my vintage Flash Gordon costume

This year for Halloween I decided to do a revamp of my Flash Gordon costume from 5 years ago.

Here's the 2004 original, and the 2009 revamp:
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Rather than do an exact recreation of Flash Gordon from any particular era, I wanted to do my own version, using the parts I liked from the many other interpretations. Here are some internet reference pics I used (I loved the pic of the multiple comic strip versions through the years. The one by Jim Keefe was my main inspiration. Wish I could find more pics by him online - that Flash has the leather gauntlets and black leather mantle around the neck, which I really liked):

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I went with a 1930s-inspired Flash. My only nod to the 80s Flash was that I wrote the name on the shirt. But instead of doing the font from the red on white shirt Sam Jones wore, I used the font from the 1980 movie poster. Seen here:
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(The upside of painting the name on the shirt is that more people would know who I was supposed to be.)

I didn't want to bleach my hair this time out, so I went with a Buster Crabbe style wig (or at least the best approximation I could do with a cheap wig).
I made all of the leather stuff from scratch, except for the pants and the boots (Russian Army surplus boots). I liked the idea of the leather items that Buster Crabbe wore, but his were all bedazzled up with little studs and I wanted more of the large separate yellow/gold circles from the old newspaper strip images. I used some gold painted drawer pulls from Home Depot to make the shapes and screwed them onto the leather pieces.
The shirt is an Underarmour thermal shirt with the turtleneck collar cut off, and the lettering done with a stencil and fabric paint.
The sword is a cheap(ish) pirate rapier off of eBay. I made a sword carrier with an old belt and some rivets.

The goggles are an old pair of safety goggles that I painted (I also swapped the lenses with a darker glass and replaced the elastic).

Before:
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After:
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The gun is a cheap metal airsoft Mauser replica that I painted. Some antique brass color, some silver, and some black dry brushed weathering. I also cut the clip so that it would sit flush with the gun. I wanted a sort of golden age sci-fi take on a Mauser. But something subtle.

Before:
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After:
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Everything came out pretty much like I planned except for the Mauser holster which was rushed, so I may redo that at some point.
MORE FINAL COSTUME PICS:
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I did a search for Flash Gordon and didn't find anyone else on here that had done a costume (other than the red and white Sam Jones T-shirts of course).
I'm sure somebody's done one before. If you guys have any pics (especially of a vintage-type costume) I'd love to see them. Or just point me to a link. Thanks.
- J

Most excellent. Love the vintage approach.

With some tweaking here and there, you could go for a cool steampunk inspired Flash.

Cheers,

Sebastian

You pulled off the vintage vibe/look very well. Great job:thumbsup

As a followup, here are some pics of the individual parts of the costume:

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I saw the subject line (but not the author) and thought, "Ooh, Flash. Let's check it out." And imagine my surprise: I know that guy!

Dude, that is cool as hell! :thumbsup

MFP 2020 said:

I saw the subject line (but not the author) and thought, "Ooh, Flash. Let's check it out." And imagine my surprise: I know that guy!

Dude, that is cool as hell! :thumbsup

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Thanks man! I did this for Halloween this year because my Mad Max costume wasn't quite ready yet. And I consulted with Karol about the kidney belt since I'd never made one before.

This way I now have 3 separate costumes for something like Dragon Con that goes for 3 days (Mad Max 1, Mad Max 2 and Flash Gordon).

Very well done! :thumbsup

Personally I would have gone with the lightning bolt instead writing Flash- however I totally understand the advantage of having people know who you are considering this is a more obscure costume.

Absolutely love the original era look!


Kevin

SSgt Burton said:

Very well done! :thumbsup

Personally I would have gone with the lightning bolt instead writing Flash- however I totally understand the advantage of having people know who you are considering this is a more obscure costume.

Absolutely love the original era look!


Kevin

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Thanks! I may actually do a second shirt with a lightning bolt as an alternate. Sort of a "home" and "away" jersey. The one that says Flash could be for halloween or other events where no one would know otherwise, and the lightning bolt could be for cons where there should at least be a FEW folks who would figure it out.

I thought about doing the yellow stripe down the side of the legs, but I'm not sure that would look as good in reality as it does in the comic strip. Plus there's also the problem of how to get a good looking stripe on a pair of leather pants. Now that I think about it, I'd probably go with the antique brass color for the stripe (like I used on the buttons) since it would match and be more subtle.
Hmm, that would also mean I'd be using up a pair of leather pants that I then couldn't wear with anything else (I currently can do double duty with these for my Mad Max costume).

And lastly, it appears in the comic strips that his boots are brown and not black. But since the other leather pieces of my outfit were black, I thought it would look better to match. I have a pair of brown boots I can try with it some time but I'm betting it won't look right.

After thinking about it for all of about, oh, an hour - I've decided I will do a second pair of black leather pants with a stripe down the side and second shirt with just a lightning bolt.
Questions - I'm pretty sure the stripe on the pants should be the antique brass color. Which I have in a rattle can, but I have my doubts as to how well that will stick to leather. Any thoughts on painting leather pants? I think there was a thread on here about painting leather, so I'll seek that out. It would be nice if it could be the exact color I used for the buttons, but even if I find a fabric paint that's close or something, that could work. I guess I could even sew a stripe down the sides if I found a shiny bronze fabric that's the right color, but that seems unlikely.

Also, what color should the lightning bolt on the shirt be? Black? The same antique brass? Yellow? I'm leaning against yellow since nothing else on the outfit is yellow and a yellow bolt down the front of the shirt might remind people too much of Captain Marvel or The Flash.

I'm also going to upgrade my mauser holster. If I go to Dragon Con this coming year I'll make sure to have these new mods finished by then.

Back in the '80s I painted up a leather motorcycle jacket using bottled acrylic paints from the art store. When it dried it was still flexible and didn't crack like you might expect (not excessively, anyway). And trying to get it off later was a non-starter. FWIW.

I sorta miss that jacket.

MFP 2020 said:

Back in the '80s I painted up a leather motorcycle jacket using bottled acrylic paints from the art store. When it dried it was still flexible and didn't crack like you might expect (not excessively, anyway). And trying to get it off later was a non-starter. FWIW.

I sorta miss that jacket.

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I did something similar years ago. I painted up the back of a leather jacket, with some smaller designs on the shoulders. It cracked, but only in tiny little lines, so it still looked great. But the back panel of a leather jacket hardly needs to flex at all and even the upper arms don't wrinkle much. I'm worried that a pair of paints might be much harder given how much more they'll bend at the knees etc.
Then again, it's not like I'd wear them that often, so even if they needed to be touched up now and again it wouldn't be that big a deal.
I may go the fabric stripe route though if I find something ideal, because I think that would look kinda cool.
Boy, I can't even stop tinkering with the costumes that I thought I was finished with and don't plan to wear for at least six months!

I think I'm going to have my great local leather guy make me a custom Mauser holster.