Mad Max Costume Build

[Ned Figglehorn]

So with the recent release of the new Mad Max film it made me want to try my hand at making a Max Rockatansky cosplay. There is one particular thread on here that goes into a lot more detail on Max's outfit from Fury Road, but I thought I'd just show off the process of my build.

I started of the costume with the famous shoulder pad that sits on Max's right shoulder.

The pads pictured above are a pair of Rawlings Crusader football shoulder pads which were used to make Max's shoulder pad in MM:RW, MM:BT and, MM:FR. The only problem is these are no longer available and are actually pretty rare to find now, So I looked around for a similar pair that had the unique design on the shoulder plate.

After a while of searching I found a pair of Bike Air-Lite Varsity Edition pads that had that similar plate design on them.

This is the plate after it was removed, I was really happy that the design and shape was very close to the Rawlings plate. The only problem with this is the BIKE logo is actually embedded in the plate so I'm planning on doing some sanding or a little Bondo work to smooth it out.

The last part that makes up Max's shoulder pad is the foam padding that the plate is strapped to, this just happens to be the foam padding that is underneath the plastic plating on the outside of the pads. mine is held in by rivets where as on the Rawlings it's actually stitched into the plastic but it shouldn't alter the look to drastically once the padding is removed.

But that's it for today,I do have a jacket and pants on the way so once I get those this project will go into full swing. I plan on keeping this thread updated from start to finish so check back in the next coming weeks!

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

So I made a little more progress on the shoulder pad today it's not much but its something.


I removed the foam padding and like I said earlier my padding was held in by rivets, I was worried I'd have ugly holes in the padding once I removed it but I guess I got lucky because the holes were conveniently placed in about the same areas as Max's in the film. So I'll be using them again later on when attaching it to the jacket.

I did some work on the plate as well, I thought it was going to be difficult to remove the BIKE logo off the plate but 400 grit sandpaper did the job just fine and I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm planning on weathering this to give it a Fury Road look with the dust and whatnot so I scuffed up the surface just a little bit to allow for a better stick later on in the process.

That's about It! The jacket and pants should be here by the end of today or tomorrow so once I get those I'll start doing some weathering and detail work.

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

The jacket and pants arrived and well... they weren't anything like I thought they'd be so I'll be buying the new jacket and pants from South Beach Leather. A little upsetting but oh well I'd rather wait to have good looking costume pieces rather than some cheap looking knockoffs.

In the time being I worked on a very small piece of Max's outfit and that's the paracord bracelet around his right wrist.

I know Max's bracelet appears to be a lighter tan color in the movie and lots of people use foliage green to make their bracelets but I happen to like the darker brown look it has in the picture above.

Here's mine, the thing about this color is that in different lighting it can look like a dark brown and in other it looks like it has a slight greenish tint but either way I'm happy with it and these are actually pretty fun to make

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

Shoulder pad is done! Well for the most part, the weathering stage is next but I'm calling it done for now The straps I used to attach the plate to the padding is a little thick so I'm going to wait and see if it'll loosen up over time, if not I'll replace it with a thinner strap. Over all I am happy with how it looks, it may not be 100% accurate but hey it looks pretty close.

 

[Rupert_Angier]

Bumping due to interest in this build. Keep it up, man.

 

[TaylorThebatts]

What kind of leather jacket should I get

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

Ah yes, I'm sorry I left this thread to collect dust so I guess I'll give a bit of an update. I tried getting more pieces together but I unfortunately lost interest in the Max costume, when I stepped back and looked at all the pieces that needed to be sourced I just didn't feel like putting in the time and money to further the project. So I'm officially pronouncing this build dead. BUT! I would say this is a good tutorial for a cheap almost screen accurate shoulder pad for anyone wanting to make their own Max cosplay!