True's backpack from True and the Rainbow Kingdom [FINISHED]

[accidentalrebel]

We wanted our daughter to go trick or treatin' as her current favorite character "True" from the Netflix kids show, True and the Magic Kingdom. My wife is in charge of the overall outfit while I happily volunteered to make True's backpack:



Since this is the first time for me to make a costume I took my time researching and learning the craft. Thankfully there are really awesome Youtube channels and forums (Like this one) dedicated to teaching other people how to do these kinds of things.

The important thing for me is getting the shape right. Luckily for me my daughter had a toy that had the shape I was looking for:



I then made a cast (Not sure if this is the correct term) of the object using masking tape. I flattened this shape down giving me my template:



I then used the template to shape my foam to this:



So far so good.

However, more reference photos show that the back side of the backpack is rounded as well as seen here:



To achieve this I just made a duplicate of the one above and stuck them together to form this:



I'm not a 100% on the shape but it's okay since this is just a prototype.

The next problem for me to solve was finding out how to combine the rounded part above so taht it would connect with two others to form a triangle shape.

It took some trial and error but I knew the shape of the template would look something like this:



I quickly made 3 rounded thingies using this template resulting to this:



I did the above in a hurry. All I wanted is to test if they would line up properly. Thankfully, they do!

This one is not finished yet as it doesn't have the back part yet. I don't think it'll be that hard but we'll see once I work on them this weekend.

So that's it for now. I had fun learning and going through the process. Halloween is just a few weeks away so I need to do double time!

Thanks for dropping by. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.

 

[accidentalrebel]

I made more of the shapes (with front and back sides) which now gives me a rough idea of how the whole thing would connect together.



I then cut transparent plastic pieces, glued bond paper behind it to form the white circle that would go in the holes. I needed this part to be thin enough so that a diffused light can pass through.


The next step is to connect the three pieces together. I may need to find some way to secure the connections from the inside for added strength.

 

[accidentalrebel]

I was able to squeeze in more progress before the day ended for me.

I went ahead and connected the three pieces of the backpack together from the inside. This gave more surface area to connect the pieces together. Thanks to this I ended up with a really strong bond.


I paid more attention to how the seams would line up from the front. This made the back part looking ugly but that's okay.


Here's a look of how I connected them from the inside. I tried my best to not make it as clean as possible but as more pieces were connected, the harder it was for the connectors to place.


I gave myself time to inspect what I made. I am surprised that I was able to pull this off as it is my first time making costume props. That being said, I can still see areas for improvement that I could correct in the future. Like this area in the picture below:


I also need more practice cutting curves. It was much harder than I thought!

Also, I realized that my pieces are much farther apart when compared to my references. I'd have to adjust my template to accommodate future builds.

The next step is to cover the whole thing with sealant so I could start painting.

 

[propmaster2000]

Maybe you can add 3 med. sized battery operated tap lights with a face marked on them.
Home Depot. ?

 

[accidentalrebel]

Maybe you can add 3 med. sized battery operated tap lights with a face marked on them.
Home Depot. ?

That is a great idea! This would allow the lights to be easily activated.

Here's one that is available for me to purchase:


I wonder if it would fit. If not, I bet I could dismantle it and file it down to size.

Another alternative is I could just wire a circuit myself and have the activation button be placed on the strap so the wearer can activate it while wearing it.

 

[accidentalrebel]

Before I could paint the backpack I wanted to do a test run first of my colors on an extra piece as shown below:


I'm glad that I did this because it taught me a lot of things to watch out for. For example, the yellow spray paint that I have is very runny so the trick for a good coat is to make the coats as thin as possible but done multiple times. I also learned that drying under the sun makes the paint stick to the masking tape which made the imperfections seen above.

Armed with this knowledge I cautiously started painting the actual prop. I was able to do Yellow for now as I ran out of time. But this is good, at least it'll give the paint more time to dry.


One thing I noticed after painting is that the seams became very obvious. Next time I should find a way to hide these seams.

 

[accidentalrebel]

I've finally finished painting the rest of the pieces. There were some bleeding between colors but it's not noticeable when far away.


With this done I went ahead and worked on the strap and the emblem attached to it. I initially had a hard time getting the paint to stick properly on the nylon belt but I was able to fix it by lathering the whole belt with wood glue, priming it, and then painting it. It's the same approach used for sealing the foam and I'm glad it worked.


With all of these done I just connected everything together and ended up with this.


I initially had plans of adding light inside the backpack but decided against it due to lack of time.

With this I mark this small project as done. I'm happy of how it turned out considering it is my first time. I look forward to working on another one in the future.