Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Child Costume Contest Entry

[Sinned]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

Back to work on the hat tonight. Also wrapped up sewing, but more on that later.

I did have to go back and make another hat, since the first wound up just slightly too small. This time I took the original plans, and only reduced them to 95% rather than 90, and then the largest size fit perfect. Same process as before, just now a different hat. Although, this time I (carefully) sanded the whole thing with my variable-speed random orbit sander, on the slowest setting. Worked really good for evening out edges between pieces. But murder on my wrist, and arm. Haha!

Using some leftover material from one of his capes , I threw together a hatband (yes, plural, I made two capes... again, more on that later). It's 2" wide, and just held in place with a loop I made from the same material.



So this is fine and all, but it looks a bit too new, and not very Hatbox Ghosty. To solve that, headed outside with some light grey primer I had laying around.



This was lightly misted on from about 16" away, just to age it up a bit. Some of it stuck, and some of it just wound up as dust on the surface; I wiped most of that off. Going for older, but not completely dusty, and neglected.

Once that was done, I went over the whole thing with a mixture of Createx Matte airbrush medium, thinned considerably, plus 1 drop of Cryptolyte UV glow additive. Just to give it a little bit of a boost in blue color, should he wander under a black light. This worked okay on the hat itself, but kind of just stuck to some fuzzy fibers on the fabric, which is a little annoying. Luckily, the overall effect was okay.

Normal light / Black-light



The black-light makes everything look blue, so it's kind of hard to tell, but the Cryptolyte does have a subtle effect on the overall look.

 

[cashmere14]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

This is a great to follow, Im in Seattle too and if you have any extra items for sale after please let me know.

Can't wait to see the finished product

 

[Zwilliamo]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

I am a huge fan of the hatbox ghost and can't wait to see the full costume! Too bad the effects from the ride can't be implemented into the costume, haha.
Keep up the great work, it's a real pleasure following this thread. Hopefully we get good weather here in Washington for Halloween so the costume can get shown off!

 

[Sinned]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

Thanks guys! Yeah, I was beyond thrilled when the little dude said, "so, Dad, I want to be the Hatbox Ghost this year, can we do that?."

Definitely hoping for good weather in WA this year as well. We're actually headed to do early Halloween in Disneyland next week, going to be plenty warm there. Hope I get everything done!

@cashmere14 I may end up doing a few extra masks, if there's interest.

@Zwilliamo we actually did talk about some ways to integrate the actual ride effect, but didn't go down that road long. I can't do computer animation, otherwise it may have been a go. Could have put an iPad in the hatbox, and then figured out something to do the same for his face. I'm hoping to go the poor man's route though, using some UV light trickery.

 

[Sinned]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

Back to more glow in the dark stuff tonight; making his skeleton suit.

At first, I was going to just get some black stretch pants, and black shirt, but the closer I looked at some of the reference photos, the Hatbox Ghost actually has visible bones, so I had to adjust the plan a bit.

I couldn't find a decent looking skeleton body suit, which also glowed in the dark. Well, there was one, but it was too large. There are several other options out there, but most of them have cheesy-looking 3D bones, or just "general bone shape" glowing bits, so I settled on the best non-glow in the dark one, which actually has decent bone definition, and form.

But, of course, this means I have to roll the glow myself. Soooo glad I did all those glow tests early! It's a bit more work, but actually works out much better than the ones which already glow. I get the benefit of better shapes, as well as full control of the glow effect. i.e. instead of a "too perfect" solid green glow, I can get a more random, and varied glow.

This time:

3/4 fl. oz. Createx Transparent Medium
1/4 fl. oz. Glow Worm Green powder



Mixing Glow Worm with acrylic paint really works exceedingly well. And a nice thing about the Createx is, it requires heat to fully cure, so this way, it stays really flexible on fabric. I'm hoping it'll survive wearing on a spandex garment this way. Luckily, it's still slightly big on him, so shouldn't stretch much.



Really didn't get too fancy with trying to control the paint, it just naturally created brighter and darker spots, based on how the powder moved around in the paint suspension. So they aren't truly shaded, but I ended up getting a hint of it, for free. I mainly just made sure there weren't any obvious streaks in a single direction, and otherwise let it go however it went. It actually created a pretty good bone texture, all on its own.

The process was greatly aided by using a hand-held black-light flashlight. Using that, even with other lights on in the room, you can see exactly where the color is going. (however, this turned out to be fairly difficult to get a good picture of!)

 

[Sinned]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

Finally getting to a bit on the main pieces of clothing. The original plan was to make a cape, but buy a trench coat. After some looking (actually, not all that much), I decided that wasn't the way to go, and needed to make one of those too.

I've been time-crunched all along, and realized early I'd taken on a bit much. So, I enlisted a friend to work on the coat for me, while I'd still take care of the cape. That was a little interesting, because she lives several hundred miles away, in Canada. So we did a lot of "sure hope this fits!" Anyway, this turned out to be a great decision, because I ended up deciding to make 2 versions of each piece. Mentioned earlier, I realized that the Hatbox Ghost has visible, glowing bones, so to show that off, I needed translucent clothing. But, it also gets fairly cold in Seattle, so wanted to have a warmer option, just in case.

So we made 2 capes, and 2 trench coats: one with black chiffon, and another with a heavier, black, cotton fabric.

For the cape, I used two different patterns. One of them was designed not to have a liner, so worked great for the chiffon, but wanted something lined, for the regular fabric version. So I found another pattern, intended as a vampire(?) cape, but left off the embellishments, and also the bat-wing-looking bits at the bottom. For both patterns, I also modified the collar, to make it higher. I think I still ended up not going big enough, but it'll do.

The first pattern is pretty old, and I found it on Etsy, I think. The second pattern is fairly new, but found it on sale, at the fabric store, for like $2.99.



For the trench coat, my friend found a pattern which looks really close to the Hatbox Ghost version, but is intended for what looks to be a George Washington costume. Haha!
She altered it a bit to use fewer, and larger buttons, as well as moving the pockets. She used the same pattern to make both versions. Honestly, I have no idea how she sewed that with the chiffon, but damned if she didn't do an awesome job, and in less time than it took me to even cut out all my cape material!



Pictures of finished pieces forthcoming, just tidying up a few things.

 

[TeresaMRoberts]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

I'm LOVING this costume! I'm entering my son and daughter in the contest to. We'll be in Disney world next week, and doing Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I'm waiting to get good pictures of them in their costumes (and of me in mine) before I enter the contest. Mine are Belle and Prince Adam Electrical Light Parade Inspired costumes Good Luck!! Can't wait to see if finished!

 

[Sinned]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

I'm LOVING this costume! I'm entering my son and daughter in the contest to. We'll be in Disney world next week, and doing Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I'm waiting to get good pictures of them in their costumes (and of me in mine) before I enter the contest. Mine are Belle and Prince Adam Electrical Light Parade Inspired costumes Good Luck!! Can't wait to see if finished!

Oh, cool! Anxious to see what those look like. I'm really digging the "light up" costumes this year.

We were at DW for the Not So Scary Party party a few years ago, and it was awesome! We'll be in DisneyLAND next week for the party (same thing, but the DW parade is WAY better). I'll wave at you from the sister park, across the country.

 

[Zwilliamo]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

We're actually headed to do early Halloween in Disneyland next week, going to be plenty warm there. Hope I get everything done!

I managed to finally get time to go down to Disneyland for the Halloween event this year, it was pretty awesome! I didn't have much time to make a Disney themed costume, maybe next year I'll try for something more than generic pirate. The Halloween party there should be a great debut for this costume!

 

[Sinned]

Re: Sinned's Hatbox Ghost - 2015 Halloween Costume Contest Entry

Jumping back to the resin casts, wrapped those up last night. At least, for the initial go. I'm going to change a few things up for Halloween proper, but I'm out of time for wearing at Disney. Still have to assemble and paint the hatbox!

One cast is going to be worn as a mask (though, doubtful he can wear it much around Disneyland), and the other will just sit in the hatbox, for eye candy.

I did the paint first, but will describe that in a second.

The Hatbox Ghost has some hair, which is different across the reference photos I have. In some of the older pictures, it looks like hair stuffed under, or attached to, the hat. In some of the others, and certainly in the newer ones, it looks more like it's along the sides of his head. So I compromised, and glued hair somewhat towards the top of his head, and had it lay down on either side. Ended up going a little too long with it, but that's okay.

Didn't buy hair specifically for this, but had a wig laying around, which I used for my Immortan Joe costume last Halloween (yes, I was a year ahead on that one, and nobody knew who I was. Oops! ). It's actually a very cheap Gandalf wig, obtained via Amazon last year.



Since the wig is pretty long, I figured I could get 2 wefts of hair, from a single gather, so tied some thread in two spots, and cut away. This turned out to not work so well. The first cut, which included the original wig ends was fine, but then cutting the other side next to the wig netting didn't look so great. It looked too unnatural, having so many hairs being the same length. So after this first trial, I did all the others by gathering up a bit, tying it off with thread once, and then just keeping the piece with the natural ends.



The thread was just a helper to keep the hair from going everywhere right after cutting. So to really hold it in place better, the cut end was covered with hot glue. Also ran it down, and around the thread. This does a pretty good job of holding all the hair in place. Some of it still pulls out, but way better than just leaving the thread alone.



Finally, these were glued to both of the casts, somewhat pig-tail style. Reminds me of Red, from Fraggle Rock, from this view.

Also, if you look close at this picture, you'll see 3 saw-tooth picture hangers. These are there for attaching straps to the mask. Just a little trick I use for all my masks; it works wonderfully.



Once these were set in place, I went back with a mixture of Createx Transparent Base, mixed with Glow Worm, and streaked it through the hair. Probably should have worn a glove when I did it, but where's the fun in that? It was pretty cool watching all this swirl down the drain, when I washed my hands off.




For the paint... My airbrush is driving me absolutely insane, but after a bunch of screwing with it, I was at least able to get something passable on these. Did some simple shading, with a dark grey, then hand brushed around the eyes, lips, and teeth with pure black. The one tooth is Golden brand, gold paint. Finally, the eyeballs are an iris with Golden shading grey, and then a pure black pupil. Actually excited how the eyes turned out. Although they're not perfectly circular, they almost have a real look to them.

The mask version has the eyes, and nose cut out, as well as an area in the mouth.

Ideally, these would both be the same color, but since they're likely not the true Halloween versions, I'm not going to worry about that right now. So, one mask is blue, the other green. I like the blue better.

Hatbox version:



Mask version:



They ended up looking a little too much skull-like, but I'm still happy with them.

 

[Sinned]

Okay, time to wrap this up! Lots happened since the last post. I had to get everything finished before we headed to Disneyland, so didn't get any further updates here. I ignored stuff for a week or so after getting back, just because I needed a break. Here are some final build pictures.

I didn't take a picture of the capes, but they look like a cape. Rounding out the clothing, I decided not to make shoe covers, to make more "hatbox-looking" shoes. It just wasn't worth the time. Going full completionist, I probably should, but pretty sure the only person who'd notice, is me. Who looks at kids' shoes, unless they're the crazy, blinky type?

First picture is the cold weather option, with thicker overcoat. This ended up being entirely unnecessary, even here in Seattle; the costume, as a whole, was pretty warm.
Second two pictures are the chiffon version. It is a pretty delicate piece of clothing, had to repair it a few times already, but it's perfect.



And, finishing the hatbox.

The side piece I cut was intentionally too long, as I wasn't sure how much I'd need. I temporarily pinned it in place on the top and bottom box pieces, to determine how much I wanted to use. Then, in true over-engineering fashion, found the angle I needed, and cut to length (knew this giant bevel gauge would come in handy some day).



Next up, the box needed a handle, so it was off to the 3D printer. It's not as fancy as the one on the real hatbox, but serves the purpose well. I printed two, just in case.



Not thinking ahead, I didn't design bolt holes into the object itself, so had to drill them after. And, honestly, this works better anyway, since it would have complicated printing, and I actually didn't know what size screws I was going to use.

Once I had my hardware, I did some measuring, and then figured out the best placement on the handle. Put some green tape on there, for easier measuring, and marking. The corners of the handle are all curved, so the tape gave a good hard edge to measure against.



The holes were transferred to the top of the hatbox, and those drilled as well.

*********** Brief Sidebar ************

Several of my decisions, from this point, had to do with ease of travel, and also storage down the road, as well as some design changes to make things overall more practical. A few key points:

• Everything needs to be easily disassembled
• No longer splitting the inside in half, to store candy in the back-- there ended up not being much space, plus the hatbox head needed to be centered, to make this thing easier to carry (weight balancing)
• Not adding a PETG window...just not necessary
• Not adding outside trim (this was a "not enough time" decision, but really, few folks will notice the omission
• Not using UV lighting, as the regular glow-in-the-dark skull gives a good effect, and just one less thing to go wrong

*********** Brief Sidebar ************

The handle was attached with machine screws, washers, and wingnuts.



Something similar was done on the bottom, to secure a bracket assembly, to hold the hadbox head. More on that in a minute.

At this point, everything was disassembled, so the foam could be coated. I initially thought I'd use an epoxy coating, but not liking how it worked on a different project, I went the same direction as the hat, and used plastidip.



I really liked how using straight pins worked for temporarily holding the side piece in place, so decided to use that as my actual attachment mechanism, rather than glue. This allows the thing to be fully taken apart again, and also, kind of added to the look. Didn't take pictures of them, but just inserted a 1.5 inch standard, straight pin, every couple of inches, all the way around. I think this made things easier to assemble, vs. using contact cement anyway.

After fully assembled, I dusted the whole thing with gray primer, like the hat, to dull it down a little. Also, some of the glow paint was used on the outside.



Inside the hatbox, an acrylic base, with some pvc end caps was secured in place. Again, with machine screws, washers, and wingnuts. The washers and wingnuts are hidden in what was supposed to be the battery compartment.



The hatbox head was secured on a PVC assembly, using zip ties, run through the picture hangers, glued to the inside of the mask.



And this was then placed in the base, to complete the hatbox.



And that completes the costume build!

 

[Sinned]

Turns out it's surprisingly difficult to get good glow-in-the-dark costume pictures! But, here are a bunch, of the end result.

Outside the gates, at Disneyland:



In front of The Haunted Mansion itself:



And the final requisite photos... unfortunately, I didn't lower my backdrop close enough to the ground, but oh well :





Finally, just for fun, video!

[video]https://vimeo.com/user420187/thehatboxghost[/video]

 

[Zwilliamo]

It turned out great! Hopefully the lines weren't too bad while at Disneyland.

 

[Sinned]

It turned out great! Hopefully the lines weren't too bad while at Disneyland.

Thanks! I was definitely quite pleased with the result, and we had a lot of fun with it.

The lines at Disney were atrocious, but still better than being at work.

 

[ChickenHaunt]

Turned out great!

 

[sundevilfanaz]

A truly amazing costume and accessories


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