wolverine1260
New Member
I just wanted to post my Groot costume from Halloween 2016. I hope that I can help out anyone else looking to make a Groot costume. The costume is based off of Calen Hoffman's Groot build. I got many of my ideas from him.
This took me all year to make, but I was so busy that I was not consistently working on it. I am guessing this took me 3-4 months of actual work on the suit. I spent A LOT of time researching...A LOT of time... I discovered through others who made this costume that I would need to do some carving with a dremel tool.
I have never carved before. So, I borrowed carving books from the library, and I watched a ton of Youtube videos. I borrowed some Ray Villafane videos from the library as well. Ray is an expert on pumpkin carving. Check him out some time. He is amazing. I also researched the Groot costume that Calen Hoffman did. If you google his name, you'll be able to see pictures of the suit he built. This part involved months of research and planning.
I made about two attempts on carving the mask before I decided I needed a blueprint. Luckily, my mom, Miriam Rawson, is an awesome artist. I am including the blueprint/template in this post. It is a PDF. It needs to be printed on a legal size paper. Remember to check your printer settings before printing. Make sure it is set to print legal size.
View attachment 688977
I went over the copy with pencil, pushing down pretty hard. I made sure I left a lot of graphite on the paper. I put the template down flat over my cutout of the mask, then used an iron. The heat from the iron transfers the graphite from the template to the foam. It worked really well. You can see that in the picture with the yellow foam. I forgot to take a picture of that part of the process with the blue foam, so I used a piece of yellow foam to illustrate.
Then, I used the graphite lines on the mask as a guide when dremeling. I have a few pictures to show that process.
I cut out a green piece of foam for the top and made some markings on the green foam to make it look like the end of a rotting log, then more dremeling. I added some little branches to the top of the mask that I dremeled. I cut out some bark plates and dremeled them for the chest, back and portions of the leg portion of the costume. The paper templates are pictured, but I changed their shape a bit for the foam final because I wasn't happy with the shape of the paper templates.
I began working on the neck piece after the helmet was dremeled. I sewed a balaclava out of some lycra/spandex material that I had laying around from an old pullover. I hot glued backer rod onto the balaclava. Backer rod is basically foam tubing. I had a little from my Predator helmet that I did years ago, then I bought 100 feet more on ebay. I bought 1", 1/2", and 1/4". I only used the 1" backer rod for the neck. After completing the neck portion, I began working on the torso portion. I used 3/4" and 1" pipe insulation that I bought from Menard's. I ended up using 5 packages of each (10 total), and they were between $2-3 per package. Not a bad price. I ended up splitting each tube in half so I could spread out my supply farther.
View attachment IMG_0750A.jpg
After completing the torso, and the legs/lower half, I started researching stilts and leg extensions. I ended up using some scrap PVC pipe. I cut out some wooden soles for the bottom, ensuring that they would be really stable, so I wouldn't biff it. I bought some caps to put on top of the stilts/foot extensions, then mounted an old pair of boots to the top. I left some slabs of PVC that came up the sides of the boots for added support. I added nylon straps over the boots for stability.
After that I used rubber cement contact glue and tissue paper to the pipe insulation. After that I added a layer of Monster Makers RD-407 rubber latex over the tissue paper. I did not add any tissue paper to the mask and bark plates, but I put a layer of the rubber latex on those. Then I added some spray paint, and some acrylic paint to detail the suit.
I added a little moss from the modeling section of the craft store. It added some cool detail to the suit. I made a short video at the costume contest I entered. I got second place. Check out my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOTCAlkhGQY
This took me all year to make, but I was so busy that I was not consistently working on it. I am guessing this took me 3-4 months of actual work on the suit. I spent A LOT of time researching...A LOT of time... I discovered through others who made this costume that I would need to do some carving with a dremel tool.
I have never carved before. So, I borrowed carving books from the library, and I watched a ton of Youtube videos. I borrowed some Ray Villafane videos from the library as well. Ray is an expert on pumpkin carving. Check him out some time. He is amazing. I also researched the Groot costume that Calen Hoffman did. If you google his name, you'll be able to see pictures of the suit he built. This part involved months of research and planning.
I made about two attempts on carving the mask before I decided I needed a blueprint. Luckily, my mom, Miriam Rawson, is an awesome artist. I am including the blueprint/template in this post. It is a PDF. It needs to be printed on a legal size paper. Remember to check your printer settings before printing. Make sure it is set to print legal size.
View attachment 688977
I went over the copy with pencil, pushing down pretty hard. I made sure I left a lot of graphite on the paper. I put the template down flat over my cutout of the mask, then used an iron. The heat from the iron transfers the graphite from the template to the foam. It worked really well. You can see that in the picture with the yellow foam. I forgot to take a picture of that part of the process with the blue foam, so I used a piece of yellow foam to illustrate.
Then, I used the graphite lines on the mask as a guide when dremeling. I have a few pictures to show that process.
I cut out a green piece of foam for the top and made some markings on the green foam to make it look like the end of a rotting log, then more dremeling. I added some little branches to the top of the mask that I dremeled. I cut out some bark plates and dremeled them for the chest, back and portions of the leg portion of the costume. The paper templates are pictured, but I changed their shape a bit for the foam final because I wasn't happy with the shape of the paper templates.
I began working on the neck piece after the helmet was dremeled. I sewed a balaclava out of some lycra/spandex material that I had laying around from an old pullover. I hot glued backer rod onto the balaclava. Backer rod is basically foam tubing. I had a little from my Predator helmet that I did years ago, then I bought 100 feet more on ebay. I bought 1", 1/2", and 1/4". I only used the 1" backer rod for the neck. After completing the neck portion, I began working on the torso portion. I used 3/4" and 1" pipe insulation that I bought from Menard's. I ended up using 5 packages of each (10 total), and they were between $2-3 per package. Not a bad price. I ended up splitting each tube in half so I could spread out my supply farther.
View attachment IMG_0750A.jpgAfter completing the torso, and the legs/lower half, I started researching stilts and leg extensions. I ended up using some scrap PVC pipe. I cut out some wooden soles for the bottom, ensuring that they would be really stable, so I wouldn't biff it. I bought some caps to put on top of the stilts/foot extensions, then mounted an old pair of boots to the top. I left some slabs of PVC that came up the sides of the boots for added support. I added nylon straps over the boots for stability.
After that I used rubber cement contact glue and tissue paper to the pipe insulation. After that I added a layer of Monster Makers RD-407 rubber latex over the tissue paper. I did not add any tissue paper to the mask and bark plates, but I put a layer of the rubber latex on those. Then I added some spray paint, and some acrylic paint to detail the suit.
I added a little moss from the modeling section of the craft store. It added some cool detail to the suit. I made a short video at the costume contest I entered. I got second place. Check out my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOTCAlkhGQY
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