SPACESHIIIP!!! Lego Benny the spaceman costume

[Bloop]

I've got a Lego themed party coming in a few days, so I'm making a Lego minifigure costume, specifically of Benny the spaceman! I thought it's be fun to get drunk and yell "spaceship!" all night.


First step was figuring out of to change the proportions so I would fit in the costume while still looking close to the original figure's proportions. I think I got a decent balance of functionality and keeping the look of the minifigure.


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Second step: mocking it up in cardboard. I didn't complete the whole costume at this step since I was just trying to see proportions in three dimensions.

 

[Bloop]

Next step: foam! I opted for foam for flexibility and overall "look" of the costume. I initially bought two rolls of 1" thick craft foam, 24" X 72", but I found I'll need at least one more to complete the costume. I haven't made the head/helmet yet, so I was thinking I could make it out of just cardboard, but it probably wouldn't look as nice if I did. I will probably be using cardboard to create the under structure of the helmet though.






I've been making adjustments as I go. I made measurements based on the cardboard mock-up, but I'm doing a lot of "eyeballing it" as well. I'm still measuring as I go though, based on the eyeballing. I haven't quite decided how I want to attach the legs. Right now, it's in three sections, the torso, the crotch/upper legs, and the lower legs. I plan on using Velcro to attach the parts that won't be glued together.

I'm using Loctite Spray adhesive to join the foam. It works well (as it should) though there are times when I have had to reapply adhesive after it set. It's pretty easy to work with, it doesn't set right away, stays tacky at first, so you have a little time to pull it apart and redo the joins.

As I said, I haven't started the helmet/head, but I bought a three pack of craft plastic canvas mesh sheets which I plan to spray paint yellow and use for the face of the head. I should be able to see out pretty well. I haven't figured out if I want to have it be able to flip up while I'm wearing the helmet, so I don't have to take the whole helmet off when I want to drink and eat, or just see better. Time might be a factor as I only have a few more evenings to complete the whole costume.



More to come, I plan on getting more foam tonight and hopefully finishing the body and starting the head. I'm going to do the oxygen tanks last, I figure if I run short of time, I can leave them off for now.

 

[Christhall]

SPACESHIP!!
Lol.. Do you plan on building the lego spaceship too? It would be perfect! Haha

 

[Bloop]

Yeah, I thought about making the spaceship and just having my head and upper body be the minifigure, but it would have been too hard to walk around in. Though it'll probably be hard to walk in this anyway!

 

[Bloop]

Helmet/head construction is done! I originally planned on making it bigger so it would be better proportioned to the original minifigure, but lack of foam and time made me adjust it. It's still close to what I wanted.

 

[Bloop]

Well, I managed to finish the costume in time for the party, but it was rushed and definitely shows it. I had to start all the painting a few hours before I needed to wear the costume. I also had to make the arms at the last minute, so they're not as well designed or fabricated.
I hestate to put up pictures of the "finished" work because it was pretty shoddy, but I figure if someone here can benefit from the info I provide, it's worth it.





As you can see, the paint did not cover to my liking. I tried to find out what is the best paint for upholstery type foam. I saw online some people said normal spray paint would either melt the foam or not cover well, so I had planned to use acrylic paint applied with a brush. I tried thinning it with water to get better coverage, but it soaked in and ran, and took too long to dry. In the interest of time, I decided to try Krylon ColrMaster paint & primer spray paint, hoping it would cover well and dry fast. It did pretty well, but the foam sucks up a lot of paint, so the result you see here is a couple cans worth of paint. I free-hand painted the chest emblem with other craft store acrylics. It turned out alright, but it's off-center.
The helmet face worked out really well though. I could see through the mesh very well, yet, as you can see, my face isn't really seen. I drew the eyes and mouth on with a black Sharpie and painted the tongue with the same red acrylics as the chest.
I plan on fixing up the costume, hopefully sooner than later. I need to fix all the seams and repaint all the blue (and redo the chest design). I tried adding velcro to sections, like to attach the legs and helmet the torso, but the spray adhesive wasn't strong enough (you can see some velcro peeking out in the pics). I think stronger glue is in order. I also plan on gluing fabric strips to the insides of the seams to add strength while retaining flexibility. I'd like to add the oxygen tanks that I omitted to the back if possible too.
Overall, I'm ok with how it turned out, though it did start falling apart a bit pretty early in the evening. Hopefully I can get ol' Benny fixed up for future use.

 

[Sakura1618]

Yeah, you really need to seal foam with something before painting. I believe stuff like Plasti-Dip is the go-to product for that sort of thing.

 

[Daniel Nelms]

You could try something like Epsilon from smoothon. It's made for coating foam and we've used it on EVA foam before.

 

[Keycube]

Painting issues aside, you did a great job capturing the essence of the character's cuteness.

 

[Christhall]

like what the others said, you need to seal the foam first before you start painting, either with plastidip or heat-seal it using heat gun, or you can use PVA glue with a little mix of water for another cheaper alternative. btw, great work!