Darth Malgus costume build (Inspired by Darth Sereberus)

[SonAlexander]

Greetings everyone,

I started this build back in November of 2013 after I came across the fantastic build thread from Darth Serberus' Darth Malgus build. Mine has been finished since then, and it is in no way as good as his, but I am quite happy with it and would like to post my work. First thing I started with was purchasing a custom mask from www.compositeeffects.com. I used the same mask design that Darth Sereberus used which was the old man mask and paid for some alterations. The cheek scar, veins, increased brow and paint job were all paid for alterations. Because I got this during black friday, I did get a special on it and the total was around $700.


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Once that was done, I also purchased the Malice from Ultrasabers.com. Also on Black Friday special so i managed to pick it up for less that $300


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I continued my shopping and found some cheaper boots and gloves that would work. Black Friday was really good to me. Got the Gloves for $50 and the Boots from Payless for $40.

 

[SonAlexander]

With all of the pieces purchased I couldn't make on my own. I began the long process of building the armor. Now understand, I didn't have a lot of money to spend on this build, in fact my budget was around $3,000. Sounds like a lot, but if you knew how much Darth Sereberus spent on his build, you would understand mine was a drop in the bucket. With that said. I also don't have the skill to sculpt and cast each piece. As amazing as they look, I was forced to improvise my strategy. I started with the Breather mask... I went through a few various of materials before free handing the breather out of Sintra. Some of the failed materials included Cardboard with resin and fiberglass and Foam. Neither of those really worked well so the final version was Sintra. I used a 9v battery to power the lights and found a thing of foam tubing at Home Depot with some plastic wire casing and some elastic straps to keep it tight to my face.

 

[SonAlexander]

After the breather was finished I moved on tho the shins and knees. I again free handed all of my templates using pictures of Darth Malgus from all sorts of sources to get it right. I started using Sintra and couldn't get the angles sharp enough so I scrapped that idea. If i had the proper tools it might have been easier, but I had to work with what I had. Budget Budget budget! So then I moved on to my close personal friend... EVA foam. And man they looked sharp. I was really happy with how they turned out... But I also scrapped this idea because I wanted something that was going to last more than a few conventions...



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So then I moved on to Cardboard... kind of the middle ground between Sintra and Foam. Its bendy like Foam, but after I add the Fiberglass, resin and body filler to it, I can get nice clean edges. Then, much like Darth Sereberus, I used Sintra to add some details to the mix. I used foam on the back of the calf to add some of the armor details and comfort.



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So then I was time to move on to the biceps cause at this time I still had NO IDEA how I was going to manage the hardest part of this build... the core... Abs and Chest piece... So this was kind of my stall tactic while I processed the ideas flooding through my brain. The biceps were made out of EVA foam for comfort and also went through a few various changes because i kept sizing them incorrectly.... The final 2 pictures are the finished product.



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I then took a few hours and whipped out the hand guard, cause heck that was simple and quick...



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From there it was on to the thighs... another set of easy pieces. Simple matter of pulling out the measuring tape and measuring my leg to find out how long and wide i wanted it to be. Then I made a single stripe rounded at each end and used that to create the whole of the thigh armor. I messed up on the detailing and hand to redo them. But since they were made out of 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch layered EVA foam, the whole process took maybe 3 hours.

 

[SonAlexander]

I moved on to the boots at this point after finally having inspiration on how to do them. I failed several times using different patterns. None of them looked right. So finally I settled on what you see before you. To this day, I am still having a difficult time keeping them attached to the leather boots. I have tried all sorts of adhesives, some pieces stay fine with hot glue, others fall off. Some work well with a silicone adhesive some don't. So I am still working out the kinks in this part of the build...

 

[SonAlexander]

On to the forearms.... or I should say after weeks of thought on how to actually do them. I tried to follow Darth Sereberus' method and then a few others and realized I was just over thinking it. Not being able to sculpt and cast them was give me fits so finally I decided to just make the damn things out of Sintra and layer them. I took a plastic bag and taped it around my arm, used a marker and got a rough template of my formarm. I increased the size quite a bit, then I cut the base out of sintra and used a heat gun to shape them. I attached them with 2 screws on either end an a nut and some loctite. Making a clam shell effect. Turned out pretty good... After that it was just a matter of making the details and gluing them together in the right order...

 

[SonAlexander]

At this point, life got in the way and I was forced to put my build on hold for a few months. Which was disappointing because I missed great events like Fanime and Wondercon which I would have LOVED to have Malgus at. But fortunately, there is always another con. So after my break, I came back refreshed and finally had an idea of how to tackle the core section. I started with the belt and COD which was made completely out of EVA foam. A few different thicknesses layered and etched on top of each other. I followed Darth Sereberus' design and this is what I came up with.



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After struggling to come up with a way to do the Abs that would work that didn't involve me sculpting them. I through around the idea of having my wife sew something, but ultimately settled on free handing them out of foam...

 

[SonAlexander]

Ah yes.... the chest piece... the piece I had been DREADING since I started this build was finally upon me... I had no choice now, it was the last piece left so I got to work with some cardboard and just started piecing stuff together. It took several tries and throw aways but finally... FINALLY... I had a chest piece I was happy with.



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With the chest piece finally built and sanded down after many coats of resin, fiberglass and bondo. I used really thin sintra to make the details.



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Now for the easy part... The shoulders. It was simply a matter of taking some measurements and then making a template. I used Sintra and just shaped them using a heat gun. After a few layers of primer filler and Jet Black Duplicolor I taped them off for the detailing process.

 

[SonAlexander]

I painted each piece at the time of construction. But for the purposes of this build its just easier to explain it and show the outcome in one shot. I didn't own an airbrush so I decided to use the "Dry brush" technique I learned while painting miniature figures for Dungeons and Dragons. I bought 4 different shades of silver acrylic paint for like $2 bucks each at the hobby store. You get a flat paint brush and take your darkest color and start with that. Then you use less and less of each lighter shade as you work up. Focusing on the raised areas. you don't water down the paint and you want to have a paper towel supply near you so when you coat your brush, you can remove most of the paint in it before starting. You only want to be able to "dust" the paint on. Not spread it. Then you just use a really fast back and forth slapping motion (heh heh) on the armor piece. Continue the process until you are satisfied. Best part is it covers up most of the mistakes you make during the build process...



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I added some lights to where they needed to go. Some vinyl sticky buttons I found at home depot for the forearm buttons. I used some friendly plastic in the chest piece lights and literally markered them Red with a sharpie. The abs got several coats of 2 different colors of Plasti-Dip and nothing else. My wife was kind enough to make me the cloak with an REALLY big hood and the grey body suit. She had to sew each line in the body suit because we could't find material that would work. She used a Cover Alls pattern for the under suit.



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Once the body suit was made, I took some metal washers and had my wife sew in some patches on the thighs and forearms to help secure the thigh armor and elbow pieces to the forearms. Which I had put Rare Earth Magnets in. Let me tell you... This magnets are AWESOME. This is the first time I have worked with them, but it sure as hell won't be the last.

 

[SonAlexander]

And finally... after 7 months of trial and error I am finally to this point. I still have a little bit let to do. I just purchased the Ben Nye black eye makeup I needed to darken my own eyes to match the mask and some cheap Sith Contacts. As much as I wanted to purchase the Scalera Contacts like Darth Sereberus did... The budget got in the way and I couldn't justify almost $500 for them... So I settled with www.youknowit.com and spent about $30 on a pair of flame contacts that will do the job. We are also working on attaching the cape to the armor but I couldn't wait and had to do a suit up for the world to see... so here it is. My Darth Malgus the False Emperor from Star Wars the Old Republic.

 

[Vince]

Not terribly familiar with the Old Republic games, but I do love the look of Darth Malgus and you've done it justice! Absolutely outstanding!

 

[redjb24]

Very nice work! Thanks for taking the time to share. I agree with Vince, outstanding job!

 

[mac3kuby]

superb job. awesomeness

 

[Ysoserius]

Hello there , i started my own darth malgus cosplay...and was wondering if you could help me with some of the templates...

i already made the mask, i made the lightsaber (all 3d print) and the forearms..)


could use some help (in not spending hours of drawing) by getting some other templates

thx in advance