My first hunting trip in full gear

roundhammer

New Member
Just wanted to share my story of my first outting in full costume.

This past weekend was the local comic convention. It's a small venue as it's in a small town and run by the owner of one of the comic book shops in town. It was held at the local mall in what used to be a Steve and Barry's. The temps outside were in the 80's and it wasn't much better inside. In fact, I doubt the AC was on at all. They had the front door open and then the doors leading into the mall itself. My wife, brother, father and mother in law all attended as did my two little boys. They all said it was horribly hot.

I was going to attend the costume contest and made it a point to email the con organizer and ask when and where since it wasn't posted on the con site. 2:30 registeration with the contest starting at 3:30. I got started 2 hours and 30 minutes ahead of the contest start time, and my brother in law was going to register me since he had a booth at the con.

At 2:00, I get a call from my BIL, and he tells me he just heard an announcement that the contest was starting at 3:00! This sent me into maximum overdrive. I had planned on enough time that I could do so without hurrying and still have time for the drive over and a little extra. This changed my plans and I had maybe 45 minutes to get dressed. I planned enough time so this exact thing wouldn't happen...hurrying that is. Last time I did that was for the AvPII premiere and I broke all sorts of costume parts in the process of trying to get finished quick.

I almost dropped the whole thing for that reason, but my wife convinced me to give it a go. And we did. We got to the con with maybe 10 minutes left. As she was helping me finish suiting up in the parking lot, two ladies came out and said that if we were going to be in the contest, it was starting...now.
But I didn't hurry. At that point I didn't care weather I was in it or not. I had the costume on and was fairly relaxed and that was enough for me.

So we get inside and the people taking admission told me where to go (they knew right off the bat ) But on my way to the contest area, I was MOBBED! People left and right wanted to take my picture, or have their picture taken with me. Which was fine with me and really gave a boost to the old ego. By the time that was done, and I talked to the contest coordinator, judging was over. He apologized but I told him it was perfectly fine. He even went on to tell me that he thought mine was the best costume there! Many people, some of whom were in the contest as well, said this same thing. I walked around a bit more, more photos, talked to a guy in a Vader costume there with the local 501st Garrison and visited my BIL's booth.

By this time I had been in suit for around 2 hours...and I was starting to feel it. I tried drinking water through the mouth hole in my mask but couldn't drink enough. At that point I took the helmet and mask off. Drank as much as I could, tried to cool myself down but finally had to get the suit off. My wife helped me out to our car where I took everything off down to the clothes I had under the suit...which were soaked with sweat.

In all things went off pretty well, although I would have liked to spend more time in my suit. Everything worked that was supposed too but I did get a giant rip in the back of the torso starting at the end of the slit and going for some 5 inches.
Lost of paint wear all over, a few cracks in the armor here and there and two dreads fell out.

No major malfunctions and nothing lost...other than some water weight. :eek:

Would I do it again? I don't know, towards the end it was getting pretty miserable, but it was very nice to have so many people come up to me and have nice things to say about the suit.
So right now I'd say no, but give me 6 months or so to get over it and I'd probably be happy to suit up again. :eek:

I don't have photos right now. With four family members there with camers, you'd think I'd be overloaded with pictures. My in-laws took one, and my wife took one (old school 35mm film) and about 45 seconds worth of video. :D I'm trying to track down anyone from the con itself to see if there's pictures floating around. If and when I get them, I'll post them here.
 
wow!! thanks for sharing..... i still dont have my suit but hopefully by halloween i have it done...still dont have the skin.. im so exited about wearing full suit but io know its no walk in the park so hopefully it will be ok and fun.... like u said the people boost you up !!! please post some pics
 
Sounds cool man, thanks for sharing. Shame you didn't get to kick ass in the contest, but sounds like you had a blast anyway.
 
Too bad you was not able to be in the contest, but you did have a great time by the sound of it anyway. :D
Thanks for sharing, its fun to read how all the cons play out. Hope you get some pics up soon!

Kotten
 
Looking forward to seeing some pictures :) Im sure after a few weeks you will get the "bug" to get back out there in the suit. Just focus on how much effort, time and money have gone into and im sure you will be raving to get back in it soon
 
Sweat pouring is right. When I took my hands off, they were full of it. I had tried to keep a small hole in the gloves to aid in taking them off easier, but I noticed in the "test phase" that the sweat dripped out of them like crazy so I had to close them up.

Here's one photo a friend of mine found...
img2026.jpg.png

A few of the skulls on my bandolier are flipped over and my shirt net is untucked and my backpack is riding a little low on one side, but it looks like everything else is up to spec.

One other problem I found while wearing my suit, I couldn't move the head! I could turn it a tiny bit from side to side (like an inch) and I could barely look down...and that took some effort. Does anyone else have this problem or know of a way around it?
 
Amazing suit! Like that bio of yours, its different.
Bone necklace looks great and the armor looks like real copper! :)
Now, I am sure you would have won the contest!

Kotten
 
Why thank you. :)

And they didn't even get to see the removable helmet, moving plasma caster, working targeting lasers or the working gauntlet blades!
 
Roundhammer your costume rocks!!! Get out, kit up again and take some more photos. Wanna see a close up of your bio and you've got some nice alterations and additions to the costume . And you defo would've won the contest!
 
Kotten, not yet, but I'm still looking.

Predator666, yeah, I will suit up again, I'm sure. And I have to get back out so I can get some better pictures taken, preferably in a forest setting.
 
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