A friend commissioned me to make her a Wonder Woman costume, so here's the progress so far.
I made a body form I could build on. I used a bunch of plaster strips wrapped around her (with plastic wrap underneath) to get a basic shape.
I stretched some leather (I had some extra thin, veg-tanned leather from some other build) over the plaster form (which I had reinforced with Great Stuff expanding foam).
I got some Model Magic clay (sometimes called marshmallow clay) from hobby lobby in a similar color to the leather, and sculpted on some details like the sharp cup bottom edge and the abs. It adheres really well to dry leather, no gluing needed.
Ok sorry, missed a step or two in here. First, I covered the whole piece in masking tape, every little contour. Then I drew on the panels where I thought they should be. I don't have a way to explain how to cheat that, because I eyeballed all of it since I didn't want to deal with photoshopping up a pattern and making it fit just right. Then I used an xacto knife to cut out each piece from the tape, leaving behing the ~1/8th inch gap between the pieces. I taped the pieces onto some more leather, and traced the hole left in the tape. Once all the pieces were cut and removed and traced, I peeled off the skeletal remains of the tape, so I'm just left with the bodice with lines drawn on.
I cut out each piece from leather, then peeled off the tape, and taped it to the other side of the leather, then cut out the mirrored pieces.
All the tape peeled off.
Now using contact cement, I glued all the pieces back in the spots where I had left the trace lines. I glued the mirror spots in their matching spots on the other side. The second side didn't go on perfect since people aren't symmetrical and I'm not perfect at making things, but it was really close, just a couple pieces needed adjusting.
Same process on the back.
Finishing the back details with the top and bottom stripe work.
The front with the strip work added, and I've begun filling the gaps with liquid leading, a rubbery liquid sold with stained glass making supplies in craft stores. It dries fairly fast and takes paint pretty well, and it's super flexible.
I then painted the whole thing in the liquid leading (no actual lead in it, it's just made to look like stained glass leading). This way I have a flexible even coating that holds the texture I give it, and the leather doesn't absorb any paint.
Detail to see the texture.
Back primer, or if Batman designed Wonder Woman's costume.
And with a layer of a pale gold.
Soon I'll add the red, and then weathering and such. The gold is intentionally too light, I'll airbrush on some more gold/yellow tint later.
I made a body form I could build on. I used a bunch of plaster strips wrapped around her (with plastic wrap underneath) to get a basic shape.
I stretched some leather (I had some extra thin, veg-tanned leather from some other build) over the plaster form (which I had reinforced with Great Stuff expanding foam).
I got some Model Magic clay (sometimes called marshmallow clay) from hobby lobby in a similar color to the leather, and sculpted on some details like the sharp cup bottom edge and the abs. It adheres really well to dry leather, no gluing needed.
Ok sorry, missed a step or two in here. First, I covered the whole piece in masking tape, every little contour. Then I drew on the panels where I thought they should be. I don't have a way to explain how to cheat that, because I eyeballed all of it since I didn't want to deal with photoshopping up a pattern and making it fit just right. Then I used an xacto knife to cut out each piece from the tape, leaving behing the ~1/8th inch gap between the pieces. I taped the pieces onto some more leather, and traced the hole left in the tape. Once all the pieces were cut and removed and traced, I peeled off the skeletal remains of the tape, so I'm just left with the bodice with lines drawn on.
I cut out each piece from leather, then peeled off the tape, and taped it to the other side of the leather, then cut out the mirrored pieces.
All the tape peeled off.
Now using contact cement, I glued all the pieces back in the spots where I had left the trace lines. I glued the mirror spots in their matching spots on the other side. The second side didn't go on perfect since people aren't symmetrical and I'm not perfect at making things, but it was really close, just a couple pieces needed adjusting.
Same process on the back.
Finishing the back details with the top and bottom stripe work.
The front with the strip work added, and I've begun filling the gaps with liquid leading, a rubbery liquid sold with stained glass making supplies in craft stores. It dries fairly fast and takes paint pretty well, and it's super flexible.
I then painted the whole thing in the liquid leading (no actual lead in it, it's just made to look like stained glass leading). This way I have a flexible even coating that holds the texture I give it, and the leather doesn't absorb any paint.
Detail to see the texture.
Back primer, or if Batman designed Wonder Woman's costume.
And with a layer of a pale gold.
Soon I'll add the red, and then weathering and such. The gold is intentionally too light, I'll airbrush on some more gold/yellow tint later.
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