My Superman suit and Muscle shirt

AlpineDarthMaul

Active Member
I can add photos if anyone would like to see more....
I made this costume for Halloween about 10 years ago (when I was in better shape.)
About 2 months ago my brother volunteered me to make an apperance as Superman at an event he was involved with. I had very little time to dust it off, sculpt a more current "S" sheild for it, and make a muscle shirt to enhance my not-quite-superman frame. But here are the basic photos of what I did....
This is an old photo.. so this is the before version.
supershawn.jpg



This is the individual muscle sculptures. I was happy with everything but the chest. (It just shows I need to study anatomy a bit more, but in the end it was fine.)
Muscle07.jpg


This is the symbol sculpt... It was early enough that I ws using the poster art for reference rather than a photo of the costume. (At the time I had no idea there was little s's all over it, but I barely had the time anyway)

Symbol01.jpg


This is the muscle shirt. The muscles were molded and run in foam latex and then glued to a spandex shirt with rubber cement. The rubber cement was great because the bond was good and it stays flexible after it dries. (In the photo you can see that my body is wrapped in plastic wrap to protect my skin from the rubber cement.)

SupesMuscle01.jpg


This is the body suit. (On my brother) I airbrushed it quite a bit so that even where I was not glueing muscles in, there would be some kind of definition. I liked this alot for the abs. My stomache isn't exactly flat and I didnt want to add bulge by adding fake muscles on top, so the airbrushing gave definition without the extra padding.

SupesSuit01.jpg


The final suit... Besides the rubber muscles, I had to wear Blue lenses and we also layed rows of hair into my own hair because mine was too short to make the little curl in the front.

SupesFly01.jpg



It was good enough for the event, but I don't think I'll be wearing again anytime soon. But if anyone wants to see other angles or close-ups of anything let me know.
 
those muscle pieces are awesome . are those straight latex pieces just glued onto a tight fitting shirt ?

Also, did you sculpt it on a body form of yourself ?
 
The Muscles are foam latex, and yes just glued right to a form fitting shirt from Wal-mart I think. I did have to cut out the neck line so that it wouldn't be seen under the Superman suit.
I did have a couple of problems with the shirt..
1) The thin edges of the foam latex started to curl once the rubber cement was applied. So the next time I will need to apply glue to the thicker center of the muscle and place it on the shirt and then lift the edges slowly and paint the glue under before sticking them down. I also brushed a layer of glue over the edges of each muscle to help hold it down.
2)I had to wait for each muscle to dry entirely before I was able to move on to the next one. I really need to get a body form of myself to do work like that on. But it did make the process take MUCH longer than it really needed to be.
3) At the time that I made it, I wasn't even sure that my body suit would stretch over the top of the muscle shirt and myself... so be sure to allow that kind of space if you look into a muscle shirt.

The muscles were also sculpted on a casting of my own body, but it could have been done on a generic cast just as easily. Where I was applying individual muscles, exact fit wouldnt matter, only basic size and the correct placement on the shirt so that they would pull off the illusion. (I only had a couple of people ask me if I had "stuffed".. but I wasn't so sure they were talking about the muscles. hehe) But to "hide" the detail that does show through the cod area, there was a form fitting piece of foam there as well....LOL
 
I agree, the airbrushing really helps to pull it togther, and the muscle padding is quite subtle. Nice work :thumbsup
 
Nice job -- I'm glad you put the yellow shield on the cape, even if the movie doesn't have it.

Looks better that way.
 
Very sweet. Superman is one of my favorite comic book heroes and I just love to see all costumes, props, comics, movies, and all other stuff related to him.

And YES, please send as many pics as you can.
 
f33fbec8.jpg


The contrast is so high on my LCD that I can see the little circles a the tips of your fingers. I thought they were Mickey Mouse ears. :) Good costume though. You've done a fine job and you look well in the part and suit.


I've seen way way worse.
image03426sk.jpg
 
alpine,
nice job. It makes it look fairly simple to do...i'm not sure how much trouble it was for you to sculpt. A good solution that thin folks can use to beef up their costume look. Now if i can just find an opposite solution for myself...something to hide a few extra rolls. lol
 
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