berger
Sr Member
heres the making of my girlfriends leeloo dallas costume.
after searching around online and not finding any affordable suspenders, i stumbled onto a tutorial on how to make your own, with dragonskin and rigid insulation foam. so after asking a few questions on here, i ordered some, and went to home depot and got the rest of the supplies.
because of the fact that i have no printer, i had to go to the public library to print off the template....... 4 times! the first time the file wasnt compatible with the printing methods available at the library.... i had it in jpeg form thinking that it wouldnt be a problem, but i couldnt print it out across multiple sheets of paper that way... so i converted it to a pdf and went back, printed it out and it was to small.... went into photoshop and messed with the scale, went back and printed it out AGAIN, only to find out that the way the template was set uo, the shoulders would be to far apart on my 5'4 girlfriend... so i came back home took a million measurements of my girlfriend and tweaked the template, converted it to pdf, and finally got a useable copy to work with.
came home and glued it onto my rigid insulation foam and cut it out, i also cut out about 40 pieces of 1 inch pvc, and went to glue it all together, which turned out fine for the most part, but as i was spacing them out, i ended up putting 1 less hole on each side. and only 4 holes on the bottom, as opposed to 5, because i forgot that the bottom holes in the front are smaller, and i didnt have anything smaller to work with.... but whatever, it still looks good for me, and at this point in time, i had procrastinated enough that i didnt have any time to come up with anything or it wouldnt be done in time for the halloween party we were attending....
i mised up the silicone and MAN it was thick and full of bubbles, si i poured it from one bucket into the other, from about 5 feet off the ground, in a thin stream, to try and get as many bubbles out as i could, poured it into the molds, popped as many bubbles as i could, and prayed for the best.
the next day i was pleasantly suprised to find it worked great! so i trimmed it up, cut the sides where it joins at a 45 degree angle, and mixed up a bit more silicone and glued it together, wedging it between more of the foam, and some heavy books covered in saran wrap..... THIS was scary, because i wasnt sure if it would join or not...
the next day it ended up working great! so i did the same for the shoulders and crotch, which was a LOT trickier, the crotch joined fine, but trying to get the shoulders to line up properly was a pain in the ass!... i ended up getting them both to line up, but one side has an air bubble in the middle of it, which i was worried would affect its structural integrity... but luckily it didnt.
overall, it turned out incredibly well, its not screen acurate, but im incredibly happy with the way it turned out, especially since ive never worked with molding or silicone or ANYTHING like this before. this was my first actual prop ive made, with the exception of a paper prop run i did a few years ago of skull island from king kong.
after searching around online and not finding any affordable suspenders, i stumbled onto a tutorial on how to make your own, with dragonskin and rigid insulation foam. so after asking a few questions on here, i ordered some, and went to home depot and got the rest of the supplies.
because of the fact that i have no printer, i had to go to the public library to print off the template....... 4 times! the first time the file wasnt compatible with the printing methods available at the library.... i had it in jpeg form thinking that it wouldnt be a problem, but i couldnt print it out across multiple sheets of paper that way... so i converted it to a pdf and went back, printed it out and it was to small.... went into photoshop and messed with the scale, went back and printed it out AGAIN, only to find out that the way the template was set uo, the shoulders would be to far apart on my 5'4 girlfriend... so i came back home took a million measurements of my girlfriend and tweaked the template, converted it to pdf, and finally got a useable copy to work with.
came home and glued it onto my rigid insulation foam and cut it out, i also cut out about 40 pieces of 1 inch pvc, and went to glue it all together, which turned out fine for the most part, but as i was spacing them out, i ended up putting 1 less hole on each side. and only 4 holes on the bottom, as opposed to 5, because i forgot that the bottom holes in the front are smaller, and i didnt have anything smaller to work with.... but whatever, it still looks good for me, and at this point in time, i had procrastinated enough that i didnt have any time to come up with anything or it wouldnt be done in time for the halloween party we were attending....
i mised up the silicone and MAN it was thick and full of bubbles, si i poured it from one bucket into the other, from about 5 feet off the ground, in a thin stream, to try and get as many bubbles out as i could, poured it into the molds, popped as many bubbles as i could, and prayed for the best.
the next day i was pleasantly suprised to find it worked great! so i trimmed it up, cut the sides where it joins at a 45 degree angle, and mixed up a bit more silicone and glued it together, wedging it between more of the foam, and some heavy books covered in saran wrap..... THIS was scary, because i wasnt sure if it would join or not...
the next day it ended up working great! so i did the same for the shoulders and crotch, which was a LOT trickier, the crotch joined fine, but trying to get the shoulders to line up properly was a pain in the ass!... i ended up getting them both to line up, but one side has an air bubble in the middle of it, which i was worried would affect its structural integrity... but luckily it didnt.
overall, it turned out incredibly well, its not screen acurate, but im incredibly happy with the way it turned out, especially since ive never worked with molding or silicone or ANYTHING like this before. this was my first actual prop ive made, with the exception of a paper prop run i did a few years ago of skull island from king kong.
