Costume Updates, Cacophony Style

So it's been a while since I posted anything about any costume or prop, so I'll just post it all!

Flashy

Casting Flashy got...interesting...

We started with a box and a lot of clay.  Next time I do this, I'm going to remember to fill in the clay more, and smooth it out better.

 

We thought that one container/package of mold mix would be enough per side, and we had a third kit in reserve.  I grossly underestimated the amount of volume this box could hold, and ended up using all three kits just to make one half of the mold.  Not just that, but I had to tilt the box and stick one of the empty bottles into the mixture to force the volume of the mix to shift so there would be enough over all of the gun.  

She hardened up nice, and left me with half a mold.  My buddy Erich is heading to Reynold's Advanced Materials later this week, and picking up another 3 mix-kits for me.  Hopefully late next Sunday I'll be able to pour the last half of the mold, and maybe pull a blaster the following Monday.

  
Darth Malgus

My work on Darth Malgus is interesting and entertaining.  I'm having fun experimenting with building his armored parts from Pepakura files and EVA Foam mats. 

 

The don't look too bad, if you ask me...

 

 

There are slightly thnner mats out there, so I may make yet another pair of gauntlets soon.  I guess I'll just have to use these for LARPing or something.

 
Jedi Consular

The Jedi Consular is coming along, dammit. I wish there was more to show, but Sarah has been working on a lot of aspects of it at once, and it's sometimes dizzying to try and keep track of it all.  We're actually pretty well along.  I'd say it's about 60% done.  All the pieces are cut out, and are starting to come together.  We're just finishing up on a lot of the detail work that needs to be done when it's in it's component pieces.  I can show what I'm going to be doing for the glowing runes that run up the seams of the leather over-robe.

I'm cutting them out of leather, so that we can place a material behind them to illuminate them.

EL Tape, my friends.  EL Tape. 

These runes are gonna glow.

For the large runes on the bottom of the Skirt, sarah's basically embroidering them with mylar "mint green" thread over a white shimmery gauze, and then running an iron over them to fuse them together. 

What she's done so far (not pictured here) LOOKS great, but it takes so damn long to do.  Sarah is giving herself a recurring back ache working on this part.  Each rune takes about an hour to do, because the machine needs to chug along at it's slowest possible speed or the mylar thread snaps.  And it snaps a lot.

501st Clone Trooper

My 501s Clone Trooper has actually been down for a while now.  To get into this helmet, I actually cut away the faceplate and have it secured with a series of Rare Earth Magnets and metal brackets.  Well, it wasn't really holding too well that way, so I replaced the Rare Earth Magnets with  Even Stronger Rare Earth Magnets.  This seems to work well.  I also trimmed out the visor a little more so it wasn't completely crushing my nose (which was contributing to the old magnets not being able to hold the face on properly).  The suit is wearable again, even if I do still need to upgrade my ab plate.

Going Forward


Got a bunch of projects to finish up, a few more I want to start, and eventually to start gathering pieces for the lightsaber I want to built. (Boy, is that going to be inexpensive...NOT...)  Most of it will need to wait, tho.  I really need to kick my packing into high gear and get my house packed up. 

Malgus Notes

For those of you playing the home game; no, I have not discarded my desire to do Darth Malgus.  In fact with a few recent aquisitions and some notes online, I'm re-doubling my efforts to progress towards obtaining my "Sith Lord" designation in the 501st.

Just putting a few links down here for future reference for this project...

Pepakura Notes and Tutorials

Fierfek's Pepakura Files - Has Some Malgus Stuff

EVA Foam -> Rotocast Finish

This could be...interesting.

Darth Malgus: Phase One

With the upcoming launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the work I'm doing on 3 RPG Campaigns, the holiday season, and the funding and planning of a wedding in the next 15 months, doesn't now seem lik a great time to start work on another costume?

I knew you'd agree with me!

This is Darth Malgus; the main Sith villain for Star Wars The Old Republic.

He's quite a bad-ass undertaking.  Heavy armor, hooded cloak, make-up...oh, and thankfully not only is he bald, but he's also got this awesome resperator-thing that would just about perfectly cover up my goatee, so I don't have to shave it.

He's got a unique lightsaber, one that could be a little tricky to aquire or make.  And by "tricky", you should read that as "expensive".  I've got some ideas how to do the armor;

I'm going to probably go with EVA foam and build it out.  Perhaps do some resin or sintra custom pieces for the details.  For the Gauntlets I may try Sintra; I'm not sure about the availability of a Vaccuform machine for making this suit.

One of the more entertaining part will be the gauntlets.  Malgus has all these illuminated buttons and panels all over his armor.  I'm probably going to need 4-6 EL Wire inverters or similar electronics just to light this guy.  I really don't want to have one inverter running all these lights.  While it may work and be handy to have it all on one light rig, I'm worried about wires getting snagged in joints and getting torn.

Another complication are the cloth parts; Malgus has this Vader-esque undersuit.  Kinda pleather/vynil, and quilted.  He's also got the Vader Cape, with a traditional Sith Lord hood.  Attaching that to the armor is one complication.  Another is working with it so I don't step on it too much and making it strong enough because it's actually supposed to be long enough to gather on the ground.

I'm putting together a parts list now, seeing what I can start to gather.

Here we go again...