My First Costume and Take on Jason Todd/Red Hood

[TamaleJohnson]

Hey guys, right away I have to say thank you for all of the helpful information that this community provides. I've been lurking for a few months and less than a month ago, I decided to try making a Red Hood costume for the Phoenix Comicon. He's one of my favorite characters and my girlfriend wanted to dress up as Arsenal; so I figured I'd go with him to start off.

Jacket - Purchased from eBay for $30. I got an XXL because the jacket looked like it was going to be tiny and I have some broad shoulders.



Boots - Purchased from 6PM for $28. I liked how they weren't the typical military boot... plus they looked extremely comfortable, which they are.


Guns - Purchased from the local swapmart/flea market for $10.


Armor/Vest - Purchased from eBay for $30. My original idea was to modify this vest and put the red bat symbol across the chest. This didn't work the way I wanted at all, more on that later.


Holsters/Pants/Gloves/Knee Pads/Neck Cover - Purchased all on Amazon besides the Knee Pads.

 

[Vox]

Looks like the accumulation of the necessary parts is going smoothly! Will you be doing pre-or-post New 52? And have you figured out what you're doing for the all-important helmet?

 

[TamaleJohnson]

Helmet - Purchased Pep file from BlackKaos. I can't thank him enough for creating this document, I had no idea what I was doing and it was well worth the money!
View attachment 336459View attachment 336460 - Glueing the paper together

View attachment 336461View attachment 336462 - Resin coat and fiberglassed inside

View attachment 336463View attachment 336466View attachment 336467View attachment 336470 - 2 full coats of body filler/evercoat rage gold and a spot coat

View attachment 336472View attachment 336471View attachment 336473 - that Ruby Red paint job

View attachment 336475View attachment 336476 - Some battle damage and scuffing

View attachment 336478View attachment 336479View attachment 336480View attachment 336477 - finished product. I clear coated it and installed aluminum mesh for the eyes. I originally tried sunglass lenses but they just wouldn't fit. This was the last step in my build the night before the Con so I was quite nervous and a buddy of mine recommended mesh instead. It worked out well and it allowed me to breath better in the helmet.

View attachment 336484View attachment 336485 - I was going to use magnets to hold the back piece on the helmet since it's detachable but they werne't strong enough. I ended up rigging some elastic straps with Gorilla Tape so I could pull the back open just enough to slip my head inside, it worked great but I'll be looking for a better fix for this.

 

[TamaleJohnson]

Thanks! I honestly like the post New 52 Jason Todd the most and my girlfriend went with a Post Roy/Arsenal as well. Yes sir, just posted a few pictures of the helmet process down below. I was entirely terrified during the whole project that I was doing something wrong but it turned out alright for my first try. I probably put 30-40 hours of work into it in the last 3 weeks, but I can totally see flaws in it that I'd like to fix.

 

[TamaleJohnson]

The motocross vest/armor that I purchased ended up being far too small. I didn't know what to do about that with only a week before the con so I decided to create some "armor" out of foam to go over an Under Armour shirt. I just used 2 mm EVA foam and cut out some shapes that I thought looked pretty cool. They were heated and coated with plastidip, then I spray painted googly eyes silver so I could use them as little bolts/rivets on the armor.

 

[Vox]

Quick thinking with the armor, and I love the use of the googly eyes. That made me laugh. Did you connect the armor with nylon strapping or elastic?

 

[TamaleJohnson]

Quick thinking with the armor, and I love the use of the googly eyes. That made me laugh. Did you connect the armor with nylon strapping or elastic?

Haha, thanks. I used elastic straps to hold it together and to fasten it across my gut, it worked out quite well. I should have put straps on the tops and turned it into a man-bra because it did slip a little bit while I was walking around. I want to entirely redo the armor part and make an actual chest piece from scratch, I need to start looking into materials.

I didn't get many photos of the complete costume but here are a few:

 

[Randy Guhl]

looks great heres mine from DCC

 

[TamaleJohnson]

looks great heres mine from DCCView attachment 340430

Nice! I like the chest piece a lot. How did you end up making that?

Also, I'm having a hard time with the paint job on my helmet. It gets stuck to everything and if touched it gets an imprint from whatever touched it. I painted it with Valspar Gloss and then did two clear coats on it.

Any suggestions on how to fix it?

 

[Vox]

Also, I'm having a hard time with the paint job on my helmet. It gets stuck to everything and if touched it gets an imprint from whatever touched it. I painted it with Valspar Gloss and then did two clear coats on it.

Any suggestions on how to fix it?

Was the clear coat a sealer/enamel? If not, that's probably why. If you already have a bunch of imprints on the helmet that you'd rather not remain there, you can get some high grit sandpaper (500+) and wet-sand the outer coating. Once dry, apply a paint coat or two until your helmet is once again pretty, then spray something like Rustoleum's Crystal Clear Enamel to seal it in. I think that should do it.

 

[Randy Guhl]

the chest piece wasn't done by me. it was done by ron stillwell aka mysuperheroguy.com as far as the clear coat I used lacquer it dries harder than enamel. but as the last guy mentioned you may need to go after the red layer with 500+ a few times. and then apply a few layers of lacquer

 

[Armatus Cosplay]

Looking very good for a first costume, excellent work! I really like the design you made for the armor pieces, they look fantastic, and it's nice to see people not going by the Dark Knight armor pattern, which I've seen alot of people do lately for unrelated projects. The whole suit looks good together as well. It's a shame they made you put zipties on the guns at the convention, those pictures would look alot better without the neon green contrast.