First ever build...Cap America

Hey man, it'll be a lot of fun! Couple of questions:

1) If you have to pick between the three core groups (time vs money vs quality) which two will you pick?

2) do you know Which Captain you would like to be? Classic era, Ultimates, etc......?

3)When/If you do know, do you know where to get the appropriate reference materials? Hi resolution Photos, comics, action figures?

4)Do you have all the necessary tools, do you need practice with them/a good brushing up?

5)Do you have an open space to paint?

6)Can you sew?

These are some general questions you need to consider. Couple of hints and tips are:
a)Look for costuming tutorials on things other than just your costume. Look up how another people make shields for example.

b) Never use a heat gun while drinking, LOL! Personal example, I nearly set my left pant leg on fire while have beers, forming plexiglass, and half watching "It's Always Sunny!"

So think hard, be safe, and most of all, HAVE FUN!

Siyoum3434 said:

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Hey man, it'll be a lot of fun! Couple of questions:

1) If you have to pick between the three core groups (time vs money vs quality) which two will you pick?

2) do you know Which Captain you would like to be? Classic era, Ultimates, etc......?

3)When/If you do know, do you know where to get the appropriate reference materials? Hi resolution Photos, comics, action figures?

4)Do you have all the necessary tools, do you need practice with them/a good brushing up?

5)Do you have an open space to paint?

6)Can you sew?

These are some general questions you need to consider. Couple of hints and tips are:
a)Look for costuming tutorials on things other than just your costume. Look up how another people make shields for example.

b) Never use a heat gun while drinking, LOL! Personal example, I nearly set my left pant leg on fire while have beers, forming plexiglass, and half watching "It's Always Sunny!"

So think hard, be safe, and most of all, HAVE FUN!

1) Well i have until the end of October and will be working on it in my free time, which i have A LOT of. lol. I want the quality to be as legit as possible or my "ocd" will kill me. lol. money over time, Now-Oct, isnt that big of a thing but still trying to keep it sensible

2) I want to do the Suit from the new Avengers movie

3)Ive been looking at the pics posted on here

4) what kinds of tools do i need? i sewing machine, etc. I could get what i need if i dont have it already

5) I have PLENTY of space to paint

6) yes i can sew, could practice a little more but i can

a) will def do

b) will DEF NOT be drinking and using any kind of heat or working on this thing period while ive been drinking. lol

Good to hear all that!

Let's see, anything else....?

ooh, There is a good tutorial for foam building on here for Iron Man stuff, and one of the practice projects was a simple Captain America helmet made from foam that was a good way to get a feel for the medium. Unless you have an idea of a different medium and foam isn't your thing.

Bulk spare materials never hurt. I just ordered another gallon of PVA glue (PolyVinylAcetate) or essentially Elmers glue. Wiki it. I have like 200' of bell wire, and god knows how many other amounts of essential materials on the side (velcro, spare fabric, razor knives, plastic scribes drill and rotoscribing bits, etc. etc. etc.)

Take way too many pics! Upload the good ones to photobucket and post accordingly here as needed! If anyone needs an odd picture angle to look at to help, you might already have it and just need to upload, or you take another one! In other words, paparazzi the hell out of your work. LOL!

Well, good luck, hope I've helped, I guess it's time to start doing tons of research and getting no sleep! YAY!!!

There are so many things that you will need if you have never really made costumes before it's sort of hard to really give you all of that info. But one thing that you might want to focus on is what I like to call "common sense" materials to start off with.

You will obviously need:

-sewing machine
-scissors
-thread
-pattern
-fabric
-design
-marking tools such as chalk or pencils
-closures for costume

Then you start getting into your more "these things aren't really crucial but very helpful" items that are needed:

-seam ripper (actually I think this is going to be quite needed)
-some type of body form (preferably nearish your size if you're an average body build)
-quilting pins to pin pieces together while sewing
-heat gun and glues (if you're going to do any foam work)
-hand needles and thread
-there are loads of other sewing tools out there that are very handy but might not be what you need right away for your first project as it can be overwhelming. But I'll list a few in case you want to look them up: point turner, transfer paper, ponce wheel, transfer wheel, interfacing, overlock machine or serger....there are many many others but I'm unsure of what exactly you'll need for that costume as it looks to be leather and if you do the leather route then you'll need a whole other set of tools that I don't really work with.

Once you have that basic list of things you need then start google searching and searchig on the RPF about those items. If you need a body form that matches yours exactly because you are going to use foam then look up how to make a duct tape dummy of yourself.

Now that you know you need fabric for Cap America search through those threads and list out what every build used for their fabric choices. Then look and see what you have access to out of those materials and what you think you can work with both physically and budget wise.

You need to break your costume down piece by piece when you first start out otherwise it becomes to overwhelming and you'll run yourself in circles.

But be careful when you break it down into small pieces because it's also a really easy way to spend to much money on a costume because you're not always paying attention to the whole picture.

Don't know if any of that helped but hopefully it did. I'm sure there are plenty of people who could come on here and say:

"Use pleather for the costume" or "only leather and vac formed pieces will work for that costume" but in the end it is your costume and you need to be the one to decide what you want to use and what you can use. On certain detailed pieces others can give you a more directed path to take but for the whole costume there is just to much going on and to many factors for someone to give you all the info of how to make it.

Your best bet is to use this thread more for yourself and jot down the ideas you have along with photos and then if people chime in then great and if they don't at least you have an area where all your ideas are in one place for you to review.

I am also working on a captain america costume.. Let me know if I can help

thanks Eveningarwen that does help alot. any input is welcome, good or bad. this is something that ive been interested in for a while but never started it. lol.

cyberpyrot im def gonna tune in to your build. helmet and chest look awesome. and that molding idea for the helmet is genius, may have to steal the idea. lol

CapMerica said:

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thanks Eveningarwen that does help alot. any input is welcome, good or bad. this is something that ive been interested in for a while but never started it. lol.

cyberpyrot im def gonna tune in to your build. helmet and chest look awesome. and that molding idea for the helmet is genius, may have to steal the idea. lol

no problem when I get home I will post pictures of the paint I user that gives it the textured leather look.

any body have any ideas on movie quality fabric?

and also where i can get a good pattern or should i just draw it

For your pattern, Draw it based off clothing that already fits or pre-existing pants and jacket that you can modify.
For the new Avengers uniform recommend athletic mesh, nylon or polyester for the modern high-tech look.

Target had a blue long sleeve compression shirt that was a good off the shelf second as the undershirt.

Just organize your work so things don't seem so large.
Like Jacket, Pants, Boots, Belt, Gloves, then Helmet.
You can get away without certain items based on which part of the movie you want to emulate. Also helpful if you run out of time.

Does anybody know where I can get that jersey material that like what the champion c9 from target is made out of for a good price

http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...2/fdc2ec02.jpg

These are the gloves I picked up. I plan on dying them somehow someway any opinions?

Bellecurve said:

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Also, I just made a Jo-Ann stop and found this fabric. It was labeled "Performance" and was out on one of the "islands" so I'm not sure what it would normally be shelved under. The texture is nice, but the stretch is only two-way and it's thin. Just thought I would post in case someone wanted to use it! (please don't mind my post-sewing-sweatshop nail polish!)

The photo didn't come with this quote from the Black Widow thread but this looks about right.
It would have to be local purchase as it is not on the Jo-Ann website.

Edit:http://www.therpf.com/f24/black-wido...79/index4.html

Awesome. Thanks that looks just perfect

Hey mate, I'm currently working on the same project. I've just about finished off my shield minus a few touchups and addition of straps/handles and I'm currently trying to troubleshoot making a helmet out of foam .

As for the material, I've found a material I think will work but I haven't actually BOUGHT any of it yet due to lack of funds, so I don't have any pics but maybe you could Google it or something. I found a Scuba Knit (92% polyester + 2%elastane) and it seems to be a nice heavy weight with a stretch (I think only 2 way but I'm not sure), and it's a jersey knit so it looks fairly good, I think it's a little small but close enough is good enough in my opinion lol. I found it in a nice cobalt blue, white and red, I will just need to dye the cobalt to make the darker blue parts. Anyway, give it a look it might work for you .

How much of a difference is there between cobalt blue and royal blue

Not sure to be honest lol, but when I looked at the shade of his costume in the Avengers the lighter blue definitely looks like Cobalt, or at least close to it, to me. The darker just kind of looks Navy.

I think the dark is royal and the lighter blue is cobalt. Just a thought

Just a thought, changing your thread title to something more information than the completely overused "noob needs help" may generate more interest in your build and attract more peopleto help you. You just have to hit the edit button in your first post, then go to advanced and then change the thread title. An informative thread will also help others in finding information on their build. Good luck with your build.

CapMerica said:

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I think the dark is royal and the lighter blue is cobalt. Just a thought

It's possible, I've looked at a bunch of colour charts online just now but they're all a bit different lol...Not very helpful.

In helmet news, I've just finished up the main 'bowl' part of the helmet last night and now I have to add on the front 'mask' and side ear pieces and shape it a bit better. There will be progress pics etc in my thread in the next couple of days probably (Hopefully lol)

http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...2/e216ae75.jpg
http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...2/62c766a0.jpg
I just picked up my fabric. I lucked out big time. Got the lighter and darker blue. Joanns fabrics was having a sale that ended today and got it all for half price. It is the athletic type fabric like the champion C9 shirt. Pretty excited

Looks good mate

Does anyone know where I can get a buckle for the belt? And also a good/price savvy foam supplier

I use foam camping mats for my foam. Not sure where you are situated, but here in Australia I pick up 5mm and 10mm thickness camping mats from Kmart for $5 and $8 respectively. Decent quality EVA foam, easy to find and cheap to buy.

As for the buckle I'm planning on making one out of foam in a solid, non-working state and then plastic coating it for durability, then just using Velcro to attach the actual belt through the buckle ends. That is unless I can find a working buckle in the same style. It kind of looks a bit like an old seatbelt buckle to be honest...