TM2 Dinobot Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 (edited) Alright, so I've always wanted to cosplay, but I'm a fairly large man, and was a chunky kid. I've never felt right about shoving myself into anything where people will be scrutinizing my body. That said, I've lost about 30 lbs and have been working out, trying to slim up. Me and my sister were planning on going to Comicpalooza, and she wanted to go all Steampunk. We invited some girls from church, so they will also be joining us. One will be going as link. Now, I've always loved chicks no duh, it's me.) but I'm a guy. Girls can rule 63 their cosplay till the cows come home, but it is incredibly difficult and borderline inappropriate for a guy to cosplay a female character. Except one. So, I'm doing the varia suit Samus. On a budget none the less. So, lets see how it goes. I've been working on this for about a month. The first step was figuring out how I wanted to go about it. A fully armored vacuum plastic armor suit is right out. Too expensive, not my skill set. I can sew something together, I can paint, but I am not a sculptor. So this is right out. I found one closer, but not exact, to what I'm going for. For reference pics, I'm using the internet and my Samus Figma. So here's how it breaks down. At the helmet's base is a Clone Trooper helmet. I shaved off the top fin and sides. That is it's current state. I am going to use expanding drywall foam to fill in the gaps. The bubbles over the ears will be a hobby store Styrofoam ball, and the hoses will be some ribbed hoses I have lying around. The expanding foam will also fill the inside partially, setting the helmet how I want. I'm tempted to put the thing on while it expands, but it's ever so slightly toxic, so that's probably a bad idea. Styrofoam does not take well to spray paint, so I intend to coat the pieces in Plastidip before painting. I will then cut out and attach a green film over the visor. Hopefully it'll be complete at that point. The blaster is a Bumblebee blaster I picked up and stripped down. I'm going to use heavy duty cardboard tubing to extend it further up my arm. Pretty straight forward. The body is a black Lycra body suit I picked up off ebay. I will then create a gold spandex almost leotard for the thighs and the lower torso. The upper torso will be constructed from foam board, cut at the proper angles and painted red. http://www.ebay.com/itm/261039288124?var=560128065653&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 I was thinking of using goulashes or waders for the boots. The thing that is giving me issue are the knees. I figured if I could get rubber hip boots I'd cut out the inner thigh from the knee to almost the top, and allow that to hold up the right of the thigh. Which means that'd have to be pretty tight. Which waders aren't. Hmm... I'll post a diagram later. For the shoulders I was planning on using basketballs. My experiments have not proved successful thus far, but I'm still trying. The upper right and entire left arm have me stumped. Anyways, just thought I'd share. Edited May 29, 2013 by TM2 Dinobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamrock Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 I've used sheets of craft foam for very cheap armor before. Or, for a higher budget, look into Worbla. Also highly reccomend reading this guy's blog: http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/ if you don't already. Best of luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobsterman Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Be careful with that expanding foam. It can give you pretty bad hives if you get it on your skin when it's wet, and it's still not too friendly when it's dry. Otherwise, good for you, I say! I'm excited to see how it comes out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirymate Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 You're going to be cross-dressing in Cosplay... with girls from church. See how messed up that sounds? Good luck, TM2. Hope it works for you. Course if you come back from all this wanting us to call you TM2 Arcee... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 (edited) So its been a while. After searching for boots for like forever, i just decided to give up and take the cheap way out. Duck tape. With a spare pair of cowboy boots I managed to get the job done, I think... These boots were made for bounty hunttin! Now, the helmet fared much better. I have a green visor waiting to go in, and some of the paint needs to be touched up. While still clearly a clone trooper, I think I can make it work. I used expanding foam to fill in the gaps, and it actually worked alright. I'll just take a moment to second the warnings people gave me. Yes, this stuff burns like hell if you get it on your hands. The 'ears' were Styrofoam balls hut in half. And on top of everything, I used Plastidip! I love Plastidip. I got the aerosol though, which didn't work 1/10th as well as just slathering it on. The helmet still looks Star wars-y, but it'll do I think. Over all making good progress. Not as high grade as I wanted, but I'm still pleased. Edited March 20, 2013 by TM2 Dinobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Very cool. Not all of us want to go out and buy a crazy expensive costume. Besides, its really the cheaters way to cosplay. I like seeing the costumes that are obviously fan-made with a lot of love. Lets see you wearing this suit up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted March 27, 2013 Author Share Posted March 27, 2013 Okay, helmet's finished. It looks really pretty and candy apple red in person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 Convention's this weekend. Got the shoulders finished. Working on the torso suit and chest armor. dirty mirror. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 Made it. Had it. Got down to the con all dressed up... and left my chest plate at home. So I wandered around in jeans and a tee shirt and no shoes. FML. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Its a cool looking costume. Sorry about the snag. Sounds like something I would do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurch77 Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Good job! What did you use on the blaster to get that metallic blue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Harris Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Nice tea pot collection! Very cool costume! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 (edited) Looks great, Dino, a definite improvement from last year's costume ... Edited May 30, 2013 by youbastards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 LOL, great response! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted May 31, 2013 Author Share Posted May 31, 2013 (edited) I want to know why I'm the fan but you turn every thread into an MLP thread? Good job! What did you use on the blaster to get that metallic blue? The blue and the copper are both Anita's Mattallics, the blue is painted but the copper is just liberally washed. Edited June 8, 2013 by TM2 Dinobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I want to know why I'm the fan but you turn every thread into an MLP thread? I'm not comfortable with my "Equinality".... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 (edited) A bronophobe? In the stable? Edited May 31, 2013 by Turtle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homestar17 Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Sucks that you went thru all that work & had that happen. Like Shane, that is the type of stuff that happens to me, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted May 25, 2014 Author Share Posted May 25, 2014 Okay. I actually made it this year! People were taking photos of me left and right. it was amazing! I loved it. Also, several people thought I was a girl. 0-o One guy was really offended tat I wasn't. ashercab I made this funny smiley face when this chick started making her arm power up. I was amazed to say the least. #Samus #awesome 4h I know there's some more floating around out there on tumblr and twitter a crap. I don't use any of that so I'm just going to have rotten luck finding it. The bad news is, my costume has now seen better days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Was that Wizard Dallas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Harris Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Also, several people thought I was a girl. 0-o One guy was really offended tat I wasn't. Transgender Dinobot Pony ftw! Anyway, really cool you could attend the con this year and you had lots and lots of fun being there! Really cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK Collector Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Looks great! I have a lot of respect for cosplayers. Takes so much effort to get the costume together in the first place, and then you have to wear it all day in often uncomfortable conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 It was Comicpalooza in Houston. I had a lot of fun, but having worn jeans all my life, I didn't know one could worry so much about your crotch adjustment. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 One more for the road. http://www.popularpanda.com/p436499807/h1908b931#h1908b931 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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