2000AD - ABC Warriors - General Blackblood

B

breadbin

New Member
I figured it was about time I stopped lurking and started posting.

So here goes my current project: General Blackblood. For those of you not familiar with him, Blackblood is a member of the ABC Warriors, who feature in the 2000AD comic strip of the same name. They are a bunch of war robots designed to withstand atomic, bacterial and chemical warfare, and travel across the galaxy blowing things up and insulting each other…. more or less.

As with many strips in 2000AD, the design of the characters very much depend on who is drawing them. For my costume I’m not going for any specific artist’s interpretation, but will instead try to create an amalgamation of various artists work.

The face will be similar to Simon Bisley’s version, with a Clint Langley inspired jaw and cap (current strip) and an olive green Kevin Walker paint job (due to his origin story as an expert in jungle warfare, I always thought the green look made sense). The other major part of the costume will be a trench coat. He is seen wearing one in “Hellbringer” and “Roadkill”, and considering his love for peaked caps and epaulettes, I always thought the coat made sense. As Blackblood was originally a Volgan, I will try to create a slightly more Russian inspired coat than the red/gold one seen in “Hellbringer”.

I've attached few pics to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

I’m hoping to have a prototype finished for Halloween, and get the whole thing done by the end of the year. I have a couple of early progress pics sitting on my camera which I will try to upload at the weekend.

Thanks for watching!
 
Cool. It will be good to see one of the other ABC warriors brought to life beyond the almost-Hammerstein in the movie. Good luck!
 
Ok, so translating a comic book character into a wearable mask is not as easy as I had first assumed…

The main problem I was having was the size of the layer/vents area beneath the eyes and the angle of these. I went back to the comics for inspiration. The problem being that depending on the artist, they go from being a narrow strip, to almost covering the whole face (see attached).

So after spending hours cutting out templates and holding them to my face, I finally managed to come up with something somewhere between wearable and recognizable. This may end up being very much my own take on the character, but with over a dozen artists having drawn Blackblood in so many different ways, one more interpretation ain’t gonna hurt. :lol

The attached progress pictures are:

1. A bunch of cardboard which I used to figure out the shapes and sizes.

2. The faceplates cut from 2mm aluminium.

3. Some ridges to ensure a fairly sharp corner.

4. The three faceplates (I’m keeping the protective film on as long as possible.)

Hopefully I’ll have some more progress to show by the end of the week, day-job permitting. :unsure
 
Do you have a brake press to bend your metal?

I have one now, and I'm loving the results I'm getting with the new Doom Armor I'm making. I also have a pneumatic english wheel for bending and shaping in storage.
 
Thanks Minty! OT, the promo shots for you fan film are amazing! I’m keeping an eye out for any locations I can use for a photo shoot once my costume is done. There’s a scrap metal yard up the motorway from here, complete with abandoned machines, spare engines and rusting cranes. Throw some post-processed smoke in there and it could make for a nice Volgan invasion scene.

madrobot: unfortunately not. I currently don’t have the space for anything other than hand tools, so I have to improvise as I go. I attached some extruded L-section aluminium to my workbench to clamp and bend these parts (see attached). Worked a treat.

Do you have a progress thread for your Doom armour? I was thinking of having a go at making aluminium Gears armour as the curves on many of the plates seem to be 2-dimensional.
 
Sorry for lack of updates. Although I don’t need to get this thing finished until December, I was planning on completing enough of this costume to wear it for Halloween… which is 8 days away! :eek Unfortunately I haven’t had anywhere near enough time to work on this, never mind get online to post updates.

I will post a full report on this project after Halloween. In the mean time, here’s proof that I’m still working on this chap (sorry ‘bout all the tape and protective film. I’m trying to keep the aluminium as dent/scratch free as possible).
 
That's looking very good.

Interesting choice of materials, as in, real metal. Any reason for that?

I once did a metal chest plate, for a short film I was working on, but had to change it to plastic when tests suggested that if an actor took a tumble they might decapitate themselves.

Looks a professional standard work, what else have you done?
 
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Excellent work there looking very good so far ,now all we need is the rest of the Mek-nificent 7 .....now that would be something to see :love
 
Halloween’s over, so I best get this thread updated!

Cheers Minty! I used Aluminium because I don’t have much experience with other materials. I stumbled across some sheet aluminum in my parent’s garage last year and used it to make a Trap Jaw costume for Halloween. I enjoyed working with it so much that I decided to tackle something a little more elaborate this year. Previous to this, my creative outlet has been predominately 2 dimensional.

So the only other thing I have to show is my Trap Jaw costume. It still needs a lot of work, so once Blackblood is done, I will start a threat about Mr Jaw.

The mask does weigh a fair bit, but thanks to the padding of a wooly hat, I survived wearing it two nights in a row.



Thanks tango’d fett, I’m actually thinking about attempting a Joe Pineapples costume. It would look great on a mannequin standing next to Blackblood, as they get on oh-so well with each other :lol

Anyhows, here’s a few more photos of the mask progress. The second picture is a close up of the shot out eye. The third shows the structure of the peaked cap, which was then covered in fabric. The top and visor are both cut from a couple of plastic bins. The dimpled band was a last minute decision and is only temporary as I didn’t have time to make anything else for Halloween.
 
And another update. While I was busy sawing, filing and inhaling aluminium, my girlfriend helped out with the trench coat. We came up with the design together, but she did pretty much all of the sewing. The second photo shows the stage it was at for Halloween. The gap in the buttons is intentional as this was where the belt sat.
 
Here’s a pic of the costume as it is. Still needs a lot of work. Starting at the top, the hat needs a new band and crest and the side-skirt needs to be at least 10cm longer. The coat is missing the all important epaulettes (I was a bit gutted I didn’t get these finished for Halloween, but people recognized the costume even without them, so it wasn’t all bad) as well as a couple of medals – as seen in Hellbringer. The belt buckle (which is actually just a piece of folded aluminium covering the army belt closure) also needs some finishing touches – possibly a Volgan “V”, or Russian hammer and sickle.

I’m also going to make an aluminium chest piece to cover the area where the coat is open, and will have to think of something to cover my boots and legs.

I’m undecided as to whether I should go with my original plan of painting the mask olive green, or leaving it bare metal. I’ll post a close up of the face when I get a chance later on.
 
You’re not wrong there… :lol

Thanks though!

Here are a couple of close-ups I took this afternoon. I used these to show my progress over at dA, hence the watermark.


preview01_r_da.jpg


preview01_l_da.jpg
 
Looking better and better. The progress is flying.

Do Rebellion know about it, they should be interested?

Have you thought of getting a Stormtrooper type voice effects kit to go with it?

You metioned it should be green? I'd forgotten about that, the trick well be to keep the metalic feel. At least weathering will be easier, you can just scuff the paint rather than painting pretend metal scratches.

Nice work.
 
At last Blackblood getting some love...
I love this costume, I made a Blackblood costume waaaay back at UKCAC in the mid 90s, am also working on a new version, based on Kev Walkers take on Blackblood...

Seeing your costume made me very happy, keep up the great work...
tony j.
 
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