The last week has been insane! But, the costume got finished and was shipped off yesterday. Here's the rundown on the final details.
The next piece to address was the 'buckle' on the back of the harness. I considered a couple of different options on this and, with the time frame, I decided to go with foam for the base and some triangular plastic rings for the straps. I did consider casting it in resin but was afraid of the resin breaking. The first thing I needed to do was adjust the template slightly to accommodate the plastic rings.
Next I cut the new piece out of foam and beveled the lines into it. I also carved out the back and inset the triangles into the foam. The triangles will be strong enough to hold the straps without bending or breaking and the foam is flexible enough to contour slightly to his back.
The piece was finished by heat sealing the foam, then 2 coats of Plasti-Dip (brush-on - I never use the spray), 2 coats of DuraClear, silver automotive paint and another 2 coats of DuraClear. Here's how it ended up:
Once that was done, I moved on to the gauntlets. We had originally discussed 2 sets of gauntlets - one red, one blue - but, after we began looking at more pics (especially the A2 images), we decided to go with brown to match the other accessories and base them on that style. Here's the reference I used:
And here are the ones I made (he is getting the gloves on his own, so they are not pictured here):
The belt was finished and the pouches needed to be made/finished:
At the very end, the client decided that he wanted to have some gaiters made because he was having a hard time finding boots that he liked. Being in the military already, it was an easy decision for him to wear the boots he already has and I made up a quick pair of gaiters.I took some black vinyl and backed the brown with it to give them some more structure. The black was trimmed away from the seam allowances and, when the gaiter was sewn together, the edges of the black were bound underneath the finished edges. The gaiter (just set over a random shoe that I had on-hand) is at the bottom. There were some silver accents on the edges (similar to the ones on the gauntlets), but I didn't get a photo of them after that was added.
And, at long last, here's the costume together showing both variations. Note, the pouches are not included here as they were not finished when I assembled the pieces on the form.
I've asked the client to send me some pictures once he suits up, so I'll be sure to post some when I have them (unless he beats me to it and posts them here himself since he's been following the thread :cool)!
The next piece to address was the 'buckle' on the back of the harness. I considered a couple of different options on this and, with the time frame, I decided to go with foam for the base and some triangular plastic rings for the straps. I did consider casting it in resin but was afraid of the resin breaking. The first thing I needed to do was adjust the template slightly to accommodate the plastic rings.
Next I cut the new piece out of foam and beveled the lines into it. I also carved out the back and inset the triangles into the foam. The triangles will be strong enough to hold the straps without bending or breaking and the foam is flexible enough to contour slightly to his back.
The piece was finished by heat sealing the foam, then 2 coats of Plasti-Dip (brush-on - I never use the spray), 2 coats of DuraClear, silver automotive paint and another 2 coats of DuraClear. Here's how it ended up:
Once that was done, I moved on to the gauntlets. We had originally discussed 2 sets of gauntlets - one red, one blue - but, after we began looking at more pics (especially the A2 images), we decided to go with brown to match the other accessories and base them on that style. Here's the reference I used:
And here are the ones I made (he is getting the gloves on his own, so they are not pictured here):
The belt was finished and the pouches needed to be made/finished:
At the very end, the client decided that he wanted to have some gaiters made because he was having a hard time finding boots that he liked. Being in the military already, it was an easy decision for him to wear the boots he already has and I made up a quick pair of gaiters.I took some black vinyl and backed the brown with it to give them some more structure. The black was trimmed away from the seam allowances and, when the gaiter was sewn together, the edges of the black were bound underneath the finished edges. The gaiter (just set over a random shoe that I had on-hand) is at the bottom. There were some silver accents on the edges (similar to the ones on the gauntlets), but I didn't get a photo of them after that was added.
And, at long last, here's the costume together showing both variations. Note, the pouches are not included here as they were not finished when I assembled the pieces on the form.
I've asked the client to send me some pictures once he suits up, so I'll be sure to post some when I have them (unless he beats me to it and posts them here himself since he's been following the thread :cool)!
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