How to Build a Decepticons: "Starscream" Costume

Who disrupts my Coronation?! Starscream flies the not-so-friendly skies!

I wanted to add a main member of the Transformers to our transformers cosplay, so who better than Starscream!

*A very special shout-out to instructable members: dannyeurena and Incxtc for their previous Transformers tutorials as theirs were the the foundation for my Transformers creations. I used some of his ideas, referenced the Masterpiece Transformers figure, and added some of my own flare to it.

Here are their amazing tutorials:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Transformers-Soundwave-Costume/

and

https://www.instructables.com/id/Building-Optimus-Prime/

*this costume is very time consuming

*This costume is very hot

*this costume will create a very big mess

Materials

-lots of cardboard

- lots of hot glue

-masking tape

-red acetate

-clear plastic

-old shoes

-shoe laces

-comic cardboard

- mini LED lights

-wood planks

- various soda caps

-black gloves

-black leggings

- black long sleeve tshirt

-yellow acetate

-metal t-joints and pipes

- poster tube

-velcro

-elastic

-PVC pipe

-PVC adaptors

Let’s get started!

Feet

A detailed explanation of this process can be found in my Soundwave tutorial.

The cliff-note version is:

screw a pair of gym shoes on some plants of wood.
encase the shoe/wood platform in cardboard to give you an elevation of 4+ inches.

Thighs

1. The thighs are basically boxes. They are just angled in and there is a little section cut out if you are a dude for your :;ahem:;..

2. Poke a hole on the sides (hip side). Take a metal circle washer and glue it on either side of the hole. get some string or more shoe lace and thread it through. about 4 -5 inches should do.

- The washer is so that the thread will be supported by the washer, and not the cardboard (which can easily rip through with wear/tear)..

3. To wear the thighs, you need a belt around your waist. put on the thighs and then use the string to tie them to the belt. This way, they do not fall when you are walking around.

Legs

Now that you have your feet done, you want to be in them to measure where your knees are. You need to be able to bend at the knee when you walk also.. Granted, you wont be able to do jumping jacks, but you should be able to move decently.

1. Basically you are making a rectangle around your calf. make sure it is a little wider than your robot foot.

2. Once done, just start adding little details such as curves, or boxes to give it more detail. remember to put a “lid” on the top of these legs. i just made cut out a trapezoid where your leg can slide in.

3. Now take some of your thin strips of wood and glue them inside the leg piece.. it should be right about where your ankle is and just a little below the top of the shoe. The reason for this is that it will prevent your leg from being super loose inside that big box of a leg. Also, gluing the strip a little lower will allow the leg to be off the floor and not dragging.

4. Starscream has little exhaust pipes on the back of his calves. I cut a poster tube length-wise and then created a cap on the top.

Chest / Waist Piece

I decided to make the Chest and waist piece as one whole part.

Start with measuring the width and height of your body .
once you have a box, cut along the sides of the box. You should have your front and back piece.
cut the arm holes in
attach the front and back pieces with velcro.

Cockpit and Fan Details

Fan details

I cut 2 circles out and just cut a cross pattern in them. I encased each fan inside a cardboard ring and then glued it to the inside of the boxes on either side of the cockpit.

Cockpit
i carefully used some construction paper and curved it in the middle of the chest to sketch out how i wanted the suit. i did mine in three pieces (pic 2)

once cut out of cardboard, i glued the yellow acetate on the inside. I then took some comic cardboard and glued it to the inside of the acetate to give it some sturdiness. (pic 3)

Back Harness

Take your metal pipes an and attach them together. it should look like an "H". (pic 1)
Unscrew them so now the middle part of the H will be attached to the wing. This way you can screw the wing into the back piece.
cut out 4 "fins" that will attach to the back and hide the harness for the wings. (pic 2)
encase the pipe in cardboard and glue them to the outer fin. i then added some pvc pipe to act as a brace for stability inside the actual harness. (pic 3)
Once all secured in, glue the covers over the fins.

Wings

Sketch out the wings first.

Cut out 3 layers of cardboard per wing. Make sure that when you cut the wings out, you have the grain of the cardboard going in intersecting directions. This will create more stability when you glue it together. once all layers are glued together.

I was fortunate enough to have a tv box laying around, so i used them to get full size wing cutouts.

After this, i attached the other half of the metal "H" pipes. (pic1).

Pelvis

1. Now that you have your Chest/ waist and thighs, you can determine how large you need your pelvis to be. It is 4 pieces (2 sides, crotch, and butt).
Picture 1 is not of Starscream's pelvis, but concept is the same
pic 2 is of starscreams hip piece's. the before is the top row, the redo is the bottom.
pic three is Starscream's butt piece (old on left, new on right).

2. It really just depends on the transformer. I just added some random details based on the pictures i found.

3. Once completed, you can attach this to the waist through the use of velcro and fabric.

Hands, Forearms, and Biceps

In-depth explanation in the shrapnel tutorial

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Tran...

Cliff-note version:

Biceps

- Make a box around your bicep. you will be attaching this to the shoulder piece with velcro

Forearm

- Make a box around your forearm.Don't forget to angle the top near your elbow

Hands

- you are essentially making 3 rings per finger (2 for your thumb)

Shoulders

Shoulder

Make a 3 sided cube with a top to it that is slightly bigger than the arm hole of your chest. You will attach this shoulder piece to the chest with elastic, to give you some mobility.

Arm gun

Take your PVC pipe ( i found a super skinny pipe with an adapter), and put your adapter at the end of it.
Wrap carboard around the top end of the tube
you can either use some bondo, spackle, or just make a little dome cap for the bottom end end
encase the top half of the cardboarded pipe in a cardboard box which will be glued directly into the shoulder
Add fins and a cap (I used shampoo bottle caps) to the top of the box for details