With SDCC starting tomorrow, I am certainly in crunch time!
Yesterday after work was rather depressing. As i mentioned above, I scrapped my skirt and needed to start from scratch because with the up-scaling, I needed legal cardstock, as many parts wouldn't fit. after waisting 2 hours driving all over OC, I discovered the one place that might have what i needed was already closed. So i bought 4 sheets of poster board and decided to go with the stencil method and build out of poster board. I got home, downloaded Papakura Designer for my desktop along with PepMaster's "Ultrom Shredder" files, and started re-sizing. then i accidentally figured out how to fold/unfold the 2D version. 2 hours later I had the whole skirt optimized for legal paper and made in a way i think will be faster and easier to cut & build. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my printer working. then i realized I did all this work and had no way to save it; Pepakura Designer gained a new customer. Today I am at work and will be printing the skirt again.
Fortunately the second half of my evening was considerably more productive!
I decided to go with black gloves and found a great, very breathable pair at Harbor Freight for $12. Only the left hand utilizes the "blades" which is fortunate because I can then use my right (dominate) hand normally.
Between that and the lower arms...
I was able to put what I consider to be a sweet combination together.
Because the wrist section on the gauntlet fits my wrist perfectly, but not my hand, I split this down the center of the underside. This allows me to get my hand through, then I use Velcro on the inside to hold it closed.
Next, I purchased 3" black elastic and (hot) glued it to the face mask.
Its a little rough on the cheeks, but has the desired look.
With the helmet added...
Next I started working on the torso. Previously I mentioned that I split it in half. Now I've added Velcro straps to each shoulder and elastic to the sides.
For the upper arm i used 3/4" "no roll" elastic which i used to make a loop on the inside. i then used the 3" elastic to connect the front and back armor through this elastic loop. this pulls it close to the torso armor and allows me to retain arm mobility; what little i have as it is. the armor is so bulky at this point, i can barely touch my mouth. On the plus side, I wont need to remove any more than my head gear to eat & drink.
I feel like this is the first hint that this might be a functioning costume that will be recognizable as Shredder even though this version is not well known.
The left leg armor is done, the right will be sanded and painted tonight. the Shoulder armor is bondo'd, sanded, and primed.
the shoulder "blades/spikes" will be sanded, primed, and attached tonight. with the shoulders complete, i will attach them in a manner very similar to the method i used with the upper arm armor.
My girlfriend will be hemming and making button holes for my capes (one blue, one purple) this evening. these will be attached to the chest, go under the shoulders, and drape down my back. (didn't happen)
I'll have a silver belt with the red shredder emblem (detail paint courtesy of SoCalSiren).
I plan on doing the knee pads with the same silver cloth.
If you are reading this and i haven't posted pictures of the completed skirt below, I'll be needing all the positive thoughts/prayers/good wishes you folks can muster.