The idea for this costume has been churning in my head now for a while and once I got around to making my cowl http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=235457&highlight=rhino I knew I would need to make a full suit. I was inspired to make one similar in style to the classic comic/1967 cartoon Rhino.
As with all my previous costumes, I wanted to keep the budget as low as possible, especially since I know these big suits (like the hulk) can easily get up to $500+ due to the cost of foam and adhesive. So I spoke with a local supplier and was able to slowly collect a bunch of scrap pieces to use for the muscle base. In the end, the only foam I needed to buy was the 1/2" that I used to skin over the base muscles.
I picked up a zentai suit to use as a base to attach everything to. I began by attaching all the major muscles into place and then covering the entire thing in 1/2" foam to smooth it all out. Then I covered this with a 4-way stretch fabric to help with the next step.
To prevent the foam from absorbing an insane amount of paint, I used a technique I discovered while making my dinosaur costume a few years back - I made a thinned out solution of acrylic caulk and brushed this over the entire suit which is much cheaper than plasti-dip. Once this dried, I then did a second layer (a thicker version) to add some texture and create my version of a rhino skin.
This gave me a perfect base to paint over. I started with a solid grey and then did some black wash over it to bring out the texture and to try and match up to the cowl a bit.
I'm wearing him to our local con this weekend and getting together with a big group of spideys for a picture.
All in all, this full costume cost me less than $175 in materials.
As with all my previous costumes, I wanted to keep the budget as low as possible, especially since I know these big suits (like the hulk) can easily get up to $500+ due to the cost of foam and adhesive. So I spoke with a local supplier and was able to slowly collect a bunch of scrap pieces to use for the muscle base. In the end, the only foam I needed to buy was the 1/2" that I used to skin over the base muscles.
I picked up a zentai suit to use as a base to attach everything to. I began by attaching all the major muscles into place and then covering the entire thing in 1/2" foam to smooth it all out. Then I covered this with a 4-way stretch fabric to help with the next step.
To prevent the foam from absorbing an insane amount of paint, I used a technique I discovered while making my dinosaur costume a few years back - I made a thinned out solution of acrylic caulk and brushed this over the entire suit which is much cheaper than plasti-dip. Once this dried, I then did a second layer (a thicker version) to add some texture and create my version of a rhino skin.
This gave me a perfect base to paint over. I started with a solid grey and then did some black wash over it to bring out the texture and to try and match up to the cowl a bit.
I'm wearing him to our local con this weekend and getting together with a big group of spideys for a picture.
All in all, this full costume cost me less than $175 in materials.
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