CorporalAmerica
New Member
Certainly late to the game on this costume, but have always loved the WWII aspect of the character (plus military history in general) so figure I'd give this one a go for SDCC 2014. Certainly the "first avenger" movie is the inspiration, but I've taken a few liberties of my own as well.
Been working on this one for a few months and then it dawned on me to start posting (when possible) some of the creation process. I'm really really terrible at documenting this stuff.
I'm certainly going to dirty this thing up some more...add some wear and tear. General notes:
The Jacket is some generic ebay thing that I got specifically to dirty up and possibly tear/rip (although I'm sort of leaning against the ripping part...for now.) I plan to do 1 or 2 more rounds of abuse on this thing before all is said and done)
I dyed the web gear OD7 - which by 1944, many of the paratroopers had switched to (from the previous OD3 - also known, incorrectly, as "khaki) I presume most of the gear used in 'First Avenger' to be OD3 - but with the darkness of my screen inaccurate jacket, I didn't like the contrast between the (new) OD3 and dark leather so went ahead and modified the color to my own war time accuracy. I like it better this way - and also sort of reflects other WWII illustrations of cap with a dark brown jacket and green web gear.
The Boots: Pretty darn close. Very worn (which I wanted.) but completely functional. My uneducated guess would be Post-War/Korea era, but the differences are subtle at best. Very well could be period accurate, but didn't want to pay high prices for new replica gear only to destroy it myself. (made that mistake years ago with Alden/Indiana Jones boots. Paid $300 and liked 'em so much I couldn't distress them - and they look fairly terrible when brand new and worn in a distressed indy costume.)
Helmet: Replica Pot - hand painted by me.
Goggles: WWII vintage
Shield: Some replica piece you can buy all over the net. Almost pulled the trigger on building one (or using this as a base model) - it's pretty good for the price. I've seen some really amazing shields built on this site. Threw some dirt on it to see what would happen. Thought about painting "combat" on it, but want to try to keep a 3d perspective. Might do a mix of both. Not sure yet how to play this out.
Paratrooper Pants: Haven't distressed these yet, but will soon.
Gloves: slightly distressed - will hit harder soon.
Knife: Bought a real M3 knife and M6 sheath, but obviously can't take the M3 everywhere, so purchased a "rubber" version seen in the picture. I will be painting it.
M6 Sheath: Bought a replica in new (almost light tan) colored. Distressed/dyed the hell out of it. Love the way it turned out.
M1911 Pistol: Some generic airsoft piece. I've started throwing some light paint on it to give it a more 'distressed' look as well.
Blue Shirt: This took a lot of thought - obviously color matching was of consideration -- and you don't realize it until you start shopping blue - how many blues there actually are. I knew I didn't want to go with a cotton/thick fabric that might "bunch" up underneath the jacket or create "bacon-neck" - so decided to try to find an athletic/stretch fit material A. -to fit tightly, but also B. help remain cool underneath -- Found a pretty great Under-armor shirt with a good color (and a little bit of a texture) to use as a base - and then threw a white star on the chest. It works for what I need it to do.
Will be working over the next few days on some items that I'll try to post before/after pics for.
Anyway, never done a cosplay before so looking forward to having some fun with any folks headed to SDCC this year.
-J
Been working on this one for a few months and then it dawned on me to start posting (when possible) some of the creation process. I'm really really terrible at documenting this stuff.
I'm certainly going to dirty this thing up some more...add some wear and tear. General notes:
The Jacket is some generic ebay thing that I got specifically to dirty up and possibly tear/rip (although I'm sort of leaning against the ripping part...for now.) I plan to do 1 or 2 more rounds of abuse on this thing before all is said and done)
I dyed the web gear OD7 - which by 1944, many of the paratroopers had switched to (from the previous OD3 - also known, incorrectly, as "khaki) I presume most of the gear used in 'First Avenger' to be OD3 - but with the darkness of my screen inaccurate jacket, I didn't like the contrast between the (new) OD3 and dark leather so went ahead and modified the color to my own war time accuracy. I like it better this way - and also sort of reflects other WWII illustrations of cap with a dark brown jacket and green web gear.
The Boots: Pretty darn close. Very worn (which I wanted.) but completely functional. My uneducated guess would be Post-War/Korea era, but the differences are subtle at best. Very well could be period accurate, but didn't want to pay high prices for new replica gear only to destroy it myself. (made that mistake years ago with Alden/Indiana Jones boots. Paid $300 and liked 'em so much I couldn't distress them - and they look fairly terrible when brand new and worn in a distressed indy costume.)
Helmet: Replica Pot - hand painted by me.
Goggles: WWII vintage
Shield: Some replica piece you can buy all over the net. Almost pulled the trigger on building one (or using this as a base model) - it's pretty good for the price. I've seen some really amazing shields built on this site. Threw some dirt on it to see what would happen. Thought about painting "combat" on it, but want to try to keep a 3d perspective. Might do a mix of both. Not sure yet how to play this out.
Paratrooper Pants: Haven't distressed these yet, but will soon.
Gloves: slightly distressed - will hit harder soon.
Knife: Bought a real M3 knife and M6 sheath, but obviously can't take the M3 everywhere, so purchased a "rubber" version seen in the picture. I will be painting it.
M6 Sheath: Bought a replica in new (almost light tan) colored. Distressed/dyed the hell out of it. Love the way it turned out.
M1911 Pistol: Some generic airsoft piece. I've started throwing some light paint on it to give it a more 'distressed' look as well.
Blue Shirt: This took a lot of thought - obviously color matching was of consideration -- and you don't realize it until you start shopping blue - how many blues there actually are. I knew I didn't want to go with a cotton/thick fabric that might "bunch" up underneath the jacket or create "bacon-neck" - so decided to try to find an athletic/stretch fit material A. -to fit tightly, but also B. help remain cool underneath -- Found a pretty great Under-armor shirt with a good color (and a little bit of a texture) to use as a base - and then threw a white star on the chest. It works for what I need it to do.
Will be working over the next few days on some items that I'll try to post before/after pics for.
Anyway, never done a cosplay before so looking forward to having some fun with any folks headed to SDCC this year.
-J
