agerstenberger
New Member
Hello everyone,
Disclaimer: this is my first-ever costume build that required materials and skills beyond makeup, thrift store clothing, and duct tape.
I've been a huge James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes fan for quite some time. Once the Captain America: The Winter Soldier film was released earlier this year, I began conceptualizing a gender-bent version to suit my smaller female frame. Originally, I thought that I could handle this costume without exerting too much time and energy; I had an inflated sense of building-pride/confidence from the Edward Scissorhands costume I built/wore for Halloween 2013.
To all of you dedicated cosplayers - YOU ROCK. Seriously. This costume build was very difficult for me; I totally underestimated the time, knowledge, and expertise required to make something halfway comparable to what I've see created by others on the internet.
The build:
1.) The clothing portion of the Winter Soldier costume wasn't very hard for me; I already had the black tactical belt and leg holster (recreational use). I procured the black tactical vest from our local Army Surplus store. I purchased the black tactical pants, black faux leather jacket, black finger-less gloves, and silver gloves from eBay, along with the used black Under Armour shirt. I used a pair of black boots I already owned, and grabbed the black face mask off of Amazon.
2.) The arm was very difficult for me. I stalked various tutorials and threads detailing how each member went about their WS arm build; I determined that Worbla would be my best bet. The idea stemmed from a tutorial posted on one of RPF's forums, actually. Due to my pottery experience, the thought of heating and molding Worbla appealed to me more than the other methods. Ordering the medium size worbla sheet was the easy part. Everything degraded from there.
2a.) The tape arm mold: instead of creating a plaster mold of my arm, I opted for a tape one instead. Looking back, this was a serious mistake and hindered the overall build and my finished arm. If I did this again, I would definitely invest in a plaster mold, regardless of the mess, hassle, etc. When I was molding the pieces and articulating them onto the UA shirt, a plaster arm would have been SO MUCH better.
2b.) Once the tape mold was complete, I placed a tight cotton shirt over the tape mold and began to draw each section of the WS arm pattern using a permanent marker. Once the pieces were finished from shoulder to wrist, I cut each cloth piece out and matched them up to one another. As the original poster of this method suggested, a numbering system is key.
2c.) After flattening the Worbla sheet with a blow dryer, I drew the first five pieces of the WS arm pattern onto the Worbla and cut each piece out using tin shears. I took the first five pieces and heated each one with my blow dryer, and placed them onto my tape arm mold. The result was less than pleasing; the bumpy consistency of the tape mold made each piece look very un-metal-like. At that point, I knew the tape mold wasn't going to work. Due to how tight on time I was before Halloween, I recruited my mom to be my live arm model, as she is about the same size. Again - invest in a plaster arm. Just do it.
2d.) I molded the remaining pieces of my pattern using my mom's actual arm and abandoned the tape mold. I cross-checked all of my work on me once the pieces cooled enough to be handled without getting deformed. There was some fine-tinkering here and there; however, everything progressed much better using her arm. Once all of the pieces were molded, I moved on to the painting stage.
3.) Metallic silver paint: I spray painted one of the Worbla pieces after some light sanding with metallic silver paint. Simply put - it looked like crap. The texture was horrid. Worbla, even when you think it looks and feels smooth, just isn't. I had a bottle of Gesso, and proceeded to paint another piece with this material, sanding after three coats. The results were much better and smoother. Gesso is a soft material. In hindsight, I would have experimented with wood glue, too. I think it would be more durable.
4.) With the paint and sanding complete, I started articulating each piece of the WS arm onto the UA shirt, using my mother as my left arm model. Hot glue and Worbla are a hard pair; you have to be really careful not to overheat the Worbla during the glue/application process.
5.) After the shirt was fully articulated, I painted on the red star by hand using acrylic paint.
6.) I cut the arm off of the black faux leather jacket and adhered the seam together with hot glue for a clean finish.
7.) Costume entry photo:
8.) I'll post the proof photo tomorrow.
Thank you!
Disclaimer: this is my first-ever costume build that required materials and skills beyond makeup, thrift store clothing, and duct tape.
I've been a huge James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes fan for quite some time. Once the Captain America: The Winter Soldier film was released earlier this year, I began conceptualizing a gender-bent version to suit my smaller female frame. Originally, I thought that I could handle this costume without exerting too much time and energy; I had an inflated sense of building-pride/confidence from the Edward Scissorhands costume I built/wore for Halloween 2013.
To all of you dedicated cosplayers - YOU ROCK. Seriously. This costume build was very difficult for me; I totally underestimated the time, knowledge, and expertise required to make something halfway comparable to what I've see created by others on the internet.
The build:
1.) The clothing portion of the Winter Soldier costume wasn't very hard for me; I already had the black tactical belt and leg holster (recreational use). I procured the black tactical vest from our local Army Surplus store. I purchased the black tactical pants, black faux leather jacket, black finger-less gloves, and silver gloves from eBay, along with the used black Under Armour shirt. I used a pair of black boots I already owned, and grabbed the black face mask off of Amazon.
2.) The arm was very difficult for me. I stalked various tutorials and threads detailing how each member went about their WS arm build; I determined that Worbla would be my best bet. The idea stemmed from a tutorial posted on one of RPF's forums, actually. Due to my pottery experience, the thought of heating and molding Worbla appealed to me more than the other methods. Ordering the medium size worbla sheet was the easy part. Everything degraded from there.
2a.) The tape arm mold: instead of creating a plaster mold of my arm, I opted for a tape one instead. Looking back, this was a serious mistake and hindered the overall build and my finished arm. If I did this again, I would definitely invest in a plaster mold, regardless of the mess, hassle, etc. When I was molding the pieces and articulating them onto the UA shirt, a plaster arm would have been SO MUCH better.
2b.) Once the tape mold was complete, I placed a tight cotton shirt over the tape mold and began to draw each section of the WS arm pattern using a permanent marker. Once the pieces were finished from shoulder to wrist, I cut each cloth piece out and matched them up to one another. As the original poster of this method suggested, a numbering system is key.
2c.) After flattening the Worbla sheet with a blow dryer, I drew the first five pieces of the WS arm pattern onto the Worbla and cut each piece out using tin shears. I took the first five pieces and heated each one with my blow dryer, and placed them onto my tape arm mold. The result was less than pleasing; the bumpy consistency of the tape mold made each piece look very un-metal-like. At that point, I knew the tape mold wasn't going to work. Due to how tight on time I was before Halloween, I recruited my mom to be my live arm model, as she is about the same size. Again - invest in a plaster arm. Just do it.
2d.) I molded the remaining pieces of my pattern using my mom's actual arm and abandoned the tape mold. I cross-checked all of my work on me once the pieces cooled enough to be handled without getting deformed. There was some fine-tinkering here and there; however, everything progressed much better using her arm. Once all of the pieces were molded, I moved on to the painting stage.
3.) Metallic silver paint: I spray painted one of the Worbla pieces after some light sanding with metallic silver paint. Simply put - it looked like crap. The texture was horrid. Worbla, even when you think it looks and feels smooth, just isn't. I had a bottle of Gesso, and proceeded to paint another piece with this material, sanding after three coats. The results were much better and smoother. Gesso is a soft material. In hindsight, I would have experimented with wood glue, too. I think it would be more durable.
4.) With the paint and sanding complete, I started articulating each piece of the WS arm onto the UA shirt, using my mother as my left arm model. Hot glue and Worbla are a hard pair; you have to be really careful not to overheat the Worbla during the glue/application process.
5.) After the shirt was fully articulated, I painted on the red star by hand using acrylic paint.
6.) I cut the arm off of the black faux leather jacket and adhered the seam together with hot glue for a clean finish.
7.) Costume entry photo:
8.) I'll post the proof photo tomorrow.
Thank you!
