sgmorton
Well-Known Member
I have a very nice collection of props at this point. Some I've gotten from here and some I've made. At some point I have started to scrape the bottom of what I want to collect in the way of display pieces though. Anyway last year I took my son to Dragoncon.(My team won the catapult competition if anyone was there.) I was blown away by the costumes. These are wearable props . So I come home from Dragoncon and thoughts turn to Halloween(I do a haunted house), then the holidays and now here it is February and I am thinking about how much I loved the costume thing and I think I'd like to try my hand at some of this.
I begin to to research... what I'd like to do is an armor piece like the Master Chief, a Trooper or really the thing I'd want the most is one of those Warhammer costumes. So I look around this forum, the ASAP and a few other places. I send a few emails to people who's web sites show their costumes, but I cannot find anyone or anywhere that gives me the info I seek.
1st I am 6'3" 225lbs... I would make a ginourmous trooper so that is out. I don't want to spend $2-3000 on a Vader either. What I'd like to do is learn something. The questions: I want to make a War Hammer 40K Space marine like what I saw at Dragoncon. I think they were made from styro... were they sculpted from solid blocks? Were they cast in some styro slush that I have never heard about? and what gives them the solid feel that they have, is it some kind of paint or skin line LineX for a truck bed?
I mean if it's as simple as sculpting it the pieces from soild blocks of styro where can I get these blocks at a decent price and what is a decent price?
Before anyone goes off on me. I am one of those gusto types, I do not like to do things half assed. I wanted to scare kids at Halloween for instance. I ended up with 20'x30' tent attached to my 3 car garage done up as a Haunted dark maze, complete with motion senored event timers running several pneumatic props that I built. Custom sound, custom lighting, the works. It now draws such a crowd that I hire police for crowd control an it's typical to wait for 45 to an hour to get in. Another example, my wife and I wanted a theater in the house. 2 years in the works now but it has it's own lobby, complete with a candy counter, soda fountain, hot dog machine, popcorn machine and ticket booth, custom lighting, room within a room sound design completely decoupled from the floor by a sound gasket. I could go on and on about other projects, and I only mention these to illustrate that when I cleave on to an idea if I enjoy it I ride it to the end and am aware of the details. I will not end up with a tin foil robot made out carboard box I got behind the Safeway with Dryer vent hose arms.
I ramble I know it I am frustrated. I see you guys with great costumes and I cannot seem to find the info I seek on making these things. Where deos everyone get thier gloves and boots and other leather goods? Surely you guys aren't making every piece of the costume yourself? So in closing... does anyone have a link or a board I don't know about that talks about the construction of these things? I was looking at making a vacuum forming table yesterday or even a styro cnc machine. I can't afford $3k to buy one but I can roll my own for $1k if that is what it takes. I have some basic sculpting skills, I have the attitude of I'll try anything I'm not scared... I have never cast anything before but I am willing to learn, I just can't seem to find the info on how to do it all... enough, I have vented enough, please accept my appology for the length of this it's purely out of frustration. Thank you for any response...
I begin to to research... what I'd like to do is an armor piece like the Master Chief, a Trooper or really the thing I'd want the most is one of those Warhammer costumes. So I look around this forum, the ASAP and a few other places. I send a few emails to people who's web sites show their costumes, but I cannot find anyone or anywhere that gives me the info I seek.
1st I am 6'3" 225lbs... I would make a ginourmous trooper so that is out. I don't want to spend $2-3000 on a Vader either. What I'd like to do is learn something. The questions: I want to make a War Hammer 40K Space marine like what I saw at Dragoncon. I think they were made from styro... were they sculpted from solid blocks? Were they cast in some styro slush that I have never heard about? and what gives them the solid feel that they have, is it some kind of paint or skin line LineX for a truck bed?
I mean if it's as simple as sculpting it the pieces from soild blocks of styro where can I get these blocks at a decent price and what is a decent price?
Before anyone goes off on me. I am one of those gusto types, I do not like to do things half assed. I wanted to scare kids at Halloween for instance. I ended up with 20'x30' tent attached to my 3 car garage done up as a Haunted dark maze, complete with motion senored event timers running several pneumatic props that I built. Custom sound, custom lighting, the works. It now draws such a crowd that I hire police for crowd control an it's typical to wait for 45 to an hour to get in. Another example, my wife and I wanted a theater in the house. 2 years in the works now but it has it's own lobby, complete with a candy counter, soda fountain, hot dog machine, popcorn machine and ticket booth, custom lighting, room within a room sound design completely decoupled from the floor by a sound gasket. I could go on and on about other projects, and I only mention these to illustrate that when I cleave on to an idea if I enjoy it I ride it to the end and am aware of the details. I will not end up with a tin foil robot made out carboard box I got behind the Safeway with Dryer vent hose arms.
I ramble I know it I am frustrated. I see you guys with great costumes and I cannot seem to find the info I seek on making these things. Where deos everyone get thier gloves and boots and other leather goods? Surely you guys aren't making every piece of the costume yourself? So in closing... does anyone have a link or a board I don't know about that talks about the construction of these things? I was looking at making a vacuum forming table yesterday or even a styro cnc machine. I can't afford $3k to buy one but I can roll my own for $1k if that is what it takes. I have some basic sculpting skills, I have the attitude of I'll try anything I'm not scared... I have never cast anything before but I am willing to learn, I just can't seem to find the info on how to do it all... enough, I have vented enough, please accept my appology for the length of this it's purely out of frustration. Thank you for any response...
