Cooper Howard - AKA The Ghoul full cosplay outfit build

[DalekNim]

Well for the last 3 years I've been working on a single build - a full size, screen accurate, opertor-on-the-inside, drivable, complete electro-mechanical Dalek, complete with an F-15 flt stick which controls every function. Dalek Nim made his debute at the 2024 Orlando MegaCon as part of the Florida Dalek Builders Group. Now having all this time on my hands I've gone in the complete direction, working on 3 different cosplay outfits at the same time ... yes I have no life ... lol.
The costumes are: Jayne Cobb from Firefly, Halo Master Chief TV Series and The Ghoul on the Fallout TV series. I've never been a 'modern' video game player and while aware of Halo and Fallout I knew nothing about them before the tv shows came out having never played them. Halo was first this past Nov when I discovered the TV show and I'm currently neck deep in that build focusing on completing the undersuit first. My Jayne Cobb outfit is 98% complete - I'm waiting on the arrival of the patch that goes on his M65 jacket and I'm finishing up assembling his pistol and need to make the knife sheath. So obviously it was time to get started on The Ghoul .... lol
Been doing a ton of research and my ghetto version of screen grabs ... I wish I knew how people do this but I've been relegated to taking cell phone pics of freeze frames ...
So I have the following: sawed off rifle, pistol, leather bandolier, leather rifle sling, horse saddle bags, leather vest, leather belt/holster, belt buckle, boots, vest blue cowboy shirt, buffalo gloves. For the pants I found some brown with white pin stripes cotton material and my sister-in-law is a seamstress so I just need to send her the material and pattern.
I also own an authentic western cowboy leather duster that I had for when I used to go to Wyoming on yearly dinosaur fossil hunting trips. I saw a recent post where a leather costume shop is making a Ghoul coat so I'll probably wait to see how that. Ones out and the cost as I'd prefer not to destroy this authentic duster ...
Still looking for the right cowboy hat. Finally managed to figure out what style it was - western Cattleman - but I haven't found the right one yet as I don't want to buy some $200-$300 hat .
Everything of course will need the '219 years of wasteland' treatment but I'm going to wait until I have everything so I can do it all at the same time to ensure a cohesive look.
Belt buckle and gloves I think are an exact match, saddle bag and rifle sling need a little work, bandolier is a match, I plan to dye the blue shirt a darker shade to match the show and have a local embroidery company embroider a scorpion on the collars. The gun belt has the wrong style of buckl, no square so I'll swap that out as well and I need to take a belt sander to the butt of my 1863 rifle to make it the proper shape. Right now it looks like Zoe's rifle from Firefly which is close but not accurate enough. I actually managed to find a pair of the correct boots (98% least I think) in my size that are used for $45! Better lucky than good any day ...
The big elephant in the room of course is the full face silicon mask I'll need to make and honestly compels me to admit that as excited as I was to make this outfit once I saw the character, learning how to make a full silicone mask is what convinced me I had to do this ...
I recently got a Revo 3D scanner so my cunning plan is to make a 3D scan of my head and then 3D print that so I now have an armature of myself that I can do the clay sculpture on. I may have to make a resin cast from the print but we'll see.
I'll try to start posting some pics ne t week of things I've already sourced and show what mods need to be done to them ...

 

[DalekNim]

Here's a few comparison shots of the items that have been completed so far and/or just need a little work. areas circled in red are where I need to do some work to better match the actual prop, for the most part I think they are either an exact match or as close as I can come ...
Belt buckle: looks to be an exact match
Bandolier: pretty much an exact match or as close as possible
Rifle sling: pretty much an exact match but currently the rifle sits too far in the sling. going to first try inserting some foam in the sling but I may have to cut the profile down some & have it restitched
Rifle: not an exact match but pretty close. I will need to do some grinding on the wood stock to match the prop shape and I need to restain all the wood to a dark ebony as well.
I've finished modeling all the various bullets on his bandolier and am in the process of painting them. once they are done I'll post some pics of the complete bandolier and bullets

 

[DalekNim]

His pistol is now complete as well as the collection of bullets for his bandolier. The prop dept couldn't just make a single bullet type, they had to have 7 different kinds ... lol. I've never played the game so maybe this is cannon from that ... the wire connector between the barrel and trigger guard is some 16 gauge multi stranded wire, stripped off the insulation and then painted it a dark grey/black and matte clear

 

[DalekNim]

The design of his knife is almost complete. Using all the reference images we could find from the show we settled on a final blade length of 9.5" and an overall length of 14.25" which seems about right when looking at the images from the show where you can see the knife against objects of typical known size

 

[DalekNim]

Here's another close up of the completed pistol ...

 

[joberg]

Keep up the good work

 

[DalekNim]

thx for the encouragement! I want to get all the pieces/parts done ASAP since I know there is going to be considerable time spent learning how to make full face silicon mask ...

 

[DalekNim]

Boots & spurs have arrived .... not an exact match for sure but pretty darn close and I'm happy with them given the considerable difficulty in just finding boots that are close, used and in the correct size as I didn't want to spend 200-300 on boots. In my excitement of finding a pair that fit all 3 of those criteria I didn't notice that they have a pattern on top of the toe. I knew I'd have to dye them a different color which isn't really a big deal but maybe I'll be able to hide the etched patterns with sufficient weathering

 

[joberg]

Boots & spurs have arrived .... not an exact match for sure but pretty darn close and I'm happy with them given the considerable difficulty in just finding boots that are close, used and in the correct size as I didn't want to spend 200-300 on boots. In my excitement of finding a pair that fit all 3 of those criteria I didn't notice that they have a pattern on top of the toe. I knew I'd have to dye them a different color which isn't really a big deal but maybe I'll be able to hide the etched patterns with sufficient weathering

I'm not sure...but the spurs are missing the strap/chain going under the boots to secure them in place?

 

[DalekNim]

yeah, I was wondering that exact thing.
I've never worn cowboy boots , never mind spurs so when i got them I was scratching my head on how trey actually stayed on & the few pics I saw I didn't see a 'bottom strap". I was going to ask about this in my post & forget ... thx for reminding me! I just purchased some cheap leather straps on Amazon - they didn't say anything about being 'top' or 'bottom' so can I just buy another set or are bottom ones different?

 

[joberg]

yeah, I was wondering that exact thing.
I've never worn cowboy boots , never mind spurs so when i got them I was scratching my head on how trey actually stayed on & the few pics I saw I didn't see a 'bottom strap". I was going to ask about this in my post & forget ... thx for reminding me! I just purchased some cheap leather straps on Amazon - they didn't say anything about being 'top' or 'bottom' so can I just buy another set or are bottom ones different?

Yes, some are wearing the bottom strap, but mostly it's worn without one...the metal part is supposed to fit snug at the back of the boot...

 

[DalekNim]

Thx! Yeah I saw a lot of that too and while mine are snug they still ride up while walking so I need a bottom strap.

Needed to break out the angle grinder to deepen each nub so that 2 leather straps would fit but that was pretty straight forward so I think I'm good now ...

 

[joberg]

Thx! Yeah I saw a lot of that too and while mine are snug they still ride up while walking so I need a bottom strap.

Needed to break out the angle grinder to deepen each nub so that 2 leather straps would fit but that was pretty straight forward so I think I'm good now ...

Yep, looking good

 

[DalekNim]

Next step is to see what can do about getting rid of/hiding the pattern on the boot tops ...?

 

[joberg]

Next step is to see what can do about getting rid of/hiding the pattern on the boot tops ...?

Removing the threads will be a PITA for sure...and then, you're left with the thread holes

 

[DalekNim]

Yeah not exactly sure that's worth the effort since it wouldn't hide the stitching holes... I've dyed the boots a more appropriate shade of dark brown and once I add some appropriate 219 years of wasteland weathering I may be good. Decided not to waste dye on the entire boot since you'll never see the upper ...

 

[joberg]

Good job on the color...I don't mind a two-tone boot

 

[DalekNim]

thx. i do like the way they came out

 

[DalekNim]

His knife is now complete.
Raw 3D printed kits are avaialble at my Esty shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DarkMatterSciFiProps?ref=dashboard-header

 

[AngiKoz]

Well for the last 3 years I've been working on a single build - a full size, screen accurate, opertor-on-the-inside, drivable, complete electro-mechanical Dalek, complete with an F-15 flt stick which controls every function. Dalek Nim made his debute at the 2024 Orlando MegaCon as part of the Florida Dalek Builders Group. Now having all this time on my hands I've gone in the complete direction, working on 3 different cosplay outfits at the same time ... yes I have no life ... lol.
The costumes are: Jayne Cobb from Firefly, Halo Master Chief TV Series and The Ghoul on the Fallout TV series. I've never been a 'modern' video game player and while aware of Halo and Fallout I knew nothing about them before the tv shows came out having never played them. Halo was first this past Nov when I discovered the TV show and I'm currently neck deep in that build focusing on completing the undersuit first. My Jayne Cobb outfit is 98% complete - I'm waiting on the arrival of the patch that goes on his M65 jacket and I'm finishing up assembling his pistol and need to make the knife sheath. So obviously it was time to get started on The Ghoul .... lol
Been doing a ton of research and my ghetto version of screen grabs ... I wish I knew how people do this but I've been relegated to taking cell phone pics of freeze frames ...
So I have the following: sawed off rifle, pistol, leather bandolier, leather rifle sling, horse saddle bags, leather vest, leather belt/holster, belt buckle, boots, vest blue cowboy shirt, buffalo gloves. For the pants I found some brown with white pin stripes cotton material and my sister-in-law is a seamstress so I just need to send her the material and pattern.
I also own an authentic western cowboy leather duster that I had for when I used to go to Wyoming on yearly dinosaur fossil hunting trips. I saw a recent post where a leather costume shop is making a Ghoul coat so I'll probably wait to see how that. Ones out and the cost as I'd prefer not to destroy this authentic duster ...
Still looking for the right cowboy hat. Finally managed to figure out what style it was - western Cattleman - but I haven't found the right one yet as I don't want to buy some $200-$300 hat .
Everything of course will need the '219 years of wasteland' treatment but I'm going to wait until I have everything so I can do it all at the same time to ensure a cohesive look.
Belt buckle and gloves I think are an exact match, saddle bag and rifle sling need a little work, bandolier is a match, I plan to dye the blue shirt a darker shade to match the show and have a local embroidery company embroider a scorpion on the collars. The gun belt has the wrong style of buckl, no square so I'll swap that out as well and I need to take a belt sander to the butt of my 1863 rifle to make it the proper shape. Right now it looks like Zoe's rifle from Firefly which is close but not accurate enough. I actually managed to find a pair of the correct boots (98% least I think) in my size that are used for $45! Better lucky than good any day ...
The big elephant in the room of course is the full face silicon mask I'll need to make and honestly compels me to admit that as excited as I was to make this outfit once I saw the character, learning how to make a full silicone mask is what convinced me I had to do this ...
I recently got a Revo 3D scanner so my cunning plan is to make a 3D scan of my head and then 3D print that so I now have an armature of myself that I can do the clay sculpture on. I may have to make a resin cast from the print but we'll see.
I'll try to start posting some pics ne t week of things I've already sourced and show what mods need to be done to them ...

Regarding the hat, which I too have been searching for. Check out the GHOLSON 4X by Bullhide Hats in the khaki color. It’s the closest I’ve come across for the price point- about $65. Would need a little additional aging/distressing but not a lot. Oh, and a different hat band but that’s much easier to remedy. Hope this helps!