Hello!
Well, my name is Straker and I'm new here. Thought I'd show you folks my costumes and accessories and such I've made or collected over the years.
I had to check with the forum guidelines and a moderator and it was recommended to be posted here in costuming as all the items are meant to be carried on your person or worn in conjunction with a costume or are a costume and not strictly a display piece. I believe this is the place to put this thread, but, if the thread needs to be moved to the Prop Forum however, please let me know. ^_^
Now, my first actual prop I had built was in 2002 and was made for a Renaissance Festival in Phoenix Arizona. The Evil Dead Chainsaw:
Some of you MAY recognize this as the person who not only introduced me to this web site, but also helped me build it and provide me a place and the tools to cut up the metal casing as well as posted pictures of it and myself in costume posted this for me here, one 0neiros.
It is fully wearable and handleable. It features all metal construction, custom repainted and weathered paints and even a sound board with speaker and triggers for chainsaw noises.
Of course, I made a full costume for it:
Not my best look....But here's a slightly Photoshopped picture of me from 2007:
Sorry about the pixelated background there folks. The hosting site ate it...anyway, it was shopped because it was originally taken in a well lit hallway.
Still, I was well on my way...to making props and costumes! The next one was a Freddy glove...which was stolen, so no pictures of that. However, the following year I did the run as Freddy Krueger for some conventions and Halloween:
Here's one with some dark lighting for that scary effect:
I bought a Nightmare Gloves Vs Glove for the costume and had the sweater hand knit for me by a friend. The make up is all hand made and hand applied using the old school tissue paper and liquid latex over a bald cap technique and then was hand painted using acrylic paint and grease paint make up. Lastly, I painted my teeth with brown and black tooth paint for that extra nasty look.
The next year I made a suit somewhat based on Rorschach and a few others I liked to simply call Dark:
It's just all black dress clothing and such with a utility belt and a, what they call "Zentai" mask for effect. Still, great Halloween costume.
After all the costuming like that I started to go back to my Sci-fi roots in props, and I started to collect some Doctor Who items. Some of my first are Sonic Screwdrivers I used in these artistic photo series I call "A Time Lord's pocket".
The first is a Character Options sonic I had Photoshopped to look more real and less like a toy by the clever use of antiquing:
It's not really a prop honestly since it's a toy but it's what most of us have that can't make a metal one or wait till either we can buy one of the limited release pieces from MFX Warehouse or from Celestial Toy Store.
The second one I had gotten from a good friend on Deviant Art who really is amazing:
It's an all brass Baker era Sonic Screwdriver and features a solid steel core and highly polished aluminum emitter bullet and a working slider. Of course I posed it with a set of brass antique binoculars and a brass Tardis key on a brass chain as well as a solid Obsidian sphere.
Then there is this:
This is a RB Replicas Baker model sonic, slightly customized by me. I had originally gotten it second hand off eBay and it really is a great piece. What I did to it was remove the inside of the emitter rings powder coating and wore down a bunch of the coating here ad there. I sanded out the tooling marks from the casing and gave it a good polish and then let it age and get scratched up by basically keeping it on me for a year and handling it. Posed with it is of course an officially licensed replica of the Tardis key ala the Baker era as well as a glow in the dark Yo-Yo and the ever present bag of real Jelly Babies.
Then there are the Tardis Keys I have collected so far:
Most of these are unofficial pieces. The top row was all made by me and the bottom row features some that were touched up or aged by me and one, the one on the bottom row to the far left, that was retooled by me using precision files and such to give it a cleaner look. One of my favorites too!
Of course, after owning classic Sonics and toy sonics, I just really wanted a small, light, metal Sonic Screwdriver to keep on me that was my very own, so, I decided to build one:
I based it off of a picture of one made by Jared Axelrod and indeed I did buy one from him...but the wooden dowel rod and messy construction was a deal breaker. Not putting the mans work down, but it wasn't a good piece at all, so, I decided to build the one up above. It's really just pluming hardware and simple electronics. I like to call it my Mark 1 Sonic Screwdriver as I mostly built it to see if I could do it and it IS a nice piece, but it needed upgrades, so I took it apart and refined the emitter end:
The main differences now are the emitter head has a smaller blue jewel lens that fits into the inner sleeve allowing free range movement of the outer adjustment nut. I really wanted this to be able to move along the heavy thread you see on the neck of the sonic because this allows for a "control" setting system for sonic field resonance, strength, and intensity.
Another thing I did was to remove the fine threads from the outer emitter ring nut to give the parts a cleaner look to them and distinguish them just a bit more from the plumbing parts that makes this sonic up. The result makes the whole device look more original and add just that tiny bit more authenticity to the prop. This I like to refer to as my Mark 1.5 model.
Then there is the next version:
It's not complete yet but I like to call this my Mark 2.0 and is a gift to 0neiros for all the help and well, he IS my friend after all.
The big differences here are the different style emitter head with the elongated jewel mount. The replacement of the bushing to keep the button in to a small brass plate that will be riveted on as well as the butt end with the vented slotted section to match the same pattern where the emitter neck attaches to the handle.
I had a few other Ideas for add-ons:
Probably won't happen any time soon though.
Lastly, if anyone was curious I bought a Hollywood Jackets version of the 9th Doctors Jacket:
I ummm...I honestly can't say that I can recommend this jacket. It was $200-ish dollars, the button holes are all wrong, the sleeves are too snug, and the lapel button hole was missing. If someone is looking for an authentic jacket, Bad Wolf, or Wested are the two most authentic I've seen though Magnoli Clothiers is pretty good from what I had heard.
But...what does one DO with this stuff? Well, I like to use them myself. I like usable props and costumes and enjoy wearing them and using them daily. For me, a prop needs to be able to be used if it looks functional.
Anyway, I hope you all like my collection. If you have any questions or comments please post them. I'll try to answer every single one.
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