Ok, so I began my 60 day project a few days early but I'll write that off as prep and learning. Now it is less than 60 days to Halloween and I am attempting to make two full costumes for my kids.
Below are photos I will be updating during the process.
I have to say that the entire process was rather easy and I am more worried about time than I am worried about construction quality.
I am new to the entire process so my Peps aren't perfect and my fiber glassing and bondo techniques are less than Stellar.... However I am pretty good with painting, since I have been doing it for over 20 years.
So the plan is to construct all the parts to the best of my NOOBish ability and cover any mistakes with distressed painting techniques! Then when anyone says how horrible my construction was I will quickly retort, "I planned it this way the entire TIME, LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!" LOL
Let me know what you all think and wish me luck, this is going to be a big project and I would love all the support and ideas I can get.
Peace,
Chwbcc
Photos Aug. 29th
Photos Sept. 4th
Photos Sept. 7th
Photos Sept. 15th
I did a rough fit tonight and I am glad I did. Something I didn't account for in my scale... I should have remembered my lessons on Da Vinci! Here you go class, Art History lesson for the day... Prior to Da Vinci's paintings of "The Virgin Mother" Paintings of the Christ Child had been painted in 4:1 scale. Baby Jesus was always in proportion to the people around him only in 1/4 the size. He looked like a little man!
Then Da Vinci and other Renaissance painters started painting Baby Jesus in proper developmental scale of a real child.
In other words... I scaled my armor down to the proper proportions of a 39" adult instead of accounting for the real abnormal dimensions of a real child! Children usually have larger heads, hips and longer torsos and their arms and legs are usually thinner and longer than adult proportions.
Luckily, My leg pieces and arms are going to be O.k. (I will have to make a few adjustments by cutting the holes larger so she can get her hands in the costume.) I also have to make adjustments to the hip areas and the chest. The hips are too small. The Helm is already too far along to make changes but I hope once I get the chest finished the size won't look as large...
In any case check out Lil Miss Sophie... Daddy is so Proud!
Ok, I have finally recovered from a horrendous cold, and things have slowed down at work. Now I have time to post some Pics of my progress.
Oct 3
Photos Missing (will re-post shortly)
Things are looking good right now. I had a problem with the fiberglass cloth on the thigh pieces they are deformed I have to figure a way to correct this with out re-pepping them... This is a prime example why you should use cross braces on your peps to keep them generally squared up.
Oh well, My first attempt and of course I don't read instructions. Note to self read the instructions! :lol
For the rest of the pieces I just covered them in Resin and said the heck with the fiber cloth. This stiffened the pieces enough to hold the pieces firm while I put on the bondo. I have two coats of Bondo on the boots and will apply more to the other parts later tonight.
I am well on track to finish Sophie's suit for Halloween but I am afraid I may run out of time on my second costume. The good news is the second costume should be really easy to put together once I have some free time. Anyone have any of that?
Oct 18 09
O.k. I am slowly but surely moving on.
I now have all the pieces covered in resin and now I have to wait for them to dry. Then off to do a quick coat of bondo, some sanding and a coat of paint. I also found a roll of foam padding for half off at Michael's. Sign up for their email list and they will let you know when they are having 50% off sales on materials like fabric and foam.
This is the home stretch and I am going to be cutting it close these next two weeks.
Oct 18
Here is a second round of photos from this long day of work!
This type of work is fun! SO would it be a long day of fun?
These photos give me more credit than I deserve. The Bondo job is half-arse... and there are divots and dents on all of the pieces. Much of the detail is lost under the bondo and my edges are crap. I am going to cover these mistakes with distressed painting techniques so these mistakes are easily hidden under the distressing so one might think it was made this way on purpose... Which it really is but not because I'm really good at making armor
My next suit is going to be much better because I have learned so much during this process. Much of which I am not even going to use to make my own suit.
Please, leave me a comment, ask me a question or just follow my progress. I would love to know what you think!
Oh and post some links to your WIPs so I can see how everyone you too are doing.
October 30th D-Day-Eve!!!
Here it is on complete(sort of) Mini Master Chief in Hot Pink, battle damaged paint to cover my shotty construction job!!!.
I have to take a few liberties with the construction. Early in the build it was point out that the legs were not going to fit properly, so I rebuilt them and then started thinking about why they don't fit. It turns out I forgot that children are not miniature people they are very dis-proportionate. And now every time I look at my kids I say WOW thier heads are huge! Because proportionally they are... Children are bobble heads!
So knowing that I had to trim and re-size the chest piece to make it fit properly. In the end it looks pretty decent. I am not going to use the hand parts and I am going to cheat for the final Halloween Assembly and I am going to Duck Tape the butt and the chest pieces to her. The reason for this is the chest and butt/cod pieces were made too small to keep proportions and in the end they look good put together but not feasible for long term use because they are not comfortable for my little Sophie.
They will work Taped to her for a few hours tomorrow and then I can start working on a better suit for her as I will have more time than just 60 days.
In the end this was a great experience. I have completed two full costumes in 60 days, granted they were not both MC as I had planned it but I figure it this way so long as I don't have a third year of Superman and Tinker Bell I'll make the kids what every they want!
The photos above are a bit blurry but tomorrow I plan on breaking out the good camera and getting some fun photos in the day light so you all can see the detail. SO I will post them later tomorrow night when the kids are bouncing off the walls from too much candy.
Thanks for following along the last 2 months and I can't wait to build my next suit!
Peace,
Sophie and Daddy
If you would like to see the second costume I built check it out here:Optimus Prime (Duck Tape)
Below are photos I will be updating during the process.
I have to say that the entire process was rather easy and I am more worried about time than I am worried about construction quality.
I am new to the entire process so my Peps aren't perfect and my fiber glassing and bondo techniques are less than Stellar.... However I am pretty good with painting, since I have been doing it for over 20 years.
So the plan is to construct all the parts to the best of my NOOBish ability and cover any mistakes with distressed painting techniques! Then when anyone says how horrible my construction was I will quickly retort, "I planned it this way the entire TIME, LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!" LOL
Let me know what you all think and wish me luck, this is going to be a big project and I would love all the support and ideas I can get.
Peace,
Chwbcc
Photos Aug. 29th
Photos Sept. 4th
Photos Sept. 7th
Photos Sept. 15th
I did a rough fit tonight and I am glad I did. Something I didn't account for in my scale... I should have remembered my lessons on Da Vinci! Here you go class, Art History lesson for the day... Prior to Da Vinci's paintings of "The Virgin Mother" Paintings of the Christ Child had been painted in 4:1 scale. Baby Jesus was always in proportion to the people around him only in 1/4 the size. He looked like a little man!
Then Da Vinci and other Renaissance painters started painting Baby Jesus in proper developmental scale of a real child.
In other words... I scaled my armor down to the proper proportions of a 39" adult instead of accounting for the real abnormal dimensions of a real child! Children usually have larger heads, hips and longer torsos and their arms and legs are usually thinner and longer than adult proportions.
Luckily, My leg pieces and arms are going to be O.k. (I will have to make a few adjustments by cutting the holes larger so she can get her hands in the costume.) I also have to make adjustments to the hip areas and the chest. The hips are too small. The Helm is already too far along to make changes but I hope once I get the chest finished the size won't look as large...
In any case check out Lil Miss Sophie... Daddy is so Proud!
Ok, I have finally recovered from a horrendous cold, and things have slowed down at work. Now I have time to post some Pics of my progress.
Oct 3
Photos Missing (will re-post shortly)
Things are looking good right now. I had a problem with the fiberglass cloth on the thigh pieces they are deformed I have to figure a way to correct this with out re-pepping them... This is a prime example why you should use cross braces on your peps to keep them generally squared up.
Oh well, My first attempt and of course I don't read instructions. Note to self read the instructions! :lol
For the rest of the pieces I just covered them in Resin and said the heck with the fiber cloth. This stiffened the pieces enough to hold the pieces firm while I put on the bondo. I have two coats of Bondo on the boots and will apply more to the other parts later tonight.
I am well on track to finish Sophie's suit for Halloween but I am afraid I may run out of time on my second costume. The good news is the second costume should be really easy to put together once I have some free time. Anyone have any of that?
Oct 18 09
O.k. I am slowly but surely moving on.
I now have all the pieces covered in resin and now I have to wait for them to dry. Then off to do a quick coat of bondo, some sanding and a coat of paint. I also found a roll of foam padding for half off at Michael's. Sign up for their email list and they will let you know when they are having 50% off sales on materials like fabric and foam.
This is the home stretch and I am going to be cutting it close these next two weeks.
Oct 18
Here is a second round of photos from this long day of work!
This type of work is fun! SO would it be a long day of fun?These photos give me more credit than I deserve. The Bondo job is half-arse... and there are divots and dents on all of the pieces. Much of the detail is lost under the bondo and my edges are crap. I am going to cover these mistakes with distressed painting techniques so these mistakes are easily hidden under the distressing so one might think it was made this way on purpose... Which it really is but not because I'm really good at making armor
My next suit is going to be much better because I have learned so much during this process. Much of which I am not even going to use to make my own suit.
Please, leave me a comment, ask me a question or just follow my progress. I would love to know what you think!
Oh and post some links to your WIPs so I can see how everyone you too are doing.
October 30th D-Day-Eve!!!
Here it is on complete(sort of) Mini Master Chief in Hot Pink, battle damaged paint to cover my shotty construction job!!!.
I have to take a few liberties with the construction. Early in the build it was point out that the legs were not going to fit properly, so I rebuilt them and then started thinking about why they don't fit. It turns out I forgot that children are not miniature people they are very dis-proportionate. And now every time I look at my kids I say WOW thier heads are huge! Because proportionally they are... Children are bobble heads!
So knowing that I had to trim and re-size the chest piece to make it fit properly. In the end it looks pretty decent. I am not going to use the hand parts and I am going to cheat for the final Halloween Assembly and I am going to Duck Tape the butt and the chest pieces to her. The reason for this is the chest and butt/cod pieces were made too small to keep proportions and in the end they look good put together but not feasible for long term use because they are not comfortable for my little Sophie.
They will work Taped to her for a few hours tomorrow and then I can start working on a better suit for her as I will have more time than just 60 days.
In the end this was a great experience. I have completed two full costumes in 60 days, granted they were not both MC as I had planned it but I figure it this way so long as I don't have a third year of Superman and Tinker Bell I'll make the kids what every they want!
The photos above are a bit blurry but tomorrow I plan on breaking out the good camera and getting some fun photos in the day light so you all can see the detail. SO I will post them later tomorrow night when the kids are bouncing off the walls from too much candy.
Thanks for following along the last 2 months and I can't wait to build my next suit!
Peace,
Sophie and Daddy
If you would like to see the second costume I built check it out here:Optimus Prime (Duck Tape)
