Advice on building without a model?

hzrdous

New Member
I've been asked to make a costume as a favor for a friend who lives about 14 hours away from me. I'll be visiting for several days this fall, but beyond that I won't have him around for fittings of anything. I'm pretty nervous about it, as a.) this is my first build for someone else and b.) I've had either myself or my dress form for all of my work to this point. I'm used to making adjustments as I go. This time I'll get one shot at measurements and that's it. I know that this can't be the end of the world as many of you out there do commissions for people who live far away. Any advice? I'm thinking of making a cast of him just for my peace of mind.

Relevant details of the build:
- Character: Zaeed (Mass Effect 2)
- Medium: EVA foam (primarily)
- Timeframe: Before Dragon*Con 2015, but mostly this winter

Thanks, all! I'm not really nervous about the design itself; I can see pretty clearly how it needs to be done. I'm just a little worried about getting everything just right without being able to test it out. I suppose if all else fails we can mail it back and forth. ;)

(I apologize if this has been covered somewhere. Search wasn't so helpful.)
 
That's what I'm thinking. We can do it when I visit. Then I'll at least have something. I just won't get to see how it moves or anything.
 
making a cast would be the best way to know that you're working around the exact size of them, giving a better fit. you could do a duct tape copy of them, but then you'd be adding an inch or two extra because of the build up, and possible distortion when filling the duct tape copy. better than nothing, but i personally wouldnt do a duct tape double because i like exactness. you could also have him do a frontal, side and top view photo of his head and have him send you vital mesaurements so you can replicate the sections in cardboard and fill in with styrofoam (or something else) and have a more precise model without having to visit and duct tape them. problem with that would be margin of error in translation and observation of the measurements (which there will always be). ANOTHER way you could do it is see if there are any scale pep files that you could use, make a few different sizes and have them try it on. that way you could use the fitted scale one as somewhat of a guide as to how big you should make it! plenty of ways to go about this, all with their downs and ups!
 
Thanks! Good ideas. I hadn't thought about paper "sample sizes". That would probably be pretty feasible. (I apologize for the late acknowledgement - things have been a little...something...here the last week or so.)
 
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