This costume was one of my first ever scratch builds. I attempted to build everything from scratch. The only things I did not make where the boots and gloves and even they were heavily modified. This costume really helped build my confidence that I could make an impressive costume on my own. The following documentation is me looking back on how I made it and trying to remember everything, as well as I am renovating this costume. So I will try and add some documentation on the revisiting of the project.
References
CONTENTS
HELMET
So lets start with the helmet. It’s the focal point of any costume and I was both excited and nervous to start this piece. A good friend of mine did a live cast of me to use as a the sculpting base. I thought about going over how we did the life cast, but it is dangerous and please consult professionals for creating. Also with Digital scanning and 3d printing the need to do life casts is going away.
I started the sculpt of this mask while The First Avenger was actually filming so I printed all the behind the scenes pictures I could find for reference on the sculpt. I first drew on the cast of my head where I wanted the details and then started sculpting with clay. I used a cheaper clay but if I was to do this again I would use Monster Makers Monster Clay. It is wax based so you can make it softer with heat, and then as it cools it gets harder allowing for fine details. I wasn’t aware of it when making this costume unfortunately.
After the Helmet was sculpted I actually had to sculpt it a second time. Important thing to consider when making something on a life cast is you need to account for the thickness of the material you are casting in. The material I cast the helmet in was thicker than the clay on the lifecast so when I went to wear the helmet it was WAY to tight on my head. I then cast a new helmet and made it bigger. You might also noticed I raised the wing and A detail on the sculpt. This was my own artistic decision as I thought the details looked better raised than they did flush. In later movies they were raised which I felt justified this decision, but do what you want. It is your costume 🙂
Casting the helmet itself, the first layer is a flexible Urethane, and the inner is a rubber. This allows for the outer shell to be praint-able, while still flexible to be form fitting. You have to be careful here because too flexible the paint just breaks off, so it still has to have enough coast of urethane to be ridged.
If you are wondering what materials I used to cast the helmet check out this Smooth on Tutorial. It’s exactly what I did and followed.
In Progress Gallery
Finished Gallery
