comicbookgirl19's Diamond Previews Costume Contest

ComicBookGirl19 currently has a Halloween costume contest that she had announced on her youtube channel. For more info and the rules click here;   http://youtu.be/EkDM98skAHU

Again this is for residents of the USA only, but for those of you in the US who bought a Klytus mask from me there's no harm in entering your costume photos into her competition - YOU COULD WIN SOMETHING!!!
I think the deadline for this competition was November 1st, 2013.

GOOD LUCK GUYS!!

2013 Coolest Homemade Costume Contest

I had sent a lot of Klytus costumes to the USA this year so, I found a competition that you guys could enter with some cool prizes. as it states on their website;

"Your costume deserves more than a day of glory. Share it here and inspire fellow costume makers for generations to come!"

With $1500 in cash prizes and a $500 Grand Prize why wouldn't you enter?

DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 7th, 2013, Mignight PST

So why not head over to their website for more information and submit your Klytus entries... (link below)

http://ideas.coolest-homemade-costumes.com/submit/

Projects: Klytus Golden Arm

Just uploaded my finial edit to youtube, showing how the Golden Arm section to the Klytus costume was constructed.  As you'll see I was making that well into the evening because at one point in the video I lost my daylight and had to come back to finish the build the next day.  I'm really pleased with how this project turned out, as were those of you who had commissioned me to make them for you, judging by the lovely comments they had sent me shortly after having received these costume parts in the mail. :-)

Am now looking forward to seeing photos of everyones completed Flash Gordon Halloween costumes... 

Projects: Jake Bullet - Stage 1

Been having a much needed sort out of all my Red Dwarf project files (more about that later) suffice to say that I have a lot to catch up on and finally complete...  One Such project was the converting of my Kryten Base model into his many other alter egos (as pictured here).  Jake Bullet, a detective from the Cybenautic Devision of the Police Department.

Projects: General Kala - stage 3

Well, shortly after seeing the initial Kala's helmet maquette that I'd been experimenting with, two 'willing volunteers' ended up commissioning me to make a General Kala costume for their Halloween events.  It was a mad rush, not only to build two of these costumes at the same time, but also to get them finished in time - eek!

I had though that it would be a simple matter of uniformly scaling up the patterns from the maquette model I'd made however, as it turns out, female heads just aren't very wide at all.  I calculated that my initial design wouldn't have fitted well at all. Instead, I opted to squash and stretch the computer model to fit a set of new head measurements which were sent to me.  Luckily both clients had the same sized head so that saved me a bit of time. but still meant that I had to unfold my revised computer model again, redraw it's net patterns once more and add all the glue tabs back into just the right places.

My full scale prototype of the General Kala costume pieces turned out pretty good given the time constraint.  Looking back at some reference images I could see that General Kala's costume is actually covered in Gold and black bulge beads, which must have takes the films costume designers several months to individually sew on.  

I was hoping to find some glitter paper for my design but settled on a metallic pearl type of paper. Thinking about it now I could have just sprinkled some glitter on top of that for that truly glistening look - hum? Will have to think about that for nest time…

One issue that still bugs me however is that I couldn't quite pin down the shape of her belt. The reference images I had found online just don't show that detail off very clearly at all. If anyone reading this has a better images of the original General Kala costume from the film please message me, I'd love to work on that detail some more. :-)

Thermoplastics!!

For those following my blog you may have already read the interview I had with Mark who was talking about his experiences at the London Film and Comic Con, dressed as Klytus. If you remember, he had mentioned a product that he had used to make his Klytus arm braces out of.

I looked into this Worbla material because I was really curious. The experience totally gave me a flash back. Worbla is indeed a thermoplastic. It becomes really playable when heated. When it cools, it becomes ridged again however remains in what ever shape you've put it in beforehand. I had no idea you can acquire this stuff in such large sheets now.

When I was a "youngster" back in the early to mid nineties, I remember a new product showing up in the craft/hobby shops called, Friendly Plastic. They were small strips of black plastic about 3cm wide by 25cm long. One side of the strips had a metallic finish to it and there were a number of different finishes to choose from. This product was also a thermoplastic.  It was intended for the jewellery making hobbyists.
To shape it, you had to leave it in boiling hot water for a while until it became pliable enough to work with.

Back in the day, I'd bought a few of these strips to experiment with. I wanted to try to make myself a cool Terminator mask because of their metallic chrome finish.

I remember taking a mould of the front of my head and loosing part of my sideburn when I tried to take that plaster bandage mould off again. To this day, that bit of hair still hasn't grown back. ;-)  

On top of a plaster cast of my face, that I was now able to produce thanks to that plaster bandage mould, I sculpted a Terminator mask using some clay. Another plaster mould had to be taken of my finished clay sculpt. Only when this second plaster mould had dried out completely, could I start using these Friendly Plastic strips as I'd initially intended.  Once these strips had been softened in hot water they were pushed inside the second plaster mould - chrome side facing down. When this thermoplastic had cooled the strips had fused together forming a large solid moulded plastic terminator skull shape, which now also fitted perfectly over my face. It was pretty cool! The chrome finish on the outside worked out quite well too. I didn't even need to use primer or spay paint on it. If memory serves, I think I put a black acrylic wash over the whole thing to help bring out some of the sculpted details. This technique always helps to give the illusion of depth, like in the eye socket for example.

Small holes were drilled all around the outer edge. The solid plastic mask was put back into the mould again so that some latex could be drizzled around it's outer edges to form that torn skin detail. The latex poured through the drilled holes into the moulded edge details and when cured formed a solid 'stiched' bond between the front and back of the plastic mask. This also created a nice soft latex edge to help blend the finished mask into my own skin. I even remember adding a red LED light for the eye too. I looked totally bad arse that Halloween ;-)

I worry about readers fascination with potentially carcinogenic substances and have been asked a lot about utilising different liquid resins, fillers and car body spray paints etc. etc. as a means to strengthen and improve the finish of various paper forms.  Building your templates with Worbla thermoplastic sheets instead of paper or foam is a much simpler and healthier option by far in my opinion, especially if you have the budget and are that desperate to create something with a little more durability. (it is quite expensive though), I believe you can even sand it and also use water based acrylic paints/inks on this stuff too...

Worth thinking about...

Some useful links;

• Friendly Plastic is available online through Amazon

•  Worbla is available online through cosplay supplies

• Polymorph is available online through ebay

• Zotefoam or 'Craft foam' (same stuff) - http://www.zotefoams.com

• Paper and Cardboard are available - ANYWHERE,
and often for free too if you know where to look  ;-)

Klytus Costumes!!

I have been anxiously looking forward to seeing the completed costumes of everyone who had bought a Klytus mask from me and was just contacted by one such person. He shared some great photos of his adventure (in costume) at the winter London Film and Comic Con. So, I thought this would be a great opportunity quiz him further about his experience at this event.

GLEN:  Hi Mark, Thank you so much for sharing some photos of your costume with us. Looks like you had a total blast at this event. Is this the first time you've attended an event like this in costume.?

MARK:  The event was a lot of fun! Over the weekend of the Summer London film and comic con I dressed as the joker and then Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis. Before that I attended Destination Star Trek London where I made a lot of new friends, so Im still quite a newbie

G:  What made you decide to dress up as General Klytus for the occasion?

M:  A group of us decided it would be a good idea to cosplay as characters from the film considering Sam Jones and Brian Blessed would be attending. Having always liked klytus I jumped at the chance. My friend was going to be ming but unfortunately he wasn't able to make it. Still, my other friends came as Prince Baron, Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, so not all was lost.

G:  My Klytus gold arm wasn't quite finished in time for this event. I was interested in your solution. Could you explain how you made the gold arm for your costume?

M:  I started to watch a lot of youtube videos detailing how to make costume armour from a substance called worbla, its a thermoplastic that can be sculpted into shape using heat from either a heat gun or a hair dryer, basically you insert foam between 2 sheets of worbla, heat it up and bend it into shape, I decided to make an upper and lower arm brace and bought a medieval gauntlet from ebay, I then primed sanded and sprayed the entire thing gold.

G:  What is your favourite part of your costume?

M:  The costume would be nothing without the mask, so of course there is that. I did like how the arm turned out and also the bead work of the insignia which was hastily completed by my girlfriend the night before the convention. Quite a lot of stress, but a happy result.

G:  What is your least favourite part of your costume?

M:  I struggled a lot with keeping the hood looking right. I soon realised that whilst walking around the hood would probably blow off my head and leave me looking silly. I had heard that in the movie hooks were used to stop this from happening, however I could find a way to utilise that method so, I mistakenly went for Velcro, the stick on stuff. Suffice to say it didn't hold to the mask which resulted in me constantly having to fix my hood.  On a brighter note, I did manage a lot of different looks ;)

G:  Were you in costume throughout the entire event, was it comfortable to wear? 

M: Yes, as the costume was a last minute rush job with a month to spare, I decided to brave it and wear it throughout the day. Comfort was a problem. I struggled a lot with the heat, this convention had a lot less people attending than the summer one which proved an atmosphere killer of sorts but also a blessing, I think that if the same amount of people had attended this one then I would have had major problems with heat.

G:  What did it feel like walking around the event as General Klytus, were you approached by lots of other people.? 

M:  It felt amazing, (kind of in disguise). I was approached by a lot of people who told me that my costume was "awesome" and wanted photographs with me.

G:  Did you receive any comments about your costume, do you have a favourite one.? 

M:  As I was entering the convention a man stopped me and pointed at me saying,"that my friend...is amazing!" of course I thanked him, it made me feel less nervous and more confident at the same time, I felt accepted :)

G: Did you take part in the Cosplay Masquerade?

M: Yes, me and my friends took part. It was a lot of fun, we didn't rehearse or anything and rather made ideas up on the spot, but it turned out rather funny, I still laugh when I watch and I jump up and down ;)

There's a video of the masquerade on youtube, we feature at about 16:40 into the clip; 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9UE6sUhyE0&feature=youtu.be

G:  What was it like meeting Jam Jones (aka - Flash Gordon) and Brian Blessed (aka - Prince Vultan) 

M: Flash was one of the first sci fi movies I'd seen and have continued to like it to this day. Meeting two of my favourite people from the movie was a great honour, (I was a little star struck).  I was patiently waiting in the queue for my turn and when it was time to have my  photograph taken with them Brian turned to look at me he bellows out at the top of his lungs, "A round of applause" as I walked over to them. Everyone in the queue cheered and clapped, I'll never forget that experience.

Q: Will you be planning to dress up a Klytus again?

A: I would love to dress up as Klytus again, especially if I make myself a new hood. You definitely haven't seen the last of this character

G: Finally, lets finish up with some fun questions. Do you have a favourite scene from the Flash Gordon film? 

M: My favourite scene has to be the attack at the end, Blessed shouting "Dive!", as the hawkmen swoop down to certain death. Glorious chaos ;)

G: and your favourite quote from this movie?

M: my favourite is "dispatch war rocket ajax and bring me his body" or even perhaps "Bring me the bore worms" ;)

AWESOME!!!

Projects: Klytus Mask 2.0

Doesn't seem that long ago since I first decided to attempt to sculpt a version of the Klytus mask in craft card. Who'd of though it'll be so popular. I must have made at least 14 now for people all over the world. One of you, (you know who you are), liked is so much that he even bought a second one...

Thank you for your support and encouragement you have collectively inspired me to help you all complete your costume aspirations buy designing and making the Klytus gold arm portion of this costume. Although it's been a struggle as reference images of his arm are hard to find, I am pleased to announce it is finally ready. I have made two of them already with a third well on it's way, which I'm hoping to be able to film the construction of for my youtube channel.

Want to see what it looks like..?

 

I had to redesign the arm several times in SketchUp after having made the first paper version and again after having made the second paper version till I got it just about right. There were a few interesting issues that I had discovered developing this arm. One was that your elbow joint actually twists in. It's not positioned at 90 degrees to your shoulder joint like in say an action figure perhaps. The other really difficult bit was designing the hand. Trying to sculpt that very stylised geometric shape around an organic from.  The Gold arm a tight fit on me but Im a kinda large(isn) bloke so, hopefully it'll fit most of you with out much trouble. I would say you may need some help dressing into costume, it'll be tricky to do with only one arm/hand left  :-)

The arm does have some slight articulation (but not much) in the fingers wrist and elbow. Klytus never moved this arm in the Film so that's Ok really. Two sections on the glove have also been elasticated to help you slide your hand through the wrist opening. (again, my hands are quite wide so shouldn't be a problem for most of you).  I would suggest waring a black cotton or spandex sleeve/glove and then maybe using some velcro to help hold the gold arm in place onto that sleeve?

SO, what do you think?  Two people have already placed and order for their Klytus gold arm. For all of you who have already bought a Klytus mask from me, this Klytus gold arm will only cost you £57 to cover my time the materials and of course shipping too. For every one else interested, the Klytus mask and arm combined will now cost £150 for this lovingly hand crafted set because the materials and shipping costs have all gone up since this project began.