Go Green Ranger, Go! MMPR costume

wholesomejoe · Aug 13, 2012

I was going to wait to post this here until I had more to show, but I should have some more photos tonight as I get further into the process. I don't want to be one of those who posts pictures of a pep, and that's it. Credit to Dung0beetle for the pep file.. I got it from www.wearablearmory.com

I did a search on Green ranger pepakura helmets, and most of them are like that except for a few that have finished them or have come close. I haven't seen but 1 or 2 that I thought looked "Great" compared to the sculpted/casted kits out there. Obviously pepakura is cheaper to do, but it still requires a ton of work to get the kind of quality you'd expect out of casted items.

With that in mind, here is my WIP Mighty Morphin Power Rangers costume.

I'm starting with the helmet, and I intend to create the whole get up.. as well as lose about 10lbs so I won't look like an idiot wearing it.

I'm wanting this to be a semi budget build.. so I'm not wanting to buy jumpsuits from halu or any of the popular makers.. I want to get suggestions on how to craft my own for much cheaper. The premade ones I've seen all look terrible.

Any suggestions?

Here's where I'm at so far. I already started on the resin so I'll have pictures of that tonight. Is it normal for it to be sort of "flexible" after the first layer? Almost like I didn't put anything on it?

Photoshop Mockup

Z0M8I3 · Aug 13, 2012

Very nice! I'm going to be building this helmet soon I hope, What scale did you find useful? I'm not going to make it for me to wear but I would like an "about accurate" scale because I'm going to have it autographed.

firebapx · Aug 13, 2012

I love the green ranger ill be watching this closely

wholesomejoe · Aug 13, 2012

I scaled mine to 279 after some reading and research. I'm glad I did.. the default 241 would have been way too small.. I'm still worried its going to fit.. but I have high hopes.

Z0M8I3 · Aug 13, 2012

Great, My assumption was right, I came up with 279 as well.

Well remember that you can always split the helm like the real ones (front piece and a back piece) and have a latch on the outsides instead of worrying if the neck hole is too big. That's how they got the real ones on.

Being younger I never paid attention to that but when we went to a con last year and my daughter got to meet the pink ranger(original suit from MMPR but second actress I think) she got to hold the helmet...needless to say I inspected it very well..lol. Unfortunately didn't think to take pics of the helm though..

wholesomejoe · Aug 13, 2012

yeah, there's no getting it on any other way with these. The neck is supposed to be snug, so the ONLY way to wear these is to cut them in half and attach with latches or magnets.

EyeofSauron · Aug 13, 2012

yes,thats what i did, and if you watch the tv series closely, their helmets are also cut. sometimes they even take them off, they have snaps on both sides, and a joint at the top.

wholesomejoe · Aug 13, 2012

Here's where we are after 2 coats of resin...

The neck warped a tiny bit. I hope I can fix it.

Some parts of it are still "flexing" I'm guessing that won't change til I get the fiberglass on the inside.

ZeroNt11 · Aug 14, 2012

I'm digging the helmet buddy! If you need any help on anything let me know =D. I've pep'd a white ranger helmet, and my buddy did a green ranger. I'm pretty sure it was the same one you're doing honestly lol.
Econo Green Ranger TUTORIAL!!! - RangerBoard
There is the link to his rangerboard tutorial, and it has a tutorial for the soft parts too. I hope it helps! **I'm the white ranger in the pics lol**

wholesomejoe · Aug 19, 2012

Thanks! I've seen your thread over there. I am just starting on the fiberglass matting on the inside of the helmet. I normally use cloth, but I bought mat this time.. is it easier to work with?

Also, where did you get the white ranger pep file? I'm wanting to do the white ranger for my 4 year old. I also have to figure out how to scale it down to fit him. Any ideas?

SonofJoker · Aug 19, 2012

Looking great!

justinaalt · Aug 22, 2012

awesome job! thanks for the scale help because i've made that pep file 3 times now and always came out to small

wholesomejoe · Sep 8, 2012

I've got 2 layers of resin on the outside, and 2 layers of fiberglass mat on the inside. Its getting pretty solid.

My issues so far are.. the neck is warped, and I am starting to see just why these require so much work.. the resin isn't pretty.. and from my experience doing body work.. its not the easy thing to work with.

Now my question is, if I just want to make this one helmet.. but I want to smooth out where the paper folds are and fix all the "sharp" lines.. how does one do that? I would have immediately gone with clay, but that wouldn't work unless I molded the helmet which I am trying to avoid..

ideas?

nevets · Apr 9, 2013

making one myself any sugestion and updates? thanks steve

Welmanshire · Apr 10, 2013

You are going to want to use a combination of sanding and automotive body filler. Sanding down the ridges of your folds and using the body filler to round it all out. Then sand. Then the same again until you are happy with it all and have it as smooth and symmetrical as you want it. It is a laborious process, but it is well worth it if you want quality.

nevets · Apr 11, 2013

thanks. are you using dungbeetle's pep model or a different one? thans again steve

wholesomejoe · Jul 25, 2013

So I haven't updated this in a while. I sort of gave up on the pep model. It's a good model, but there's no way to achieve any sort of accuracy with something with that many curves.. the amount of bondo I had to add just to get it smooth took away most of the details. I wanted to look nice for dragon con.. so I went out and bought a kit from a rangerboard user named Eric0101 with the intention of doing all the work myself..

Here's the kit.

The kit is pretty nice, minor work needed to be done. Patching up the seam line, and some minor imperfections.. So off to work I went..

That part was easy enough... pretty basic body work.

Primed it up, and painted my prop morpher...

Here's where I get stuck. Once you fix all the imperfections you must cut the helmet in half to allow it to be worn. I was afraid of my dremeling skills so I let a friend do it. I don't know if the blade was too thick.. but we had a few issues.

The dremel jumped a few times and marred 2 teeth (which are fixable) and the back half didn't go as well as hoped.

The parts do no match back up. there's a pretty substantial gap.

My attempt to fix it based on some instructions I got from a member on facebook rangers.

Rondo!

That didn't exactly work out either. Just kept adding/sanding/adding/sanding/adding sanding.. to no avail.

So I then decided to try something else.. which wound up with my helmet put back together. I mixed up some rondo and filled the cut line. Now I'm not sure if I need to refiberglass the inside where its cut and just try to recut it and do a better job.. or try to cut it without filling the inside. I read somewhere that I could use a heated xacto knife to cut it with.

Any suggestions? Here it is in its current state

Here's a few other photos of my costume..

Boots that I've since already returned as they were too big, and too much work to make them look legit.

I ordered these instead...

Gibbtall · Jul 25, 2013

See if you can find a jeweler's saw, it's like a hack saw but with a really tiny blade. You might have trouble keeping the line straight but it gives you the most manoeuvrability and the least lost material.

You might have some trouble using the saw on the deepest cuts, but I figure you can pull the blade off and do it by hand really slow.

boochieboy · Jul 25, 2013

You need to add some fiberglass mat/cloth to the inside of where you rondo'd back together. Resin, Bondo or "Rondo" alone isn't strong enough for rejoining pieces permanently......add some fiberglass or it may crack and chip later. You just have to have a really steady hand with the Dremel. If you want, you can just use the Dremel to cut the two inside corners, and use a hacksaw blade by hand for the rest.

wholesomejoe · Jul 25, 2013

yeah, I wondered that. I will be gone all weekend but will add some more matting to the inside when I get home.

Is it going to hurt that I already ronded up the gap in the cut? I bought a razor saw but that even seems like it won't work that great. Any suggestions for cutting blades for the dremel?

Go Green Ranger, Go! MMPR costume

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