Female Captain America

[laurend]

Fly4v:Thank you so much! The $135 one was the only I was able to find on ebay as well but I'm glad to see the other. It's not much cheaper once you factor in the shipping (ends up being about $101) but every little bit counts. I think it'll be a little bit before I end up buying the shield since the weather here is still too unpredictable to try and paint outside so I'll keep those in mind and be on the look out for more.

The second one will be perfect as the new movie Winter Soldier seems to be goin with this design for Cap's costume....

And yeah, that's another big motivator in deciding to do the Commander-inspired one as well.

 

[BoogieBear]

I'm kind of torn. I think they are both great designs but I suppose if I had to pick one it would be the first. Either way, good luck and can't wait to check out your progress! As Fly4v said there can't possibly be enough Caps out there, male or female. I've been trying for a while now (quite unsuccessfully I might add) to convince my girlfriend that we should put together a sexy badass Cap outfit for her to go with my almost completed TFA get-up.
As for a shield, I can vouch for the airsoft one as well. For the money it's definitely a good shield. And if you have the skills and time (check out Fly4v's build thread as he suggested-awesome work!) you can transform it into a solid "near movie accurate" shield.
Again, good luck and I'll definitely be subscribing to your progress!

 

[Fly4v]

B.B. Thanks for the kind words. Laurend should serve as a great inspiration to your girlfriend. My wife as agreed to join my costuming when she saw Pepper in an I.M. suit and since I don't want to do I.M. myself.

Laurend, I think we are in the same situation for painting. I had to get pointers from Kevin Gossett over in Texas on how to deal with humidity.
Also, glad I could find a slightly better price on a shield. Broke out the laptop as opposed to the tablet and a different search engine gave slightly better results.
Afraid as the number available drops the price will go up. Hope that the new movie will result in a new production run and reduced prices.

 

[laurend]

BoogieBear, hopefully she can get a little inspiration if I manage to ome up with anything decent! I'd be awesome to see a couple side by side.

Fly4v, it's not so much humidity but the weather can't decide what to do! I'm up in New England and lately its been a mess, we'll have a perfect 60-65 degree, sunny day, then it'll be torrential downpours and storms, then it'll be 80 degrees and windy..all in a week. I'm hoping by mid-summer things will at least be a /little/ more stable so I can do things outside again. Definitely missing my garage right about now.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for another run too! Anything cheaper will help

Anyway, while I'm waiting to go out to look for fabric and waiting for my dog tag run in the junkyard to get going so I can get that money back I decided to work on something I already had-the boots.
Like I said, these were issued to my brother during boot camp and are a standard issue steel-toed combat boot, and they showed how much work they'd gotten-they were pretty beat up and still dirty so I knew they would take a bit of work. And sorry about the crappy night time pictures.

Before picture:

After:

So, obviously the worst damage is at the toes (though I had no idea what that crud on the upper left one was) and it's hard to see in the photo but they were overall pretty faded, they didn't have that slight leather shine. I'm definitely not looking for patent anything but these guys were dull.
First thing I did was give them a deep clean with cloth first then a fingernail brush to get in to the soles and all of the stitching using just water and a tiny bit of gentle soap but it seems like most of what was on there was just dirt or mud so that worked pretty well.
After that I rubbed on a bit of leather conditioner, let that set for a few hours just to make sure it was all soaked in, and then gave them a couple of coats of a leather finish called neat-lac. Once that was all set I gave them a quick buff and man did that finish make all the difference. I did add a little bit of shoe polish on the toes to hide some of the gouges that went deeper than the dye but I didn't want to do /too/ much polish, I definitely don't want patent leather here.
They're not perfect by a long shot but honestly, I kind of like it that way, they look like they might have actually been worn fighting some baddie. Plus, really the only part that's going to show is the toe and heel so they're not the most important part here.

 

[Vapaus]

i love both designs, each is special in its own way imo,
heres another design i saw a year ago(?) and that i really liked:

boots look great and about the shield im pretty sure you can get a better deal from ebay if you wait abit

good luck!

 

[laurend]

i love both designs, each is special in its own way imo,
heres another design i saw a year ago(?) and that i really liked:

Yeah I've seen that one a few times too and it is a pretty awesome photo but I'm not much a fan of the exposed belly and tbh, I didn't really like the Avengers uniform :/
I'm not sure exactly why, I just never have haha.

 

[ThatPhoenixGuy]

What is it with female versions of known costume and the need to show skin? It's the same with Thor, Hawkeye or any other male character. I never got it. Sure, it looks nice but why would a soldier wear a costume that protects every part of his body except the entire belly?

And I vote for the second design. I think the stars and stripes of the first version are a bit too close to the USO girls. Nothing against USO girls but Cap is about a kickass soldier who does his job and it must be the same with a female cap

 

[laurend]

Sure, it looks nice but why would a soldier wear a costume that protects every part of his body except the entire belly?

Yup, exactly why I didn't want to have the exposed belly, chest or legs. Nothing against all those classic costumes that have it, but definitely doesn't make a lot of sense, especially for someone like Cap who is only an enhanced human and pretty vulnerable compared to some of the other characters out there who might not need to worry as much about protection (ie. Emma Frost, Wonder Woman, etc.)

And yeah, I think at this point I'm definitely decided on the Commander uniform. I've been looking at the leather for all of the belts and straps and stuff and it turned out to cost a little less than I was expecting so may start on that next.

 

[ThatPhoenixGuy]

Cool. CoolCoolCool

So thrilled to see where you take this!

 

[Vapaus]

well i was just very impressed by the design level of that photo, really high quality Photoshop and 3d modeling work and Alison brie is great in community so.. i just thought id share it here in case you haven't seen it and btw i believe that almost the entire body in that picture is a 3d model so, it's not very realistic.

as i said i like both your designs the first one has a 50's thing going on with the flag stripes, second one seem to be a bit more modern but has old timey boots, shin-guards and leather pouches to balance it, i like it

good luck ill be keeping an eye on this thread.

 

[laurend]

well i was just very impressed by the design level of that photo, really high quality Photoshop and 3d modeling work and Alison brie is great in community so.. i just thought id share it here in case you haven't seen it and btw i believe that almost the entire body in that picture is a 3d model so, it's not very realistic.

Yeah I definitely like the image and it's by far one of the best I've seen of that type, even more impressive to know it's all modeled. Just wasn't what I was looking for haha.

 

[slimesquare]

I applaud you for wanting to make a tasteful costume...i'll be watching this for progress

 

[kysupernatural]

i love both designs, each is special in its own way imo,
heres another design i saw a year ago(?) and that i really liked:

boots look great and about the shield im pretty sure you can get a better deal from ebay if you wait abit

good luck!

Love the design..def could be movie quality right there.

 

[laurend]

I put in the order for all of my leatherwork materials so I should have them by next week, but my brother will be home for his pre-deployment leave so I might be a bit busy to actually do anything with it until he ships back on the 30th. I may be able to work on things a bit during the day though so we'll see.

In the mean time, I decided that I probably won't make a cowl. When Steve wears the commander uniform he generally doesn't wear his cowl or have his shield. But, at the same time, according to what we've seen so far, he will definitely have the shield and probably have the cowl for TWS so I'm going to do the shield and to hint at the cowl I've made some wing hair clips using craft foam, styrene and hot glue.

I started with the design, I used the shape they used for The Avengers, mostly because I liked the way it curved more the the one in TFA. Once I had that I knew I'd have to get rid of the negative space between the 'feathers' so I pushed everything together and drew out the new design in two sizes, then pulled them apart again to make 3 templates for each size.

I pieced everything together and was able to decide on a size (ended up using the bigger one) so I cut two of the biggest template out of 2mm craft foam.

Next step was to cut two of each template out of some styrene I had left over from another project. I think it was .06 but I'm not sure. (only one set in the pic)

Once I had everything cut I just layered the three styrene pieces together with a low temp hot glue gun and then put everything on to the foam. One of the things I love about this method is that it's super easy to get curve to things, all I had to do was curve the pieces gently while the glue dried and they hold a great shape. Once it was all together I used an exacto with a new blade to carefully carve off any parts that didn't quite line up to make the edges all even, glued on an alligator hair clip and they were done!

These were pretty simple and quick but I ended up really loving them. Thanks to all of the different layers they're real sturdy, even at the little tail end so I'm definitely not worried about them falling appart or getting bent. I will most likely end up wearing them far before my costume is finished!

sorry for the crap picture but you can get an idea of sizing and how they'll sit.

 

[msleeper]

Okay, the wing hair clips are totally killing me. What an awesome idea.

 

[laurend]

Okay, the wing hair clips are totally killing me. What an awesome idea.

Glad you like them! I'm so happy with the way they came out, I'm already itching to wear them, even without the costume :lol

I'm actually tempted to get out my lightbox to take some better pictures and put a listing up on etsy to try and get a little extra cash for the suit!

 

[Yrien]

The hair clips are super cute! Great idea to keep with the theme while making the "cowl" into something more feminine. I bet you could sell a few sets for sure.

 

[Fly4v]

I'm actually tempted to get out my lightbox to take some better pictures and put a listing up on etsy to try and get a little extra cash for the suit!

You should, more than just C.A. fans will like them.

 

[aeonpulse]

Everything so far looks great! Love your unique approach, and the hair clips are awesome! Also, fantastic work on those boots. Great improvement!

 

[Warchyld]

that captain america suit looks awesome, would be better if she was blonde tho