Darksiders 2 Reaper Form Death - WIP

For Comicon next year I have decided to go as Death from Darksiders 2. Originally it was going to do the regular Death, with some juggernaut armour. But when I found a 3D file for the Reaper Form I was easily swayed. So .....


This is the 3D file I found. After I cleaned it up a bit.

I removed the main body as this will be made with material and ... well my body.

Separating all the components,
Wings
Belt
Buckle
Shoulder pad
Bracers
and the extras

I then started work on converting those bits into suitable pepakura files. So far I have finished the wings and have done one hand, Started work on the lantern, though I may restart that with foam, and have done both the books, or at least the base for them.





The wings and the fingers I am going to try and articulate, the wings especially, as they are almost a meter wide each. So having them able to close down will make moving around much much much much much much easier.

More pics will come with further updates. I have chain on the way Just got some Acetate so I can make the lantern and the soul hour glass glow an eerie green with the aid of some LED s

I have a bit more unfolding to do and work to go on this but am getting there.

DMTDeadpool out.

Just a little update.

Done the hourglass of souls.



got some PVC and some foam insulation the other day for the scythe. So that is on the agenda.

Another update, sort of...

I have scrapped the idea for pepakura lantern and hour glass, and have decided to go for foam.

So far, I have all the foam parts cut out for the hourglass, and have ordered come green plastic cups online, well it's a set of glasses, but I only need the green ones, luckily there are two of each colour in the set. I plan to glue these together at the base and use that as the glass section. This way I can install a couple LEDs to give it an eerie glow ... WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The lantern I am also doing in foam, I have green acatate, which I will use to line the inside of each panel to again be able to install LEDs for spookiness. *rattling of chains and spooky noises* Talking of chain, I just got 5 meters of chain, which I will be using to attach the bits to the belt, once I make it.

And of course there is the scythe, Which I have drawn out on the foam board,

The skulls are crude, but I only sketched them in for an idea of placement. That will probably change too. But it's sketched out at least.

Plastic cups arrived today, and am currently waiting for the glue to fully set.

But here is a mock up of the new "hourglass of souls" I still have to install the electronics, have to find a way to securely hold the battery and have it removable for changing. I also have to finish sculpting the skulls for the bottom, have some foam cut and shaped roughly, just the finer detail to do and cleaning it all up of course.

All looking really good so far. Nice effect you've got with the cups as well. How do you plan to diffuse the LED light or are you looking to go with a point of light effect? Either could look good I imagine.

Design is looking really good for the scythe as well. What's the material like? Is insulation foam like pink foam that I've seen mentioned around and about? Interested to see how the carving of that goes. How are you planning to do that?

Thanks, Ikras.

I plan to use multiple lights and some form of reflector in the base of each glass.

Yeah the foam board is much the same as the pink and the blue foam boards. It is actually really easy to carve, and it sands down beautifully. Most importantly it is incredibly light. Quite cheap too, I got 1200mm x 450mm x 50mm board, (seen pictured) for £5.68 from B&Q. which is not exactly the cheapest place in the UK to buy from. I am sure if I shopped around a bit I might have found it slightly cheaper. The only thing is a lot of care has to be taken when painting as some paints will eat the foam away, and all the hard work.



Here is a much better picture of the reaper form. The one I use as reference.

Okay, after much calculations and trial and error with the badly labelled resistors I have I finally got a nice little series of LEDs going ready for installation.



This is all just mock up, I still have to solder the circuit together (held together with tape for now) Now that I know it all works, that is tomorrow's job and will make the lighting for the lantern so so so much easier.

You are making good progress. It's looking good.

hour glass looks cool

How do you plan to finish the foam scythe. Do you have particular paints in mind? I'll be watching carefully as I think something like that would be perfect for my next project. A trip to B&Q might be on the cards soon then. Always great to come across a fellow UK based member. Which comicon do you plan to go to with this? Would be great to see it in person once it was done?

Lighting is looking good. Always a satisfying moment when you find out everything is connected round the right way.

Your making some good progress. It's all looking good.

Alpha Proto said:

You are making good progress. It's looking good.

Click to expand...

gothic said:

hour glass looks cool

Click to expand...

Badgersbunk said:

Your making some good progress. It's all looking good.

Click to expand...

Thanks folks. I hope to keep up a good standard thoughout this build. Am learning new things through this build, the first one to use electronics... And the foam board.

Ikras said:

How do you plan to finish the foam scythe. Do you have particular paints in mind? I'll be watching carefully as I think something like that would be perfect for my next project. A trip to B&Q might be on the cards soon then. Always great to come across a fellow UK based member. Which comicon do you plan to go to with this? Would be great to see it in person once it was done?

Lighting is looking good. Always a satisfying moment when you find out everything is connected round the right way.

Click to expand...

I will be researching the best way to seal the foam before I commit, and will test a few of the top suggestions to find the best (and cost effective) method, so I will let you know.

I was at MCM Scotland Comicon in September, as Shredder. I plan to go back next year with my Reaper costume. If anything comes up sooner, I will be going to that if I have my costume done in time...

Tonight's update....

The circuit has been soldered, and taped up. It is nice and secure and safe.

I was experimenting with ways to diffuse the LED light, and came up with a novel idea. I inserted the lights through the foam, and placed a plastic shot glass over the diodes, surrounding the shot glass I used fluffed up cotton wool and got this effect....



You can't really tell from the pictures, but the cotton wool gives the glow a kind of smoke effect, the only problem is, I am going to have to make some new cones, (top and bottom) to fit the battery pack. I may actually get away with a couple strips of foam to rise the cones up a bit, giving the battery enough room to slide in and out and remain relatively hidden when in. The battery is on the top of the piece, and slides snugly in a hole in the foam, at an angle, so it won't go anywhere during movement, but will be able to be removed with little effort. But you can see (in the tub supporting the hourglass) it sticks out a bit.

The wires are hidden, and the whole thing is pretty light (pun intended)


I forgot to ask you Ikras, what is your project you are using the foam for? I will be sculpting the skulls real soon, will probably be the next update. I also found that there are many foam sealants out there, but PVA glue will seal it. I will experiment on some scrap foam first though.

I have added a switch to the circuit and here is a pic of the smoke effect



have done a riser for the cone too, it now hides the battery fully. It needs some heat forming to fit properly, now am gonna start sculpting the skulls, more soon.

Say hello to my little friends


And on the hourglass.


some clean up to go before am happy with it.

Great to hear MCM Scotland is the target. I was there this year as well in my iron man. Couldn't really see much though so there's a reasonable chance I walked right past you at some point. Great to hear there's a chance I can see this in person when it's done. All shaping up really nicely.

I'm in the beginning stages of working on Ornstein from Dark Souls at the moment. Considering using that foam for the spear head (possibly the helmet as well, now that I think about it) and hoping to get a build thread started sometime over the next few days. MCM Scotland is the target for that as well. A few cons in mind before then but I don't want to rush things. I'll be watching your progress with it eagerly and continue thinking for now.

The lighting effect you have in the hourglass is great. Feel that kind of swirly diffuse illumination fits with the character so well. The skulls are looking great as well.

I am pretty sure I saw you a few times, If it was you, your suit looks bad ass in the flesh... erm in the foam... yeah...

Am looking forward to seeing your build, the foam is good, but I found that rather than sculpting with tools, using only sandpaper is much better. I was working with two pieces of 120 grit a large piece for shaping and a small piece for the detailing work. I dunno if the pink or blue foam is better for sculpting with tools, but the yellow is decent enough. Only thing is the mess.... Oh dear lord the mess it makes! Wear a mask when sanding this stuff. Work in a garage or shed or some such area cause it is insane how much dust there is lol.
I might do a bit more work on the skulls before am final on them, But they are small pieces, only a couple inches in height, at best. And I hope the over all apperance will be more distracting than a few 2 inch skulls on one part of the decorations lol

It took a bit of trial and error.... Well, it was really just trying a few ideas till I came up with the smoke effect. I was going to paint the inside of the glass, or try and diffuse the light some other way, (putting the LED at the edges of the tumblers, use a cover over the LEDs to refract the light...) Then I thought about the cotton wool. I have used it for years when I painted the Warhammer 40,000 figures, for use of gun barrel smoke, and other smoke effects. So I gave it a go here and it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I have isolated the LEDs from the cotton, as light = heat .... Heat + cotton wool = fire..... and to be honest it's hot enough in costume to be worried about fire as well. lol

The only problem is, it's getting too cold to resin my card pieces (wings and fingers) and getting too wet for working outside (my only real option for some parts) But I will do what I can.... I plan on getting some American run around carrying the ball by hand game shoulder pads. Possibly next month, these will be the support for the wings so I can get started on the hood and robes over the winter months. The neighbours are going to love me come spring, when I get out with the resin and the rattle cans.

Just noticed, it's been two days since I last posted... Well, had a late shift tonight, so I have some excuse....

Anyway, here is another little update.


Here is the main body of the lantern. I am going to wire all this up before I glue it all together. Not quite sure how I am going to diffuse the light in this one, or if I will at all. Was thinking of keeping it like an old timey lantern, with the "flame" just a single point in the centre. Any suggestions welcome.


And this little guy... This is going to become what makes my wings open and close.

The plan is simple. In theory....

I take out the inner guts, remove the piddly little toy car motor and replace with a more powerful motor (on it's way) The wings will be articulated much like the fingers will, but will only require the outer set of bones to have the actual elastic/wire and it will be in reverse, so pulling down on the wire will open the wings....as opposed to the fingers where pulling on the wires will close the fingers into a fist) This means the natural position will be closed, the motor will only be required to open the wings, this way I do not have to work out a break mechanism to keep the wings closed, and they won't suddenly spring open if the motor rig fails.

The Control guts will be salvaged and will have it wired up inside one of the hand rigs. A kill switch will be inside, so I don't accidentally open the wings in a crowd, but will put full control of the wings motor (forward and reverse) so I can open and close them at will. This way I do not have to rely on others to help open and close the wings for photo opportunities then wander round some more. And it will just look insane being able to stand there and be able to open the wings and all remote controlled.

If the RC idea craps out, I will just have to wire the whole thing up with a wire up the arm, but I really don't want to have to do that.

This costume is going to require more batteries than christmas morning.

Cheers. Had a lot of fun running around in it, well, slowly walking and I've got a couple more outings in it planned early next year. Might see about adding some upgrades before then but we'll see how it goes. I'll give you a shout once I get something new up, it's just a lot of sketches and some chainmail at the moment but it's something at least.

Sounds like some good advice, wouldn't have thought of that. I'll need to look into finding some time to pick something up at some point and give it a try. Looking forward to seeing how the scythe starts to turn out.

Coming up with ideas in that manner is half the fun if you ask me. A large section of the back of my arc reactor was a sweet tub that I walked past in Tesco and thought... that'll do nicely.

I ended up having to borrow a relative's garage to get my painting done. I think that there was a light dusting of red and gold on most surfaces by the time I was done. Hadn't appreciated before just how much spray paint can get everywhere except for that small area you were aiming it at.

2 days between posting isn't bad at all if you ask me. Either I work very slowly or you work really quickly.

Lantern is looking good. If you were looking to try and do a flame effect there's the little tealight LED things you can get that might be worth a look. They are pretty dim but I've never had a look inside to see if they could be powered up more. Not sure what the circuit is like at all. Could be worth a look as I think they can be picked up for not too bad a cost. If they're no good I think even just a single flame effect could look good. 1 or maybe a small cluster of bright LEDs and you could set up something slightly diffusive closely around them to still get a something point like.

Liking the sound of the control setup on the wings but I can't get the image out of my head now of them opening in a crowd and people flying away as they get bashed by them. Could always be a useful backup if you can't get through where you want to go. That whole setup should look great in the end. Do you plan to have the wing mount on shoulders or how do you aim to secure it?

That is always the fun part, working out how it's going to fit together, I have a little book I carry with me at work, so I can write or sketch in any ideas when they come to me. I can then elaborate and problem solve later.

I will be investing in a styrene cutter (hot wire) for the main cutting parts of the foam, much cleaner than sawing lol The cutting and rough sculpting can be done with tools and the like... For my skulls I used a junior hacksaw to trim them down to the right size then took off the edges with the large sheet of sand paper, (lower grit might have done it faster mind you, but 120 was what I had at hand) then I started working with tools, which is good for making holes and gouges and the like, but the tools I was using made rather scruffy edges, and to be honest, the sand paper is quick enough to work the foam down. But definitely use cutting tools to get the rough shapes first.

I know exactly what you mean with the sweet tub. Working in operating theatres I get the chance to see many interesting things that I can incorporate (before anything gets thrown out for non medical reasons, like out of date or even malfunctioning I am always offered it cause "It's going in the bin anyway, if it's of any use, take it" is the consensus. and also the amount of bowls and pots I get for mixing resin and other things is awesome. and cardboard boxes.... I can get as much cardboard boxes as I want. It truly is a wonderful perk.) Also for anatomy, Knowing how things work and bend and twist and flex helps.

But it's not just recycling trash from work, anything can be used for something is my motto.

I may have to find a similar borrowed garage, but I think I should have enough to get working on during the winter months

I am still undecided about the diffusion lol but I always "wire" up my circuits on electrical tape first, then test fit them, see how things look before soldering and fitting. Nice ideas though, I will look into those flame ones, I may be able to just swap over leds and up the resistor, we'll see.

You know the same thoughts crossed my mind, it's the reason I am going to have the natural position of the wings be closed. Last thing I want is a wire to snap or the motor/gears to slip while walking through a crowd and suddenly there is a dozen people thrust out of my way. Though I do plan on taking two costumes. One will be less obstructive for probably a few hours in the morning of the event, so I can do a spot of shopping and will get a room in the premier inn closer to the SECC this time so I can go, change and drop off purchases then return in reaper costume , to be able to wander around and get pictures taken.