MK9 Noob Costume WIP

[psychodynamix]

Hey everyone,

This will be my first project...

Since I found quakevirus' MK9 Smoke's alt costume it got me pretty psyched.

I wanted to make a full get up for MK9 Noob, but haven't had much time.

Since Halloween is coming up and I missed NYCC... I decided to put a few things aside (making MK9 Smoke's mask, working on my Gundam models, playing Batman Arkham City) for the next week to make a quick costume.

I originally wanted to make the costume out of real quality material (leather for the vest, belt, etc.), but I lack the experience in the leather category. However, I decided to make Noob's straps out of leather and hopefully I can learn a few basic things in the near future for a better version of Noob's costume.

I already have the foam sheets in and the other materials coming in (ninja outfit, gloves, tabi boots, and ninja masks, leather and buckles for the straps, contacts and paint). This project is really going to come down to time management since I have about a week left until Halloween.

Since I've finished a prototype version of MK9 Noob's mask (pep created by Vagabond aka Nintendude) hopefully the costume build won't be too difficult for me to finish in time for Halloween.

My plan is to fabricate certain portions of Noob's costume with foam (forearm and knee/shin guards, belt, a good portion of his vest) and airbrush them with similar colors as the mask I made. I have a feeling hot glue won't stick too well to cotton, so I may have to improvise (by using a sewing machine).

I have a feeling that I will end up spending a good day or two mocking and making up Noob's Hood, so that's going to require some good planning.

All comments are welcome! Any ideas that I've gained permission or use from other members while searching the forums I will be mentioning. Thanks in advance!

So my first post in this thread is my idea of a mock up for Noob's vest.

 

[Sakin]

Nice, good luck!

 

[psychodynamix]

Thanks Sakin!

Yesterday I was busy taking measurements and making the best eye ball approximations for making an ideal fit of Noob's costume for me.

Today I started drawing up some templates for the rib section of the vest, the vest buckles, the knee, the hand, feet, forearm & shin guards,

The Knee guards were cut from 6mm foam and the rest were cut in 3mm foam. I plan on layering the panel sections for the forearm & shin guards and maybe I'll do a raised trim for the hand and feet guards. I may also do a layer for the knee so it'll look more defined rather than just taking a heat gun to it. I'll see how much time permits.

Right now I have to get working on the shoulders of the vest.

***EDIT***
Also the ninja gi and tabi boots came in. Everything's an excellent fit! I'm just awaiting the gloves and ninja mask. I'll have to start thinking/drawing up a template for Noob's hood.
***END EDIT***

Attached is a progress pic:

 

[psychodynamix]

Last night I drew up the templates for the tabards and started drawing up the front portion of the belt.

Today I finished up the templates for the belt (two different versions). The narrower one is two inches shorter (one on each end) than the wider one. Honestly I'm on the fence about which one to use.

I've also made some more process on the template(s) for the rib area of the vest. I was thinking of contouring the pieces more rather than having them so parallel to each other.

I already started cutting out the layered pieces for both the front and back tabards. I have trim some of the pieces to clean them up and to align them more properly. I actually thought there was a real difference in scale for Noob's tabards (front and back). However, after analyzing the model from the in game character viewer I've concluded that the back one is not scaled smaller but is actually held up higher with the same exact pattern on it (to scale).

Well anyway... here are a couple of quick pics.

I'm going to take a short break and start the templates for the panels on the forearm and shin guards.

***EDIT***
I forgot to mention that the ninja mask came in yesterday's mail. I've attached another quick pic with my mask on. I know my hand is in the pic, but I haven't decided yet on how I will secure it to the ninja mask.

 

[psychodynamix]

Bleh... I didn't update yesterday, but I've been pretty busy.

Most of the simple stuff has been cut out and glued. I'm almost finished with the foot guards (just needs spikes and paint). The hand guards are done.

I have the panels for the forearm (gauntlets) and shin guards cut out and ready to be painted, glued, etc.

I've started working on the main emblem of the belt. I decided to go with a layering method for the foam.

Since its my first time working with leather. I spent most of last night working on the leather straps cutting them out to length, rounding out the edges, pinning holes, and preparing the buckle ends. Today I thinned out the leather straps (using a sanding belt mounted to a worktable vice) and stained them (sorry I don't have a pic of the stained straps atm).

Tonight I have to finish working on the pieces for the vest and start making up Noob's hood. That will be fun... and hopefully tomorrow night I can get started with painting (if not then Thursday morning).

Attached are two pics. What's currently sitting on the desk and the straps. I'll be sure to post more pics next post!

 

[Sakin]

the mask looks great, quakevirus attached his using magnets, i think thats a great idea .

 

[psychodynamix]

Thanks again Sakin! Yea I've read up on quake's process. It's a pretty good idea. I have mini magnets from Magcraft I think they hold about 1.3lbs per magnet. I'll probably have to drop a line of them onto both masks for them to the weight hold well.

 

[psychodynamix]

I decided to redo some trimming. This blade makes a hell of a difference. (Left-before; Right-after):

 

[SMOKE]

looks awesome so far! very precise. :thumbsup Magnets work great for the masks. I have one set on each side right now of the smoke costume and it holds great. I can shake my head back and forth without if coming off and i can still take the mask off/on with one hand. Keep going man! Cant wait to see more.

 

[psychodynamix]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice quake!

Here's a quick pic before I take a break. I have to template up the hood. The only pieces in the pic which are glued are the following: belt, hand and foot guards. Everything else is just laid out. The gluing process is quick. I think I'm going to paint up the panels for the tabard and remaining guards before securing them in with glue. This way I can get and partially sew on the velcro before gluing the panels on. I'll have to take a pic to show what I mean when I've started the process.

I have my sister coming over tomorrow to help me out with the vest (the shoulders and rib areas). The strips you see in the pic are for the vest's trimming.

So as an overall list of what I still need to do/finish from this pic...

Hood
Vest (shoulders & ribs)
Velcro attachments
Paint (silver, gray, etc.)
Glue various panels
Leather straps
Details (spikes, rivets)
Attach Noob's mask to the ninja mask.
Rope for the tabard

Wow that's quite a bit. Yea... I should be able to get all that done on/by Friday. lol...

 

[psychodynamix]

LOL... my weak attempt or should I say my attempt that turned out very weak (at cutting and sewing up the hood). It turned out to be too small. Luckily I didn't try to get too fancy with the stitching and I still have two yards of material left, lol.

 

[psychodynamix]

Woah... been extremely busy, lol.

Started painting the panels (gray) for the guards, the foot & hand guards, the belt, and the pieces for the tabard. I've attached a pic showing the difference from the unpainted black foam. I over sprayed a few areas to try to get rid of the number markings I used for the panels. That's my only concern with the panels.

I have a 2nd version of the hood which seems to fit great (from the quick stitching). I just need to do the final stitching.

I've made progress on the vest. My sister dropped by last night to help me make the templates for the shoulders. I still have to layer the pieces and attach them. For the vest I've attached the rib panels and the middle trim, along with the velcro and already cut off the sleeves.

I've attached the velcro to the Ninja guards as well as the tabi boots and their respective 'Noob' guards.

On a good note... my contacts came in. I went with 'White Screen' contacts and not 'White Outs'. 'White Outs' to me would just look weird and at least with white screens they would look foggy from a distance. I know they're not blind contacts, but hell I would like to see, lol. I'll probably get a set of blind contacts for future usage.

I finished the leather straps (pairs all vary in length for different locations: wrists, elbows, knees, etc.). I cut, sanded, punched the holes, embossed the edges, stained, edged trimmed, riveted them in a matter of four days. Not bad I must say for my first attempt at working with leather.

What I have left to do:

Re-enforce the velcro areas with minor stitching.
Apply the final stitching to the Hood.
Attach shoulders and black trim for the vest.
Airbrush the rib ares of the vest and the shoulders.
Apply all studs/spikes/silver bits.
Airbrush/brush the silver components on the respective areas, belt, buckles for the vest, foot & hand guards.
Figure out how to use contacts (yea... I don't wear glasses/contacts).
Test out the face paint.
Attach all respective panels, tabard, guards, and attach the rope I picked up for the tabards.

And I think that's it... lol.

 

[SMOKE]

Man this is a great build!! Nice clean foam work in post 10. Cant wait to see this finished suit! any updates?

 

[psychodynamix]

Thanks quake! Yea I have some updates. I wanted to post an update Saturday afternoon, but my net was acting up. I went out Friday night to celebrate my god-brother's girl's bday, and I had an association dinner to attend Saturday evening. I lost about two days to work on the costume over the weekend and I'm a little bummed out about the fact I couldn't get it done in time for Halloween, but I won't stop until it's complete.

I used a gray and blue mix (to match my mask) and I actually re-did the paint for the gray/blue sections on Noob's costume. I used a white base under the gray/blue so there's more contrast between the gray/blue paint and black surface.

I assembled the knee guards using two pieces of 3mm foam templated by the 6mm backing and hot glued them in. I actually regret using a hot glue gun to fill in the edges. Some of the hot glue spilled over onto the front of the knee guards and I did my best to iron it out.

I painted all of the silver components for the costume some of it by hand and I airbrushed the knee guards silver. Note to self: airbrush silver looks great on black foam. Avoid hand painting silver on foam as much as possible, lol.

I couldn't find any good spikes to attach to the costume for Noob, so I actually took the blades and extra set off my Transformers Fansproject Thundersdred to use as a substitute. I had an extra set of Smooth-On's OOMMOO 25 silicone compound laying around and I molded up the blade tips using hot glue. Vola 50+ pieces in under an hour. I base coated these with black and airbrushed them silver.

I've painted the black sections of the vest and added a trim to the rib area. I've also top coated all the painted surfaces and started adding the panels to the shin and forearm guards.

I also hand stitched the rib panels onto the vest (80 stitches!).

So all I have to do now is:

Finish the hood.
Finish the shoulders.
Add a little stitching to re-enforce the earlier mentioned areas.
Assemble the respective sections with hotglue.

Oh I put my contacts in on Friday for a little over two hours (sorry I forgot to take a pic) and removed them for the rest of the night. I'll need to carry Visine or some eye drops because my eyes were getting really dry... I suppose as a side effect from wearing the contacts for the first time.

 

[SMOKE]

Nice work man! If time's a factor casting small details, sure as hell, beats making them all by hand. Can't wait for the final suit up.:thumbsup

 

[psychodynamix]

Thanks quake! Yea I agree, casting the small details is better than making them by hand.

I trimmed up the 56 or so spikes and decided to just fit them in to see how they would look non-scaled. I kind of liked it in a way, but since I'm going with a scaled Noob look I didn't want to over exaggerate the spikes.

I glued on the tabard pieces to the backing, attached the silvers pieces and lined the rope I got from the textile store. I know there's an excessive amount of glue on the rope, but I'm finding ways to remove/reduce it... lol.

I also painted some smaller details and some shading to the silver pieces. They looked a bit bright and I wanted a bit more contrast.

Here's some more progress pics:

 

[SMOKE]

Man your making some awesome progress on this! The final suit up can't be to far away. Can't wait! Looks like I have to step up my game on my next costume build! haha Keep up the good work bro.

 

[psychodynamix]

Thanks Smoke (quake)! It's actually not. I just have to work on the shoulders a little more today and finish up the hood. Your work is awesome. Kind of tough for me to beat that. Thanks and I will.

The other night I put the belt together and attached most of the studs. I also test fitted one the guards... good thing because two of the rivets I put in came loose (I fixed those).

Last night I ended up hand stitching (to re-enforce) all the velcro points on the boots, forearm guards and the vest (shoulders). Damn my fingers are hurting, lol! Even though the velcro is industrial strength and the glue is crazy tough... I didn't want to them to come off when I separate the panels.

Here's a couple of more pics:

 

[psychodynamix]

Woah... been busy with a bunch of things the past couple of days (bf3 and Smoke's mask. I forgot to post an update with some of the progress and pics I've been making/taking, lol.

I made the shoulder pieces and can be removed/attached with velcro. The one thing I would have to complain about the shoulders is that I actually left three iron prints on one of them when attempting to add more texture to the foam. I guess I'll redo that side if it really gets to me any more and if I get more time.

I've airbrushed the edges of the soles for the tabi boots because the tan soles were an eyesore.

I didn't fully suit up, but I would say I put on about 85% of Noob's costume.

From that pic I've straighten out/re-enforced the knee plates/guards by adding velcro to the upper part of the shin guards.

Each panel on the tabards were re-enforced with stitches to their respective corners according to Noob's.

I felt that the Ninja Gi needed to be modified. The pants required the knotting of two waist ties that cause the vest to bulge out in the back. I've added velcro to the waist ties to reduce/prevent the bulging (sorry I don't have pics of that).

I'm currently stretching out the leather forearm straps because they're just a bit tight.

I'm also redoing the buckles for the vest. I originally made them of foam and cut three buckles out, but unfortunately they have separate asymmetric features which cause them to look awkward on the vest. I'm making one out of Polystyrene and I will be casting it using the silicone mold and hot glue process. I will have pics up on the next post hopefully of the full suit up and of the modified buckles.

Oh yea... and I've been stalling on the hood, but just for kicks here's a pic with the white screen contacts, mock up hood and black makeup. Noob's mask was held up temporarily by gaffer's tape, lol.

 

[PepMaster]

Wow that Noob Saibot hood and mask is perfect. Also SMOKE if you see this get into the chat room I have some info for you.