Manuelzinho
New Member
Hey everyone,
New member here, from Ceuta (Spain). I already introduced myself in the new members thread and now it is the time to show my first job to you guys. Hope you like it and it will be awesome if it helps someone.
Before starting, I would like to give you a general view about the situation here at Ceuta to get the materials you need for this hobby. As this is an small town, you can not find most of the stuff you need (no proper eva foam, no polyurethane resin, no satin spray paints, no liquid vinil, etc)
We are separated from the mainland of Spain by the sea (The Straight of Gibraltar) and we have a different tax situation from them and a custom filter for any shipments to Ceuta. Due to this particular situation, most of online shops orders you make gets very expensive in custom taxes and transport costs, and some of them do not even sent to Ceuta because of this complicated situation.
All above about the custom making. Regarding the cosplay thing, there are no comic cons here and in Spain you just have the Salon del Comic in Barcelona and an official Comic Con at the south of Spain (Jerez de la Frontera) that I am planning to visit this year.
Here in Ceuta only chance to dress up is in Carnival, during our carnival parade.
So here you have to use your imagination a lot and try to get the most of the stuff available. More challenging and sometimes could be fun, as you need lots of creativity.
I love exact costume replicas, but I like it too when you adapt your costume to the materials you have available and improvise, sometimes adding something from your own to the costume.
So, here I am, a custom builder/cosplayer in a place with few materials and no comic cons. Sounds like a job for Superman, doesn´t it?
For my first job, I choose Captain America. With the great helmet template from JFCustom (many thanks!) and all info I could find here in RPF and Youtube tutorials etc for the shield, I thought it could be something not too complicate for a newbie. And I decided to bring my son (2 years old) dressed up to the parade with me. As he does not stand yet masks or helmets, I came up with the idea of making a Thor costume for him.
This is the general idea, from a Hot Toys figure: http://www.hottoys.com.hk/productDetail.php?productID=226
So, first the helmet. I used eva foam, 5 mm. Then 3 layers of white glue (PVA) and primer, 2 layers. Hereunder some pics of the process. First colour did not like it, so I decided to change it later to go better with the clothes color. Leather parts were made off parts from a leather jacket bought in a outlet shop, cost 10 €
As per the shield, I read and watch many tutorials, but I came up with an idea inspired by Bill Doran´s Foamsmith Complete Trilogy. To make boobs armor, he uses a good trick, heating up a eva foam circle, little big bigger than a bowl of cereals, and then put the circle coverting the bowl and pressed it down to the bottom and keep the pressure for a little while. That changes the shape from circle to half-sphere.
Ok, so I thought what if you use a 55 cm diameter circle of eva foam (biggest pieces I have) 1,5 cm thickness, heat it up and put it on a parabolic dish with some weight on it? Well, I was right, I got the desired shield curve, very nicely.
Of course, the shield did not maintain its shape because it was a big piece of eva foam and needed some hardener. I tried with some layers of white glue (PVA) but that was not enough. After watching a Youtube video from James Bruton´s Xrobots, I decided to try with polyuretane resin on top of the PVA. After a few layers and lots of sanding between them the shield was hard enough.
When it was all nice and shiny, I carved by hand, using a broken screwdriver tip, all the circles and the star on the shield.
View attachment parabolic and carved.jpg
Then some primer and spray paint. First glossy black, then silver chrome, some mustard to create the battle damaged look, then red satin and metallic blue.
The straps made off an old nylon belt and some leather to cover it. Fasteners to hold the straps, got painted too in silver chrome and looked nicely metallic.
View attachment shield front and back.jpg
Belt I made totally myself, using same leather for the shield straps, pieces of eva foam as clips and some velcro to fasten it up. Buckle was made off eva foam and polyuretan resin.
Gloves I bought in a clothes shop and then add the arm part from the same leather jacket I used to cover ears in the helmet.
View attachment belt and glove.jpg
And boots I used black military boots dyed in red (like it better than brown)
View attachment bulletproof vest.jpg
BABY THOR
And now for the Thor costume for my son. For a baby 2 years old, costume must be very conmfortable and diaper change friendly. Usually, no mask or hats are allowed
Used some leather and suede for the apron, and decoration was made of eva foam glued to leather and painted with gold chrome liquid vinyl. Elastic straps behind with adjustable fasteners.
Shoulder pad were important to give the cape that nice look little bit over the shoulders.
Mjolnir I decided to make it of eva foam painted with silver chrome liquid vinyl, no hardener to make it safer for children.
Leather strap and light inside. It has a switch in the handle and the top circle and lines on the top and bottom were covered with a transparent plastic painted with blue paint for glass.
View attachment MJOLNIR.jpg
Boots were made with a pair of old baby sneakers covered of eva foam painted with black and gold liquid vinyl.
And here you can see some pics of the complete costume on Carnival Parade day.
And finally, just wanted to thank my wife for her patience, Bill Doran for his great foam armor trilogy, that triggered this fantastic new hobby, James Bruton for his Youtube videos and all your forum threads about Cap and Thor costumes, they helped a lot.
HAIL THE RPF!!
New member here, from Ceuta (Spain). I already introduced myself in the new members thread and now it is the time to show my first job to you guys. Hope you like it and it will be awesome if it helps someone.
Before starting, I would like to give you a general view about the situation here at Ceuta to get the materials you need for this hobby. As this is an small town, you can not find most of the stuff you need (no proper eva foam, no polyurethane resin, no satin spray paints, no liquid vinil, etc)
We are separated from the mainland of Spain by the sea (The Straight of Gibraltar) and we have a different tax situation from them and a custom filter for any shipments to Ceuta. Due to this particular situation, most of online shops orders you make gets very expensive in custom taxes and transport costs, and some of them do not even sent to Ceuta because of this complicated situation.
All above about the custom making. Regarding the cosplay thing, there are no comic cons here and in Spain you just have the Salon del Comic in Barcelona and an official Comic Con at the south of Spain (Jerez de la Frontera) that I am planning to visit this year.
Here in Ceuta only chance to dress up is in Carnival, during our carnival parade.
So here you have to use your imagination a lot and try to get the most of the stuff available. More challenging and sometimes could be fun, as you need lots of creativity.
I love exact costume replicas, but I like it too when you adapt your costume to the materials you have available and improvise, sometimes adding something from your own to the costume.
So, here I am, a custom builder/cosplayer in a place with few materials and no comic cons. Sounds like a job for Superman, doesn´t it?
For my first job, I choose Captain America. With the great helmet template from JFCustom (many thanks!) and all info I could find here in RPF and Youtube tutorials etc for the shield, I thought it could be something not too complicate for a newbie. And I decided to bring my son (2 years old) dressed up to the parade with me. As he does not stand yet masks or helmets, I came up with the idea of making a Thor costume for him.
This is the general idea, from a Hot Toys figure: http://www.hottoys.com.hk/productDetail.php?productID=226
So, first the helmet. I used eva foam, 5 mm. Then 3 layers of white glue (PVA) and primer, 2 layers. Hereunder some pics of the process. First colour did not like it, so I decided to change it later to go better with the clothes color. Leather parts were made off parts from a leather jacket bought in a outlet shop, cost 10 €
As per the shield, I read and watch many tutorials, but I came up with an idea inspired by Bill Doran´s Foamsmith Complete Trilogy. To make boobs armor, he uses a good trick, heating up a eva foam circle, little big bigger than a bowl of cereals, and then put the circle coverting the bowl and pressed it down to the bottom and keep the pressure for a little while. That changes the shape from circle to half-sphere.
Ok, so I thought what if you use a 55 cm diameter circle of eva foam (biggest pieces I have) 1,5 cm thickness, heat it up and put it on a parabolic dish with some weight on it? Well, I was right, I got the desired shield curve, very nicely.
Of course, the shield did not maintain its shape because it was a big piece of eva foam and needed some hardener. I tried with some layers of white glue (PVA) but that was not enough. After watching a Youtube video from James Bruton´s Xrobots, I decided to try with polyuretane resin on top of the PVA. After a few layers and lots of sanding between them the shield was hard enough.
When it was all nice and shiny, I carved by hand, using a broken screwdriver tip, all the circles and the star on the shield.
View attachment parabolic and carved.jpg
Then some primer and spray paint. First glossy black, then silver chrome, some mustard to create the battle damaged look, then red satin and metallic blue.
The straps made off an old nylon belt and some leather to cover it. Fasteners to hold the straps, got painted too in silver chrome and looked nicely metallic.
View attachment shield front and back.jpg
Belt I made totally myself, using same leather for the shield straps, pieces of eva foam as clips and some velcro to fasten it up. Buckle was made off eva foam and polyuretan resin.
Gloves I bought in a clothes shop and then add the arm part from the same leather jacket I used to cover ears in the helmet.
View attachment belt and glove.jpg
And boots I used black military boots dyed in red (like it better than brown)
View attachment bulletproof vest.jpg
BABY THOR
And now for the Thor costume for my son. For a baby 2 years old, costume must be very conmfortable and diaper change friendly. Usually, no mask or hats are allowed
Used some leather and suede for the apron, and decoration was made of eva foam glued to leather and painted with gold chrome liquid vinyl. Elastic straps behind with adjustable fasteners.
Shoulder pad were important to give the cape that nice look little bit over the shoulders.
Mjolnir I decided to make it of eva foam painted with silver chrome liquid vinyl, no hardener to make it safer for children.
Leather strap and light inside. It has a switch in the handle and the top circle and lines on the top and bottom were covered with a transparent plastic painted with blue paint for glass.
View attachment MJOLNIR.jpg
Boots were made with a pair of old baby sneakers covered of eva foam painted with black and gold liquid vinyl.
And here you can see some pics of the complete costume on Carnival Parade day.
And finally, just wanted to thank my wife for her patience, Bill Doran for his great foam armor trilogy, that triggered this fantastic new hobby, James Bruton for his Youtube videos and all your forum threads about Cap and Thor costumes, they helped a lot.
HAIL THE RPF!!
