mbaileyh
New Member
Thinking this is a strange character to cosplay? Here's why it made sense to me...
http://www.therpf.com/f47/why-cosplay-dep-commissioner-foley-165223/#post2562046
The Pete Foley dress uniform is simple to start, but the devil is in the details. Black shoes, socks, and slacks, black tie, white button up shirt. Pretty basic. I'd guess the character likely had a uniform shirt, with differently cut pockets and shoulder epaulets. However it's never seen in the movie so I feel fine using any white dress shirt.
The dress jacket, and its many accents, as well as the hat, are what becomes difficult. I had one that was the right cut, but has sliver buttons, the movie version looks like gold.
I also had a flag pin, unit citations (wrong colors), yellow shoulder cord, and a GCPD patch. (Though I bought another one that was a bit more accurate.)
I realized I had most of this costume before I realized I wanted to do it. How many other contestants can say that?
What was left to get:
-Hat badge.
I wasn't certain I would even do this outfit until I found the hat badge. Its a security company hat badge (originally reading BURNS) that the production crew recast (to read GCPD) for the Gotham Police. I found it laying in antique store. And I'm not usually one to frequent them. I was actually looking for old signs as a gift for a family member, but when I found the badge, it struck me as the universe saying "Do this costume."
-White gloves.
-8 point black uniform hat.
-Yellow Ribbon for hat.
The hat and white gloves came from a military surplus store in Seattle. The movie hat appeared to have gold buttons, like the uniform jacket. However I was happy to have the hat match my jacket, and another blow was stuck against accuracy. The yellow ribbon came from a local craft store, I cut small sections to fit around the buttons (which appeared glued, not stitched, on the hat). I assume the movie hats had the ribbons sewed on, mine is secured with a safety pin in the back. The BURNS nameplate is just covered with a bit of reflective paper that I've etched GCPD into.
The hat is the item I consider the most made, where as the rest of the costume is just expertly collected.
-Badge and Citations.
-Shoulder Pins.
These are the two hardest items. RPFer jvasilatos runs the site ORDER YOUR AUTHENTIC GOTHAM POLICE BADGE REPLICA HERE! and it was nearly universally accepted that he made the most quality replicas of the badges. My plan was to buy a jvasilatos' badge and cobble together the holder and citations. However before I got a badge I started looking for the citation bars Foley wears, as they're numerous and barely seen. Somes.com, and several others offered most of what I needed, as well as badge/citation holders. They can run as little as $4 or 5, to $20 each.
I knew I could find at lease 5 of the 7 citations, and to be honest I was only going to get six, because what's a citation or two between cosplayers? I contacted jvasilatos and told him about my project. And he had a little surprise for me. You see he takes his work seriously and was preparing a Foley badge on his own. It was not cheap. But when I saw the picture I knew where the money went. He had good screencaps that helped fill in the blanks.
The shoulder pins aren't easy because they don't match the right shoulder letters are GC, the left are PD. "PD" is a common abbreviation. They're 1/2" and silver. I found mine at onscene.com. They're cheap enough. The GC is custom, and mine were about $20 including shipping. Sadly, they didn't arrive in time for Halloween. :facepalm
In lieu of the GC pins I found stick on craft letters about the right size, style, and silver color, even in a craft store that's easier said than done.
-Gun.
-Name Badge.
Both the name badge and toy pistol came from eBay. The name badge was the glossy silver option by seller 'lewiserv.' It was under $9.00 shipped, a decent price for a custom item. The gun is a basic cap gun. I got it in part because I wanted a blatantly colored gun tip, as I looked enough like a real cop enough already.
The only notable problem I ran into was losing the pin backs on the citations. Even carrying a spare I ended up losing four. The jacket and lining was thicker than some backs could handle. One was so loose I ultimately covered it with a piece of cork from a bottle. In the future a strip of cork board durable enough to cover them would be great.
I'm proud of what I've done given its not the most elaborate costume ever. But this is one of my first attempts beyond just buying a costume, and I'm happy the most common reaction I got to it was a salute, the second was, "Hey, are you a cop?"
Only in Gotham friend. Only in Gotham.
Please vote for me next week!! :thumbsup
http://www.therpf.com/f47/why-cosplay-dep-commissioner-foley-165223/#post2562046
The Pete Foley dress uniform is simple to start, but the devil is in the details. Black shoes, socks, and slacks, black tie, white button up shirt. Pretty basic. I'd guess the character likely had a uniform shirt, with differently cut pockets and shoulder epaulets. However it's never seen in the movie so I feel fine using any white dress shirt.
The dress jacket, and its many accents, as well as the hat, are what becomes difficult. I had one that was the right cut, but has sliver buttons, the movie version looks like gold.
I also had a flag pin, unit citations (wrong colors), yellow shoulder cord, and a GCPD patch. (Though I bought another one that was a bit more accurate.)
I realized I had most of this costume before I realized I wanted to do it. How many other contestants can say that?
What was left to get:
-Hat badge.
I wasn't certain I would even do this outfit until I found the hat badge. Its a security company hat badge (originally reading BURNS) that the production crew recast (to read GCPD) for the Gotham Police. I found it laying in antique store. And I'm not usually one to frequent them. I was actually looking for old signs as a gift for a family member, but when I found the badge, it struck me as the universe saying "Do this costume."
-White gloves.
-8 point black uniform hat.
-Yellow Ribbon for hat.
The hat and white gloves came from a military surplus store in Seattle. The movie hat appeared to have gold buttons, like the uniform jacket. However I was happy to have the hat match my jacket, and another blow was stuck against accuracy. The yellow ribbon came from a local craft store, I cut small sections to fit around the buttons (which appeared glued, not stitched, on the hat). I assume the movie hats had the ribbons sewed on, mine is secured with a safety pin in the back. The BURNS nameplate is just covered with a bit of reflective paper that I've etched GCPD into.
The hat is the item I consider the most made, where as the rest of the costume is just expertly collected.
-Badge and Citations.
-Shoulder Pins.
These are the two hardest items. RPFer jvasilatos runs the site ORDER YOUR AUTHENTIC GOTHAM POLICE BADGE REPLICA HERE! and it was nearly universally accepted that he made the most quality replicas of the badges. My plan was to buy a jvasilatos' badge and cobble together the holder and citations. However before I got a badge I started looking for the citation bars Foley wears, as they're numerous and barely seen. Somes.com, and several others offered most of what I needed, as well as badge/citation holders. They can run as little as $4 or 5, to $20 each.
I knew I could find at lease 5 of the 7 citations, and to be honest I was only going to get six, because what's a citation or two between cosplayers? I contacted jvasilatos and told him about my project. And he had a little surprise for me. You see he takes his work seriously and was preparing a Foley badge on his own. It was not cheap. But when I saw the picture I knew where the money went. He had good screencaps that helped fill in the blanks.
The shoulder pins aren't easy because they don't match the right shoulder letters are GC, the left are PD. "PD" is a common abbreviation. They're 1/2" and silver. I found mine at onscene.com. They're cheap enough. The GC is custom, and mine were about $20 including shipping. Sadly, they didn't arrive in time for Halloween. :facepalm
In lieu of the GC pins I found stick on craft letters about the right size, style, and silver color, even in a craft store that's easier said than done.
-Gun.
-Name Badge.
Both the name badge and toy pistol came from eBay. The name badge was the glossy silver option by seller 'lewiserv.' It was under $9.00 shipped, a decent price for a custom item. The gun is a basic cap gun. I got it in part because I wanted a blatantly colored gun tip, as I looked enough like a real cop enough already.
The only notable problem I ran into was losing the pin backs on the citations. Even carrying a spare I ended up losing four. The jacket and lining was thicker than some backs could handle. One was so loose I ultimately covered it with a piece of cork from a bottle. In the future a strip of cork board durable enough to cover them would be great.
I'm proud of what I've done given its not the most elaborate costume ever. But this is one of my first attempts beyond just buying a costume, and I'm happy the most common reaction I got to it was a salute, the second was, "Hey, are you a cop?"
Only in Gotham friend. Only in Gotham.
Please vote for me next week!! :thumbsup
