This is a Shredder variant from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles best known as Ch'rell, but also created and sold as "Armorized Shredder" in toy stores. This was a Pepakura file I got from PepMaster. This is the first costume I’ve ever created and the first time I’ve worked with Pepakura Designer, fiberglass, or resin.
My first challenge was finding a costume I liked that also fit my body. I wanted to minimize the sewing as much as possible because I also have zero experience in that realm as well, and I can only learn so many things at once. I also wanted something classic that everyone could recognize and connect with. Shredder does this well, but I’m a bit bigger than your typical martial arts master. So when I discovered the armorized shredder variant, I knew I had hit the jackpot!
Then the nightmare came. This costume was not anywhere near the proportions I needed. Up scaling it to fit my upper torso left the waist so small that not even the smallest (110lbs) woman could get it to fit her. Needless to say Pepakura designer and scaling became a rather sharp and painful learning curve.
Once everything was built out of 110lb card stock I weighed heavily on Stealth's "Hero Tutorials" to help me grasp the vital skills I needed (and to provide a chuckle here and there when things got stressful). Everything got a solid coat of resin (from Home Depot). This became a nightmare as well as none of the resin would cure, and if it did, it would take half a week. I got a tone of help and suggestions from folks until I eventually discovered that the cups I was using were dissolving in the resin and causing the tacky surface. Swapping from plastic cups to plastic bowls made everything easier and solved the issue.
Next I chopped up fiberglass cloth and fiberglass mat (to see which I liked better), coated the inside of the parts in spray adhesive, and then overlayed it with the fiberglass strips/chunks and finished off the step by coating it all in resin.
Next was finishing the surface which meant Bondo. I learned to hate Bondo! Eventually I swapped to wood filler which was much easier to sand, but still not great to apply. In resurfacing my costume, I now use topping. It dries quickly and literally sands smooth in 1 or 2 seconds.
Finally I followed Stealth's painting recommendations and they worked great... well not for the hammered paint... that I discovered has to be used exactly as directed otherwise it doesn't work so well.
Probably the most trying portion of the build was realizing that I had a boat load of parts and really no costume. I had to figure out how this was all going to attach and work. I ended up splitting the torso in half and making 6 points where the front and back meet. To anchor the shoulder boards and upper arms, I used elastic loops and the slid the appropriate anchor through it.
One thing I discovered about showing this costume is, once you have a good costume, it doesn’t really matter how great it is. What matters is how it makes people feel. I parade around with folks that are wearing much, much better costumes, and we always hear, "SHREDDER!" So when deciding which costume to build, first ask yourself, "is this costume for me, or is it for them?" Shredder was made for the people and those are the people who appreciate it the most.
Here is a link to my build thread: Shredder
My first challenge was finding a costume I liked that also fit my body. I wanted to minimize the sewing as much as possible because I also have zero experience in that realm as well, and I can only learn so many things at once. I also wanted something classic that everyone could recognize and connect with. Shredder does this well, but I’m a bit bigger than your typical martial arts master. So when I discovered the armorized shredder variant, I knew I had hit the jackpot!
Then the nightmare came. This costume was not anywhere near the proportions I needed. Up scaling it to fit my upper torso left the waist so small that not even the smallest (110lbs) woman could get it to fit her. Needless to say Pepakura designer and scaling became a rather sharp and painful learning curve.
Once everything was built out of 110lb card stock I weighed heavily on Stealth's "Hero Tutorials" to help me grasp the vital skills I needed (and to provide a chuckle here and there when things got stressful). Everything got a solid coat of resin (from Home Depot). This became a nightmare as well as none of the resin would cure, and if it did, it would take half a week. I got a tone of help and suggestions from folks until I eventually discovered that the cups I was using were dissolving in the resin and causing the tacky surface. Swapping from plastic cups to plastic bowls made everything easier and solved the issue.
Next I chopped up fiberglass cloth and fiberglass mat (to see which I liked better), coated the inside of the parts in spray adhesive, and then overlayed it with the fiberglass strips/chunks and finished off the step by coating it all in resin.
Next was finishing the surface which meant Bondo. I learned to hate Bondo! Eventually I swapped to wood filler which was much easier to sand, but still not great to apply. In resurfacing my costume, I now use topping. It dries quickly and literally sands smooth in 1 or 2 seconds.
Finally I followed Stealth's painting recommendations and they worked great... well not for the hammered paint... that I discovered has to be used exactly as directed otherwise it doesn't work so well.
Probably the most trying portion of the build was realizing that I had a boat load of parts and really no costume. I had to figure out how this was all going to attach and work. I ended up splitting the torso in half and making 6 points where the front and back meet. To anchor the shoulder boards and upper arms, I used elastic loops and the slid the appropriate anchor through it.
One thing I discovered about showing this costume is, once you have a good costume, it doesn’t really matter how great it is. What matters is how it makes people feel. I parade around with folks that are wearing much, much better costumes, and we always hear, "SHREDDER!" So when deciding which costume to build, first ask yourself, "is this costume for me, or is it for them?" Shredder was made for the people and those are the people who appreciate it the most.
Here is a link to my build thread: Shredder
