Josh's Captain America: TFA Costume

I used a mix of brown and oxblood shoe polishes til I got that nice English tan color. Angelus also make some really nice acrylic leather paints that might be useful. You can get their paints and a whole bunch of other leather care stuff at a website called turtlefeathers.
Can I ask you where you ordered your gloves from and around how much they cost you? They look great and I'm thinking about upgrading to a new pair.
 
I used a mix of brown and oxblood shoe polishes til I got that nice English tan color. Angelus also make some really nice acrylic leather paints that might be useful. You can get their paints and a whole bunch of other leather care stuff at a website called turtlefeathers.
Can I ask you where you ordered your gloves from and around how much they cost you? They look great and I'm thinking about upgrading to a new pair.

Gotcha, I think I might go with the Jump Boots without the cuff just in case I want to do the rescue costume (I've already got a jacket for it coincidentally). The only problem is that I'm not sure they have the paratrooper jump boot in my size, so I might go with the Corcoran boots.

I got the gloves from a guy on eBay, Follow glovecityleather518 on eBay Profiles. His name is Walter and he's a pretty awesome guy to work with. Fast and accurate. I chose the Medium Brown Top Grain Sheepskin Gauntlet and I sent him a picture of the UD replica gauntlets and asked him to make the appropriate changes. I highly recommend! The gloves were originally around $25 dollars but after I asked him to make the modification, it came out to $50.
 
Gotcha, I think I might go with the Jump Boots without the cuff just in case I want to do the rescue costume (I've already got a jacket for it coincidentally). The only problem is that I'm not sure they have the paratrooper jump boot in my size, so I might go with the Corcoran boots.

I got the gloves from a guy on eBay, Follow glovecityleather518 on eBay Profiles. His name is Walter and he's a pretty awesome guy to work with. Fast and accurate. I chose the Medium Brown Top Grain Sheepskin Gauntlet and I sent him a picture of the UD replica gauntlets and asked him to make the appropriate changes. I highly recommend! The gloves were originally around $25 dollars but after I asked him to make the modification, it came out to $50.

It's funny that you mention the jump boots because I just decided to buy a pair of the brown Corcoran replica WWII jump boots. I'm thinking I may remove the double buckle from the boots I already have and attach it to the Corcorans to make them more TFA authentic. The Corcorans/TFA boots seem much taller than the ones I have. Then I have to figure out a way to color match the double buckle to the Corcorans.
Thanks for the glove info, I'll definitely check that guy out.
 
It's funny that you mention the jump boots because I just decided to buy a pair of the brown Corcoran replica WWII jump boots. I'm thinking I may remove the double buckle from the boots I already have and attach it to the Corcorans to make them more TFA authentic. The Corcorans/TFA boots seem much taller than the ones I have. Then I have to figure out a way to color match the double buckle to the Corcorans.
Thanks for the glove info, I'll definitely check that guy out.


Where did you buy the Corcoran jump boots at? I see some that are reddish brown and then a regular brown and I'd like to go for the regular brown color.
 
Where did you buy the Corcoran jump boots at? I see some that are reddish brown and then a regular brown and I'd like to go for the regular brown color.

I think the replica WW2 boots are all the same color. I can't remember the site I got them from off the top of my head, I'll have to look tonight when I get home. They were around $140 which was the best price I could find.
 
Last night I got the suit from Hello Cosplay. Which is really surprising because they delivered it to me almost a week early! Although I'm certainly not going to complain :D.

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So a few things I've noticed so far:

-Like others have said, the quality is good. It's not as good as I was hoping but it's still good.
-The gloves I bought match the leather straps on the arms.
-Speaking of leather straps, they are way too long. Any ideas what I should do with them? Did anyone else replace them?
-The blue top section doesn't come down far enough but I knew this when I bought it.
-The back is a problem for sure. It's wrong and is going to need some work.
-The red straps aren't as good as I hoped they were. I might replace them as well.
-I've still got to find some ammo pouches or get some made quickly.
-I also need to get the back star buckle and belt buckle.

The first thing I want to do is attach the star I got from Bamabat. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to remove the old star on the costume and attach the new star?
 
i made the pouches out of craft foam, its surprisingly resiliant, and looks even more like leather when worn. you can use the patterns in my CA:TFA thread, i have patterns for all pouches and the holster.
 
I'm sorry I didn't see this thread sooner but I ordered the Hello Cosplay suit last year and had them customize it for me. I got them to revise the back so I could put the rear star buckle on without having to do any modifications. I was also able to get them to make the white under tunic with a blue back.
IMG_2882.jpg
I detailed my experience with them in my build thread (http://www.therpf.com/f24/another-c...me-thread-you-bet-new-pics-161615/index2.html). Again, I'm sorry I was late to this party!

In terms of the upgrades I did to the suit, I replaced the front straps with 2" red webbing from strapworks.com along with the metal webbing sliders. You can also get 1.75" red webbing from them that will work with the existing hardware. It looks way better than the provided straps in my opinion. Since the screen used costume straps have a layered look to them (because they used cloth), I sewed a dark gray stitch a 1/4' off of the webbing on each side. I also got the 2" "caps" from strapworks to put on the bottom of the webbing.

I replaced all the metal "slides" on the upper chest area with the more screen accurate triangle shaped slides - I also replaced the ones on the lower bicep area where the leather strap is (I left the higher ones as is). And I didn't cut the that faux leather arm straps for fear of them fraying and falling apart - I just adjusted them to the length I wanted and then wrapped the excess on the inside of itself and used a small piece of tape to hold it there.

I replaced the vinyl stars on the shoulder pauldrons with rubber ones from Bamabat - I originally used his chest star but have since opted for something a little smaller that is more in proportion to the size of my suit. The vinyl stars are easily removed on the chest and shoulders by carefully cutting and removing the stitching. Once you get it started, the come right off. To put on Bamabat's chest star, I used white velcro - it worked very well.

I had originally made the rear star buckle and strap slide that attaches to the belt out of plastic sheeting (as described in my original build thread), but I managed to get my hands on a set of those items from rpf member hikz. They were awesome, but again, were too big for my costume so I went with another smaller option.

I added stitching to the chest area and on the back to give the feel of the overlap effect the material has in the screen used costume - I have seen others modify the Hello Cosplay costume to the point of where they actually do the overlap.

These are the boots I used - Dr Martens Samuel Buckle Boot | Men's - Brown Re-Polished Wyoming - I was on a budget.

Off the shelf pouches are tough - these are really really hard to find but have the feel of the screen ones.
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My final step was weathering everything on the suit - straps, buckles and the suit itself. I definitely wanted to make it look well used.

I could never find good gloves, but now I'll be getting a pair from where you got yours!

The biggest visual drawback of the suit (in my opinion) is the light padding in the abdomen area which doesn't have very much definition and the pants. In terms of wearing the costume, an issue I've run into is the white under tunic not staying tucked in - I fixed this by adding a couple of straps to the bottom of it that go around my legs (kind of like a jock strap) before I put the pants on. That helped a lot.

All in all, this suit is really good - I have been happy with it.

I hope a couple of these ideas help.
 
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I'm sorry I didn't see this thread sooner but I ordered the Hello Cosplay suit last year and had them customize it for me. I got them to revise the back so I could put the rear star buckle on without having to do any modifications. I was also able to get them to make the white under tunic with a blue back.
View attachment 244029
I detailed my experience with them in my build thread (http://www.therpf.com/f24/another-c...me-thread-you-bet-new-pics-161615/index2.html). Again, I'm sorry I was late to this party!

In terms of the upgrades I did to the suit, I replaced the front straps with 2" red webbing from strapworks.com along with the metal webbing sliders. You can also get 1.75" red webbing from them that will work with the existing hardware. It looks way better than the provided straps in my opinion. Since the screen used costume straps have a layered look to them (because they used cloth), I sewed a dark gray stitch a 1/4' off of the webbing on each side. I also got the 2" "caps" from strapworks to put on the bottom of the webbing.

I replaced all the metal "slides" on the upper chest area with the more screen accurate triangle shaped slides - I also replaced the ones on the lower bicep area where the leather strap is (I left the higher ones as is). And I didn't cut the that faux leather arm straps for fear of them fraying and falling apart - I just adjusted them to the length I wanted and then wrapped the excess on the inside of itself and used a small piece of tape to hold it there.

I replaced the vinyl stars on the shoulder pauldrons with rubber ones from Bamabat - I originally used his chest star but have since opted for something a little smaller that is more in proportion to the size of my suit. The vinyl stars are easily removed on the chest and shoulders by carefully cutting and removing the stitching. Once you get it started, the come right off. To put on Bamabat's chest star, I used white velcro - it worked very well.

I had originally made the rear star buckle and strap slide that attaches to the belt out of plastic sheeting (as described in my original build thread), but I managed to get my hands on a set of those items from rpf member hikz. They were awesome, but again, were too big for my costume so I went with another smaller option.

I added stitching to the chest area and on the back to give the feel of the overlap effect the material has in the screen used costume - I have seen others modify the Hello Cosplay costume to the point of where they actually do the overlap.

These are the boots I used - Dr Martens Samuel Buckle Boot | Men's - Brown Re-Polished Wyoming - I was on a budget.

Off the shelf pouches are tough - these are really really hard to find but have the feel of the screen ones.
View attachment 244050

My final step was weathering everything on the suit - straps, buckles and the suit itself. I definitely wanted to make it look well used.

I could never find good gloves, but now I'll be getting a pair from where you got yours!

The biggest visual drawback of the suit (in my opinion) is the light padding in the abdomen area which doesn't have very much definition and the pants. In terms of wearing the costume, an issue I've run into is the white under tunic not staying tucked in - I fixed this by adding a couple of straps to the bottom of it that go around my legs (kind of like a jock strap) before I put the pants on. That helped a lot.

All in all, this suit is really good - I have been happy with it.

I hope a couple of these ideas help.

Thanks for the heads up good sir. I'm certain you and I will have some discussion in the future about how to improve my suit! Although I wish I knew about those boots before I ordered the Corcoran Jump Boots >.<. I could have saved some money! Oh well, no biggie.
 
Okay so I do have a bit to update here. Let's get to it!

So like I said before, the first thing I wanted to do was attach the star to the chest. Using some fabric adhesive I was able to do so.



But unfortunately, it didn't take very well and I'm going to have to redo it.

Now I haven't had a lot of time to do much lately but I did go to a couple Halloween parties dressed as Cap. And I participated in a 5k for MS called Monster Stomp. It's in my area and it's thrown every year. People dress up and then they run. My sister was recently diagnosed with MS so for the past two years, I've participated and tried to raise money for charity. This year, I dressed up as Cap, took some photos, changed into running clothes and ran it!



I also went to a Halloween party over the past weekend for the Pittsburgh chapter of the International Game Developers Association. Weirdly enough, I found someone there who dressed up as Black Widow and we won an award for best duo! (Doesn't she look a bit like Scarlett Johansson?)









The Jump Boots arrived the other day but I'm going to have to send it back because I got the wrong size :facepalm.

Roblenzz's helmet came in as well and it looks fantastic!





And lastly, I've been talking with a group of local cosplayers around the Pittsburgh area and one of them has offered to help me improve my Cap outfit! So hopefully, we'll be able to fix the back and the other lingering issues with the suit.
 
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