Hello all! It's been a while, but I've got a new project to share...
By now, it should be pretty obvious that I'm really into two things when it comes to my own projects:
So, for my latest experimental project, I've decided to put together an original concept Dr. Doom. The last foam-heavy project before this to get started was the Southern Cross ATAC armor. Which is still in progress and will continue. However, that's a direct recreation of the art and I was keen to do another original design. Thus, DOOM!
I began by working up some new templates for the upper body. I've been tinkering with some new patterns and thought this would be a good project to use the latest. The chest and back are also being used for the ATAC armor mentioned above. I did a base chest, one shoulder, neck and biceps as a test. The chest and shoulder templates were drafted by me and the neck was modified from an Iron Man template.
It was fine, but not quite what I wanted. For this project, the chest piece was just too massive. It was too low and straight at the bottom, much too wide and restricted arm movement too much. I needed something more 'light' that would give the effect but also not end up looking like a box under the fabric part of the costume that will come later.
In looking around, I found some very nice templates from Sean Xieng on Etsy. So, I decided to purchase his Batman Beyond template and see if it might help me. The template is very nice, very well laid out and easy to follow. It also makes some nice forms and fits together very well. I decided to base the new chest and torso off these shapes and modify it to fit the details that I wanted to include.
I assembled the chest piece and then began mapping out the details. I sketched out some general lines on the foam with a sharpie and then used Swedish tracing paper to better define the detail pieces. To make the detail pieces I very lightly dusted the tracing paper with Super 77, tacked it to the foam, traced out the lines and then, when it was removed, used a ruler to straighten and shore up the lines.
The pieces were then cut from 2mm craft foam and contact cemented to the chest. I'm going to have green lights in certain spots on the costume, so I needed to punch the holes for these before coating the pieces. I used a size 0 grommet punch to make the holes all the way through the foam. I also used an Xacto knife to cut out the groove details and my dremel to create the 'rivets'.
The lights I'm planning to use are 3mm green LED lights wired in sections to switches and coin battery packs. All of these supplies can be found at Evan Designs and I highly recommend them.
With scribbles all over the place and lots of grooves carved in, I wanted to see the chest 'clean'. So, I decided to put a couple of thin coats of PlastiDip on at this point to get a good idea of my direction. Once I was able to see the chest with the neck aligned and the lights tucked into their places, I decided that I was happy with the concept so far and pressed on.
The next step was to add the shoulders and back to the chest. The back of this costume will be predominately open and consist of all the straps and closures as the cape and the rest of the fabric parts will cover the back and part of the sides. The neck was glued down and the whole section was then given a couple more coats of PlastiDip to even it all out.
I then moved on to detailing the shoulders. I decided to use the shoulder pieces that I drafted myself and used the same method as the chest for creating and applying the details.
There were some messy seams on the neck and a couple of spots on the chest that I wanted to clean up, so I used some ElastoPatch to fill in these areas.
I then moved on to the torso. I want the torso to have some decent flexibility so that I'll be able to move and pose in the costume so I decided to make the base of the torso out of a metallic fabric backed with headliner foam. I stitched some detail lines into the pieces to serve two functions:
The fabric looks quite 'sparkly' in the images, but it's actually a gunmetal silver and will also be detail painted in the end, which will knock down the color and make it much more subtle. Once I had the front shape settled, I finished all the edges and made the side pieces that will attach and wrap around the back.
I then made a template in tracing paper and sketched out the designs for the 'abs'. These were cut from varying thicknesses of foam and detailed similarly to the chest and shoulders. Note the holes punched through the upper piece for the lights.
Here's a quick test of all the body pieces pinned together on the form.
Up next: The upper body gets coated, the rest of the arms are assembled and the helmet gets under way. Stay tuned!
By now, it should be pretty obvious that I'm really into two things when it comes to my own projects:
- Original concepts and re-designs
- Working with a mix of materials, especially foam
So, for my latest experimental project, I've decided to put together an original concept Dr. Doom. The last foam-heavy project before this to get started was the Southern Cross ATAC armor. Which is still in progress and will continue. However, that's a direct recreation of the art and I was keen to do another original design. Thus, DOOM!
I began by working up some new templates for the upper body. I've been tinkering with some new patterns and thought this would be a good project to use the latest. The chest and back are also being used for the ATAC armor mentioned above. I did a base chest, one shoulder, neck and biceps as a test. The chest and shoulder templates were drafted by me and the neck was modified from an Iron Man template.
It was fine, but not quite what I wanted. For this project, the chest piece was just too massive. It was too low and straight at the bottom, much too wide and restricted arm movement too much. I needed something more 'light' that would give the effect but also not end up looking like a box under the fabric part of the costume that will come later.
In looking around, I found some very nice templates from Sean Xieng on Etsy. So, I decided to purchase his Batman Beyond template and see if it might help me. The template is very nice, very well laid out and easy to follow. It also makes some nice forms and fits together very well. I decided to base the new chest and torso off these shapes and modify it to fit the details that I wanted to include.
I assembled the chest piece and then began mapping out the details. I sketched out some general lines on the foam with a sharpie and then used Swedish tracing paper to better define the detail pieces. To make the detail pieces I very lightly dusted the tracing paper with Super 77, tacked it to the foam, traced out the lines and then, when it was removed, used a ruler to straighten and shore up the lines.
The pieces were then cut from 2mm craft foam and contact cemented to the chest. I'm going to have green lights in certain spots on the costume, so I needed to punch the holes for these before coating the pieces. I used a size 0 grommet punch to make the holes all the way through the foam. I also used an Xacto knife to cut out the groove details and my dremel to create the 'rivets'.
The lights I'm planning to use are 3mm green LED lights wired in sections to switches and coin battery packs. All of these supplies can be found at Evan Designs and I highly recommend them.
With scribbles all over the place and lots of grooves carved in, I wanted to see the chest 'clean'. So, I decided to put a couple of thin coats of PlastiDip on at this point to get a good idea of my direction. Once I was able to see the chest with the neck aligned and the lights tucked into their places, I decided that I was happy with the concept so far and pressed on.
The next step was to add the shoulders and back to the chest. The back of this costume will be predominately open and consist of all the straps and closures as the cape and the rest of the fabric parts will cover the back and part of the sides. The neck was glued down and the whole section was then given a couple more coats of PlastiDip to even it all out.
I then moved on to detailing the shoulders. I decided to use the shoulder pieces that I drafted myself and used the same method as the chest for creating and applying the details.
There were some messy seams on the neck and a couple of spots on the chest that I wanted to clean up, so I used some ElastoPatch to fill in these areas.
I then moved on to the torso. I want the torso to have some decent flexibility so that I'll be able to move and pose in the costume so I decided to make the base of the torso out of a metallic fabric backed with headliner foam. I stitched some detail lines into the pieces to serve two functions:
- Provide some detail behind the foam pieces to be applied
- Stabilize the pieces so that the fabric wouldn't delaminate from the headliner when the heavier foam pieces were added to the outside
The fabric looks quite 'sparkly' in the images, but it's actually a gunmetal silver and will also be detail painted in the end, which will knock down the color and make it much more subtle. Once I had the front shape settled, I finished all the edges and made the side pieces that will attach and wrap around the back.
I then made a template in tracing paper and sketched out the designs for the 'abs'. These were cut from varying thicknesses of foam and detailed similarly to the chest and shoulders. Note the holes punched through the upper piece for the lights.
Here's a quick test of all the body pieces pinned together on the form.
Up next: The upper body gets coated, the rest of the arms are assembled and the helmet gets under way. Stay tuned!
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