Magneto (Comics) build ECCC 2015

[IronJoe]

For Emerald City Comicon this year I will be building a comic-style Magneto costume. I'm pretty excited for a number of reasons: As a child of the '90s, Jim Lee's X-Men and the 1992 Animated Series made a huge impact on my childhood - I will never forget my anticipation of 10:00 AM on Saturday mornings! Also, this will be my first villain cosplay!

There have been quite a few movie-style Magneto builds but not that many comic-inspired threads I've found here. I will be borrowing shamelessly from FirstPick and his build, here.

For inspiration, I've selected Jim Lee's art (tough to beat!) which is a contemporary-yet-classic Magneto look.

However as I searched, I found many artists draw the breastplate differently. I'm a fan of the large spherical half-orbs around the breastplate as well as the rectangular center piece that extends down the torso. To me it looks more "villainous".

Square-ish center piece:

Rectangular:

I am starting with a few purchased pieces that I will modify, and then will be making most everything else (as much as I can!)

Helmet: I purchased a raw cast "kit" in which I will be finishing/painting/etc. I did desire to build my own helmet however I am not quite there in terms of skill yet. This is the "First Class" style helmet but I will be adding the "crest" from the comics.

Cape: My plan here is to select fabric and sew my own. I have yet to select a material, but I think I want something with a bit of weight to it.

Breastplate: I am planning to use Worbla (my first attempt) to craft the breastplate. My goal here is to achieve the regal look of the cape coming "off the shoulders". I'd like to build some attachment to the back of the breastplate so the cape rises slightly ( as seen in FirstPick's build).

Bodysuit: I purchased a muscle pattern from TaylorMcmanus and am having this sublimation-dyed onto fabric.

Gloves: Ideally I will sew these myself, seeing what an incredible job Peek73 has done with his Cap gloves!

Boots: I have a pair of "hero" boots which I will be modifying/dyeing for this suit.

Shorts: Most likely I will purchase a white pair and dye them.

Belt: At this point I am planning to make a white belt out of leather/vinyl and dye it purple.


Much of the challenge of this costume will come from color-matching. I want to achieve that regal purple color, as well as a red that looks deep and vivid without appearing cheesy. Also I have a lot to learn about dyeing fabrics, synthetics and natural materials. I also have never worked with Worbla before or made armor. This project is definitely a skill-builder! I also may be working on a prop if time allows, but for now I'm going to keep that under wraps

 

[The Portugeek]

Good start! I did a Magneto for my wife last year. Her dye sub suit was a bit darker then I wanted so will probably revisit it in the future. Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the armor.

 

[hapslappy]

Cant wait to see this come along. Subscribed

 

[Peek73]

Any updates there JOE????

 

[IronJoe]

Latest update: my bodysuit is completed and I'm pumped! I will be working on my helmet this week and then hopefully onto some of the more challenging details

 

[Peek73]

SWEET! Waiting for progress pics.....

 

[veego]

Cant wait to see this come along.

 

[IronJoe]

OK, I'm back


I took a bit of a break on this while I finished up the White Ranger. I have less than three weeks til ECCC to complete this!

Cape update: Yup, I made a cape from scratch. Pretty much had no clue what I was doing! I started with a store-bought paper pattern and modified it. I used a darker purple for the outside, and a light purple lining material for the inside.



Bodysuit update: I received the bodysuit, my first with a u-zip. Quite a pain to get in and out of but the fit is pretty much perfect!

Here's a sneak preview inside the cape!




Helmet: Pretty simple to finish. Paint, sand, bondo, repeat. I added the "crest" and painted with Liquitex shades of purple and red I chose. It's a VERY "comicy" purple and I love it, I think it turned out great!

 

[IronJoe]

Neck/Shoulder Armor:

For this I'm facing a sort of design dilemma. Traditionally, Magneto has been depicted with a purple "shoulder armor" piece, and a purple shoulder & neck covering. Like so:

Purple:



However it seems that every so often (maybe one in five Google images) I find an artist who has depicted Magneto with RED shoulder/neck covering, as if it is part of his bodysuit showing through:




I initially stated that I was using Jim Lee's Magneto for inspiration (and Lee's art is not colored this way) but as I'm looking at the red, it is really growing on me.

I've started building the shoulder armor with EVA foam. Shaped with a heat gun and coated in Mod Podge, next I will be hitting it with Plasti-Dip and a few coats of the Liquitex purple after I affix the "rivets". I am experimenting with cutting styrofoam balls for these, but making them smooth has been a challenge. I may be looking at using Bondo to smooth them out, or going a different route altogether.

 

[Iggy]

What I would suggest on the balls is to find a paint tray with divets


Fill these divets with resin or something to your liking. I did this, and it works pretty well. I was making large fake eyes, but the same would work for your magneto needs.

If you are going to styrofoam route, you will probably continue to have trouble with the roughness.


The build is looking good so far!

 

[IronJoe]

Great idea Iggy thank you!

I looked around the local craft store for something like this, the paint trays they had were very small (~1" dia) and would not work with the size of the shoulder piece I've built. Instead I found a solution: Easter Eggs!



I am using the bottoms (smaller half) of plastic easter eggs for the "rivets". I've begun trimming them down to reduce how far they're sticking out, but so far it's looking good!

 

[Iggy]

Woah nice! Easter eggs are a great idea for a large diameter sphere. You could probably glue the Easter eggs if you wanted but they wouldn't paint very well at all.

I wonder what expanding foam would do in an Easter egg... I may have to try that. Resin is heavy after you add 20 of them around your neck.

 

[JWMines]

Love the helmet, colours are great.

 

[Peek73]

Glad to see your back at it Joe. Love the colors on the helmet, and the find on those Easter eggs is genius. Can't wait to see it all put together. I know what you mean about those u shaped zip up suits, pain in the azz!!!!


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[IronJoe]

Thanks all!


Yesterday I tried my hand at sewing some superhero briefs.... Pretty rough. It turned out OK but I'm not convinced that the seams are "contest-worthy" so I may redo it. I also put together a belt out of purple lycra and funfoam.

Here's a test shot with the suit, belt and shorts!




And a shot of the chest/shoulder piece with my trimmed down easter eggs sitting on top. I think they're just the right size:

 

[Peek73]

Dude that's freakin Awesome! Man I can't wait to see you in it at the Con!!!! #geekinout.


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[IronJoe]

Another update, one week and counting to ECCC! I am finally feeling like this is coming together.


Gloves:
This was a fun one. Never tried making gloves before! I took some cheap costume gloves plus my handprint as a template, cut out some fabric and put them together. Once the two halves were sewn, I trimmed the excess and turned them right side-out.

For the gauntlet pieces, it's just funfoam covered in the same purple Lycra of the gloves. I bonded them to the gloves so it is one cohesive piece, with cutouts that show the red of the bodysuit underneath.



Boots:
These boots gave me a headache! After several failed attempts, I made a boot cover out of purple Lycra and cut out "windows" with red fabric applique. It was tough getting them tailored to the boot just right!

Here's an in-progress shot:


Helmet:
After reviewing my reference images, it's pretty clear that Magneto's helmet is supposed to by SHINY. So I took a risk and laid down some automotive clearcoat over the Liquitex - I've never experimented with this before so I wasn't sure how it would react - the results were fantastic! I'm so happy with how it looks now.

Chest/Shoulder piece:

This thing has been crazy. After building the initial piece in EVA foam, I built some "cape risers" to create the regal flowing look of the cape "coming off the shoulders". I used chicken wire and funfoam to build this, but then realized as I attached them they were too heavy. I ended up reinforcing the EVA foam piece using an understructure built out of the chicken wire and epoxied in place,and covered in funfoam. Finally it was strong enough to hold the cape!

My attachment method for the cape risers is no-so-cleverly hidden by the "rivets" on the shoulder piece

Here's a picture of the main structure, Mod Podge'd and Plasti-Dip'd



And a couple coats of purple Liquitex:

 

[RiotJavelinDX]

Nicely done

 

[Iggy]

Looking good!

 

[Notbob]

Excelsior! Looks good! Hope to see you there!