and I'm 5'10") and have saved the new, larger sized files. I am a lazy person. Sometime this week I'll be re-printing and trying out a heavier foam (I guess). The craft foam is awesome to work with because I can do most of my pieces with scissors, but it's VERY difficult to get the seams to be smooth. There's not much space between "outside" and "inside," so gluing it down from the outside in doesn't do all that much to prevent glue leakage.

I'm still going to keep finishing the first helmet and make it my experimental piece, basically. I've got Plasti-dip and am choosing paint soon. This way, if I mess up, it wasn't the final helmet anyway. If it looks good, I'm sure I have a (smaller than me) nerdy lady friend who wouldn't mind having an Iron Woman helmet.

I took up Rescue before any of the other potential projects because I got a FANTASTIC pepakura file for it already from JFcustom on the Replica Props Forum (RPF) - I love that place, and I love that guy.

TTFN!

Still don't know: first pepakura

Cel phone update? Let me take a selfie.

First move into pepakura to make a mock-up of Rescue's helmet. I look like a hollow!

I forgot the round ear pieces before I took this one. Oops.

I also made the neck piece. I have to rig up some way of fastening the neck and opening the helmet to make it more wearable.

I don't know what I'm doing: a start to cosplay

Cutting mat, craft foam, rotary cutter, glue sticks: Hobby Lobby; Xacto knives, posterboard, cardstock, tape, yoga mat: Wal-Mart; heat gun: ACE Hardware ($25); utility knife: accidental gift

What you see here is my "work space" for my first forays into foam fabrication. I'm starting with thin sheets of craft foam from Hobby Lobby and a yoga mat (10mm) from Wal-Mart. I think I'll bite the bullet and order L200 foam before things get too far. Things I'd like to try include: The Monarch (Venture Brothers), Strax (Doctor Who), Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist), and Rescue/Pepper Potts' suit (Iron Man comics).

For now, I'm watching Once and playing around with the collar and helmet for Rescue. I do have a hot glue gun and scissors, just not in the picture.

Here we go!