Phayze
Well-Known Member
Okay, so after a great deal of thinking, studying, and pestering the costume and prop making community on pretty much every major board that I've been able to find (Thanks for humoring me, everyone.), I have finally completed my custom Green Lantern costume. I didn't really intend this from the start, but it came out being somewhat similar to the current Raynor suit, with a few personal touches.
I'll get all of the pics in now, that way you can skip over my long-winded rambling.
I sort of went nuts with the color blocking - I might have overdone it, but it certainly screams "I'm green damnit, and there's a lantern on my chest..." so my odds of being misidentified are probably slim. :lol
I knew when I started that I wanted to do something similar to the gauntlets that Raynor wore with his original suit, but I've always liked the contrast of Jordan's white gloves, so I compromised. I bought cheap nylon gloves from a Halloween store and cut the fingers down (half-finger gloves look cooler, and I hate not being able to manipulate objects normally). The bracer design is something that I've wanted to play with for a while now, and this seemed like as good of an excuse as any. I cut everything out of white foamies, and used Elmer's white glue to attach the lames. I made a duct tape double of my arm to use as a form for heat-shaping and fitting, and super glued on some bra clasps and elastic to keep it all in place. Bra claps, by the by, are awesome fasteners.
The boots (which you can't see very well in these pics) are the same that I posted with my Dark Jedi costume a while back. They're built up from a pair of all-black Chuck Taylors and some black vinyl that I got on clearance.
I drew the emblem on my computer, cut it out of foamies and used some super glue gel to attach the pieces while it was on my sewing dummy (I put a piece of paper under the shirt to keep from gluing everything to my dummy, but it wasn't needed).
The belt is from a (partly-finished) Luke Skywalker costume. I wasn't sure about wearing one, but I really felt like the costume needed something else, and it had the advantage of covering the crappy job I did on the waist band for the pants.
For the mask, I copied the general shape onto some foamies and heat-shaped it to my face, then used spirit gum to hold it on. The pics don't really show the details very well, unfortunately.
Last, but most essential - the Ring. The backing is cut from a piece of PVC pipe and the center piece is a finish washer, all painted with metalic green leaf model paint (that came out way darker than I expected) and glued directly to my glove. Not exactly how I'd pictured this going down when I started, but it got the job done.
There are a few things that I wanted to do better with this costume (better gloves, more elaborate wrist armor, shin guards, a fancy belt buckle, color-matched mask with white lenses, etc.), but even though I didn't get to them I still feel really good about this costume. I'm an extremely hard critic of my work, and this is one that I don't think I'll mind wearing a few more times and even upgrading from time to time. The public seemed to appreciate it, and that alone is pretty rewarding.
I usually do very obscure character references for costumes (Tom Bombadil was one of my favorites) so I think one of the best parts about wearing this is that for the first time in many, many years of dressing funny in public I was correctly identified numerous times by total strangers. Quite a thrill for me.
Sorry for the rant, but I put a lot into this thing and I needed to vindicate my effort my documenting it thoroughly.
I hope you enjoy.
I'll get all of the pics in now, that way you can skip over my long-winded rambling.
I sort of went nuts with the color blocking - I might have overdone it, but it certainly screams "I'm green damnit, and there's a lantern on my chest..." so my odds of being misidentified are probably slim. :lol
I knew when I started that I wanted to do something similar to the gauntlets that Raynor wore with his original suit, but I've always liked the contrast of Jordan's white gloves, so I compromised. I bought cheap nylon gloves from a Halloween store and cut the fingers down (half-finger gloves look cooler, and I hate not being able to manipulate objects normally). The bracer design is something that I've wanted to play with for a while now, and this seemed like as good of an excuse as any. I cut everything out of white foamies, and used Elmer's white glue to attach the lames. I made a duct tape double of my arm to use as a form for heat-shaping and fitting, and super glued on some bra clasps and elastic to keep it all in place. Bra claps, by the by, are awesome fasteners.
The boots (which you can't see very well in these pics) are the same that I posted with my Dark Jedi costume a while back. They're built up from a pair of all-black Chuck Taylors and some black vinyl that I got on clearance.
I drew the emblem on my computer, cut it out of foamies and used some super glue gel to attach the pieces while it was on my sewing dummy (I put a piece of paper under the shirt to keep from gluing everything to my dummy, but it wasn't needed).
The belt is from a (partly-finished) Luke Skywalker costume. I wasn't sure about wearing one, but I really felt like the costume needed something else, and it had the advantage of covering the crappy job I did on the waist band for the pants.
For the mask, I copied the general shape onto some foamies and heat-shaped it to my face, then used spirit gum to hold it on. The pics don't really show the details very well, unfortunately.
Last, but most essential - the Ring. The backing is cut from a piece of PVC pipe and the center piece is a finish washer, all painted with metalic green leaf model paint (that came out way darker than I expected) and glued directly to my glove. Not exactly how I'd pictured this going down when I started, but it got the job done.
There are a few things that I wanted to do better with this costume (better gloves, more elaborate wrist armor, shin guards, a fancy belt buckle, color-matched mask with white lenses, etc.), but even though I didn't get to them I still feel really good about this costume. I'm an extremely hard critic of my work, and this is one that I don't think I'll mind wearing a few more times and even upgrading from time to time. The public seemed to appreciate it, and that alone is pretty rewarding.
I usually do very obscure character references for costumes (Tom Bombadil was one of my favorites) so I think one of the best parts about wearing this is that for the first time in many, many years of dressing funny in public I was correctly identified numerous times by total strangers. Quite a thrill for me.
Sorry for the rant, but I put a lot into this thing and I needed to vindicate my effort my documenting it thoroughly.
I hope you enjoy.
