Last night, I went to bed covered in green foam dust and reeking of paint thinner, but the progress made it all worth while. I got a decent enough start on my Pip-Boy 3000 to not be afraid of it anymore (seriously, see the concept art up above?), and some of the little accessories are pretty much done. Let's start with those!
This odd looking thing buttons onto the jumpsuit over the shoulder. I decided to make it button on so I could, you know, wash the actual jumpsuit if the need arises. Which it probably will, because I'm a klutz. Anyway... That is also what the carpet in my apartment look like, in case you were curious.
I decided to go with the "found object" approach for a lot of the accessory pieces to this costume, something I discovered worked brilliantly for the Borg costume I make with some friends a few years ago. For instance, this front piece is made from a cell phone back, a disassembled syrup pump, and some random screws and pieces of plastic. The cord is made from a chopped off cord from a keyboard wrapped with a thin strip of craft foam (that soft, squishy stuff in the kid's craft isle). Never forget: It's amazing what slapping a bunch of random stuff together, painting it black, and adding a little steel-colored dry brushing to can do.
These are the knee/elbow pads that will eventually be sewn on to the suit itself. I was lucky enough to find a pair of catcher's shin guards at a thrift store to scavenge these from. Initially, they were that awful bright orange, but ... once again ... a nice coat of black paint will solve all of your mismatched color woes. And the nice thing about finding a used set of sports gear? It's already banged up a bit. You can't really tell in this horrible, low res photo, but these babies are scratched to hell! They'll look really nice once the dry brushing is done.
And now for the thing I dreaded building the most: the Pip-Boy 3000. It's still in its very infant stages, so I don't have a lot to show. It being the most complicated piece, though, I thought I would go into he most detail.
This is the base! I made it out of a Pringles can and covered it with a piece of card stock! Did I mention I'm doing this on a budget...? I cut a long wedge out of the cylinder and flipped it around to give it a better fitting shape, which is why I covered it in card stock: to hold it all together. I knew I was going to have to cut it in half, though. It needed to be a little stronger...
...so I covered it in about eight layers of paper mache! Grocery ads are good for more than just planning shopping trips, as it turns out. It fits a little snug on my forearm, but that's fine. It needs to be sawed in half and worked on a lot more before it's done.
This is the first step of building onto the base. I've discovered that those green, dry floral foam blocks are GREAT for sculpting props on the cheap. It's a lot grainier than craft foam, which makes the painting process go a lot smoother in the end. It also cuts like warm butter with an X-Acto knife (or any other kind of razor blade), and it nearly melts into shape with 120 grit sandpaper. I could go on for days about this stuff! I love it! The only downside is the gritty dust it leaves behind. If you can, I'd recommend working with it outside, probably while wearing a dust mask. All of it is being held together with just a basic white craft glue.
And this is the start of the main body! Like I said, in its infant stages, but it's far enough along that I feel more confident about the whole process. I'm still puzzling out how to do the screen and some of the other finer details, but those will come from just experimenting and trying things. Oh, and one more thing for today...
This is what the collar looks like with the numbers sewn on. And my rad sort-of-new haircut!
More updates in a couple of days. Right now, I'm waiting patiently for glue and paint to dry before moving too far forward. Ah, the trials and tribulations of crafting...
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