My Doctor Who Vashta Nerada Cosplay Build Thread (Image Heavy)

Being a huge fan of Doctor Who I've always wanted to do a Cosplay and make it one I haven't seen much of at DragonCon so I figured why not give the Vashta Nerada a try.


This is my first full costume involving creating the major pieces from scratch instead of just acquiring the proper pieces like my Stargate SG-1 Off World costume. I've learned a lot during this build and want to thank everyone that posted advice, How To links, and Videos on Pep, Resin, and Bondo.


I started out looking in the Doctor Who Pepakura Thread but the Vashta Nerada files listed on the first page are no longer available so I kept digging. I eventually found a set here: vashtaneradasuit correct scale - Download - 4shared - Hell brell


The printed plans resulted in 36 pages. I used 100# card stock. After many many hours of cutting out pieces I was finally able to start assembling.


I used SuperGlue for my assembly and in hind sight that probably wasn't the best idea. I'll probably use low-temp hot glue in the future.

Once I had the pepakura model made it was time to move on to the resin and fiberglass phase



Next was the Bondo Phase. I've never worked with Bondo before so it was definitely interesting. My initial application leaves a LOT to be desired but the sander helped clean up my messy work.



I then moved on to Rondo the insides of both pieces. I'm not sure if I should have Rondo'd first or Fiberglassed first. I did a layer of Resin, then Fiberglassed and then Rondo'd the inside.



The bottom of the Helmet was rather weak so I got a piece of plexiglass and cut a rim out and then used Resin to secure it to the Helmet base.




Outside of both pieces was a few layers of Resin followed by Bondo and TONS of sanding and reapplying.



Once I had it "good enough" (DragonCon was looming closer and closer) It was time to paint. The inside of the helm got a Flat Black and the outside got Gloss White



After I got it painted it was time to work on the electronics. I'll post the electronics schematics and pics in the next thread.

I spent lots of time searching for "white work gloves" to use with this costume and found a pair that would get the job done (Harbor Freight $1.99 Goatskin Driving Gloves) then on the Monday before DragonCon I woke up from a dead slumber around 3a with an epiphany. Work Gloves was the wrong thing to think of. SKI GLOVES! I then searched and found a Seirus Innovation Men's Whistler Glove pair that looked perfect. Bonus: They were on sale for $14.97 and shipped Prime. (NOTE: Apparently the sale is over, they show $69.99 now. OUCH!)

I ordered a pair of Kamik Men's Lunar Insulated Boots for $29.96 but they only came in Black. A few coats of White PlastiDip and they became perfect. My lovely wife Jessica helped with all the painting.



I didn't have the budget for the Sparco Formula-1 Racing Suit that they used in the episode so I searched for something that could pass for it with some modification. I found a candidate at All Seasons Uniforms Men's 100% Cotton White Coverall

Again, my lovely wife to the rescue. She removed the pockets and crafted up some shoulder pieces to mimic the suit used on screen. She then used Fine Tipped Sharpies to color all the thread lines and then add more in the open areas to match what we saw in the pics I found.



I found a $9.99 skull mask at a local Spirits Halloween (lucky timing since they aren't around Nov-mid July) and overall I think it pulls off what I was trying to accomplish.



I took Scariest Villain in the DragonCon Doctor Who BritTrack 50th Anniversary Ball Costume Contest and lost track of how many people took pictures of me. If you see this costume around on the internet please let me know.

Once I had everything painted it was time to add the electronics.

I had one blue LED (had one in my scrap pile) in the collar circle using 6V source and a 10 bar Green LED at the neck using a 9V source. *The Helmet used a 12V Blue LED flexible Bar*powered by an A23 12V battery.



I used a dremel to make the small holes and a 2.5in hole saw to cut the fan opening. The fan was run off of a 9V battery (I REALLY need to investigate a better cooling solution) 9V on a 12V fan just kept the condensation from forming but did little to cool.



The Blue LED Bar light inside the helm for the face was just an A23 battery holder I hacked together and a switch on the outside of the helm to match the screen used helm.



The Front Blue LED was cut into place with a dremel then wired up with a 6V source as indicated in the schematic above.



The Green Bar LED at the neck of the collar was switched with a micro switch inside the bottom of the collar and then held in place via Magic Sculpt. It was very last minute and done quickly. I'll definitely be using a dremel to clean this up and clean it up a bit.



I didn't like the way the collar was sitting on me so I added some last minute foam padding to help it keep the Helmet more level to the ground



I could definitely done some of this better but when the clock is running sometimes you have to settle for "good enough" and get to the Con

I saw you at D*C and you looked awesome!

Maggie said:

I saw you at D*C and you looked awesome!

Click to expand...

Thanks If you got any pics I'd love to see them.

Between you and Volpin, you guys won all of the Con.

I plan on cosplaying the Vashta Nerada this year, I already have the pep I plan on starting it today. its my 2nd pep I'm doing so hopefully its scaled right. my first was a fail because of scale.

I'm 6'3" and about 220 and the files I used fit fine. I did have to pad the collar front and back a bit

Are you going to be at DragonCon?

No I wont be at DragonCon its to far for me :cry

Let me look at the Who pep thread again, I should have most or all of those pep files that I could re-up if they're dead. Yours was the only correctly scaled vashta helmet though, that's good to see.

Gotcha in my DragonCon Cosplay Music Video! You're at: 1:04
You looked amazing! Thanks for being there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psIug232o-0

Excellent video! Thanks for including me

How long did it take you to make this? I will be going to sucrocon (really unknown but still fun) in June

I wish I had tracked all my time so I could give a definitive answer but this was my first major build and I worked on it off and on for probably 4-5 months with huge gaps of time between some of the stages. The cutting out of the pieces from the 100# card stock was by far one of the most tedious and time consuming stages. Followed next by the assembly. The resin/fiberglass/bondo phases weren't too bad and I've learned that could be sped up with a UV lamp to shorten the curing time (or just take it out in full sun after each coat). I would say that if you started now you could definitely make a June Con date. The earlier you can start the better. I literally had paint still drying the night before leaving for DragonCon the year I made this so I definitely don't recommend delaying your starting of this if you choose to undertake the project.

Be sure to post of progress pics and make a build thread for yours. I'd love to see how yours turns out.

On another note: I'm still trying to figure out the best solution to ventilate the helmet. It's damn hot in that thing at times. I'll be working on another attempt at improving the fan system later this year.