Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Touch Ups And Total Progress

This update tastes like happy. There's something special at the end of today's post. (You'll see.) I started last night by finishing off the head. Namely, the face and "ears". I closed in the front of the face a little bit using some rectangular boxes cut to fit around the cardboard. The special cuts are more visible in the final helmet pic below.



The "ears" ended up being made up of a circular piece bevelled on one side, and an octagon with a giant section for the antenna.



I glued them on...



... and was realized the head, though large, was finally looking like Optimus Prime. The head basically sits on the body, mine doesn't fill it in the least. I'm debating, time and materials permitting, creating a new one. If this is the case, I'll put steps/pictures in here.



I had a few housekeeping details on the torso, namely adding the grey lines under Optimus Prime's windows. For these I simply used two blocks of styrofoam and painted them grey.



I also completed the other shoulder!



... and now for the total progress part. Because my workspace is getting extremely limited (this is a big costume, like I said before I've been working on a balcony), I brought some of the pieces inside and stacked them behind the dining room table... much to my girlfriend's chagrin. She's being a good sport about it. (She bought me a re-release of the original SoundWave a few days ago, how cool is that!)





Pretty. Next I laid everything out on the floor. Aaaaawe yeah!







Tomorrow! The helmet should be painted in all it's giant glory ("Pumpkin Head Optimus Prime"?), so stay tuned!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, i was browsing transformer images on the web and came across your blog. Nice work! I actually started a movie style Optimus costume for the premiere, but unfortunately it didn't quite make the deadline (it's sitting in my closet).

Anyhoo, I was intrigued by your helmet design. I was wondering if you had ever thought of using a store bought helmet and building off that. My Optimus helmet started out like that. Here's a link:

My helmet

Its all cardstock and foam presentation board, blue spraypaint and silver acrylic craft paint for details. I built it on an old plastic helemt. The advantages are it's already built for wearing and it gives the helmet a more round shape.

Still, your helmet, and the rest of the costume, kicks major arse! Keep it up man, I'll be keeping an eye on your blog for the end result!

Hedgecore said...

I had thought about it actually, but everything was based on the 'new' Optimus Prime that I saw. (I've got a major chip on my shoulder, I've convinced myself there was only 1 transformers movie and it came out in 1986) :)

Even so, it wouldn't have matched the rest of the costume, being plastic and all. I like your idea of adding onto it, your helmet looks sweet! That probably would've worked in this case but I cringe when I think of what I've spent so far and didn't want to drop any more money on it.

Be sure to send a link to your completed one, I want to see what's out there!

Cheers,
Hedge

aleinator said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
aleinator said...

Hi, wow i really like your optimus prime costume... And well i was wondering if there was anyway you would be able to help me by sending me designs or blueprints on how to make one.
I have a school costume contest to see who could make the best costume next week on Wenday if you could help me that would be alsome......

my email is

aleinator745@yahoo.com

Thanks....

Karen Susan said...

wonder  woman costume Offers a huge range of all the popular Halloween Costumes and Fancy dress Costumes from Gothic Rag Dolls to gruesome Zombie, wonder  woman costume range includes costumes from Bockbuster films like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, Dick Dastardly and Penelope Pitstop from the Wacky Races,  Buzz Lightyear costume, Woody, Mr Potato head all from the cartoon from the 1990's classic film Toy Story also from The 1990's we have Tim Burtons A Nightmare Before Christmas and loads of Costumes for Halloween and More........