If you've been visiting my blog for a while, you'll know that I like to make homemade costumes. The parts involving fabric are interesting and all, but the stuff that really gets me going is building models of items out of a few simple and easily accessible materials.
I used this technique to create the gun for my
Sarah Connor costume (and ended up crafting something so realistic, I got a little freaked out carrying it around on Halloween). It's actually based on the rapid prototyping skills I learned while getting my degree in product design - with a little foam core, hot glue, and electrical tape, you can mock up just about anything :)
Anyway, I decided that I wanted to make a stylized model of the Mechalarum suit, both because it's fun and because I figure I might drum up some more interest in my novel by wandering around New York dressed in a strange manner (though I'm sure I won't be the strangest one out there).
If you're interested, here's a bit of a look into my construction process. It's a really fun thing to do. You'd be surprised at the kinds of things you can create with some imagination and a few simple materials! Feel free to ask me questions in the comments below.
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| The first two strips hot glued together. |
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| Scoring the strips of foam core. That's how you make the curves that are so important to this shape! |
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| Doesn't exactly look pretty at this moment, but you can see the form starting to take shape. |
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| Large open spaces are risky to cover with the tape, but I was getting tired at this point :) |
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| Four AM? Five AM? Who knows? Got to keep on truckin'. |
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| "Skinning" the helmet frame with electrical tape. |
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| Roommate was kind enough to take a pic of me when she got up in the morning! |
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| And look at that, almost done! Easy as pie, right? |
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| It's waiting... |
Haven't checked out
Mechalarum on Kickstarter yet? Please comment, like, share, and consider backing - we're getting down to the wire, and every little bit helps!
