SJ Costume for Megacon 2012?

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db

MemberOvomorphFebruary 06, 20122988 Views45 Replies

I should start by saying this is a new thread requested by some of you so you can track my progress on a costume I'm making (of an SJ) for possible inclusion in Megacon 2012 in Orlando, Florida in 2 weeks. I'll post pics and descriptions as I go (or have gone), since I've been working on this thing part-time for the last week. My full-time job is teaching video and audio production (with a side of art direction) in Central Florida. My media of choice to create my sculptures (seen elsewhere) and costumes is: chicken wire (basic structure), paper covered with masking tape (for general sculpted sections/shapes), and twisted masking tape (for detail), covered with more masking tape for a skin. I'll cover everything with either liquid latex (for pliability with costumes), or resin (usually for sculptures). Check back from time to time if you'd like to see my progress. Hope you enjoy!

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db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/donfossils.png[/IMG] Back in the day... This pic is fron the mid 80's. I've been a fan of Giger's art since "Brain Salad Surgery" back in high school. I also SCUBA dive for Pleistocene fossils in area rivers, springs, and off the west coast of FL. So, I've been around bones for along time. This is part of my private collection. In college, I incorporated my knowledge of said bones into my first costume of a "classic" Giger Alien. (If I can slavage a pic, I'll post it).

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/AprilDonTusk.jpg[/IMG] Fast forward... this last Thanksgiving. My wife April, and I excavate (and soon plaster jacket) 2 Mastodon tusks found in Daytona. Sometimes we get calls from local museums to help them get the fossils safely out of the matrix. (Google: "Daytona Mastodon" for more info.)

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/AprilDonJaw.jpg[/IMG] Last "boney" inspriation pic... still from last Nov. April and I hold a section of Mastodon mandible with a nice tooth in it. (All this stuff gets donated to our local museum). Right about then, I begin to have the itch to build something "Giger-like"... along came this site and you guys and my inspiration to make an SJ costume after 33 years.

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

OOPS... forgot one more fossil pic worth showing... [IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/Tuskwithtip2.jpg[/IMG] This is a 4 ft. section of one of the tusks I finished cleaning for the museum around Christmas. Notice the tip is intact! (That's rare.) Now that I'm properly motivated... on to the costume building...

Frantz
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FrantzFebruary 06, 2012

Very interesting ...but now you are raising the bar ..im expecting nothing short of exceptional !

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_0345-1.jpg[/IMG] First I quickly sketch what I'd like to make. I know I can't finish a complete costume in 3 weeks (part-time), so I'll attempt covering the SJ in some sort of "other" costume (business suit?), maybe carrying a Giger-esque briefcase labeled "Prometheus"... or maybe he could carry an ampule with a handle on it like a briefcase?... Haven't quite decided. This choice allows me to go back and finish the entire costume at a later date.

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_0346-1.jpg[/IMG]

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_0347-1.jpg[/IMG]

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

I'll probably only have time to make the head & shoulders and hands.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_0348.jpg[/IMG] Tools & supplies... at this point, it's important to not go cheap. I hit the Home Depot and bought the contractor's package of Scotch masking tape. "If it don't stick good" you're in a world of hurt when you begin sculpting with it. 5 rolls=$20... not bad.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6371.jpg[/IMG] Start creating basic shapes; bones, head, shoulder pads, with chicken-wire.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6372.jpg[/IMG] Rough shape of a bone (no it's not that... stop thinking so Gigery).

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_0350.jpg[/IMG] Head & shoulders shaped from chicken-wire (be sure to round off all sharp parts with pliers!)... or you'll regret getting in it.

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6373.jpg[/IMG] I used to use newspaper for paper-mache', but I realized I enjoyed sculpting with it dry and crumpled up (covered with masking tape) more. It's also a lot lighter, and less messy/smelly.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6378.jpg[/IMG] The back half of the head (the smoother part) gets covered with flat newspaper to hide the chicken-wire pattern. Then covered with masking tape.

Ender
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EnderFebruary 06, 2012

Db this looks very exciting - please keep the pics coming! Also sounds like you could give some authoritative input on whether you think the original SG is fossilised or not!

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6376.jpg[/IMG] I start to shape crumpled paper and small sections of masking tape (sticky side out) to adhere to the head to begin to detail it.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6377.jpg[/IMG]

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6380.jpg[/IMG]

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6381.jpg[/IMG] Making progress with the right side of the head. By this point (3 days in, about 12 hrs. of work), I've pulled as much tape off and started over, as I have added. My original idea was to have the mouth open like the original SJ in 1979. But once I saw the concept of the closed mouth (around the front hose) online, I decided to have the mouth nearly closed.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

Meanwhile, one of my twin sons, (13 yrs, old), asks to help, and makes me 10 origami fingers. I show him how to detail one of them with small pieces of twisted tape and he does the other 9! [IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6354.jpg[/IMG] Eventually, I'll get a long latex glove and add them to the glove with more biomechanical muscle detail going up the glove. Thanks son! (Proud papa!)

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6351.jpg[/IMG] Left side is getting there, so I try it on and show off the head and fingers to the family... (creepy eye in there)... maybe it really is a biomechanical suit, like Ridley said?

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6382.jpg[/IMG] Front view showing added shoulder work.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6384.jpg[/IMG] Left side view of added shoulder detail.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6389.jpg[/IMG] More detail...

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6386.jpg[/IMG] CU of shoulder left detail. Remember it's just paper and masking tape over chicken-wire...

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

[IMG]http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p495/dbshark94/SJ%20Costume/IMG_6387.jpg[/IMG] The head with fingers on the side. Last pic for awhile. Next installment will show the head completed. Then fingers get attached to gloves and detailed. Then everything gets covered with liquid latex and air brushed for detail. I consider this costume to be a mix of the original SJ from the 1979 "Alien" movie and updates according to what I've seen online for "Prometheus". Wish me luck! Comments and critiques welcome.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

@Enderwiggen: Thanks for the kind words. I'd like to think the original SJ (from '79), was a mysterious, ancient, fossilized remnant of a nobel long-lost alien civilization that fell prey to a chestburster (just like Ridley implied in the original movie). But if he's found a way to tell its species' story through "Prometheus", while keeping true to the original universe (DNA), whatever he wants to call it, so be it. PG-13, R, prequel or not, in 122 days, I'm at my nearest IMAX in a seat!

Jeffomorph
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JeffomorphFebruary 06, 2012

Watch someone post these as "New SJ PICS" for Prometheus.

Engineer Prototype - Model GAJ84
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Engineer Prototype - Model GAJ84February 06, 2012

You made that with just masking tape, newspaper & chicken wire? Just goes to prove you can turn something so simple into something wonderful. Major kudos to you Db, can't wait to see the finished product.

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

Lol Jeffomorph! Ridley can hire me any time he feels like having a little more chicken-wire around the set! I'm probably way off in the design. I know the Prometheus SJ's are a lot more streamlined (according to the "statues" seen behind Shaw in that pic.) I just liked the original idea of a big, mysterious elephantine head and torso melting into a chair, rather than a "suit of (tight fitting) biomechanical [quote][/quote]armor" wearing army boots.

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dbFebruary 06, 2012

@Engineer Prototype: Thanks! I started using this method mostly out of bugetary concerns. (I've probably spent less than $40 on supplies for this costume so far.) But through the years, I've really grown to love just how detailed you can get with it.

Engineer Prototype - Model GAJ84
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Engineer Prototype - Model GAJ84February 06, 2012

I like your thinking Db. I wouldn't even say your way off the design, Who is to say all Space Jockeys/engineers are the same? Your thinking fits nicely with the "used future" style. We all know the suits are bio-mechanical so whats to say that after it being worn by the user for a long period of time could make the suit change or morph with who or what is inside?

Dewey70
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Dewey70February 06, 2012

That is some seriously impressive work. Thanks for the step-by-step, I'd like to get into sculpting, myself.

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

Great ideas there EP. The ultimate green factor. Recycled biosuits!

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

@Dewey70: Thanks. Just start with some paper and a good (sticky) masking tape. Make something small and work up from there. Facehuggers are a great way to begin. And when you're done, you have something light weight and wearable. Don't be scared to rip it apart and start over... it's just paper and tape!

db
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dbFebruary 06, 2012

FYI: At this point, I'm about 30 hrs. (4-5 hrs. per day) into the project...

F--- it - lets go for it!
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F--- it - lets go for it!February 06, 2012

that is incredibly similar to original in texture and tone, and slightly waxy looking... some fantastic work here. im always in awe of people with real talents and skill that are of benefit in the real physical world!!!

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ChrisFebruary 06, 2012

Really fantastic work [b]Db[/b], keep up the great work! If you get the piece finished and upload a wide shot of the whole thing, I'd love to make a mention of this on the front page Prometheus news column.

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Gehirn
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GehirnFebruary 06, 2012

Hey, great work! Alas, creativity doesn't run in my genepool. I'm forever envious of those who have it.

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