Soul-Drinker's Art Hub: February 2011

So I tried my best when I started making this costume to document it a little better than I normally do. Only had about a month to do this suit and redo another MJOLNIR suit from scratch before Dragoncon 2010, so here goes nothing...

Started with some pep work from a pep file I randomly found on the Internet. These pictures were my scaling run, which was just as well since I put one of the tiers on the wrong way.

The second run. Fixed the tiers, fit a little better.

Started work on the plasma cutter. I was going to modify an old airsoft pistol as it was more accurate, but I decided I wanted to be able to shoot at my guy friends instead. In a safe manner. ;)

Started the horrible task of fiberglassing. Some people don't mind it. I can't stand the smell..

Tried for a near perfect pep to avoid any smoothing later on, mainly because I was running short on time, not because I was lazy...well, maybe because I'm lazy. >_<

Primer. Agh the sanding I should have done!!!

First color coat. :D

Err...

Testing visibility, actually. I wasn't looking forward to not seeing...

Added two elements of piping..tubing..stuff.

Obviously I should have sanded more^ You can see the drips. Tsk tsk... Added the el wire.

I was trying to figure out a way to diffuse the EL wire more. I only got like 2.3 mm, and it was either that or 5 mm, and I ended up not having enough time to order more..

I was proud of my first soldering, leave me alone. :D

Back RIG lit up. Yeah I was proud. I believe this was..2 or 3 days before I had to leave for D*con?

Ignore the Giada recipe book...Another thing I had to work on in between all of this. A bracer for..Soifon? For a friend I was meeting and staying with at D*con.

Foamie pieces cut out.

Bracer without the gold chain and ribbon, unfortunately I'm not sure I have pictures of it close up..

Me and her. :D

The Aquarium. Why didn't I turn my lights on? My back was broken though, the tube had apparently fallen off, and my wiring had snapped when someone walked into me. :(

So after D*con I had a lot of repairs to do to Isaac. More lights. At least for Halloween. Then a contest popped up on the Dead Space Facebook page, for the best Dead Space related contest for North America...I figured..hmm..might as well fix Isaac and do that crappy necromorph we had planned...onwards!!

So we only had like 2 days before the contest. And not much money. We got a 2 dollar skin colored shirt (although it ended up not mattering) from goodwill.

Then we proceeded to cover it in expanding foam for a weird rotting necromorph base. The plan was to build up a crazy lumpy body, then cover it in layers of liquid latex and paint it to look like ripping flesh.

We did this by having our necromorph stand in his driveway in the middle of the night with his arms outstretched while we covered him in expanding foam. Then he moved, and we had to scoop it all off the driveway and put it on him while he laid on his stomach on the ground.

Random hollowness as we carved out the inside, it had expanded too much for his tiny frame to fit.

Not the necromorph, but one who had slightly broader shoulders, trying on the suit.

Spare hands I made in like 5 minutes. Remember, no budget..

Just a video to show the travesty of a costume in 2-3 days with $50. There aren't any finished pictures of the claws because I literally had the paint drying on them as I packed them in the car for the contest.

Check out the plasma cutter though, it turned out pretty well.

Low health.

My first ever pumpkin I carved by myself, in between working on costumes and college.

5 mm EL wire, and 12 feet of it.

Shots for the Dead Space contest.

The Locator light was one of the last additions to the costume for Isaac. I hadn't played the game in a year, and didn't own it, and while I was working on my MJOLNIR a friend came over and brought his copy, and started playing. And I was like. What. Is. That. Light. CRAP. I was going to rewire the LEDs in the push light I had lying around, but when I was trying to crack it open I cut my hand open with a rusty exacto blade so I ended up just using leftover clear blue clipboard from the HUD, cut it in a circle, and put it over it.

I ended up cheating with the EL wire a bit. I used parchment paper to dilute the light so it was flooding more, and I actually like how it looks.

Traditional shot to try and show off the lights. With the revamp of thicker EL wire in the helmet, I can no longer see. I plan on replacing the EL wire with Light tape in the future, though.

Showing off the front of the suit. The weird metal ridge things I just used a ton of roof...shingles? Roof something from Lowe's, cut them to size, and bent them. The stasis arm band was made of foam, and all the forearm down pieces are foam as well. The gloves I found at Home Depot. Near perfect for Isaac.

I even included the belt. Although, it wasn't until after I added the strange blue things that I realized that they were supposed to light up. Oh well.

Showing off the arm.

Horrible Necromorph, but I did my best with the time and money I had.

We ended up winning the Dead Space contest from Visceral for North America. It was quite exciting. Technically you were only allowed to enter one costume, but we couldn't exclude the necromorph! I was glad we won. Isaac was a rather expensive costume by the end and I am glad we got some recognition for it. All in all, Isaac consisted of:

1 flightsuit

1 vest-on the back is the RIG

One front piece that attaches and detaches to the vest.

Lots of EL wire. (We got LEDs for brightness, but the colors were never right, so I switched.)

Foam.

Fiberglass.

Pepakura

2 different types of plumbing tubes.

1 modded nerf gun with working lights

1 locator light

Strange arm assortments: