Bumblebee Costume - 2009 Camaro

Dancin_Fool

Dancin_Fool

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, this is my first thread on here, though I've been lurking around for quite a while. I've been working on a transforming bumblebee costume for a while now and have been holding off on starting a thread here until I had some solid work to show.

I started working on this to wear to the movie premier at the end of June. I built a transforming Optimus costume for the previous movie premier and had a blast taking pictures with everyone and just wandering around the mall which the movie theater was at.

I modelled the car myself based upon the toy from the first live action movie. All the parts are seperate pieces though I've glued them all together for stability and to make sure everything fits together after the resining process.

I haven't finished modelling the robot pieces so that's my goal for this month, to get all of the robot modelled and built so I can spend the majority of June painting and working out all the kinks in the transformation process so that it's all ready to wear for the movie premier.

I'm currently trying to get in a bunch of cardboard supports to help keep the shape a bit better, aiming to get that finished up tonight.
 
Nice to see someone putting Pepakura to good use! Are you going to glass the parts or do you have a different approach to adding rigidity and getting a smooth finish?
 
Neon Sentry said:
Nice to see someone putting Pepakura to good use! Are you going to glass the parts or do you have a different approach to adding rigidity and getting a smooth finish?
Click to expand...

I'll be taking a different approach. I've done a few other pepakura pieces and the method I've found works quite well is to coat the outside in epoxy resin, then use spray glue with cheesecloth on the interior, then another coat of epoxy resin over that. Actually gives it quite a bit of strength and should be enough to keep it together.

I haven't officially figured out what I'm going to do to smooth it, it really depends on the amount of time I have once all the pieces are done. If I have time then I'll probably go the traditional root of using bondo to help smooth out the pieces. If I'm running out of time though I might just give each piece a quick sand and prime them.
 
Mr. No Stripes said:
Is that made from a Pepakura file?

edit... NVM... read the next post. :lol

where did you get that file from?
Click to expand...

Yup it's pepakura with a cardboard support structure underneath to hold it all together before I resin it.

All the pieces were modelled myself based upon the toy from the last movie.
 
Man, a month to go ! I hope you have enough free time :eek (says the guy who built most of his costumes by burning midnight oil the days before an event ;) )

Really curious to see the outcome, and PEPAKURA rocks ! What modeling software do you use ?

Michael
 
ManfromNaboo said:
Man, a month to go ! I hope you have enough free time :eek (says the guy who built most of his costumes by burning midnight oil the days before an event ;) )

Really curious to see the outcome, and PEPAKURA rocks ! What modeling software do you use ?

Michael
Click to expand...

Man, I wish I had more free time. I'm in crunch time at work right now so been working some long hours. Usually try to fit in a couple hours each night but keeps me up til 1 or 2 in the morning. Just wouldn't be the same experience though building a costume without some sleepless nights :D.

I use 3D Studio Max for my modelling.
 
That's pretty awesome. I've seen a lot of tranformer costumes over the years but nothing beyond cardboard.

Do you have any pics of your Optimus Prime costume?
 
Unfortunately I got too tied up with finaling at work and planning my parents 25th wedding anniversary to get this finished. I got one of the arms, and most of the torso pepped but didn't have time to resin it. Not to be one to show up for a movie premier without a costume I went to my parents and salvaged one of my old non transforming costumes and shined it up for the premier. I've attached a render of how far I got modeling bee and an image of the prime costume I wound up wearing, though the pictures from when I wore it to a contest at a bar. I hate that I must have gotten close to 100 pictures taken at the premier in the Optimus costume but haven't been able to track down any of them online. Anyways this costume is on hold for now, working on a pair of costumes for my fiancee and I for Halloween which I won't reveal until the initial frames are done.

If anyone's interested in the pep files I have done so far I can zip them all up and upload them.
 
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