Greetings fellow RPFers! I'd like to share with you guys my last minute Star Lord Halloween 2014 costume and my complete build process log. While it is extremely far from perfect, I'm proud to say it my first "finished" piece that got to the actual painting stage. I'd like to give thanks to the community for being awesome and an extra thanks to Helegak for his Star Lord helmet pep file. This post will be very words and fairly photo intensive with progress pictures and dates. Hopefully it will be enjoyable, educational, and/or entertaining to see read!
Sept 8
Took a glue gun to a 4" foam ball and went to town carving lines for an infinity orb
Sept 14
Groot makes an appearance! Yes this is a Star Lord thread but I saw many amazing groots on this forum and thought I'd give the head a quick attempt. This is the 2nd head I cut out of foam with a quick draw and cut. The first was just shaped horribly so I made a second improving on the first.
Sept 20
Took my dremel to Groot's head and added details. Also used a hot hair dryer to help shape the eyes and cheeks
Sept 21
Ok ok, here's the start of Star Lord's helmet pep. I actually started the back of the helmet (no pics) twice. The first set of print outs, I eyeballed it against my head and decided it was "way too small" and sized up a 2nd set of printouts - more on this later...
October 8
So I got more of the helmet done. At this point I'm starting to think my helmet is too large. But I can just line it with foam anyway right? Keep building...
October 12
Most of the front pep is now done and I know now that this is going to be humongous. Whatever, just keep building!!! For the next two weeks, I build the sides and back, all the while avoiding and dreading the moment when I have to put the thing together.
October 24 (T minus 7 days, buteverything has to be done the day before Halloween as I'd be traveling a lot on the actual day)
Final pep assembly complete and I take a side profile shot on my head. 1 week from Halloween. Sigh. It'll have to do.
October 25 (T minus 6 days)
Attached the the mouth and first coating of resin. Because I did not add any supports to the pep, i ended up hanging it through the eyes to lessen deformation.
October 26 (T minus 5 days)
Coat 2 of resin with added fiberglass to the areas where i thought the helmet was flimsiest (back and sides) This fiberglass mat is super duper heavy (26 oz/sqyd iirc) so it probably was not a good idea to use this one because it sagged the helmet a LOT and i had to poke and adjust every few hours as the resin was curing. As you can also see, its really resin rich as this is only my 2nd fiberglass experience and my first time using the heavy mat.
While the resin was curing, I began work on odds and ends - foam cheek cylinders and tube ends
paint test on a piece of cardboard - 2 coats each Rustoleum Aged Copper and Flat Soft Iron over Rustoleum gray filler primer.
Now, I've been leather jacket searching for 2 months, stopping by many many local thrift shops/goodwill and have had zero success in anything that i'd like to wear as a Star Lord jacket. Finally in my sleep deprived state on this last panic week before Halloween, I decided to try to rubber paint a spare raincoat and see how it turns out. Here is the initial test of Rustoleum's red Flexidip. I decided that it was too bright of a red and suspected that the culprit being the bright yellow base coat of the raincoat.
October 27 Monday (T minus 4 days)
Got home at 7pm from work and it's dark outside but i get outside and i start spraying a black Flexidip coat on the jacket, then red on top of that. It's dark outside and by 9 pm, condensation is starting to build and painting becomes more tricky... At the end of the evening, I bring the jacket inside and its a noticable improvement over the bright red. But it is splotchy as all hell due to my painting inexperience, the darkness outside, and damp weather.
foam bits are attached and I spent the evening between Flexidip spraying to make the tubes on the helmet. They're 1/2" diameter tubing which I cut down to size with a utility knife. I cut out a deep and wide "v" groove to get the bend on the tube, and hotglued them to the helmet.
October 28 (T minus 3 days)
Added additional lines to the Infinity Orb with a wood engraver and rubbed coats of white Elmers glue to seal the surface of the foam.
2 coats of primer on the helmet!
Added more black/red Flexidip coats on through the evening, and this is what it looked like in the morning. What a an ugly mess.
October 29 (T minus 2 days)
Didn't take any pictures because it was just more Flexidip on the jacket. I also sprayed the metallic Aged Copper so that it would be ready to be masked off the next day.
October 30(T minus 1 day)
Panic mode. luckily I took the day off from work. I sprayed on a layer of the black Flexidip as an undercoat after ~3 layers of elmers glue seal the previous nights. Then I sprayed Aged copper in the cardboard box and then taking a spare bit of foam to hand paint the orb.
I repeated the foam/hand painting of the orb with Titanium Silver with a dab of Flat Soft Iron to darken it a little and this is the finished result.
Groot head painted with Flat Brown! Smile!
Helmet with the Aged Copper areas masked off
Sept 8
Took a glue gun to a 4" foam ball and went to town carving lines for an infinity orb
Sept 14
Groot makes an appearance! Yes this is a Star Lord thread but I saw many amazing groots on this forum and thought I'd give the head a quick attempt. This is the 2nd head I cut out of foam with a quick draw and cut. The first was just shaped horribly so I made a second improving on the first.
Sept 20
Took my dremel to Groot's head and added details. Also used a hot hair dryer to help shape the eyes and cheeks
Sept 21
Ok ok, here's the start of Star Lord's helmet pep. I actually started the back of the helmet (no pics) twice. The first set of print outs, I eyeballed it against my head and decided it was "way too small" and sized up a 2nd set of printouts - more on this later...
October 8
So I got more of the helmet done. At this point I'm starting to think my helmet is too large. But I can just line it with foam anyway right? Keep building...
October 12
Most of the front pep is now done and I know now that this is going to be humongous. Whatever, just keep building!!! For the next two weeks, I build the sides and back, all the while avoiding and dreading the moment when I have to put the thing together.
October 24 (T minus 7 days, buteverything has to be done the day before Halloween as I'd be traveling a lot on the actual day)
Final pep assembly complete and I take a side profile shot on my head. 1 week from Halloween. Sigh. It'll have to do.
October 25 (T minus 6 days)
Attached the the mouth and first coating of resin. Because I did not add any supports to the pep, i ended up hanging it through the eyes to lessen deformation.
October 26 (T minus 5 days)
Coat 2 of resin with added fiberglass to the areas where i thought the helmet was flimsiest (back and sides) This fiberglass mat is super duper heavy (26 oz/sqyd iirc) so it probably was not a good idea to use this one because it sagged the helmet a LOT and i had to poke and adjust every few hours as the resin was curing. As you can also see, its really resin rich as this is only my 2nd fiberglass experience and my first time using the heavy mat.
While the resin was curing, I began work on odds and ends - foam cheek cylinders and tube ends
paint test on a piece of cardboard - 2 coats each Rustoleum Aged Copper and Flat Soft Iron over Rustoleum gray filler primer.
Now, I've been leather jacket searching for 2 months, stopping by many many local thrift shops/goodwill and have had zero success in anything that i'd like to wear as a Star Lord jacket. Finally in my sleep deprived state on this last panic week before Halloween, I decided to try to rubber paint a spare raincoat and see how it turns out. Here is the initial test of Rustoleum's red Flexidip. I decided that it was too bright of a red and suspected that the culprit being the bright yellow base coat of the raincoat.
October 27 Monday (T minus 4 days)
Got home at 7pm from work and it's dark outside but i get outside and i start spraying a black Flexidip coat on the jacket, then red on top of that. It's dark outside and by 9 pm, condensation is starting to build and painting becomes more tricky... At the end of the evening, I bring the jacket inside and its a noticable improvement over the bright red. But it is splotchy as all hell due to my painting inexperience, the darkness outside, and damp weather.
foam bits are attached and I spent the evening between Flexidip spraying to make the tubes on the helmet. They're 1/2" diameter tubing which I cut down to size with a utility knife. I cut out a deep and wide "v" groove to get the bend on the tube, and hotglued them to the helmet.
October 28 (T minus 3 days)
Added additional lines to the Infinity Orb with a wood engraver and rubbed coats of white Elmers glue to seal the surface of the foam.
2 coats of primer on the helmet!
Added more black/red Flexidip coats on through the evening, and this is what it looked like in the morning. What a an ugly mess.
October 29 (T minus 2 days)
Didn't take any pictures because it was just more Flexidip on the jacket. I also sprayed the metallic Aged Copper so that it would be ready to be masked off the next day.
October 30(T minus 1 day)
Panic mode. luckily I took the day off from work. I sprayed on a layer of the black Flexidip as an undercoat after ~3 layers of elmers glue seal the previous nights. Then I sprayed Aged copper in the cardboard box and then taking a spare bit of foam to hand paint the orb.
I repeated the foam/hand painting of the orb with Titanium Silver with a dab of Flat Soft Iron to darken it a little and this is the finished result.
Groot head painted with Flat Brown! Smile!
Helmet with the Aged Copper areas masked off
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