Hey all,
Well, I'm already toiling away on costumes for Halloween 2011. We're doing a few characters from the BPRD, namely Hellboy (to be played by me), Johann Kraus and Liz Sherman. Since I have never seen anyone do Kraus and since my Hellboy and Liz will be a smidgen different from all other attempts I thought I'd put up this project thread for y'all to look at. All characters will be copied from Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.
Some details on how I intend to tackle each costume:
Hellboy
Liz Sherman
Well... that's all I have for now. More photos and progress coming soon. If anyone has any suggestions or hard-to-find reference materials on pieces that I've described as problematic, I'd be grateful for them.
Well, I'm already toiling away on costumes for Halloween 2011. We're doing a few characters from the BPRD, namely Hellboy (to be played by me), Johann Kraus and Liz Sherman. Since I have never seen anyone do Kraus and since my Hellboy and Liz will be a smidgen different from all other attempts I thought I'd put up this project thread for y'all to look at. All characters will be copied from Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.
Some details on how I intend to tackle each costume:
Hellboy
- I will be using a few licensed any props that are available- Samaritan, belt and construct a few others. I've already loaded up with some locators from Spatcave.
- Boots tbd. Thinking of buying some rubber foam and modding an old pair of Doc Martins or something as this is not an area where I want to spend major dollars.
- Leather pants will be store bought and modified by me. (I looked at the replicas available and they are either too inaccurate or made out of PVC.)
- Latex chest & tail pieces have been ordered from xtremedesignfx and I'll be doing a fair bit of airbrushing those. Head will most likely be custom sculpted by me onto my lifecast (which I already have since I was planning to do a Batman cowl a couple years ago). This might be a tricky area since I'm not sure it'll work to my satisfaction or not. The chest piece I will be using already has a full head that I am planning on cutting off just under the chin and hairline. My hope is that I can mask the seam with Hellboy's hair and sideburns, which I intend to learn how to hand-punch. However, if the chest piece is too thick or flimsy on me I might have to find an alternative solution. Unfortunately, I'll have to cast it in regular latex as I don't have facilities to do it in foam. I'm not planning on getting to this part until spring.
- While I do have Sideshow's Right Hand of Doom I am going to try to construct one myself, with fingers that can grip.
- One thing that always seems a little bit off on the Hellboy costumes I've seen is his coat. Most people seem to use modified off-the-rack dusters, which I didn't want to do because they are usually too short, have incorrect pockets or other details that would need heavy modding. The China-made replicas available on ebay all look wrong too. So, I searched out a western duster pattern and made it myself. I was lucky to find a fabric that closely matches the color and fabric used but i still had to do give it some extra dye. A fellow RPFer is currently embossing a BPRD patch for me. I did allow myself to go "close enough" on a few details though. I decided to use pleather for the collar and straps to keep costs down but I intend on weathering it to look more natural. Also, the arm straps are a little too wide and since I honestly hate sewing I decided to leave out the lining. I'm inserting a photo of my WIP coat below. (Note: the right sleeve is shorter but the coat is hanging rather sloppily.)
Liz Sherman
- This costume is a bit simpler that the others but I decided to try to pay attention to details that seem to be missing from a lot of fan attempts to replicate it. I also decided to replicate the first costume she wears in the movie, where she has tactical gear instead of a leather jacket.
- After quite a bit of painstaking searching and staring at much-too-dark screen-grabs I managed to find a VERY close match for the SWAT vest she is wearing. It has a very specific arrangement of pouches that are different from almost every vest out there. The white BPRD logo will be added somehow.
- For her belt (as well as Kraus') I will be coloring, using proper leather dye, a HCG Hellboy replica belt. This will solve me the trouble of having to construct each one, find accurate buckles and give a sense of coherence to all three costumes.
- Liz is wearing a tight, ribbed sweater under the vest, that has a BPRD logo patch just under the neckline on her back- easy enough to duplicate.
- Boots. This is probably the big question mark. She seems to be wearing some kind of multi-strapped motorcycle boot but I can't seem to find any good pictures of them.
- Hand flame. I intend to try to find some way of making a "fake flame" flutter from the palm of her hand. Right now I have no idea how I'm going to do it. I did have an initial idea of using strips of thin cloth attached around her wrist or in the palm of a glove and blow them outward with a fan or compressed air hidden in her sleeve. (Suggestions are welcome!)
- This costume will be the most difficult one to copy. Obviously, some sacrifices will need to be made as far as accuracy goes to make this costume practical. (Seth Mcfarlane, who played Kraus, couldn't see out of the real one!) I am planning of finding a way for smoke to shoot out of the helmet vents, out of a finger and possible swirl around inside the dome. This costume will demand a lot of airbrushing and coliring to get the metallic shine and grime to look right.
- I have already made a start on his helmet, using an old motorcyle helmet as a base from which to build on (see the photo below). Building the details around the helmet will be fairly straightforward but the glass dome is probably the most difficult item to replicate out of all three costumes. It has a very complex shape that I mayb not be able to copy perfectly within a reasonable budget. If anyone has suggestions, they are more than welcome. My "worst case" plan is to simply buy a plexiglass dome and to try and shape it with some heat.
- The suit will also be fairly complex to do and I am currently right in the middle of drawing up a pattern for it. I have correctly colored fabric and will (for budget reasons) be using pleather for this as well. I haven't decided exactly how to do the armor plates on the elbows, knees and shoes yet but I imagine I'll use either styrene or craft foam of some sort. I will be sculpting and casting his fingertip valves and for the first time ever I'm gonna try to sew gloves.
Well... that's all I have for now. More photos and progress coming soon. If anyone has any suggestions or hard-to-find reference materials on pieces that I've described as problematic, I'd be grateful for them.
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