EDI From MassEffect3 HELP!

[Gunship]

Hi All,

Okay, So the wife wants to do an EDI costume from MassEffect 3. I have no experience in any form of latex. Does anyone have any idea how I should even tackle this. I know the costume needs to be colored latex in order to get the metallic sheen she wants. Can I roto cast latex?

 

[fallimar]

yikes, that's a really tricky one.
Latex is a strange beast, if you want the shiny look then you'll basically have to glue sheets to make your costume. Thing is, gluing sheet latex is a tricky skill - learnable but annoying and expensive.
Casting latex is definitely possible but it doesn't give the sheen you'll want and moulded latex has far inferior tear resistance and longevity. Additionally, the colour blocking you'd need to do would be much easier with already coloured sheeting.

Anatomic latex is the only place I've seen do a latex EDI, and theirs is pretty spectacular - good for reference material anyway! I believe they had the latex custom printed somehow (no idea how or where) and pieced it together sort of like a really cool version of a dye-sub suit.

 

[Gunship]

Thanks Majestic. Okay so how about getting a black latex catsuit and painting the design on to that? Not sure if one could mix a good grey silver in raw latex. or would it be eser to get a silver sheet? Thoughts?

 

[fallimar]

honestly painting latex sheet is tricky, and anything you paint on won't adhere unless you prepare the surface first with a solvent, but that stretches and wrinkles the latex so your lines could go all wonky... argh. It's really just a pain in the bum.
I'd definitely go for panels of colour, but first get your hands on some to practice with, because making a latex catsuit from scratch is a really, really difficult thing to do, never mind one with colour blocking. There's a very good reason they're so expensive to buy! (I do have a lot of good resources for buying them though, just in case.)

Check this out for starters, see if it's something you want to get into trying: http://makinglatexclothing.com/getting-started/

If all else fails, there are some very shiny rubberised spandex (liquid spandex it's sometimes called) fabrics that give a very nice sheen and will be a lot easier to work with. I mean, I love latex, it's an amazingly cool material but it's a hell of a learning curve! Good luck though, crazy ambitious but totally awesome project you've got here

 

[Laika]

I agree with Fallimar, latex is hard to work with, hard to wear (though it has its pleasures ... ) and costly, I speak from experience.I went on a latex making course last year (in London)) and have since made a couple of clubbing outfits and a cosplay (Pyslocke http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=231552 ) . All my latex outfits are rather simple but took multiple attempts to get anywhere near right.

As mentioned above, you don't sew it, you glue it (You need rather specialised adhesive and thinner too) with overlapping seams, straight seams are fairly easy once you habe the basic technique, but curved 3d ones take quite a bit of practice to do neatly. You can also do appliques fairly easily by glueing on patches but its easy to make a mess with excess glue. Latex can be printed on but I think it requires rather specialised equipment.

That Andromeda Latex http://andromeda-latex.com/ (They renamed themselves from anatomic latex) one is spectacular and must of taken an age to make by a very experienced latex fabricator and cost a fortune (I believe it was a one off, they don't sell it like there other suits) . I think its a mixture of glued sheets, moulded sections, appliques and printed sections, all made to measure for the model (Latex doesn't stretch as much as you think, skin tight bodysuits have to be made to measure)

So while latex would be possible, it would be long hard work skilling up and rather costly (Latex sheet doesn't come cheap).

I think a Lycra/Spandex suit would be a lot easier and cheaper and far more comfortable to wear, most EDI cosplays I've seen went this route. You can get very shiny metallic (actually its a thin PVC coating on the fabric) spandex quite easily at fabric shops and sew that up perhaps with black glossy lycra/spandex sections for the main body of the suit, then paint and/or applique sections for the details?

Possibly another way would be Dye Sub, paint EDI flattened out in photoshop over a base female template (people sell these I think) , perhaps even get the EDI texture (I think people have ripped it from the game) to help, then have it printed on white spandex by a fabric on demand service and then sew it up as a catsuit. Or perhaps use a mix of Dye sub and sewn sections? I think this http://inatimeofcosplay.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/costume-edi-15.html one was done that way