Feathered Velociraptor Costume (Zoo Tycoon 2)

Hey there! I'm still sort of new to the forum, so I hope this is in the right place and stuff although luckily I'm familiar with this software from another forum I frequent.

I'm a fourteen year old girl, and earlier this year I came back from MegaCon 2013 determined to make an awesome costume. After much research and persistence, I got my parent's approval to make a feathered velociraptor costume. Much like Monoyasha's raptor, it will be the same size as myself with the jaw extended above my own head (see her AWESOME costume here! Fursuit makers are just amazing: Velociraptor Fullsuit - YouTube )

Now, Monoyasha doesn't sell that head, the teeth or the tongue anymore...or even the eyes. Just the claws. So, I've been at this costume in research and planning and creation since earlier this year but with the deadline (March) looming quickly I've had to get quite a bit quicker on things. ^^ Currently I've been posting here with stuff: My Velociraptor Costume Tutorials but I'm going to have some questions for construction pretty soon and this forum is fantastic so I figured I might go ahead and post a thread up with where I'm at right now! I've done sewing projects before and such but this is a huge undertaking--already got $500 in this thing so far with probably another $500 left (so thankful to have so much $$ saved up at this point, haha!). Quite the pricey investment, gotta hope I've stopped growing. I've made some bad mistakes already but luckily they aren't too noticeable, or won't be on the finished suit.

Currently this is where the body is at--still need to add the third toe finishing on the center, the torso and fix the toes connecting to the shoes a bit more. There won't be any foam on the arms and the mesh will be cut shorter before it's finished but it's left as is for now.




Lol...kind of embarrassed at my horrible zipper but luckily the front is going to be covered in feathers so it won't be noticed. At least, not much. You can see how the bottom of the toes still need adjusting before gluing on any velcro. And how the third toe toward the middle still needs adjusting, I've made the clay claw for those myself since I wasn't fond of the one's Monoyasha sells. Let me tell you about these legs though--my major mistake? Making them too tight! I have to sit down and yank 'em on and it takes ages. I have little zippers in the ankles on the back which is a good idea imo but it's too tight.


Hands are going to be quite a bit different too--going to fix the fingers more but this is where I'm at with them.

I'm going to get some webbing to use as a "spine" for the tail, as recommended to me by Monoyasha but this is about what the tail looks like. I feel so ridiculous in this video, lol.


The skin is going to be some matte milliskin from Spandexworld, which will be airbrushed (getting the fabric, airbrusher and feathers for Christmas). The feathers will be custom dyed from Feathers Frame like this raptor from Zoo Tycoon. I'm probably going to use E6000 to glue them down since I can't sew them. Most fursuit makers when they make bird costumes w/ feathers use hot glue, but I trust E6000 more to be honest.



The head will be made of fiberglass, using fleece instead of the fiberglass sheets though...or something, haha, I'm not 100% sure on the specifics. My dad works with boats though so he's quite experienced. My dad hasn't ever used clay and fleece and resin all together, so if anyone has experience or could even confirm that'll work I'd appreciate it. xD I'm running into some issues right now with a two part mold and clay, since my claw is made from clay and to make a two part mold you need to stick clay to the thing you're making...which is giving me some headache but either I need some acrylic spray or to do this super complicated process smooth-on suggested.

I've actually started on the head this week and I'm moving along with the clay--kind of tedious but it's going well. It's Owens Corning foam as a base and using Sculptex to sculpt above it.

Anyway...thanks for everything! This forum is a lot of help, esp. the other dinosaur costumes I've seen here.

Annnd it's been a week since I've posted here. I've been sculpting constantly--every day for 5-14 hours. It's a bit excessive and I'm just really slow going, lol. Figured I'd share some pictures.



I've actually got a whole lot of sculpting done on the head recently but no pictures yet...whoops.


Unfortunately this is the best I have for the lower jaw currently.

Hi Emma,
Welcome to the forum. You certainly have picked out quite a first project for yourself. It it looking nice thus far.
Have checked out any of the other raptor projects on YouTube? There are also several threads of Dino builds here on the RPF. I look forward to seeing more progress on this.

Thanks! I've checked out every raptor project I could find, here and on YouTube. I did two months of research before even beginning all of this.

I've made slow progress, the goal is to have the head completely fiberglassed by end of this month.

(these images are over a week old--I've worked a LOT on the jawline and the nose area)

I've used 20 lbs. of clay on the head so far and there's also the claw mold in there too I think...turns out I don't have enough silicone, I don't think. Not sure what I'm going to do about that, I have covered the claw entirely so you can't see the clay or anything beneath it but I still don't think it's enough. Either I'm going to have to scrape out the little bit left in the bottom, but if that's not enough I'll have to order more which I'm so not looking forward to since that's $30 a kit. :s

My airbrush is here, although wrapped under the tree! I got the Paasche H-Set since my friend recommended it for this project as well as a few I have planned in the future. I'm super psyched, but I hope to be sewing fabric at least by Christmas if I'm lucky. When the claw is finished, I'll have 2 lbs. extra of clay to use for the eyelids but I seriously doubt that'll be enough which totally sucks.

Wow, your making some good progress on this. Nice choice on the airbrush as well. Looking forward to seeing more of this!

Here's just a webcam photo from the other day showing how big the head is next to mine...it's pretty heavy and I have tiny, weak arms so I can barely hold it up that high but it will be adjusted differently obviously on my head. I'm going to make a fiberglass head frame to put it on my own, and then also have a strap on the back of the head that will clip onto a strap on the back of the costume to keep the weight off my nose like Monoyasha used. I pulled off some of the top clay today and added more foam so it will be more of an angle, rather than flat. Reeeeally need to order stuff for the eyes. >_>

VERY cool!!!!

No progress on this much, just finished the nostrils. I need the weather to warm up so I can pour more silicone, need to drive a half hour to Joann's and pick up some more stuff, and I need to order resin and a ladle for the eyes. Just pretty much waiting on $$ right now, which REALLY sucks because the deadline? Terrifying.

What type of clay are you using? (EDIT: nevermind, I see in your original post) Are you making a mold of the head you're building and then building fiberglass inside that mold?

I've never heard of using fleece with fiberglass resin but it seems like it would be... thick. And potentially heavy.

Looks like someone is into SW fish

Avery said:

What type of clay are you using? (EDIT: nevermind, I see in your original post) Are you making a mold of the head you're building and then building fiberglass inside that mold?

I've never heard of using fleece with fiberglass resin but it seems like it would be... thick. And potentially heavy.

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I believe my dad's plan was to pretty much use the clay head as the mold--wrap the fleece around it and then use the resin to harden it? I'm not positive, but I may ask him later so I can post precisely what he means and see if anyone can give advice for it or anything.

Koipond said:

Looks like someone is into SW fish

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I was confused for a moment there, lol! That's not fish, that's our frog tank up top. Red-eyed tree frogs, then below are cichlids. To the left are the cricket tanks since we breed our own to feed the frogs.

Emmalouwho2 said:

I was confused for a moment there, lol! That's not fish, that's our frog tank up top. Red-eyed tree frogs, then below are cichlids. To the left are the cricket tanks since we breed our own to feed the frogs.

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Ah, the blue backs and white pipes are common in SW tanks

Emmalouwho2 said:

I believe my dad's plan was to pretty much use the clay head as the mold--wrap the fleece around it and then use the resin to harden it? I'm not positive, but I may ask him later so I can post precisely what he means and see if anyone can give advice for it or anything.

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In that case you are likely to lose a significant amount of detail on your head, especially given the thickness of fleece. That's important to think about since you're spending so much time sculpting.

EDIT: Also the end product will be larger than your original sculpt, obviously.

I'll add that I've never done anything with fiberglass but I have made fursuit-like costumes before. Masks at least.

Edit again: I was re-reading your first post and came across the feather part. I understand hesitations about hot glue, it seems like a cheap fix sometimes. But something that hot glue is REALLY good at is bonding porous objects like fabric and foam. It also sets much faster than E6000 and doesn't have the fumes. I would suggest at least testing hot glue out before doing everything with E6000.

Good point about the hot glue...I might try it first. I've only got an extremely hot glue gun (industrial, melts the fabric) so I'd need to pick up a cooler one.

I'm not worried about losing any details, or that it'll be bigger. I'm not sculpting any scale details or anything on the head, just the big shape of the entire thing. Definitely a good thing to think about. I'm sitting down with my dad right now to see exactly what his plan is with the head.

I can confirm your dad knows what he's doing wanting to use fleece.

I've used it while helping my friend who does custom car audio interior for a living; make custom surrounds for client speakers. It's literally being used in the same fashion as the woven sheet you'd normally use for fiberglass but can make more difficult shapes that the woven sheet cant, just as strong as traditional fiberglass chop mat and sheet and cheaper if you can score a bolt or blanket on sale or clearance at a fabric store or walmart.

I wasnt a believer at first either, then I saw it work. With out hijacking your build with examples; google Malihini Customs or look for him on facebook to see examples of his work.

When I say "details" I don't mean small things like scales, I mean those concave shapes you have there are going to change. You also mentioned nostrils and eyelids. I just can't see those being preserved with something as thick as fleece. As I said before, though, I haven't worked with fiberglass so your dad could probably tell you better.

I have a glue gun with a small "detail" tip that I picked up from Hobby Lobby for $10ish. They have others for less.

Fleece isn't as thick after you brush on resin; the only way it will get thick is if you build up several layers of it or chop mat/cloth (like any project using fiberglass materials). For the application we used it for in car audio; we went back and added a few fiberglass chop mat layers on the inside, because the fleece is more of an "outside" shape than it is able to hold weight.

Avery said:

As I said before, though, I haven't worked with fiberglass

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Trust in your father. It would be the same effect using mat/cloth but using them over fleece will require more finish work.

However; I would take issue with using the foam and fiberglassing over it; THAT I cant give any insight to, because I'm not sure how the foam would react to the resin as a chemical and the heat it produces while curing.

I'm only trying to make OP aware of a potential issue. I know how much a layer of fabric can change the shape of a sculpt with these types of costumes.

The fiberglass will only come in contact with the foam on the back of the head, which won't really matter since that won't be seen. I've seen a couple threads here on the RPF where people fiberglassed right over the Owens Corning Foam, so I don't think that'll be too much of an issue.

I do plan to make the nostrils bigger than they will be by a slight bit since I do realize the fleece is going to make it all slightly bigger. I did take a look at those speakers on your friend's Facebook, Dark One (hehe) and it's really reassuring to see that it works like that. Did he take little cut squares of it like typical fiberglass or did he just use the one big piece to make it? You're the first person I've talked to that has used fleece and resin together, and I couldn't find anything about it online so it is REALLY nice to know it'll work out and everything.
Depending on how the head comes out after it's done, I may decide to also put the fiberglass mat inside it like you mentioned...this thing needs to be really tough.

Avery said:

When I say "details" I don't mean small things like scales, I mean those concave shapes you have there are going to change. You also mentioned nostrils and eyelids. I just can't see those being preserved with something as thick as fleece. As I said before, though, I haven't worked with fiberglass so your dad could probably tell you better.

I have a glue gun with a small "detail" tip that I picked up from Hobby Lobby for $10ish. They have others for less.

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Good to know! I picked one up at Joann's a while back that was faulty and wouldn't work so I had to return it, maybe I'll have better luck this time.

Emmalouwho2 said:

Did he take little cut squares of it like typical fiberglass or did he just use the one big piece to make it? You're the first person I've talked to that has used fleece and resin together, and I couldn't find anything about it online so it is REALLY nice to know it'll work out and everything.
Depending on how the head comes out after it's done, I may decide to also put the fiberglass mat inside it like you mentioned...this thing needs to be really tough.

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He used the fleece as a whole piece, and if he applied the fiberglass chop mat; he applied that in little squares or clippings on the inside of the fleece (side note: dont limit yourself to squares of the mat when using it, but do start with them and they dont have to be perfect squares.) I would imagine if you applied the mat to the outside of the fleece for your project you may lose some detail due to overlapping clippings and uneven coats, so layer the fleece with more fleece as needed if you go that route.

This video really illustrates fiberglassing with fleece (exactly how we did it). While it's for speakers, it can be applied to any medium you need to fiberglass.

Added perk, it's REALLY easy to wet sand smooth because it gives a smoother coat of resin and isnt as fibrous as regular mat and cloth.