(FINISHED) Captain America Comic Book costume build

[hmoney143]

​Hey everyone! My name is Harrison, I've been Cosplaying for 4 years but this is my first thread on the RPF so take it easy on me and any constructive criticism would help me out. I'm making a captain america costume from the comic books with the scales on the shirt.
This it the one I'm going for

I've cosplayed Captain America before but I'm going to try to be as accurate to the comics as possible and I love the look of the scales on the shirt. I figured I should start on the shirt first since the scales will be the most time consuming part of the costume. I've had quite a bit of experience making scales for a costume when I helped one of my friends make an Aquaman costume. the scales were made of foam with a coat of mod podge to give them a bit of sturdiness and a nice shine. Here is how the scales looked once they were finished and on the shirt.

For the Cap costume I'm going to do a similar technique but plasti dip the scales instead of mod podging the scales to give them a leathery look.

I will be using 3mm foamies for the scales. i made a template and traced it onto 10 sheets of foam and began cutting.

After 10 sheets of foam and about 5 hours of cutting i think i finally have enough scales to cover the torso now its time to start coating them in platsi dip.
Here is a sample of what a few of them look like lined up.

I will be using clear plasti dip since the scales are already a color that I"m happy with for the costume.

This is what i set up to make sure the scales stayed put while i was plasti dip them.
More updates soon!

 

[IronJoe]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Looking forward to your progress, looks like a great start. :thumbsup

 

[mmadadamm]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

I love this look for Cap. Looking forward to updates!

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Quick update!
I'm finally done with the plasti dip process on thew scales, there are about 700 of them in total and I went through about 4 cans of plasti dip.
Here is what they look like laid out on my desk.

I will be ordering some red white and blue spandex this Friday ( Its payday! ) to begin sewing my shirt to get the basic Cap look, then i will begin attaching the scales. I made a similar top out of some old cotton shirts I had laying around that I wore for a casual Halloween costume a few years back.
this is what it looked like ( the star took a bit of damage in the washer )

More updates soon! but in the meantime here is my homemade Captain America costume from the avengers that I wore to Planet Comicon 2014

 

[IronJoe]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Quick update!
I'm finally done with the plasti dip process on thew scales, there are about 700 of them in total and I went through about 4 cans of plasti dip.
Here is what they look like laid out on my desk.
View attachment 461051

Wow, nice! That looks like a ton of work! I am considering going down the same path, I have been wanting to do a Comic-style Cap for a few years now but have been unsure of how to do the scales. I'm a big fan of John Cassaday's artwork for Cap and how he drew the "scale mail", but I also can't help but wonder how the scale-mail would look under the suit, as it appeared to be drawn in the older comics.



vs




----
A few more questions for you - what attachment method are you using for the scales? And what is the dimensions of the "scale" that will be visible? You are inspiring me to try my hand at this as well!

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Wow, nice! That looks like a ton of work! I am considering going down the same path, I have been wanting to do a Comic-style Cap for a few years now but have been unsure of how to do the scales. I'm a big fan of John Cassaday's artwork for Cap and how he drew the "scale mail", but I also can't help but wonder how the scale-mail would look under the suit, as it appeared to be drawn in the older comics.

View attachment 461207

vs

View attachment 461208


----
A few more questions for you - what attachment method are you using for the scales? And what is the dimensions of the "scale" that will be visible? You are inspiring me to try my hand at this as well!

Thanks for the support!
I've always liked John Cassadays way of drawing Cap the best. For the older Cap I'm not sure if he has a shirt over the scales or if they didn't want to spend time drawing all the scales but ill try on my blue spandex on over my friend Spencers Aquaman scale shirt so we can see what it would look like.
This is what the shirt looks like.

And this is what it looks like with the blue over it.

The lighting in my bathroom isn't the best but I don't think I really like the shirt over the scales, I think it makes me look lumpy like Bizzaro or Deadpool haha.
As for the dimensions, the actual scale measures 1-1/8 inch with and 1-3/4 inch length, 1-1/8 will be the with and about 1 inch in length will be showing when they're on the shirt. For the Aquaman shirt we used hot glue to attach the scales while Spencer was wearing the shirt. It was a grueling process that was uncomfortable for him because he had to stand still for hours while I glued them onto his body (with really hot glue that probably didn't feel to good). Thankfully for my Cap costume the scales are bigger and there is a lot less surface area to cover, I will be using my custom duck tape mannequin to hot glue the scales on without me having to wear the shirt.
here is the mannequin with my superman costume on it

This should a more stress free process this time. The fabric should be in later this week and I will begin sewing the shirt, more updates coming soon!

 

[IronJoe]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Awesome! I agree with you on the scales-under-shirt, doesn't translate well to real life! Scales on the outside looks just right. Thanks for all the info!

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Alrighty, its been a while!. between working for 3 weeks strait and me playing Mortal Kombat X I haven't had much time to make progress on my costume..... till now. I got the fabric in the mail and began to cut and sew, this is how the shirt ended up looking

Then I started gluing the scales. This was a time consuming process and I probably spent more time than I needed to adjusting the placement of the scales, it also took forever to remove all the hot glue strings that were hanging of the shirt. But it was time well spent because here is what i ended up with.

I was very happy with the way the shirt looked, it had that nice leathery look that I was going for and it wasn't all that uncomfortable to wear (I'm sure ill change my mind on that after wearing it all day on the convention floor). I cut and plasti dipped a star out of fun foam and attached it using hot glue, this irregular surface was not the easiest thing to glue onto but I was happy with the end result.

and here is one with my shield

Up next I will start work on the belt, boots and gloves.

 

[IronJoe]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Wow, the shirt and scales turned out fantastic!!!

Is the top and the stripes all one piece? How do you get in and out of it?

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Wow, the shirt and scales turned out fantastic!!!

Is the top and the stripes all one piece? How do you get in and out of it?

Thank you!
The whole thing is all one piece and it slips on over my shoulders, I cant get it on or off without the help of my roommate haha. Is yours more than one piece?

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

alright sorry about the wait but work has been crazy busy, I've made some progress and I should warn you that this is VERY PIC HEAVY.
I will start with the boots. I bought some red costume boots and cut the tops off
Before

After


Then I cut out some red pleather for the top, glued foam underneath it to make it sturdy and attached them to the boots.


This was the final result

and here is what the look with my blue pants i sewed


Next is the Mask
I started by free handing a pattern to make a hood that would cover my entire face and began sewing.


I bought a plain mardi gras style mask and trimmed it down to this


Then I glued it under the hood and began to cut out the eye holes and the mouth. As I cut out the eyes I tucked it under the mask and glued it to make it look nice and clean.


I cut out the A and the wings out of fun foam and plasti dipped them, then I glued toothpicks in-between the foam on the wings to make them look raised.

and here is the final result


I will have another update soon about the gloves and belt!

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Gloves and belt complete!
For the gloves I wanted to try sewing instead of buying them. first I made a template of my hand, I wrapped my hand in saran wrap, then wrapped it in masking tape and drew lines where I wanted the seams.

then I cut it off my hand and traced the pieces onto construction paper

Then I traced it onto some leftover red pleather, cut it out and then started to sew!
The first glove took me 3 days to sew since there was a lot of trial and error and it was the first time I hand sewed gloves, luckily the second glove only took 1 day to complete. I did a regular running stitch and them back stitched it to make the seam stronger. Once they were done I hemmed to seam on the forearm with my sewing machine. here is what they look like.


I was very happy with the results and even happier that I hand sewed them!
Now for the belt. I bought a canvas utility belt on amazon.


The only problem was that it is olive drab green, so I bleached it and dyed it dark brown.
I wanted the belt underneath pouch to be actual leather so I bought a plain strip of leather, dyed it dark brown and attached a silver buckle. I wanted to give the belt some extra detail so I added leather strips to each pouch. I cut leather strips about 5 inches long and 1/2 in wide.

I dyed the stripes dark brown and attached them to the belt, this was the final result.


The costume is almost finished, I just need to apply some finishing touches. I was very happy with everything and I will post pictures of the complete costume soon!

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Revamping the shield!
I'm sanding out some of the imperfections and then i will give this bad boy a new paint job.

 

[Gimpdiggity]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

This is really great work.

Keep it up!!!!


Jeff

 

[Peek73]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

LOVE CAP!!! Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Thanks for the support everyone!
Here are some teaser pictures of my costume with my two nieces. the little one wasn't to fond of my costume haha.





I'm still sanding the shield trying to get it nice and smooth, once its all done and painted I'll post pictures of the full costume.

 

[Peek73]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Very Cool my friend, Love the way the scales and the mask turned out. OLD SCHOOL BABY YEAH!!!

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Here are some pictures of the shield about 50% done

I am going to paint the rest tonight and will have pictures up soon!

 

[Captain Rogers]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Amazing job on this. Cap is my favorite hero, and you truly captured how awesome Steve Rogers is.

 

[hmoney143]

Re: Captain America Comic Book costume build

Shield done just in time for Kansas City Comic Con!

I will be debuting the whole costume tomorrow at the con, if you see me come and say hi!