Tron Legacy Costume

[Annisse]

I went with Hight Bright White 2.6mm El Wire. Now this totally makes a difference in the brightness factor if you are going to diffuse it with shower curtain or masking tape like Eddie did. The Standard brightness 2.3mm white El Wire diffused is not as bright diffused. Not to mention how many inverters you are going to have and battery packs. I only used one inverter one 12V battery pack and lost alot of brightness due to attaching all of my 33 feet or so of El Wire to them.

What won't make a difference in the brightness is the gauge your choose. 5mm Phat El Wire, will just have a thicker PVC outer layer that is basically it. Might hold up with bendy joint areas better but will not make a difference in your brightness factor. 5mm gauge does not come in High Bright. You need high bright el wire for sure if you are going to diffuse it, the glow will be much better in person and photos.

Try: Cool Neon where I got my el wire. Shipping is kinda high but you always receive your items very fast via FEDEX. They are based in San Francisco, CA.

For those of you who are using EL wire, what size of wire are you going with, and does it seem bright enough? I am planning on using the method of diffusing the EL wire as eddieadryr shows earlier in the thread, but trying to back it with superbright reflective tape and then diffuse through a shower curtain. I found that some people in the thread went with 2.3mm, does anyone know how much brighter it gets when you go from 2.3 to 2.6 or 5.0? I am looking and getting from cool neon, and getting the high bright wire.

 

[Akira]

How about the Netduino Mini?

I'd still have (more work) to put it on a bread board or create a board for it, so much easier to just get the regular Netduino. I'm working out in my head how to fit the full version in somehow.

Tim

 

[Satxer]

get a 12 inch x 1.25 inch panel and use electrical tape to make a shape. sounds ghetto but it worked really well on mine and it looks pretty awesome

I already got the EL wire in place, and as the pics show, it looks pretty good. With the tape, I was worried about having a ton of inverters and having to spend all sorts of money on a bunch of those small pieces of EL tape. I painted the chest armor yesterday to the more appropriate black, so once I get a free chance I will see how the light works on it now.

 

[Thermistor]

So I started a Tron version of Guy-Manuel's Daft Punk helmet because...well...it's an awesome helmet. I'm about 70% done with the sculpt and hope to make an EL jacket to go with it - you can see the build here:
http://www.therpf.com/f24/daft-punk-guy-manuel-helmet-build-106798/

 

[Dando]

Annisse, Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that the only difference for the 2.6 to 5.0 was the jacket, but since I have not used EL wire before, I was not sure; thanks for clearing that up for me. I plan on running 2 inverters for my suit. I am not sure if I will split it top/bottom or some other way as the top half is going to have a lot more on it, and I want to try to keep the same ft for each, and try to wire as close as I can to how much I have in parallel and series wiring connections to try to make sure the wire on parts of the suit is not brighter then the other parts of the suit.

 

[CostumerNew2010]

May I chime in to say there's actually a HIGH BRIGHT 5mm EL Wire that this site sells them, but the bending factor Annisse stated may be TRUE(never tried it myself for I know it would be too thick ?): CooLight.com - Lowest pricing on Electroluminescent Wire and Inverters

I went with Hight Bright White 2.6mm El Wire. Now this totally makes a difference in the brightness factor if you are going to diffuse it with shower curtain or masking tape like Eddie did. The Standard brightness 2.3mm white El Wire diffused is not as bright diffused. Not to mention how many inverters you are going to have and battery packs. I only used one inverter one 12V battery pack and lost alot of brightness due to attaching all of my 33 feet or so of El Wire to them.

What won't make a difference in the brightness is the gauge your choose. 5mm Phat El Wire, will just have a thicker PVC outer layer that is basically it. Might hold up with bendy joint areas better but will not make a difference in your brightness factor. 5mm gauge does not come in High Bright. You need high bright el wire for sure if you are going to diffuse it, the glow will be much better in person and photos.

Try: Cool Neon where I got my el wire. Shipping is kinda high but you always receive your items very fast via FEDEX. They are based in San Francisco, CA.

 

[nemesis]

I went with Hight Bright White 2.6mm El Wire. Now this totally makes a difference in the brightness factor if you are going to diffuse it with shower curtain or masking tape like Eddie did. The Standard brightness 2.3mm white El Wire diffused is not as bright diffused. Not to mention how many inverters you are going to have and battery packs. I only used one inverter one 12V battery pack and lost alot of brightness due to attaching all of my 33 feet or so of El Wire to them.

What won't make a difference in the brightness is the gauge your choose. 5mm Phat El Wire, will just have a thicker PVC outer layer that is basically it. Might hold up with bendy joint areas better but will not make a difference in your brightness factor. 5mm gauge does not come in High Bright. You need high bright el wire for sure if you are going to diffuse it, the glow will be much better in person and photos.

Try: Cool Neon where I got my el wire. Shipping is kinda high but you always receive your items very fast via FEDEX. They are based in San Francisco, CA.

putting clear tape on the EL wire in joint/bending areas helps reinforce the wire, and it keeps the glow 2 cents

 

[nemesis]

I have tested some latex on fabric again and thought I'd just give a quick update

Use a very light very stretchy fabric as a base! I just tested coating some mid-weight lycra and it resulted in a very unstretchy fabric. The material I had originally tested was a very light (to the point of not being easy to machine sew at all) and it resulted in a nice medium weight product. Having looked at the fine wrinkles in the screen used and display Siren costumes I do think the base fabric was quite light as well.

I used a paint brush and the single layer looks nice and tidy but it also soaks in. I really do think a large coverage air brush will be best.

in my experience lycra works PERFECTLY with liquid latex. However, when you are applying the latex you must have the costume/fabric piece on a model or on yourself. This way it will take on the shape of the model and it will retain it!!! It does become stiff, but you can use that to benefit you!

Anyway... why are you using liquid latex for the siren costume?? why not just buy a silver cat suit???????????? or a pearly white one and then use silver fabric paint?????

 

[nemesis]

I like quick and dirty! That was a great idea, but melty warped disc or not, it gave me a great idea!

What if we used hot glue to make the hexagon print?!?!

I know Soulinertia's hex print looks amazing, and it would probably be the best all around option if he sells it by the foot or whatever he's planning to do with it (if that's still happening?), but I've been trying to figure out a way to have the 3D raised rubberized hexagons like on the real suit. I originally thought about the outright lunacy of getting some very thin craft foam and just cutting them out one by one, and then using some kind of fabric glue to hold them on, but what if we were to make a hexagon stencil and just put them on one by one (or a bunch at a time) with hot glue? It would look legit and have a rigid rubbery feel to it. I just don't know how well hot glue would stick to fabrics.

Is anyone well versed in hot gluing and can advise if this would work or not?

EDIT: Apparently there are "Fabric Hot Melt Glue Sticks" designed to stick and stay on fabric that are also machine washable. I am going to do more research on this. If anyone has experience with this type of glue, please feel free to comment! This could potentially be the easiest answer to making the raised hexagonal print ourselves!

Edit 2: Also, Plasti-Dip. They make a clear version. This could work well also!

the cheaper less time consuming way to do this is to create the pattern on your computer, send the image to a stencil-making company (order it as an airbrush stencil) Stencil designs, airbrush stencils, or any stencil pattern you can dream up | Stencils Online will prob end up being something like $50 -$60

then, when you receive your stencil, tape it on to your fabric and start layering FASHION DIMENSIONAL FABRIC PAINT:

Plaid Fashion Dimensional Fabric Paint 1 oz: Shiny Black FF-25317


REMOVE, REPEAT until your fabric is done

 

[Hunter13Zero]

the cheaper less time consuming way to do this is to create the pattern on your computer, send the image to a stencil-making company (order it as an airbrush stencil) Stencil designs, airbrush stencils, or any stencil pattern you can dream up | Stencils Online will prob end up being something like $50 -$60

then, when you receive your stencil, tape it on to your fabric and start layering FASHION DIMENSIONAL FABRIC PAINT:

Plaid Fashion Dimensional Fabric Paint 1 oz: Shiny Black FF-25317


REMOVE, REPEAT until your fabric is done

This sounds like a very good idea, actually. I was trying to figure out a cheaper way to get the hex pattern onto my suit, and this sounds like the solution! Thanks Nemesis!

 

[twinight]

The problem is that stencils require all masking parts to be physically connected.
You can have a hexagon printed using a stencil, but not a hexagon with a hole in it.
At least not without a line across each hex.

 

[Icey]

If you have the patience and don't want to send away for it, Joann Fabrics and the like sell stencil making plastic for you to cut your own pattern, which is what I'm planning on doing. It'll take awhile, but at least I'm only cutting straight lines and nothing horribly intricate.

 

[nemesis]

The problem is that stencils require all masking parts to be physically connected.
You can have a hexagon printed using a stencil, but not a hexagon with a hole in it.
At least not without a line across each hex.

this problem can be "FIXED" in two ways:

you can connect each hexagon to the main body of the stencil by a line thinner than the outline of each hexagon.. therefore it would be practically invisible to the eye once you have painted the fabric. If you are a meticulous costume maker, then you can go back and fill in the missing spaces with a tiny paint brush.

OR you can use overlapping of stencils...

you have one stencil with smaller hexagons and one with larger hexagons. You first make your design with the larger hexagons, then you go back with the smaller stencil and black out the inside of the hexagons.


.... this is still better than HOT GLUE and small pieces... Although nothing beats the speed of screen printing.

 

[nemesis]

another solution is getting a fine tipped bottle of 3D fabric paint, your patience, and then just get to work!!!


OR

get a customized stamp, some gray ink, and get to WORK! ORDER 6 inch X 6 inch custom stamp here: http://orders.rubberstamps.net/FixedSize.aspx?ProductID=WOODSTAMP16&qty=1

 

[mdb]

in my experience lycra works PERFECTLY with liquid latex. However, when you are applying the latex you must have the costume/fabric piece on a model or on yourself. This way it will take on the shape of the model and it will retain it!!! It does become stiff, but you can use that to benefit you!

Anyway... why are you using liquid latex for the siren costume?? why not just buy a silver cat suit???????????? or a pearly white one and then use silver fabric paint?????

Yes, my post was all about how easy it is and that it has been done before It was just a point about choosing starting materials.

The reason is because a lot of us make our own stuff and the actual fabric used was a latex coated lycra/spandex.

 

[DinoBritt]

Yes, my post was all about how easy it is and that it has been done before It was just a point about choosing starting materials.

The reason is because a lot of us make our own stuff and the actual fabric used was a latex coated lycra/spandex.

Are you going to post pictures?

Also how are your Siren shoes coming along?

 

[CostumerNew2010]

TESTIFY that, nemesis! I personally CAN NOT(nor HAVE THAT MUCH PATIENCE) to even make attempt....bound to be ONE(or too many) of them that won't be 'equally spaced out' like the millions of others plus I think it would still end up quite 'messy'(?). I say a PERFECT example of 'hexagon spaces' was posted here:
http://www.therpf.com/f24/tron-legacy-costume-planning-88230/index16.html#post1397645
Showing a size comparison from a $10 bill to what they look like in actual sizes(maybe about 1/16" space between each hexagon).....nope, I can see my 'USER mind' go on meltdown on that real quick. :eek

.... this is still better than HOT GLUE and small pieces... Although nothing beats the speed of screen printing.

 

[DinoBritt]

Annisee, what kind of gloves did you use for your Quorra Costume? ^_^

 

[TheWarlock]

The problem is that stencils require all masking parts to be physically connected.
You can have a hexagon printed using a stencil, but not a hexagon with a hole in it.
At least not without a line across each hex.

I have already figured out a way around that, that's why I'm only trying to figure out the best materials to make real rubber hexagons.

Although everyone kind of shot down the hot glue idea, I still want to take a shot at it, as well as a plasti-dip version.

The fashion dimensional paint that nemesis mentioned I am already familiar with; and in my opinion I don't think we should try to use it for this. It's just a fancy name for "t-shirt paint". If you've ever tried using that before, you'll see that it's runnier than elmer's glue and about as messy.

My plan is a multi-level template that has two layers so the interior hexagon can be made without having to touch up any stencil lines. As soon as I finish making it, I will post pics and do some tests.

 

[Annisse]

Annisee, what kind of gloves did you use for your Quorra Costume? ^_^

My gloves are actually attached to the entire arm. I have the HEX print on my shoulder area and then right above my elbow to and including my hands I sewed a 4-way stretch black matte vinyl which has a latex leather like appear.

That stuff was pricey a yard but I was so excited when I found it and went ahead and got it any way.