Hey fellow RPF members! Just wanted to show off my Halloween costume for this year. I decided to recreate Negan from The Walking Dead. Here's a brief breakdown of how it came together and what I did. Let me know what you think!
Jacket: a standard black leather motorcycle one I ordered off the bay, it's not screen accurate (ones I found online that were, either were not real leather or priced out of my budget for this build due to the popularity of the character) I was pleasantly surprised how well it fit me when it arrived and I can attest it is 100% pure leather, the seller did say it was practically brand new and right he was, I actually slept in it a couple nights just to break it in a bit so it wasn't so stiff. It's a super jacket overall and I'll be wearing it for years to come.
Pants, Scarf, Belts (no solo picture): The pants and "scarf" were bought at Goodwill. The pants are a gray pair of Levi's jeans which I was lucky enough to find and the "scarf" was actually a XL knockoff Under Armor type shirt that I cut just below the armpit of the shirt and discarded the top half, so the torso of the shirt basically becomes an infinity scarf after that. If you look at Negan's scarf it's not really "blood" red, it's more of a maroon or dirty red so I thought this color looked better. The belts are a black leather casual jean belt I already owned and the cartridge belt is a cheap one I found online.
Undershirt (no solo picture): The white undershirt is a long-sleeved white cotton crew neck shirt I picked up at Old Navy for a couple bucks.
Glove (no solo picture): The glove or gloves were cheap black leather ones I picked up at Walgreens. I say "leather ones" because the tag on the inside of the glove claims 100% real leather but after removing the lining on the inside of the gloves the remains of the outside of the glove were super thin. I realized I only needed the right hand glove, so I took the left hand one and turned it inside out and inserted it into the right hand one so that it acts as a leather lining for the main glove. It worked out well.
Boots: I got tricked on this one. Negan's boots are mid-calf black "Engineer Boots" and NOT mid-calf black "Harness Boots" At the time of ordering these boots the only references I had to Jeffery Dean Morgan's Negan costume was from the Season 6 finale that had just aired. There are some pretty decent shot of his boots and for some reason I convinced myself they where one style when in actuality they where the other. So I ended up with the Harness Boots instead of the proper Engineer Boots. They are great boots just not the proper style, although it will bother me more than it'll bother the general public.
Handgun: In the season 6 finale Negan kneels in front of Carl and sees a handgun which we learn belongs to Negan. It's a standard Springfield Armory 1911 pistol with custom grips installed. Carl finds the gun in the armory of Alexandria a few episodes prior and I used this screen shot as reference. I just ordered the closest inexpensive airsoft/pellet gun I could find and waited for it to arrive. When I finally did I proceeded to remove the thin plastic grips and get rid of them. I also went to the hardware store to track down better/more accurate screws for the new grips I was planning on making. After locating a couple different lengths of screws or bolts I set off to create the grips. Under the plastic grips lies metal bars on either side to give the otherwise plastic gun some weight, I kept those because I wanted the finished product to have the same heft as it did before. The new grips were carved out of mahogany I had some scraps of. After tracing the outlines of the old plastic grips I was able to cut out the basic shape of the new grips and than shape them with my Dremel and regular sand paper. I also had to create a recess on the back side of the grips to allow the weights a place to rest when the grips where reattached to the gun. After sanding, cleaning, and hand carving the Negan logo in the new grips they where sealed and re-attached to the gun and the orange tip was painted. My only pet peeve with the finished gun is the trigger is not correct. The screen capture one features the 3 holes in the trigger where as mine does not, I suppose I could use a small bit and drill the 3 holes but the trigger is pretty narrow and I don't want potentially ruin the gun attempting it so I'll just live with it for now.
On to the bat...This is why I put "spoiler alert" in the title of my post. If you have not seen the premiere of season 7 of The Walking Dead be warned there are spoilers ahead, but honestly if you're interested in a Negan costume and how I went about creating it and you haven't seen the premiere I am slightly confused quite honestly.
Lucille (Version 1): She began as a pretty beat up old wooden bat my boss had in her garage she no longer used or wanted to she donated it to me.
After a heavy sanding and finishing she began to take on new life. I stained her a darker brown to match Negan's on the show and added the "Louisville Slugger" oval with a black sharpie and than sanded it a bit to rough it up. I picked up some craft wire and started to hand twist the barbed wire I needed for the bat. I decided it was best not to go with real barbed wire as I was already pushing it using a real bat and I wasn't looking to press my luck.
Lucille (Version 2): After finishing her I decided there was something I wasn't satisifed with. I proceeded to pick up thicker 16 gadge craft wire as the original wire seemed a bit thin for my taste. And then after watching the premiere I made the decision to dirty her up instead of having her clean, I also thought I'd go ahead and create a costume for Lucille as well, which is why she'll be dressed as Glenn.
Using the top of a chinese takeout container and some plastic wrap I began painting thin layers of liquid latex onto the plastic wrap until I created a flap that was thick enough to pass for skin.
The plastic wrap helped create a skin like texture and wrinkles to the latex once I peeled it off.
Then I just applied some regular makeup to the front side and "blood" to the back side.
The "blood" that I used on the back of the latex and to cover the bat I'm particularly proud of. After searching and searching for a fake blood that would dry and not be sticky yet still look wet and came up with nothing. Messing around I combined some clear acrylic gloss medium to a couple drops of regular red acrylic paint. The acrylic medium is white and than dries clear leaving only the red color. So I mixed up a batch that appeared more pink than red to assure that I had used enough of the clear medium. The result, once dried, is a flexible stretchy material that looks wet but isn't sticky or rubs off on everything, plus it can be painted on almost any surface. I just globed it on the bat over the barbed wire and painted a couple thin layers over the backside of Glenn.
And so without further delay. Here is my completed Negan and Lucille costumes for Halloween 2016.
Thanks for looking. Let me hear what you think!
-Ash
Jacket: a standard black leather motorcycle one I ordered off the bay, it's not screen accurate (ones I found online that were, either were not real leather or priced out of my budget for this build due to the popularity of the character) I was pleasantly surprised how well it fit me when it arrived and I can attest it is 100% pure leather, the seller did say it was practically brand new and right he was, I actually slept in it a couple nights just to break it in a bit so it wasn't so stiff. It's a super jacket overall and I'll be wearing it for years to come.
Pants, Scarf, Belts (no solo picture): The pants and "scarf" were bought at Goodwill. The pants are a gray pair of Levi's jeans which I was lucky enough to find and the "scarf" was actually a XL knockoff Under Armor type shirt that I cut just below the armpit of the shirt and discarded the top half, so the torso of the shirt basically becomes an infinity scarf after that. If you look at Negan's scarf it's not really "blood" red, it's more of a maroon or dirty red so I thought this color looked better. The belts are a black leather casual jean belt I already owned and the cartridge belt is a cheap one I found online.
Undershirt (no solo picture): The white undershirt is a long-sleeved white cotton crew neck shirt I picked up at Old Navy for a couple bucks.
Glove (no solo picture): The glove or gloves were cheap black leather ones I picked up at Walgreens. I say "leather ones" because the tag on the inside of the glove claims 100% real leather but after removing the lining on the inside of the gloves the remains of the outside of the glove were super thin. I realized I only needed the right hand glove, so I took the left hand one and turned it inside out and inserted it into the right hand one so that it acts as a leather lining for the main glove. It worked out well.
Boots: I got tricked on this one. Negan's boots are mid-calf black "Engineer Boots" and NOT mid-calf black "Harness Boots" At the time of ordering these boots the only references I had to Jeffery Dean Morgan's Negan costume was from the Season 6 finale that had just aired. There are some pretty decent shot of his boots and for some reason I convinced myself they where one style when in actuality they where the other. So I ended up with the Harness Boots instead of the proper Engineer Boots. They are great boots just not the proper style, although it will bother me more than it'll bother the general public.
Handgun: In the season 6 finale Negan kneels in front of Carl and sees a handgun which we learn belongs to Negan. It's a standard Springfield Armory 1911 pistol with custom grips installed. Carl finds the gun in the armory of Alexandria a few episodes prior and I used this screen shot as reference. I just ordered the closest inexpensive airsoft/pellet gun I could find and waited for it to arrive. When I finally did I proceeded to remove the thin plastic grips and get rid of them. I also went to the hardware store to track down better/more accurate screws for the new grips I was planning on making. After locating a couple different lengths of screws or bolts I set off to create the grips. Under the plastic grips lies metal bars on either side to give the otherwise plastic gun some weight, I kept those because I wanted the finished product to have the same heft as it did before. The new grips were carved out of mahogany I had some scraps of. After tracing the outlines of the old plastic grips I was able to cut out the basic shape of the new grips and than shape them with my Dremel and regular sand paper. I also had to create a recess on the back side of the grips to allow the weights a place to rest when the grips where reattached to the gun. After sanding, cleaning, and hand carving the Negan logo in the new grips they where sealed and re-attached to the gun and the orange tip was painted. My only pet peeve with the finished gun is the trigger is not correct. The screen capture one features the 3 holes in the trigger where as mine does not, I suppose I could use a small bit and drill the 3 holes but the trigger is pretty narrow and I don't want potentially ruin the gun attempting it so I'll just live with it for now.
On to the bat...This is why I put "spoiler alert" in the title of my post. If you have not seen the premiere of season 7 of The Walking Dead be warned there are spoilers ahead, but honestly if you're interested in a Negan costume and how I went about creating it and you haven't seen the premiere I am slightly confused quite honestly.
Lucille (Version 1): She began as a pretty beat up old wooden bat my boss had in her garage she no longer used or wanted to she donated it to me.
After a heavy sanding and finishing she began to take on new life. I stained her a darker brown to match Negan's on the show and added the "Louisville Slugger" oval with a black sharpie and than sanded it a bit to rough it up. I picked up some craft wire and started to hand twist the barbed wire I needed for the bat. I decided it was best not to go with real barbed wire as I was already pushing it using a real bat and I wasn't looking to press my luck.
Lucille (Version 2): After finishing her I decided there was something I wasn't satisifed with. I proceeded to pick up thicker 16 gadge craft wire as the original wire seemed a bit thin for my taste. And then after watching the premiere I made the decision to dirty her up instead of having her clean, I also thought I'd go ahead and create a costume for Lucille as well, which is why she'll be dressed as Glenn.
Using the top of a chinese takeout container and some plastic wrap I began painting thin layers of liquid latex onto the plastic wrap until I created a flap that was thick enough to pass for skin.
The plastic wrap helped create a skin like texture and wrinkles to the latex once I peeled it off.
Then I just applied some regular makeup to the front side and "blood" to the back side.
The "blood" that I used on the back of the latex and to cover the bat I'm particularly proud of. After searching and searching for a fake blood that would dry and not be sticky yet still look wet and came up with nothing. Messing around I combined some clear acrylic gloss medium to a couple drops of regular red acrylic paint. The acrylic medium is white and than dries clear leaving only the red color. So I mixed up a batch that appeared more pink than red to assure that I had used enough of the clear medium. The result, once dried, is a flexible stretchy material that looks wet but isn't sticky or rubs off on everything, plus it can be painted on almost any surface. I just globed it on the bat over the barbed wire and painted a couple thin layers over the backside of Glenn.
And so without further delay. Here is my completed Negan and Lucille costumes for Halloween 2016.
Thanks for looking. Let me hear what you think!
-Ash
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