Buckling Down And Making My Own Mc Costume For Halloween.

[Otachi]

My story starts when an impromptu Halloween party was sprung on me. I needed a costume desperately and just so happened to catch an MC costume out of the corner of my eye in the local mall. Needless to say, the packaging was VERY misleading and I ended up with what is basically a thin fabric bodysuit with a foamy, small, chest piece. While searching for salvation online I came across this lovely forum and my mind is BLOWN. Not only at how fantastic this is, but also at how (if you can follow directions, fold and be creative) easy this -can- be. Basically, here is my situation in a nutshell; It's the 27th (almost 28th) and I have to make a full MC suit. I plan on using cardboard and the hot glue method. I'll use the suit i bought as the black costume underneath the armor and I also have a nice helmet that I bought sometime ago. Besides for that I'll be making everything else. I have, literally, all the free time in the world and can totally dedicate all 80+ hours between now and the 31st. Is this enough, with inhuman perseverance and dedication, time to complete a whole suit sans helmet? I would love to make a weapon too but that is, most likely, pushing it AND I can't seem to find any pep files, which I am clearly clueless without.

Keep in mind that I have some background in origami (no idea if this ACTUALLY helps, just seems related) and I am also working with the "Grunt Level" peps so as to keep it easier on me. I plan to use this as a learning experience and to move on to bigger and greater things, and perhaps contribute something someday. This seems like a very fun and interesting hobby to get in to. Thanks in advance for any encouragement, constructive ideas or timetables.

 

[box o crayons]

highly inprobable but you might be able to pop out a crap suit and search up halo costuming wiki

 

[freakazoid]

Uhh, I'd say that its very very unlikely you would get something that you would like. its possible to turn out a suit, but it wont look good at all. I would plan on making a costume for Next year, that gives you time to plan and make a suit you will be proud of.

 

[Otachi]

You guys are probably right. I will still try though. Even if it turns out crappy, it will be a chance to get my feet wet and even if it's just a quick, crappy run, I'll still be able to get a feel for areas I'm good at and what areas will take more time. On a semi-related notes....anyone know any quick costume ideas that I could whip up in about five hours, given this costume really DOES blow so bad I don't want to look at it? >_>

 

[box o crayons]

rip your clothes add some blood paint your face white. BLAM! your a zombie

 

[Otachi]

Lol, thanks. Seems feasible. I'll either do that or toss some leather and bandannas on and go as a pirate. Back to the topic though, how long would someone guess that a project undertaken at a healthy pace would take? Better yet, anyone willing to share how long their first project took and what it was?

 

[box o crayons]

ok so i havnt finished but so far it took me about a week to make a crappy helm so i would say about twice that for a good one and youll have plenty of time for next halloween, like im doing work on all your pep this winter and get it perfect then stock up on fiberglass and bondo and get busy till holloween

 

[Asrai]

Someone posted a WIP of their ironman costume. They did the entire thing out of duct tape and cardboard. They did a good job, but in the end, it's duct tape and cardboard, right. Consider your situation. If you need "quick and dirty", then I say - You could do it, because I did too.

I know this goes against the grain of what's been said, but if you factor in that you're not going to have an "incredible" costume, you could pull it off. I managed to knock out three helmets, two and a half chest/back plates, and three sets of forearms in three months using pepakura, resin, bondo, etc.

We ran out of time and money and the family is abolute on having "something" to do our festivities in - so the back-up plan is cardboard and duct tape. Personally, I cringe at this, but look on the bright side: A) We get "something" - not "incredible", but at least "something". (I think you're along the same lines as us, in this regard). B) We have an excellent base to work with after the holiday. Yay! More work!

I printed the pep for the belt, thighs, shins, boots and shoulders, without the flaps showing (a setting in the Pepakura program under 2D Options). I traced the piece onto a piece of cardboard and then scored them. I assembled using duct tape and then once assembled, I covered the entire piece in duct tape and then painted. I'm surprised what you can hide with paint. If you read up on the painting techniques in the stickies you'll find a wealth of knowledge.

Like you, I have an abundance of time - Today I managed to knock out 2 belts, 2 sets of thighs, and 2 sets of shins. With the exception of one pair of shins, everything is assembled. Now I just have to go back over everything with duct tape.

The clock is ticking...Get busy and Good luck!

 

[Otachi]

Thank you for the hope! All I needed was one thumbs up to get me pumped. I know a few friends who basically live off of video games, so I think I could get them to lend me their hand-eye coordination for cutting, maybe tracing and some folding. I plan on doing the suit by "priority." My "worst case scenario" would be not having gloves and boots...well, at least, that's HOPEFULLY the worst case. >_>

 

[Evil Taylor]

Dont let all the Nay-sayers stop you from trying. You will find that alot the yahoos here saying crap suits and being self proclaimed experts and such have barely started their own suits. Make what you make. Later go for improvement, take you time and such, when your have the time.

 

[Asrai]

My "worst case scenario" would be not having gloves and boots.

I have to say, the boots really make the suit. Maybe it's a girl thing, but I saw gallery photos of a Comicon event (Pittsburgh) or something like that and the guy in the photo had an awesome suit, but he was wearing regular footwear and it just blew the whole thing. You have to give the boots some credit. In that same breath, I have to say....I am stumped on how to actually use those boots. LOL I assembled them, but I don't know how I'm going to fix them onto a shoe. I'm still working on it.

I think (once you've started assembling the pep (which is the most time consuming)), you'll be very surprised at how fast things come together. I was surprised, but then, I've had a three months to learn valley and mountain folds and all that jazz. Seriously, I've wasted so much cardstock, I've practically memorized where the folds are. LOL There's something to say about perseverence (it's expensive).

Read those stickies. Print some stuff out, work with it and then on breaks or if you run into a snag, come back to the forum and read those stickies. You have origami experience, and assembling pep is like graduated origami. Really - between the feedback from folks on the forum and the stickies - you'll be fine.

 

[Otachi]

Yes, as of right everything seems to be flowing quite nicely. I'm still in the process of cutting and organizing but I'm kind of working in through it in my head as I pass them; "Okay, that's a valley, it connects with this piece, etc, etc." Before I get too far though, cardboard and hot glue IS the "quickest" and "easiest" right? From my readings and mulling about it seemed that, while it's possible to do some cool stuff, all the upper level suits are achieved with fiberglass, resin and cardstock, plus other assorted goodies. Am I misguided, or is some level of it personal preference?

 

[Asrai]

The Quick and Dirty method is cardboard and duct tape. If you have hot glue, that works too. This is a recent pep and hot glue complete suit of armor. I don't think he did it overnight - or even in a few days, but it's impressive.

You are right, though. The higher quality suits are fashioned out of resin, or molded. (You'll have noticed when you first log in, there's a subforum under Creation Discussion for Pepakura (and Cardboard??? I can't remember, sorry) and another for Molded.

As for personal preference...well, would you want a quartz ring, or a diamond? Obviously, you'd want the diamond. For all it's value and esthetics - it takes much longer to form, right? So does pep and molded armor, but it's worth it. This is done year round, not just for Halloween, so it's not uncommon for a single piece to take months depending on the complexity.

Get your hands dirty with folding. Get a feel for it. Enjoy your holiday, then after the holiday work with what you have or start over and try out a different method (i.e., resin, molded, etc.).

Good luck!

 

[Otachi]

Haha, thank you so much for bearing with my questions. I think I've read enough and got enough feedback to have full confidence in what I'm doing. That suit looks awesome and I'd love to strike a vein of "beginner's luck" and have an awesome first suit. Regardless how this turns out, I'll be sure to keep coming back for more. It would probably be loads of fun to really put care and time in to a suit, I can't wait. If I make any large improvements, take a large setback, or just need some tips, I'll most likely be back to make a WIP topic. Thanks again!

 

[Sigma LS]

A good helmet will cover a lot of sins in the suit itself. If you already have a good helmet then take that as a great bonus and make the rest just passable. I would lose the boots and handplates in the interest of time.

The chest and shoulders are the second most important parts. Focus on making those look the best out of the lot, and you could even just get the general shapes for the rest out of cardboard or styrene.

Also make sure you increase the "count folds as flat" angle in pep to minimize polygon appearance in the final beast. Smooth is better than detailed at this point. You could even sharpie in black details if you want. Know that you will need a full day and night for basic painting, padding, and strapping so you will need all parts done before then.


Best of luck. Hope you get it done.
Sigma

 

[oimhead]

Hey, I'm kind of in the same situation as you. I found this forum on sunday 10/26, and completed the chest / backpack from the tutorial that same day. On Monday (10/27) I was able to finish both biceps/shoulders, and left forearm. However, I hit a snag when I realized that the scaling is so horribly wrong on the arm pieces. Thankfully, I think the chest/back are okay. My goal was to be able to make a pep. of everything, and simply wear pep. pieces to halloween (I've been reinforcing with cardboard and foam so they don't rip apart at parties). However, I didn't anticipate the scaling issue, and that really messes up my plan. Pretty much, I have to rebuild all the arm pieces, do the helmet, and all leg pieces + belt, before friday - and I doubt it'll happen. As far as your chances - you could do it if you work very fast / diligently and invest about 8-9 hours a day. Just the chest/back took me around 5 hours to print / cut / assemble and that doesn't include the time I spent reinforcing it. Good luck though.

 

[Otachi]

Ah yes, luckily for me I have already ran into the solution for the scaling problem. A real shame about your costume though.

I'm back with some updates, well, one, I guess. I decided to spend tonight (about 4+ ish hours?) making a helmet. I don't know WHAT came over me to use this as a practice pep, but I did. May I just say that I'm ecstatic I already have a good helmet. It took me a good bit to get used to the general process but now I kind of look at it like playing a game on "Hard Mode." Giving a cursory glance through the rest of the body pieces, it seems like I should be able to get this done no problem, especially because I'll always have at LEAST one helper. Once I got a hang of the gluing process, it kind of seemed like a breeze. Hopefully tomorrow when I'm fully rested I will at least be able to print, cut and put together the whole costume. The next day will be used to paint/reinforce, leaving me with roughly 2 days of a "comfort zone." Of course this is my best case scenario so, knock on wood. When I get a chance, I'll be sure to post pictures.