My Full Size Scratch Built Groot (WIP and completed pics)**(pic heavy)

Propcustomz

New Member
Back in August I finished my Groot costume for the premier of Guardians of the Galaxy. I LOVED Groot from the first time I had seen the trailer. Before that, I had never heard of GotG, but after one watch, I was absolutely hooked! So anyways, here are some picture (which is what we all want to see anyways).


So I started with the mask, because with Groot, I felt that his face HAD to be right. Otherwise he is just a tree guy. So I started with the single piece of EVA foam that I eyeballed into the shape that would(hopefully) wrap around my head like a crown.
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The I wrapped it into a cylinder and started carving into it with my trusty Dremel tool.
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I wasn't getting the depth that I wanted in the eye sockets, so I cut them out and added pieces to the inside to carve into.
That's more like it!
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Next, I didn't like the lips so I cut those down a little bit and added the top of the head. Regrettably I did not get any pictures of this as I was "in the zone" and simple spaced it. But What I did was take bits of EVA and cut "L" shapes out. Then I split the foam through the middle at the base and opened it up like a bowl. Then I glued that to the "dome" of the mask. I made the dome by putting a hood from a hoodie on my head and squeezing the mask on until it was in place. Then I had a helper glue the hood to the foam to create the top(dome" of the mask. Her is what it looks like when covered in the "L" shapes.
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After a quick coat of spray Plasti-Dip now comes the fun part. The paint and moss!!! I base coated it in a light brown and used several custom mixed browns, grays, and greens to wash it with. In the second picture below, I knocked the vibrancy of the moss back a tad with some wash paint. I like how it came out so far.
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Time for a test fit!
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So at this point I was happy with the mask and wanted to move on to the body.

I started by making a mannequin of my own body and putting an under armour suit over it. Looking back, I would make the zipper go all the way down to my inseam instead of my lower back. Squeezing into this thing can be a pain. Once the undersuit was on the mannequin I was able to start with the body vines. How I chose to do this was to use pipe foam insulator tubes from my local hardware store. I started gluing to the suit with low temp hot glue. I tried following normal muscle flow as much as possible to keep it natural looking. I made some template of the bark plate to get a feel for the size that they needed to be.
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At this point it was all about just adding more tubes of various lengths and widths to keep it non-uniform and organic looking. Also adding the rough cut bark plates after heat shaping them to curve with my body. With breaks in between for selfies.
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So after all was said and done in the vine tube department, it was time for some texture. I was in an extreme time crunch and had to work with what I had. So I used kleenex dipped in tacky glue and kleenex to achieve a bark-like texture. Again, looking back I would have for sure used latex because it is more flexible and would stick the suit better. However, I did not have latex in-hand, so tacky glue it is!
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I had to stop for a minute to give myself a hand....
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Finally after some paint and some moss. I was nearing completion, just the stilts left to build then I was done!! I made some simple stilts out of wood and a cheap pair of Velcro shoes.
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I had finished this thing the morning of the premiere, so lets hope it hold together!!
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My favorite picture was captured by Sight Photography. I love how they captured me.....I am Groot.....I mean, I AM GROOT..
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If you enjoyed this head over to my face book page HERE to see more of this build plus many more that you might like! I love answering questions and helping out, so if you have any shot them my way.
Propcustomz
 

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Nice work man and thanks for sharing this. Grats again on your costume contest win at Planet Comic Con
 
I've been a fan of this build since you first posted it on your FB page (which I've been following since doing my Gears of War build 2 years ago).

I'm starting a Groot build of my own this year and was curious... how did you do your eyes? I assume brown sunglass lenses were involved, but how did you get the darker pupil effect? Is it like a small circle of window tint or something similar? That Sight Photography pic is the first time I've gotten a good look at them and they look fantastic!
 
I met you at Planet Comicon, and boy is this thing beautiful. Like you stepped straight out of the screen. Fantastic work!
 
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