Making a mannequin

Last weekend I headed over to my trusty sidekick's place and started on the process of making a model of myself out of duct tape.  Here are some process photos for you.  I don't have nearly as many as I'd hoped to take, but I'm not quite done with the mannequin yet, so there are more to come.  As we finish up, and make another of Curtis, I'll add more for you all.

I had to use a bandanna to hold my beard out of the way, otherwise it would have gotten all caught in the duct tape.  That's the weird thing around my neck.

Beginning the chest:

Front done, back begun, and one arm started:

Right arm complete:

Both arms done.  I can't move much at all now:

My girlfriend says I look like I'm ready to hit the gay nightclubs with this on.  Another friend thought I look like a white Kimbo Slice.  Such is life.

Detail shot of my back - note the cross hatch pattern to make it form-fitting:

 Cutting the shell off - Curtis caught my undershirt.  Awkward:

 After we cut the body suit up the back and on the wrists (just enough so I can get my hand through), we threw it on the back of a chair and patched the back up.  This was not a simple process, so be careful and take your time if you're doing your own.  Then we covered the top (the neck) with cloth and taped it closed, and filled it with expanding foam insulation.  Since the insulation isn't that cheap, and you need a ton of it (especially if you're a big dude like me), we decided to take up some of the space with a bunch of leftover 2 liter soda bottles.  This ended up being a mistake, because they don't form into the right shape like the foam does, and you can't really get the foam under them.  I'm going to have to do some repair work with the form because of that, but that's fine.  We had two bottles of the "large gaps" type foam, and it filled most of the body along with five bottles.  We still need to fill both arms and a portion around the neck and waist.  Before the foam set, we put the form on a wooden dowel with screws sticking out of it, in order to give it something to stand on.  I only have one picture of the foaming process, but as I said, more are certainly to come.

 That's me and Mike (Curtis's brother) pouring in the foam.  He was a great help through the process, so thanks Mike!

A light at the end of the tunnel

We're getting down to the wire here.  I'm scared that I won't have time to do all the work I want to, but there's really no time to even think about that.  The costume competition is on the 23rd, which means I have only one weekend left before showtime.  I've spent the last three days working constantly, since Jen was on a weekender to NYC, and I had basically no distractions.  Each hour saw a bunch of work complete, but it just seems never-ending.  The good news is, I have one arm basically finished and the other well on the way, along with a real chunk of the torso.  The bad news is, I need to get all my lighting and electronics done this week, and finish up a million little things that stack up quickly.  Here are some photos of what I've been working on.

This first picture is a view of the "jetpack" that will be behind me.  These diamond cuts were totally tedious to make, and then fill with a chickenwire-type material from some dollar store garbage can.  It looks really nice, and will pop when I light the inside of the case.  I also added a strip of electrical tape at the joint between the two barrel sections, which was such a small detail, but totally changed the look of the piece for the better.  It's the little things.

The feet have been re-done, again.  I can't help it, I always end up hating how they look.  That's changed now, since I love the look of the casing on these bad boys.  So industrial, so awesome.  The angle looks a little strange since you can see the shoes inside still, but you can't really from the front.  The material is just this foamboard I picked up, cut into pieces basically freehand.  The nice thing is that I actually thought ahead and figured I'd need to actually be able to tie the shoes and need access to do it, so I put the pieces together like this:

The sections nestle together, and are plenty sturdy, but give me the ability to actually wear the damned things.  Works out well.

You've already seen the bottom half of this arm, and I didn't do anything special to it.  I may still put some lights into it, but I haven't made any final decisions on that front.  I like it being less light-up and more mechanical, so I may just leave it.  However, more lights = awesome, so who knows.  I think at this point, time will dictate.  In this pic, you see the connection between the upper and lower arm, which has been added to.  Where you'd see the ends of the bottles, I covered it with conduit to mask the material.  I added more conduit as connectors at the joint.  The green stuff is clear tubing filled with water and sealed off.  The green comes from highlighter ink mixed into the water.  It's a trick I've seen used in every college dorm ever to make blacklight-responsive vodka bottles.  I like this application much more.  Along the upper arm, I've removed the tape that masked the part that will be lit, although you can't really see it in that pic.  The next two show it better.  I've also added a strip of conduit to each side for detail.  I think the arms are looking really amazing, and I'm excited to see it come together.

Here's the second arm, which is finally created.  As you can see, I've decided to end it in a gun, rather than a claw.  Curtis is modeling for us.  The gun is made from some vacuum cleaner parts that we had kicking around.  I used two for the barrels, which will eventually be lit up from inside.  The handle is from a broken toy from Toys-R-Us, it used to be a sword.  I extended the LEDs from the inside of the sword, and they're now located at the top of the barrels, they look like a laser scope.  I still have a bit of work to do on the scope, but it's going to be killer.  The white part in the second picture is another piece of the handle that lights up and spins.  Kinda lame, kinda cool.  I'll take it.

I've gone from zero to almost done with the left arm over the weekend, so I'm stoked - but every tick of the clock means less time till Halloween.  This week I'm going to finish the arms and get started on assembling the torso pieces together.  Hopefully when I finally get all the lights and batteries together, the thing will start to look like a Mech.

It's hard to take pics of everything at once at this point, since it's like 8 and a half feet tall, and in pieces, but as we get closer to H-day, I'll try to take some to show the costume in all its glory.

Chest Plate, etc.

I took a couple pictures of the upper body on Friday, after I had a little time to work on it. Since other than a couple limited pics of hypothetical parts, I haven't shared any of the top half, I figure it's about time. Pardon the ghetto stance on one of them, Curtis thought it was funny.

As you can see, the top half is coming along as well.  I took the yellow pieces off the ends of the vertical part, and I'll be finishing them to look like missiles.  The back will feature a pretty large jet engine (well, it will look like one, anyway) that will light up pretty heavily, and look awesome.  I haven't decided if I want to attach wings yet, but it's an idea we're toying with.

I also figured out a very important piece of the puzzle - how to attach things to the frame.  If I use the dremel tool to cut about a quarter of the circumference out of some 3/4" PVC (imagine the profile of it resembles a C), it snaps onto the bike rack frame like a clamp.  If you look at the chest plate, you'll notice two screws where I've used this method to clamp it to the frame.  Since Friday, I've started making the mech's arms, using the same concept.  I used a T-connector to act as the initial attaching point, with the arms coming off the horizontal part of the frame at a 45* angle, and down around my shoulders.  They look pretty good so far, but I'm not 100% sure on the best way to make them movable, but secure.  I used a joint like the knee joints on the Mechs I linked to before for the shoulder joint, but I don't want to use it for the elbow too, since it makes the arms a little too flexible to easily control.  I'll keep thinking on it, I'm sure I'll figure something out.  That's the major stuff I did this week, next time I build I plan to continue figuring out the arms and possibly make the jet pack.

After that, we're left figuring out the upper legs, the lower torso, and building out the structure to be more robust.  As great as PVC is for framing, it's not very polished or intimidating on its own.  Then the finishing touches - I can't wait to light this thing up.  10 weeks till Halloween!

First Glimpses

This weekend was both productive and completely wasted at the same time.

On one hand, I managed to complete the assembly of one of the legs. On the other, I hate how it turned out, and I need to completely re-do it. This is frustrating and exhilarating all at once. Here are some pictures:



This first image is of the piston assembly that will be featured on the feet of the costume. As you can see, this part came out awesome. I'm really pleased with the look of the assembly, and Curtis was impressed enough to decide to copy them for his own stilts. He won't have the same ladder extensions, so I do worry about the stability of his feet, but that's a bridge to cross at another time.



This second image is the completed foot. It's pretty gnarly, and I think it looks really great - except for the shape of the top and bottom pieces. They both started off as squares, but as soon as I assembled the foot, I noticed that they didn't line up. This is a result of a flaw I failed to anticipate. I bought two different sized flanges, since I wasn't certain which I would like better - a 3/4" and a 1". Each of the pistons is a 3/4" on top and a 1" on the bottom. The problem is that the holes aren't positioned the same in the different sized flanges, and I can't make a template that works for all of the blocks. I had to free-hand it, and obviously that didn't work. Then I attempted to make it look less shitty by cutting away the excess portions of the blocks, but in reality it just made the whole thing look worse. I planned to just say forget it and run with it that way, but it gnawed at me and I couldn't just let it go. I plan to correct the mistake this weekend by re-doing the whole foot. On the other foot, I've planned ahead and made 1 piston entirely out of the 3/4" flanges, and the other out of the 1". This should allow me to make a template and match the feet up the right way. I may try to fix the pistons from the first foot to do the same, but I'd rather not need to paint them again and just figure something else out.



This last picture is a close-up of the "Action" portion of the feet. I don't like the wood block I used as a spacer for the ladder part - I'm going to try and find something that's round and useable instead. I kinda wish I had a bunch of AOL discs to use...

I also managed to successfully attach the bike rack to my shoulder pads. It looks really amazing. I'm starting to get pretty excited about the whole costume, now that I'm seeing pieces of it come together. I don't have any pics ready for you on that part, but as we finish up the feet and move upward I'll keep them coming.

Last night I spent a few hours shopping for supplies and building. I've figured out a good way to make the legs function in a manner that won't result in broken bones or death, which I think is a good thing. I explained it briefly in the last post, but now that I've actually applied this guessing game to the real world, I'm gonna elaborate.

Begin with the ladder leg extensions. I've measured from the base of the foot (or, rather, the point where I'd attach it to the "foot" of the costume), and up to the top of the bracket. This is about 12". I've purchased 2 metal flanges to secure the PVC, and attachments so the PVC can screw into them. Measured these assemblies, and cut a tube of 1" PVC to fit the height. I then cut a 1.25" tube to act as the sleeve for the piston, and will attach that as a decorative piece to the outside of the 1" pipe. You can see some of the pieces here:



This picture is missing the 1" pieces, but the rest is all there. The next step is to paint the pieces the appropriate color. I bought some Rustolium textured grey spray paint that I'm pretty sure I'll use over most of the skeleton, and some really shiny chrome paint to use for the pistons. Here's the assembly in paint:



As you can see, there will be a pretty stark contrast in color, which should make a cool effect. I'll be checking to see if any more coats are needed probably tomorrow, and then I'll begin to assemble the base of the legs. I'm still trying to decide on what to make the horizontal pieces out of, since plywood is super heavy. A firm (relatively thick) plastic piece would be great, but I'm not 100% on where to get what I'm looking for. I'm going to keep working and deal with that eventually. As for the top of the legs, I've attached another 2' section of 1" PVC (painted chrome) to the upper portion of the stilt, to extend it long enough to attach to my upper calf. This should be high enough to stabilize my footing as I walk with a bunch of crap on my feet and back.

Speaking of, Curtis found this AWESOME bike rack at the thrift store that we've been working with. It's completely replaced my idea for the chair piece and for the backpack - this thing is about 100x better. I've found a great way to attach it to my shoulderpads, so it's all systems go. I'll update with more pics and details of the process as I have more time to work.

I wish this stuff was in my garage, but Curtis shipped me a key to his place, so now I can work on my own time instead of everyone else's.

So this weekend, I went hunting in the barn at my parent's house, hoping to find anything of use for the costume I could get my hands on. My dad was pretty helpful, offering to help me find anything I was looking for. The problem was, I wouldn't know what I'm looking for until I found it. Ultimately the search was fruitful, finding a plastic satchel that's used for holding vacuum cleaner accessories (no idea what I'm doing with it yet, but the shape and the material are good), and a pair of these:



I'm going to modify these into the stilts for the leg section of the costume. They're really only going to bear a resemblance to their original purpose by the time I'm done with them (originally they were ladder leg extensions), because I'll need to reinforce them if I plan to not break my neck. My intention is to use 1" and 3/4" PVC pipes to create two additional supports between my feet and the ground. This will be great for a few reasons;

First, as I learned in high school shop class, cylinders are the most stable shape to support weight on. Second, using three points of contact gives me a broad enough base to feel stable on the feet and not worry about tipping one way or the other and breaking my ankle. Third, there's a way to work the PVC so that when painted, it looks like hydraulic cylinders, which means that I can maintain a cool look with them at the same time as being functional.

I've also purchased this:



I'm going to use this as the ultimate end of one of the arms. It's got an electronic open and close which I should be able to modify into an extended arm so I can control it without my hand being inside the claw. It also looks totally badass, and I'm really excited to try and incorporate it into the design.

The backpack idea has fallen through, because 1)I couldn't find either of the frame packs I thought were at my parents, and 2)Buying a new one is more expensive than I care to pay for a metal rectangle. To circumvent that issue, I've taken apart the base of a camp chair, and I'm using the cross braces and backrest to replicate the same basic principle. My next build day should consist of attaching the frame to the shoulder pads and constructing the stilts. I'll take lots of pictures.

Welcome Back!

I've been absent for what seems like forever, and true to form, I quit about 10% of the way through my 365 project. Photography isn't really something I'm in love with, and even trying to be creative with it doesn't really make me feel much more excited about it. Some people really enjoy taking pictures of things. I'm not one of them, and that's ok.

However, I'm working on a new project and I want to share it with you as it progresses.

Since I was a little kid, I've loved Halloween. I think more than the candy, it has a lot to do with the ability to dress up in costumes and walk around and be perceived as normal. My mom is really creative when it comes to this kind of thing, and it was a ton of fun for her to help my brother and I make really awesome costumes. Of course, by help, I mean do it for us. Since I've been an adult, I've tried on a couple of occasions to make cool costumes, but for the most part, it's been a hassle. There's always some kind of obstacle in the way that I haven't wanted to expend the effort on hurdling. For example, one year, I really wanted to make a sick Wolverine costume, but the claws were next to impossible to do the way I wanted to, and too expensive for me to justify buying a really good set. So, instead I defaulted to some dumb thing or another, and carried on. One year I did make a really awesome Harry Potter themed costume, but that's basically just finding appropriate clothes. No real creativity is involved. Then, a few years ago, I bought a Bunny Suit, and I was that guy for a while. That was awesome, and really rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the holiday, but the suit has seen better days, and if I'm going to be doing a new costume, I'm going to put some effort into it with more than just my wallet.



Last year, my good friend Curtis built this cardboard Robot costume for some competitions around our town. He went "overboard" with it, and learned a lot about small electronics in the process. He did really well in the competitions, and everyone had a great time with it. This year, he decided to go a step further, and construct a new and improved robot out of sturdier materials, with much more intricate electronics involved. The other day I was at his house and he showed me the costume, and I became inspired.

I don't want to make a robot - I don't think stealing his idea or his thunder is really what kind of person I am. But I do want to take it in a new direction, and make some modifications to the process - and see what kind of craziness I can come up with on my own terms. Curtis has graciously allowed me to utilize any of his resources, including space - since Jen and I have a rather small apartment right now - so the two of us will be brewing largely together on our respective costumes.

Yesterday was day 1 for my costume, although Curtis is much further along in his own development. I'm not entirely sure what my end result will look like, but my inspiration comes from a few sources. First, this site has inspired a lot of what I think is cool. This guy is really a champ when it comes to this style of costume, and I think using his experience in not only the mechwarrior costume, but the other two he has made will allow me to shortcut a lot of the technical inefficiencies he's had over the years of production. I think his style is all there, but I also think my costume will generally be more reminiscent of this one:



On the downside, this guy kinda looks like a choad, and his costume looks cheap and fake. The foam pieces he used to flesh out the suit look exactly like painted foam, which bums me out, and functionally, it doesn't do anything. He just kinda stands there or walks around and looks intimidating. Meanwhile, anything he fights will kill him immediately since his entire body is exposed. Nice abs, though. I think his concept is sound, but we can build it better. We have the technology.

My concept is more robust, and probably bigger. That doesn't make it better, but it will be anyway. Originally, I had planned to make inverted knee legs (like on the mech in the first link) but Curtis pointed out how it takes a large amount of focus away from the costume when you see these really obvious legs, and I agree - so I decided to make my knees bend the right way and will be constructing "stilts" to give me additional height, along with devices to mask my legs.

The upper portion of the costume will consist of three main parts.
First, I've procured a set of football (American, not 'rest of the world-ian') shoulderpads in order to be able to build forward, back, and up simultaneously. In order to give the structure the right weight distribution, I'm planning to attach a pack frame to the rear of the shoulder pads and expand from that.



Second, the arms will be constructed in a manner that allows them to be permanently attached to the body, but at the same time disconnected. This will give them freedom of movement, but can allow any electrical systems to be powered in the main body, with wires being free to travel out as necessary. This connection consist of, but not be limited to, electrical conduit which gives practicality to the attachment as well as aesthetics.



The third portion of the upper body is the head. My initial plan is to use a welding mask, with the blackout screen removed, for the helmet, and modifying it to fit the theme of the final product. This was the first thing Curtis and I delved into, and so far it is a major success. The tricky part to this will be the power supply to any lighting in the helmet, but even this can be accomplished with the conduit system I'd be using for the arms. Any wires encased in this type of tubing would look entirely appropriate for the costume, and should be secure enough to not be rattled by moving about.



This weekend should bring time for some more construction, and I'll be sure to keep updating as we progress!