Guess who! Hint: She’s not on my costume roster for 2012, but I made her costume last year. I was going to wear this last weekend at Boston Comic Con, but life has a way of defenestrating my plans. This is the medium I had mentioned last week. This is lighting gel, a very thin, transparent polycarbonate that comes in a HUGE array of colors, and is used in theatre to change the color of lights. It comes in sheets of 20”x24”, around $6 a sheet. I used 6 sheets for this project in 6 subtly different colors. The base of the head is Wonderflex, molded to the shape of my own head (the wig head is smaller than my head). I got it to fit snugly enough with all my hair underneath it that I don’t need to even pin it in place! I cut the gel into graduating triangles, with the deepest orange at 12”x5” and the palest yellow at 4”x4”, and LIGHTLY treated it with my heat gun on LOW heat. The gel will melt if too much heat is applied, but if lightly heat-treated it will hold its shape. It’s rigid but not breakable - this actually got tossed around in the back of my car, and though it made a lot of crunching noises, the shape never changed. I then took the cones and hot glued them onto the goldenrod-painted Wonderflex dome, then finished it with the heat gun, tweaking the shape of the flames. The plasma blasts were created much the same way. However, I wanted my fists to be seen inside them, so instead of the opaque Wonderflex I used clear packaging tape. I took a small balloon inflated slightly larger than my fist and wrapped it sticky-side-out with packaging tape, then wrapped it again sticky-side-in. I popped the balloon, and though the shell was a little flimsy to begin with, once I hot glued all the cones on there it turned surprising durable. The scraps of gel I applied to the tops of my gloves and the tops of my boots. I can’t wait to get a shot in this completed costume! I have other applications for gel that I’m excited to show, too! (This is for Binary, BTW. I’m not going for the traditional Binary costume, but the Binary/Warbird she’s been seen as sometimes. My friend wondered why there was such an onset of Ms. Marvel costumers last year, and that got me to thinking that no one’s done a Binary before…and then I kind of got a little obsessive over the idea. I based the fiery-plasma off the adorbs Binary Kotobuyaki figurine.)

Guess who! Hint: She’s not on my costume roster for 2012, but I made her costume last year. I was going to wear this last weekend at Boston Comic Con, but life has a way of defenestrating my plans.

This is the medium I had mentioned last week. This is lighting gel, a very thin, transparent polycarbonate that comes in a HUGE array of colors, and is used in theatre to change the color of lights. It comes in sheets of 20”x24”, around $6 a sheet. I used 6 sheets for this project in 6 subtly different colors.

The base of the head is Wonderflex, molded to the shape of my own head (the wig head is smaller than my head). I got it to fit snugly enough with all my hair underneath it that I don’t need to even pin it in place! I cut the gel into graduating triangles, with the deepest orange at 12”x5” and the palest yellow at 4”x4”, and LIGHTLY treated it with my heat gun on LOW heat. The gel will melt if too much heat is applied, but if lightly heat-treated it will hold its shape. It’s rigid but not breakable - this actually got tossed around in the back of my car, and though it made a lot of crunching noises, the shape never changed. I then took the cones and hot glued them onto the goldenrod-painted Wonderflex dome, then finished it with the heat gun, tweaking the shape of the flames.

The plasma blasts were created much the same way. However, I wanted my fists to be seen inside them, so instead of the opaque Wonderflex I used clear packaging tape. I took a small balloon inflated slightly larger than my fist and wrapped it sticky-side-out with packaging tape, then wrapped it again sticky-side-in. I popped the balloon, and though the shell was a little flimsy to begin with, once I hot glued all the cones on there it turned surprising durable.

The scraps of gel I applied to the tops of my gloves and the tops of my boots.

I can’t wait to get a shot in this completed costume! I have other applications for gel that I’m excited to show, too!

(This is for Binary, BTW. I’m not going for the traditional Binary costume, but the Binary/Warbird she’s been seen as sometimes. My friend wondered why there was such an onset of Ms. Marvel costumers last year, and that got me to thinking that no one’s done a Binary before…and then I kind of got a little obsessive over the idea. I based the fiery-plasma off the adorbs Binary Kotobuyaki figurine.)

Tags: binary comics costume marvel wip tutorial