Electric Turnip
  • Blog
  • Stories
    • Story 000
    • Story 001
    • Story 002
    • Story 004
    • Story 007 - Unfinished
    • Story 008
    • Story 010 - BattleWagon
    • Story 012
  • Images
    • Adventure Caddie concept gallery
    • Page Design Gallery
    • Older Work
  • 5FEAT Video
  • Videos
  • Game Experiments
    • Climb
    • Super Shapetoy
    • TurboGarbageTruck
    • 031 - Best Games - Enchanter
    • 033 - Shader Test
  • Contact

105

11/3/2014

0 Comments

 
Last year my sons said that they wanted to go as zombies for halloween, but not the regular raggy clothes and dark makeup around the eyes type zombies, Minecraft zombies. Minecraft zombies are nondescript, brown and green boxes with arms and legs. A full body costume consisting mostly of unbendable boxes that I knew they would find to uncomfortable to wear wasn’t going to happen. I managed to talk them down to a set of diamond Minecraft armor. I didn’t know exactly how I was going to accomplish that. Cardboard boxes, cloth attached to a dowel structure. Cardboard would never hold up to how my kids were going to abuse these costumes. I know how to sew, but not competently enough for nice looking costumes. I eventually opted for foam mats and this was the result.
Picture
Recently they game of choice around here is Terraria, so when we asked what they wanted to be for halloween, the answer wasn’t very surprising. They both have different opinions on what they coolest looking terraria armor is, so I knew I would have at least two challenges to tackle. 

That’s the thing. If you ask me to build something, and I am pretty sure I can do it, but I don’t really know how yet, i’m hooked. I could have taken them to the store and bought a costume, or put one together out of the stuff we had kicking around, but I was presented with the opportunity to build something new, and I couldn’t resist. 

Since I wasn’t planning ahead, I never took any pictures of the process, but this is the short breakdown of how I built this years halloween costumes.
Picture
Picture
I started out with the art from the game as reference. I made a swipe at the pixilated blocky look last year and I found that pixilated stuff just doesn’t easily translate into real world items. I did a few rough sketches of what those sprites could represent, if they really existed and were scaled up to kid size. 

I found working with EVA foam incredibly easy last time so this time I went and found a giant 4’x6’ rolled up shop mat. The foam was a bit thinner than your standard foam tile mats, but that just made bending the foam around curves easier. Once I was a small way into the process I did some searching around on the internet for costuming tutorials. As it turned out, this sort of foam is what people use to make costumes all the time. Not knowing this before I jumped in made me feel equal parts clever and dumb. But I’m sort of used to that.

I hand drew some paper patterns so I could trace them down onto the foam, and then just started cutting. I used either a utility knife or scissors for all the cutting. I assembled the pieces as I went, cutting, adjusting, and adding detail as needed. All the assembly was done with hot glue and some elastic strap I got at the dollar store.
Picture
Since these were supposed to look like armor I didn’t bother with coating the foam with anything before painting, and just let the original dark grey stand as the base color. The painting was all acrylic and sparkly poster paint we had here. I used a sponge, and some cheap brushes to do all the painting, going over some areas with a dry brush to even out the details, and hide my mistakes. 
Picture
In the end, they turned out okay, and they should stand up to most of the nerf and lightsaber battles that go on here throughout the rest of the year.

Of course this also means that I went and raised the expectation bar one notch, and next year when they want to wear a full working ironman suit with firing missiles and LED eyes, I’ll probably consider it briefly before steering them toward Hawkeye or Madripoor Wolverine. I know that I do it to myself, but I would be lying if I said it isn’t fun.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    June 2012
    October 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All
    Adventure Caddie
    Best Games

    RSS Feed

Owen McManus
  • Blog
  • Stories
    • Story 000
    • Story 001
    • Story 002
    • Story 004
    • Story 007 - Unfinished
    • Story 008
    • Story 010 - BattleWagon
    • Story 012
  • Images
    • Adventure Caddie concept gallery
    • Page Design Gallery
    • Older Work
  • 5FEAT Video
  • Videos
  • Game Experiments
    • Climb
    • Super Shapetoy
    • TurboGarbageTruck
    • 031 - Best Games - Enchanter
    • 033 - Shader Test
  • Contact