Kid Rock impersonation cosplay costume build

[greenmachines]

Earlier in the year, I put together this Kid Rock impersonation cosplay. I purchased a Stetson hat and then dug through my mom's incredible pile of craft feathers and furs. The hat work was extremely intense and much of it was new to me. The first layer of feathers was hotglued to a 2 inch square of felt cloth (not to the hat) that also had its own elastic band added to make it a removable part. Cloth beading/roping (boot lace) was glued on the edge of my laser prints (laminated) of rattle snake skins. I found the snake skin pattern online and printed it on a high definition laser printer at our local shipping store.

I did not want to damage the hat so there is some intricate straps and magnets involved. I first wrapped the entire hat in an amazing, non destructive wrap, Reynold's brand Press and Seal.

The laminated snake band had an elastic cloth band hot glued to connect the ends, making a removable hat band. The center piece medallion was cut from a soda can bottom and embossed with a steel round tip stylus then painted with a custom mix of black and clear nail polish. It was hot glued to a two layer stack of suede leather, one off white, one black, that had been star edge cut with crafter's scissors. This was backed with hairs from a dollar tree paint brush (dyed to match the original). A magnet set was hot glued to add this onto the bottom layer of feathers and felt.

Then I could not find all of the beads I needed so I sanded down some larger beads and painted them. I attached these with a leather cord and then hotglued these to the center medallion from the back by the magnet.

Making it this far was two months of effort and numerous shopping trips.

 

[greenmachines]

Earlier in the year, I put together this Kid Rock impersonation cosplay. I purchased a Stetson hat and then dug through my mom's incredible pile of craft feathers and furs. The hat work was extremely intense and much of it was new to me. The first layer of feathers was hotglued to a 2 inch square of felt cloth (not to the hat) that also had its own elastic band added to make it a removable part. Cloth beading/roping (boot lace) was glued on the edge of my laser prints (laminated) of rattle snake skins. I found the snake skin pattern online and printed it on a high definition laser printer at our local shipping store.

View attachment 1578409View attachment 1578410

I did not want to damage the hat so there is some intricate straps and magnets involved. I first wrapped the entire hat in an amazing, non destructive wrap, Reynold's brand Press and Seal.

View attachment 1578408

The laminated snake band had an elastic cloth band hot glued to connect the ends, making a removable hat band. The center piece medallion was cut from a soda can bottom and embossed with a steel round tip stylus then painted with a custom mix of black and clear nail polish. It was hot glued to a two layer stack of suede leather, one off white, one black, that had been star edge cut with crafter's scissors. This was backed with hairs from a dollar tree paint brush (dyed to match the original). A magnet set was hot glued to add this onto the bottom layer of feathers and felt.


View attachment 1578405

Then I could not find all of the beads I needed so I sanded down some larger beads and painted them. I attached these with a leather cord and then hotglued these to the center medallion from the back by the magnet.
View attachment 1578406View attachment 1578407
Making it this far was two months of effort and numerous shopping trips.

The famous, "American Badass", eagle necklace was next. Yet again, this was new to me from a crafting standpoint. The first step was getting very high def internet images of him wearing the necklace. It did not surprise me to find YET AGAIN that internet sellers, claiming to sell this necklace, had the image WRONG!! I can usually count on this as it is often hard for the knockoff market to get that same high quality closeup image that I searched a week for, so they go with a best guess.

I first cut the outline from a brass trophy plate purchased at our local trophy shop. Then I used mini files to grind in the fine edging detail. My fingertips were numb for two weeks.

Then I sketched the pattern with a felt fine tip marker.

My search for micro gems took another week. These can be fingernail gems or microfine sheet gems from 1mm up but not over 2mm. After applying these, I re added my shadows with the marker. To create the necklace in true to life format, it would require etching the image into a reverse mold for casting as the letters and internal face have actual depth in the surface. Mine would work because of the magic of focal blur. I created the figure 8 chain links by wrapping normal oval links with thin gold stationary tape.

Still to come: Hair and final staging.

 

[greenmachines]

Because the singer wears different sunglasses, I could choose from several. I chose two poses that were widely circulated and recognizable as Kid Rock. I grew my facial hair but found I could not completely match so I opted for using spirit glue to add in some of the moustache, as well as plucking to match. In the shot below, in front of he gq background, I took his background g's and q's and put them on my white banner. I will add them below in sequence. First him, then me, then background placed.

My necklace shows better than his as I was unwilling to flip it sideways to match after all that effort making it.

And this pose with some different glasses.

Note: my daughter gifted me some African Porcupine quills that were added last.

and for fun, I made this one using the camera's cartoon feature.

 

[greenmachines]

Because the singer wears different sunglasses, I could choose from several. I chose two poses that were widely circulated and recognizable as Kid Rock. I grew my facial hair but found I could not completely match so I opted for using spirit glue to add in some of the moustache, as well as plucking to match. In the shot below, in front of he gq background, I took his background g's and q's and put them on my white banner. I will add them below in sequence. First him, then me, then background placed.

View attachment 1578444View attachment 1578445View attachment 1578446


My necklace shows better than his as I was unwilling to flip it sideways to match after all that effort making it.

And this pose with some different glasses.

View attachment 1578448

Note: my daughter gifted me some African Porcupine quills that were added last.

and for fun, I made this one using the camera's cartoon feature.

View attachment 1578449

I almost left this out, my apologies. The hair extensions were hand made to match the original pictures. I cut out sections of a full wig and attached hair clips to the ends. I bleached these with baking soda overnight and then straightened them by dipping them in boiling water. They were synthetic hair and could not use a regular flat iron straightener.

 

[greenmachines]

These were my max facial likeness percentages from my likeness app:

 

[joberg]

Not bad at all...I think that the nose could've been transformed. Sometimes it's good to insert some cotton swab (painted black) to a have a better flare of the nostrils. I see that he has a convex nasal bone and upper cartilage. I think that a good appliance could've done the trick by adding also the downward slope of the nose toward the nostrils.

 

[greenmachines]

Not bad at all...I think that the nose could've been transformed. Sometimes it's good to insert some cotton swab (painted black) to a have a better flare of the nostrils. I see that he has a convex nasal bone and upper cartilage. I think that a good appliance could've done the trick by adding also the downward slope of the nose toward the nostrils.

Agreed. I had practiced a muscular nasal flare and pinch, made the bridge thinner and nostril opening nearly round, but got too involved in the setup of the banner/lighting and pose to remember. I should have worked on an appliance. Many of these poses require changes in chest capacity and shoulder position and are too many temporary alterations to ensure I remember the checklist. I am working toward eliminating these temporary pose fixes with appliances and costume alterations, like girdles and back braces. My recent Richard Petty had a similar flat physique which requires pulling in my chest cavity instead of just gut. But we raise the bar for next time and that is why I love it.

 

[joberg]

You're right; there's so many little details to take care of...just to have a very convincing face takes a lot of planning. Now for the whole body and trying to copy it is another story all together

 

[greenmachines]

So I am now a fake costume ad online. Found this today. I am a little disappointed that I wasn't worth at least 50 bucks but hey, if you want to claim some success in life, you know you hit the big time when you are a scam ad..... and no it isn't my first go round....years back I printed a picture of my baby boy on a large format printer I was selling and that ebay ad got replicated about 8 times.

 

[joberg]

^^
Well, small success is...success, even when not receiving any kudos/royalties

 

[greenmachines]

^^
Well, small success is...success, even when not receiving any kudos/royalties

I told my mom that I expected better but felt a bit awkward sending the scammers any proof changes to make the ad look and read better....