Xxblackbird
Sr Member
The title of the thread may be a little deceiving. I'm not your standard chaw-chewing, banjo playing toothless hillbilly, but I'm still most certainly a hillbilly.
I come from the hills and mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia. I decided to do a Ghostbusters costume that would fit in a bit better 'round these parts than the usual Ghostbuster you see anymore. Show up in a pair of aviators and a fauxhawk you're likely to get laughed at (then shot). And the Egon-type thin "nerd" wouldn't survive much longer.
First, I tried to make the suit dirty with various bits of green, brown, red, black gray and primer gray spray paints to varying success. It shows up better in person. She shiny material of the flight suit makes it hard to see the detail in pictures. I also added charcoal dust to my legs and I'm usually covered in at least some amount of slime.
The idea of the character is that he's sort of like the Turtle Man from TLC's Call of the Wild Man. He's someone I bump into at the grocery store from time to time. He's a grungy old toothless hick who'll show up and do your dirty work, usually accept payment in the form of a bucket of home made stew or a jar of moonshine then he'll go on his way. He's genuine, he's fun, he's incredibly nice but he's 100% country. He'll dive into the filthy water or crawl under your house to catch a critter that's causing you problems. He'll get bit and filthy and scratched and bruised but he's there to do a job and he won't quit until he's done.
On with the pics:
Old world folklore and tradition is alive 'n' well in the hollers of Eastern Kentucky.
People still believe in werewolves, vampires, spirits, sprites and a lot of mythology that the rest of the world has forgotten about.
I wanted my suit to reflect this with gear that wouldn't just fight ghosts, but would handle just about anything you can throw at me. I've also tried to make it look like he's a Jack of All Trades, since so much of this part of the country is isolated. The clan mentality is strong here, so a lot of us tend to be loners when we aren't with our kin. So he works mostly alone, and I wanted his gear to reflect that.
I've got a UV light for fighting Trolls. My grandmother used to tell me about trolls that turned to stone in day light and one that lived under a covered bridge where she grew up.
I have a few magical looking things that I'm still working on collecting. Most of it is nonsense but I've included a rosary. I also have a new addition that is voodoo looking, with chicken bones, feathers and beads. Of course with slavery having been a reality here, the likelihood that I'd encounter an angry ghost of a slave is pretty high.
I re-purposed a multimeter to look like some generic gizmo a GB would have. Maybe a sound level meter or rad meter. I use it to cover the extra buckle on my belt (where I had to string 2 together).
I also have a vampire tooth necklace. It's kind of a good ol' boy thing.
Here is a Holy Water sprayer. The nozzle is modeled loosely on the slime blower from GBII. The bottle is an aluminum thermos from Hobby Lobby. The Holy Water label is custom, with "distilled dihydrogen monoxide" and a list of who has blessed the water, including representatives from many major religions.
This is a Mattel PKE Meter.
This is also a Mattel Ghost Trap. The trap is secured with a custom nylon holder. I also wear the pedal with a custom leather strap that holds it to the belt.
And there is my Rune Sleeve. I was inspired by Kwaidan to cover a part of my body in runes to signify a protective magic spell for when I have to reach into dark, dangerous places. There has been a surprising number of people who understand the sleeve.
These are my ParaGoggles, made from a pair of welding goggles and leftover PVC. I also have a red indicator light that blinks on the top, and one green and one UV led for each lens. It's also wired with a custom charge port.
And here are my vampire killin' stakes. Made of some dowels from wal-mart and whittled into fairly dull, con-friendly stakes. I tried to make one look ancient and used, with some runes carved into it. Another looks used and a little old. The other is supposed to look modern and new, with a more uniform cut and a rubber grip. I also modeled the holder on the usual GB trap holder. The stakes are held in place with zipties. I left one spot empty to make it look like I've had to use one recently.
And lastly I have my custom painted elbow pads and some XL military surplus chemical gloves. Just as a fun note, I bought the gloves from ebay and they were apparently USED and had some harmful chemical on them that gave me chemical burns on my hands and face. Good times.
Last things I'll mention are that I'm using a khaki Tru-Spec 3X flight suit with a tailored crotch to get it to fit.
I'm using a military surplus ALICE frame that i painted black. I lined the ALICE pads with white fur to imply that I've fought and killed a yeti or something. I've also included Buddhist prayer beads, a Tibetan coin and a Tibetan ghost talisman that was carved from ox bone to drive home the Yeti thing. There aren't many Yeti here (though there's a LOT of Bigfoot talk) but brown or black fur would blend with my hair too much. I thought the Tibetan items would help sell that it's from a Yeti.
I made some extra nylon straps that go from my ALICE pads to my belt to help keep my gear up. It works wonders and my belt would drop to my knees every 5 minutes without them.
I have 2 khaki army surplus belts and cheap walmart boots.
The leg hose, PKE and belt gizmo holders are from MultiMediaMeyhem, each with slight modifications by me.
The proton pack is a modified D-42 vac-formed shell, heavily rebuilt by me and reinforced with fiberglass. The parts are mostly custom, mostly aluminum with some found parts here and there. The booster frame is a resin replica that I purchased. The motherboard was cut by me out of plywood. The gun is a ThrowingChicken v3.0 resin kit assembled by me and with some custom cut aluminum barrels.
I have a Heavy Props sound and light kit installed. Both were purchased in kit form and assembled by me with an added kill switch installed to save battery life. I have a canakit 7w amp, also bought in kit form and assembled by me, and a single mono speaker.
The belt gizmo is a WIP. It's a circuit board from a broken internet router that I've glued some nixie tubes to. I'm working on a better setup now.
Whew!
I come from the hills and mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia. I decided to do a Ghostbusters costume that would fit in a bit better 'round these parts than the usual Ghostbuster you see anymore. Show up in a pair of aviators and a fauxhawk you're likely to get laughed at (then shot). And the Egon-type thin "nerd" wouldn't survive much longer.
First, I tried to make the suit dirty with various bits of green, brown, red, black gray and primer gray spray paints to varying success. It shows up better in person. She shiny material of the flight suit makes it hard to see the detail in pictures. I also added charcoal dust to my legs and I'm usually covered in at least some amount of slime.
The idea of the character is that he's sort of like the Turtle Man from TLC's Call of the Wild Man. He's someone I bump into at the grocery store from time to time. He's a grungy old toothless hick who'll show up and do your dirty work, usually accept payment in the form of a bucket of home made stew or a jar of moonshine then he'll go on his way. He's genuine, he's fun, he's incredibly nice but he's 100% country. He'll dive into the filthy water or crawl under your house to catch a critter that's causing you problems. He'll get bit and filthy and scratched and bruised but he's there to do a job and he won't quit until he's done.
On with the pics:
Old world folklore and tradition is alive 'n' well in the hollers of Eastern Kentucky.
People still believe in werewolves, vampires, spirits, sprites and a lot of mythology that the rest of the world has forgotten about.
I wanted my suit to reflect this with gear that wouldn't just fight ghosts, but would handle just about anything you can throw at me. I've also tried to make it look like he's a Jack of All Trades, since so much of this part of the country is isolated. The clan mentality is strong here, so a lot of us tend to be loners when we aren't with our kin. So he works mostly alone, and I wanted his gear to reflect that.
I've got a UV light for fighting Trolls. My grandmother used to tell me about trolls that turned to stone in day light and one that lived under a covered bridge where she grew up.
I have a few magical looking things that I'm still working on collecting. Most of it is nonsense but I've included a rosary. I also have a new addition that is voodoo looking, with chicken bones, feathers and beads. Of course with slavery having been a reality here, the likelihood that I'd encounter an angry ghost of a slave is pretty high.
I re-purposed a multimeter to look like some generic gizmo a GB would have. Maybe a sound level meter or rad meter. I use it to cover the extra buckle on my belt (where I had to string 2 together).
I also have a vampire tooth necklace. It's kind of a good ol' boy thing.
Here is a Holy Water sprayer. The nozzle is modeled loosely on the slime blower from GBII. The bottle is an aluminum thermos from Hobby Lobby. The Holy Water label is custom, with "distilled dihydrogen monoxide" and a list of who has blessed the water, including representatives from many major religions.
This is a Mattel PKE Meter.
This is also a Mattel Ghost Trap. The trap is secured with a custom nylon holder. I also wear the pedal with a custom leather strap that holds it to the belt.
And there is my Rune Sleeve. I was inspired by Kwaidan to cover a part of my body in runes to signify a protective magic spell for when I have to reach into dark, dangerous places. There has been a surprising number of people who understand the sleeve.
These are my ParaGoggles, made from a pair of welding goggles and leftover PVC. I also have a red indicator light that blinks on the top, and one green and one UV led for each lens. It's also wired with a custom charge port.
And here are my vampire killin' stakes. Made of some dowels from wal-mart and whittled into fairly dull, con-friendly stakes. I tried to make one look ancient and used, with some runes carved into it. Another looks used and a little old. The other is supposed to look modern and new, with a more uniform cut and a rubber grip. I also modeled the holder on the usual GB trap holder. The stakes are held in place with zipties. I left one spot empty to make it look like I've had to use one recently.
And lastly I have my custom painted elbow pads and some XL military surplus chemical gloves. Just as a fun note, I bought the gloves from ebay and they were apparently USED and had some harmful chemical on them that gave me chemical burns on my hands and face. Good times.
Last things I'll mention are that I'm using a khaki Tru-Spec 3X flight suit with a tailored crotch to get it to fit.
I'm using a military surplus ALICE frame that i painted black. I lined the ALICE pads with white fur to imply that I've fought and killed a yeti or something. I've also included Buddhist prayer beads, a Tibetan coin and a Tibetan ghost talisman that was carved from ox bone to drive home the Yeti thing. There aren't many Yeti here (though there's a LOT of Bigfoot talk) but brown or black fur would blend with my hair too much. I thought the Tibetan items would help sell that it's from a Yeti.
I made some extra nylon straps that go from my ALICE pads to my belt to help keep my gear up. It works wonders and my belt would drop to my knees every 5 minutes without them.
I have 2 khaki army surplus belts and cheap walmart boots.
The leg hose, PKE and belt gizmo holders are from MultiMediaMeyhem, each with slight modifications by me.
The proton pack is a modified D-42 vac-formed shell, heavily rebuilt by me and reinforced with fiberglass. The parts are mostly custom, mostly aluminum with some found parts here and there. The booster frame is a resin replica that I purchased. The motherboard was cut by me out of plywood. The gun is a ThrowingChicken v3.0 resin kit assembled by me and with some custom cut aluminum barrels.
I have a Heavy Props sound and light kit installed. Both were purchased in kit form and assembled by me with an added kill switch installed to save battery life. I have a canakit 7w amp, also bought in kit form and assembled by me, and a single mono speaker.
The belt gizmo is a WIP. It's a circuit board from a broken internet router that I've glued some nixie tubes to. I'm working on a better setup now.
Whew!
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