TheDiscarded87
New Member
Hello, hello, RPF!
To get straight to the point, here's a little something I put together last year for Armageddon Expo in New Zealand!
We'll start with reference images of the outfit itself. One version worn by the game's antagonist; another, mostly identical version worn by the player chacter with a different symbol on the back to show your allegiance. I went with the latter.
Next, the things I didn't make. I bought a military style belt, tall leather work boots, grey cargo pants, a french military canvas pouch, a navy blue shirt, and five or six different second-hand belts of various colours and materials. These were all weathered to match my custom-made gear.
The coat:
Grey drill fabric, made from a modified simplicity trenchcoat pattern. (yeah, the Matrix one.)
Scissors, wire brush, then hearty applications of brown fabric paint to weather it.
The logo on the back was just a paper stencil and more fabric paint.
The under-shirt.
Started by weathering the navy blue t-shirt (sleeves cut off), then VERY sloppily traced and sewed two duplicates of it, using two different kinds of material that was originally meant to be a military scarf. Not sure of the actual term, one of my airsoft-playing buddies had extras.
I stitched the 3 shirts together, and mercilessy ripped into the top two layers with scissors, then squirted on fabric paint.
This part was NOT screen-accurate, but 2 layers of ripped shirt looked much better than the one I started with.
The necklaces. The larger, crescent-shaped one appears to be two pieces of metal with holes for electrical cable tying it together.
A bit of sintra and paint in place of metal - but I couldn't find electrical cable in the colours or width I wanted, so I used a couple of elastic cords to finish this. Fake dirt, rust, etc, etc.
The longer necklace has a pair of arrowheads attached to a length of brown cord. I used sintra plastic and paint again, but spent much longer with my dremel on these fiddly pieces. "Dirt", "rust", done.
I couldn't manage to find any pouches close enough to the game screenshot from an army surplus store, so I made some craft foam patterns, covered them with pleather and glued 'em together. Not a single stich in there.
Also had to make a rough 'harness' to keep the chest pouches and belt sitting at the same position as they are in the game, across my chest. The coat covers my shoulder strap.
Then, kneepads.
I was worried these would be heavy enough to pull my pants out of shape, so I used some good old EVA floor mats. I cut out ovals, then heated 'em up and forced the foam into an old half-finished helmet to curve them out. Added trim with thinner craft foam, then gouged lines with my dremel. I added staples and screws for detail. Painted, weathered, and epoxied on a couple of straps. The straps were purely cosmetic. These turned out so light they could be attached directly to my pants with snaps/domes commonly used on jackets.
Last piece of gear in this set is "Ulysses' mask" (supposedly a radiation mask) that I added ONLY because I saw it whilst buying spraypaint for this costume and its props.
Here's the game model:
Here's one I found:
Yup, 3M painters mask.
This got a paint, weathering, and some rugged fabric and duct tape straps.
I also learned that no paint I could find sticks to rubber! Harsh lessons.
Put it all together with my store-bought gear, a couple props I also made, and...
The pictures from the convention itself weren't amazing. Mostly taken with phone cameras, and my less-than-spectacular idea of spraypainting a rubber mask meant I had silver flakes around my mouth.
Well, that's my first costume I'm proud enough of to share! I'll respond to questions or comments as soon as I can, and I'll be posting up a prop thread soon featuring my free-handed Pip-Boy 3000 and the replica Greanade launcher.
Also, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for inspiring me to show off something I'm passionate about and had a blast creating.
To get straight to the point, here's a little something I put together last year for Armageddon Expo in New Zealand!
We'll start with reference images of the outfit itself. One version worn by the game's antagonist; another, mostly identical version worn by the player chacter with a different symbol on the back to show your allegiance. I went with the latter.
Next, the things I didn't make. I bought a military style belt, tall leather work boots, grey cargo pants, a french military canvas pouch, a navy blue shirt, and five or six different second-hand belts of various colours and materials. These were all weathered to match my custom-made gear.
The coat:
Grey drill fabric, made from a modified simplicity trenchcoat pattern. (yeah, the Matrix one.)
Scissors, wire brush, then hearty applications of brown fabric paint to weather it.
The logo on the back was just a paper stencil and more fabric paint.
The under-shirt.
Started by weathering the navy blue t-shirt (sleeves cut off), then VERY sloppily traced and sewed two duplicates of it, using two different kinds of material that was originally meant to be a military scarf. Not sure of the actual term, one of my airsoft-playing buddies had extras.
I stitched the 3 shirts together, and mercilessy ripped into the top two layers with scissors, then squirted on fabric paint.
This part was NOT screen-accurate, but 2 layers of ripped shirt looked much better than the one I started with.
The necklaces. The larger, crescent-shaped one appears to be two pieces of metal with holes for electrical cable tying it together.
A bit of sintra and paint in place of metal - but I couldn't find electrical cable in the colours or width I wanted, so I used a couple of elastic cords to finish this. Fake dirt, rust, etc, etc.
The longer necklace has a pair of arrowheads attached to a length of brown cord. I used sintra plastic and paint again, but spent much longer with my dremel on these fiddly pieces. "Dirt", "rust", done.
I couldn't manage to find any pouches close enough to the game screenshot from an army surplus store, so I made some craft foam patterns, covered them with pleather and glued 'em together. Not a single stich in there.
Also had to make a rough 'harness' to keep the chest pouches and belt sitting at the same position as they are in the game, across my chest. The coat covers my shoulder strap.
Then, kneepads.
I was worried these would be heavy enough to pull my pants out of shape, so I used some good old EVA floor mats. I cut out ovals, then heated 'em up and forced the foam into an old half-finished helmet to curve them out. Added trim with thinner craft foam, then gouged lines with my dremel. I added staples and screws for detail. Painted, weathered, and epoxied on a couple of straps. The straps were purely cosmetic. These turned out so light they could be attached directly to my pants with snaps/domes commonly used on jackets.
Last piece of gear in this set is "Ulysses' mask" (supposedly a radiation mask) that I added ONLY because I saw it whilst buying spraypaint for this costume and its props.
Here's the game model:
Here's one I found:
Yup, 3M painters mask.
This got a paint, weathering, and some rugged fabric and duct tape straps.
I also learned that no paint I could find sticks to rubber! Harsh lessons.
Put it all together with my store-bought gear, a couple props I also made, and...
The pictures from the convention itself weren't amazing. Mostly taken with phone cameras, and my less-than-spectacular idea of spraypainting a rubber mask meant I had silver flakes around my mouth.
Well, that's my first costume I'm proud enough of to share! I'll respond to questions or comments as soon as I can, and I'll be posting up a prop thread soon featuring my free-handed Pip-Boy 3000 and the replica Greanade launcher.
Also, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for inspiring me to show off something I'm passionate about and had a blast creating.
