What? ANOTHER Captain America TFA suit? Yeah....

[liawehck]

After going to see The Winter Soldier in IMAX 3D last night, I'm in the mood to post some pictures of my TFA suit pieces. Sorry, no progress pics, I get involved in doing the work, I don't take time to snap pictures. Usually because my hands are covered in paint, glue, or whatever else that I don't want touching my camera.

Anyway, I have been toying with making a TFA suit for a while now, and I've moved to an area that has a local costume maker so I decided to take the plunge. She will be making the fabric portions of the suit, while I'm making everything else. It should be ready for a trial fitting next week, so I'm trying to touch up my parts in the meantime.

I know some things aren't as accurate as they could be, but considering this is the first time I've attempted to put an entire costume together, I'm excited about the direction things are going.

First the helmet:

This is a pepakura file that I covered with resin inside and out. I know I'm missing the ridges along the top, but working on a way to add those. The liner is pleather and does not cover the entire interior. It's basically the earpieces connected by the chinstrap, including a padded leather chincup.

The belt buckle and pouches:

The belt is a 3" leather belt. The pouches I made out of pleather with a layer of craft foam behind it for added thickness. The belt buckle is resin. I originally made it in a single piece, then hollowed out the back side to fit a parachute buckle which I resined into place then split the buckle on the seam to make the buckle functional.



Back buckles:

Resin again with a coating of Rub N Buff. Might not be exactly the correct size, but I made them large enough to accommodate 2" straps everywhere.


Holster and .45

Holster was purchased, the .45 is a $20 airsoft gun painted black with a Rub N Buff layer.

 

[liawehck]

Then the boots:

I ordered a pair of Corcoran paratrooper boots, to which I have the tops from an original pair of M43 boots. Unfortunately they were from a size 8 pair and wouldn't go around me. I hated to do it, but I went ahead and spliced in a piece of leather to extend them. I kind of like the riveted look of them actually, but those are on the inside of the leg so they don't show up too much anyway.



The shield:

I've had the shield the longest of any of these pieces, as I made it around the time First Avenger came out. At the time I scrounged up what I could to make it and this one is made from a 19" satellite dish. I know, it's too small, but hey, you work with what you have. I'm not that tall anyway, so it's kind of in scale with me

I sanded all the original gray paint off the dish and trimmed off the edge. Then the rings on the top were etched with a dremel. I just recently etched the details into the star and added the head of some brads at the points, stuck on with a bit of JB Weld. On the back, the handles are leather and they are attached with cabinet pulls on one side and a couple of rings on the other, all of which are secured with JB Weld. I then poured a few batches of resin onto the back and worked it around to strengthen it and give a somewhat smooth coating. Then the back rings were also cut with the dremel. When I go back to start tweaking my suit, this is the first thing I'll be working on. I'd like to do either a steel sled shield or an aluminum blank with the correct buckles.


The fabric:

Finally, here's a sample of the fabric I bought to make the suit with. It's a wool blend suit fabric, pretty lightweight. It was originally a tan color with a slight greenish look in the right lighting. This picture is a test with a low concentration Rit Royal Blue. The color is actually a little more blue than the picture shows. Again this is a test and the costume maker will be dyeing the actual fabric herself so I'm sure it will come out much better than my attempt.


I still need to make the shoulder stars. I'm trying to use a couple of buttons for the base and then make the stars out of cardstock and resin. Hope to start on those this weekend....