OogaChaka
New Member
Hey all! This is my first post and my very first serious attempt at costume making. My helmet is made mostly out of EVA and craft foam, and uses the template made by Dali Lomo (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzSZP3dBEsS5qZAhYJr9lA) but I had to modify a bunch of parts to fit my skill level/supplies.
First, here is my finished mask. For any other fellow beginners, I'll explain the tools I ABSOLUTELY needed, the stuff that was helpful but not necessary, and the odds and ends you can find to help yourself out.
I'm aware there are a few things that differ from the movie version (U shape underneath the brow in-between the eyes, an extra pipe above the nose piece, not crazy pill pieces, and an extra pipe above the nose) but I can sleep knowing that at least this is very recognizable as Star Lord.
Also, I had to rescale the template from Dali Lomo up from the standard 93
Now, there are a few necessary tools and some optional tools and are as followed
View attachment 400878
(uncut foam with pattern)
Necessary:
EVA Foam (Duh)
Cutting board/clean surface to cut on
Ruler + Cloth tape measurer
Sharpies, both thin and normal
Retractible craft knife (shown in picture) - You can use a utility knife, but I found them to be a little hard to work with. Your best bet is to get something with a longer blade/something you can resharpen
Barge Cement - You can get this at hobby lobby if there is one by you. I had a lot of trouble finding this stuff in Home Depot/Target/Walmart, but maybe you'll have better luck. This is to glue the pieces of EVA foam together once your template is cut out.
Hot glue gun - You can technically use the barge cement on the odds and ends like the pipes, pills on the side of the head, and eye sockets, but I found myself having more control over the parts with the hot glue.
Paint brushes - These can seriously be a pack of 3 dollar crappy brushes. They're just specifically to spread the cement/help to accurately spread glue so you can symmetrically place your add on pieces.
Helpful But Not Necessary:
Masking Tape - after I cut out my template, I made sure to tape it together with masking tape in order to see if it would fit without any sizing issues. Also it comes in handy after gluing the basic shape together if you don't feel like sitting with the mask in your hands until its perfectly dry. And duh, you'll need it for painting.
Bobby Pins - I realize now that putting bobby pins through the foam permanently leaves blemishes unless you're willing to sand the piece down, but I found them super handy with mocking up where certain pieces should go.
I'm definitely going to invest in a dremel for my next build so that my lines are much cleaner, technically in the grand scheme of things, its only for aesthetics and not 100% necessary. You can still make something without one. Same goes for a heat gun ( I didn't get to use one for this build)
Random Pieces of the mask that aren't foam:
The piping along the snout and ears of the mask were made from an old plastic jump rope my brother had lying around the basement. The inside was hollow, so it was perfect to put some wire through it and make it the exact shape I needed.
The larger breathing pipes along the jaw bone of the mask are made from 2 different sized plastic craft bottles I found at hobby lobby for about $2 apiece of a pack of 3. I just cut one of the ends of the tubing off with a band saw and made a small cover over the bend with craft foam.
The eye lenses were made out of a red plastic christmas ornament from Michaels for about $1.50 apiece. I doubled up each eye so that nobody could see me through them.
View attachment 400871
(christmas ornaments)
I wasn't going to cover the priming and painting section in depth, but my process was pretty simple. Once the piece was to my liking, I coated it three times with a 1:1 ratio of tacky glue and water. After that dried for a day, I hit it with 3 coats of black plasti-dip (a coat once every half hour, then let it try for a day and a half) The shiny silver I used for the piping and breathing tubes was Krylon Metallic Alluminum. The main gray of the mask was Krylon Smoke Gray, and the gold pieces was just Krylon Metallic Gold. I speckled a little bit of Krylon Flat Black from about 2 to 2 and a half feet away to darken it up a bit and give it some extra depth, but as a beginner that was a pain in the ass and I constantly had to touch up the places that were TOO black. The Krylon brand was really great and I love the color, but I would probably use another brand for my next build because it says on the cans that it is a lead based paint and thats not something I wanna mess with.
INVEST IN A RESPIRATOR FOR YOUR PAINTING PROCESS. If you can't afford one, even the $5 painting ones at Walmart is better than breathing in all of those harmful fumes.
I'm sure I didn't pioneer this idea, but I found it super useful for painting so I thought I'd pass it along. I don't know how you guys position your pieces, but I have a microphone stand for when I play music that I was able to tape a styrofoam head onto. Being able to raise, lower, and adjust from side to side made my painting process SO much easier. You can probably get a cheap mic stand for $20 or less, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.
I also let it sit for about a day and a half before putting the final piece on to avoid any hazardous smells/fumes from the paint.
View attachment 400872
(full costume)
The bulk of my jacket was found at my local Burlington Coat Factory. To be honest, it's a woman's large I found on clearance for about $20 that was perfect. I had to cut out some fabric around the neck and voila. The shoulder pieces are custom made by myself, with some suede straps I hot glued around the inside of the biceps. The ravagers logo was also custom made by myself out of craft foam. The barge cement I suggested above was perfect for gluing the entire red pieces to the coat and I've had no problems with them coming off.
Because I waited so long to look for orange head phones, I ended up just making the orange pieces out of craft foam and masking tape.
View attachment 400876
(headphones)
They aren't beautiful, but with the coat on you can't tell they were an after thought.
The bottom half of my boots are Sketchers, but I've had them for so long to be able to say what style. The kick pads are made out of the EVA foam painted black. I used a custom template for the pleather pieces by the knee, and it makes a perfect bunching effect like the movie costume. It straps on by regular fabric elastic and buckles that are hot glued together, but not to the actual kick pad. I realize his boots are brown in the movie, but I already had black to go off of.
View attachment 400877
(boots)
The orb I found in a clearance bin described as a "Decorative Ball". It was initially brass, but I painted it to be grey. It goes in a burlap pull string pouch i also got for about $2 and ties onto a guitar strap I already had. The buckle on the strap is an old DX belt buckle that I pained silver with the remaining Aluminum Krylon.
View attachment 400879
(orb)
And there you have it! From start to finish, the whole costume took me about 2 weeks. Hope I helped someone out who's also starting to get into this kinda stuff!
View attachment 400880View attachment 400881(ne in costume)
First, here is my finished mask. For any other fellow beginners, I'll explain the tools I ABSOLUTELY needed, the stuff that was helpful but not necessary, and the odds and ends you can find to help yourself out.
I'm aware there are a few things that differ from the movie version (U shape underneath the brow in-between the eyes, an extra pipe above the nose piece, not crazy pill pieces, and an extra pipe above the nose) but I can sleep knowing that at least this is very recognizable as Star Lord.
Also, I had to rescale the template from Dali Lomo up from the standard 93
Now, there are a few necessary tools and some optional tools and are as followed
View attachment 400878
(uncut foam with pattern)
Necessary:
EVA Foam (Duh)
Cutting board/clean surface to cut on
Ruler + Cloth tape measurer
Sharpies, both thin and normal
Retractible craft knife (shown in picture) - You can use a utility knife, but I found them to be a little hard to work with. Your best bet is to get something with a longer blade/something you can resharpen
Barge Cement - You can get this at hobby lobby if there is one by you. I had a lot of trouble finding this stuff in Home Depot/Target/Walmart, but maybe you'll have better luck. This is to glue the pieces of EVA foam together once your template is cut out.
Hot glue gun - You can technically use the barge cement on the odds and ends like the pipes, pills on the side of the head, and eye sockets, but I found myself having more control over the parts with the hot glue.
Paint brushes - These can seriously be a pack of 3 dollar crappy brushes. They're just specifically to spread the cement/help to accurately spread glue so you can symmetrically place your add on pieces.
Helpful But Not Necessary:
Masking Tape - after I cut out my template, I made sure to tape it together with masking tape in order to see if it would fit without any sizing issues. Also it comes in handy after gluing the basic shape together if you don't feel like sitting with the mask in your hands until its perfectly dry. And duh, you'll need it for painting.
Bobby Pins - I realize now that putting bobby pins through the foam permanently leaves blemishes unless you're willing to sand the piece down, but I found them super handy with mocking up where certain pieces should go.
I'm definitely going to invest in a dremel for my next build so that my lines are much cleaner, technically in the grand scheme of things, its only for aesthetics and not 100% necessary. You can still make something without one. Same goes for a heat gun ( I didn't get to use one for this build)
Random Pieces of the mask that aren't foam:
The piping along the snout and ears of the mask were made from an old plastic jump rope my brother had lying around the basement. The inside was hollow, so it was perfect to put some wire through it and make it the exact shape I needed.
The larger breathing pipes along the jaw bone of the mask are made from 2 different sized plastic craft bottles I found at hobby lobby for about $2 apiece of a pack of 3. I just cut one of the ends of the tubing off with a band saw and made a small cover over the bend with craft foam.
The eye lenses were made out of a red plastic christmas ornament from Michaels for about $1.50 apiece. I doubled up each eye so that nobody could see me through them.
View attachment 400871
(christmas ornaments)
I wasn't going to cover the priming and painting section in depth, but my process was pretty simple. Once the piece was to my liking, I coated it three times with a 1:1 ratio of tacky glue and water. After that dried for a day, I hit it with 3 coats of black plasti-dip (a coat once every half hour, then let it try for a day and a half) The shiny silver I used for the piping and breathing tubes was Krylon Metallic Alluminum. The main gray of the mask was Krylon Smoke Gray, and the gold pieces was just Krylon Metallic Gold. I speckled a little bit of Krylon Flat Black from about 2 to 2 and a half feet away to darken it up a bit and give it some extra depth, but as a beginner that was a pain in the ass and I constantly had to touch up the places that were TOO black. The Krylon brand was really great and I love the color, but I would probably use another brand for my next build because it says on the cans that it is a lead based paint and thats not something I wanna mess with.
INVEST IN A RESPIRATOR FOR YOUR PAINTING PROCESS. If you can't afford one, even the $5 painting ones at Walmart is better than breathing in all of those harmful fumes.
I'm sure I didn't pioneer this idea, but I found it super useful for painting so I thought I'd pass it along. I don't know how you guys position your pieces, but I have a microphone stand for when I play music that I was able to tape a styrofoam head onto. Being able to raise, lower, and adjust from side to side made my painting process SO much easier. You can probably get a cheap mic stand for $20 or less, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.
I also let it sit for about a day and a half before putting the final piece on to avoid any hazardous smells/fumes from the paint.
View attachment 400872
(full costume)
The bulk of my jacket was found at my local Burlington Coat Factory. To be honest, it's a woman's large I found on clearance for about $20 that was perfect. I had to cut out some fabric around the neck and voila. The shoulder pieces are custom made by myself, with some suede straps I hot glued around the inside of the biceps. The ravagers logo was also custom made by myself out of craft foam. The barge cement I suggested above was perfect for gluing the entire red pieces to the coat and I've had no problems with them coming off.
Because I waited so long to look for orange head phones, I ended up just making the orange pieces out of craft foam and masking tape.
View attachment 400876
(headphones)
They aren't beautiful, but with the coat on you can't tell they were an after thought.
The bottom half of my boots are Sketchers, but I've had them for so long to be able to say what style. The kick pads are made out of the EVA foam painted black. I used a custom template for the pleather pieces by the knee, and it makes a perfect bunching effect like the movie costume. It straps on by regular fabric elastic and buckles that are hot glued together, but not to the actual kick pad. I realize his boots are brown in the movie, but I already had black to go off of.
View attachment 400877
(boots)
The orb I found in a clearance bin described as a "Decorative Ball". It was initially brass, but I painted it to be grey. It goes in a burlap pull string pouch i also got for about $2 and ties onto a guitar strap I already had. The buckle on the strap is an old DX belt buckle that I pained silver with the remaining Aluminum Krylon.
View attachment 400879
(orb)
And there you have it! From start to finish, the whole costume took me about 2 weeks. Hope I helped someone out who's also starting to get into this kinda stuff!
View attachment 400880View attachment 400881(ne in costume)
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