Kids Star Lord Costume

This is my Star Lord Costume made for my son this halloween. As Usual I try and make what I can for as little as possible to keep costs down. Here is the finished product.

To make This I used :

Star Lord Mask - Materials

helagaks star lord helm foam v2.pdo - Pepakura File (Modified to my sons head size ) -Original File is included printed out on A4 sheets of paper.

One sheet of Cardboard 1m x 1m

EVA Foam - I bought kids play mats from ebay (16 SQ FT Interlocking EVA Soft Foam Floor Mats) - only use one out of the 4 of these mats.

Packs of light craft Foam sheets - 2mm ( Found these in my local pound shops )

Pack of 4 strong plastic twisty drinking straws

Two Packs of Kids Bubbles

One Male Foam Head from Ebay - No Needed but was very handy for positioning the mask while working

One Metal Angel Eye LED Car illuminated Latching Type 16mm Push Button Switch - Ebay

one 9 volt LED Strip - Ebay

One clear plastic Sheet and Red permanent Marker

Polycraft SG2000 Paintable Fast Cast Polyurethane Liquid Plastic Casting Resin - 1 Kg Kit

Rocket Boosters - Materials

Two Packets of kids Bubbles

One pack of test tube shaped hello kitty bubbles

Two polystyrene Eggs

Packs of light craft Foam sheets - 2mm

Eight Red LEDs

Infinity Stone Orb - Materials

One Polystyrene Ball

Tissue paper

tooth picks

purple LEDs

Purple Plastic Folder cut into strips

Star Lords Coat - Materials

One Faux leather coat brown - second hand on Ebay

Maroon TRG Super Colour Spray 150ml - Leather, Vinyl & Canvas Dye - amazon

Other Accessories

Star Lord Gun - Bought the Nerf version from Amazon and spray painted it

Boot Covers - Going to use foam cut to size

Bag - Cut from old laundry bag

Extras needed

Three 9 volt battery connectors - Ebay

2 Tin of Gray Primer Spray paint

1 Tin of Metal effect Spray Paint

1 Tin of Chrome effect spray paint

PVA Glue

Loads of cheap disposable brushes

Masking Tape and loads of it

Pieces of A4 paper

Tools Needed

Heat gun

Glue Gun

Sharp Cutting blade or stanley knife

Scissors

soldering iron

Sandpaper

Metal File

Patience of a Saint ;)

Like I said I used helagaks star lord helm foam v2.pdo and basically resized the printout to fit my sons head. This was done very roughly. It was printed out as it is on A4 paper , cut out and put together with tape . I placed this on my sons head and was of course too big. So I put it on my own and it fitted. So I measured my head dimensions then my sons and worked out that his was 83% smaller than my own. When I printed the design next I reduced the size by 85% (just rounded up the percentage ). Made it out of paper again and taped together . Perfect.

Once I had this I again printed out the design this time in colour , cut out the pieces and glued them to the cardboard sheet.

Each Piece was cut out and again put together with Tape and placed on my sons head again to make sure.

I now have my template and will be cutting it up as I make each piece from the foam.

The Foam Pieces are cut out using a sharp blade and using the heat gun heated on both sides and then bent by hand to the required shape. this takes a bit of getting used to and always cut out your piece slightly larger than the finished product.

So Take each section from your cardboard template and duplicate this using the foam. The best way to do this I found was to bend your bigger than required strip of foam to your desired shape then place your cardboard template on top and using a permanent marker draw around the shape.

Using your sharp blade cut out the new shape and with some sandpaper and a metal file , sand down the cut edges .

Once you have your pieces cut start putting them together the same way you did with the prototype except this time using the hot glue gun on the seams.

(Ignore the pieces around the nose and chin in the pics these where just basic mock ups to keep the shape and size)

This is the tricky part . Getting the mouth pieces to look correct. I have shown the process of measuring and the design I used to cut them out. But I must of did this 5 or 6 times at least. My reason was I had to alter the length of both sides of the mask. My son wears glasses so I quickly realised these would get in the way of the eye piece later on. To solve this I cut the foam head to his exact size and added the glasses frame from plastic straws heated and shaped. You hopefully wont have that Issue if recreating this.

Each piece for the mouth was cut out and numbered for the correct order and glued onto the back of a couple of lollipop sticks. This gave a nice sturdy support at the back. The bottom chin piece was copied from the cardboard prototype.

To remove any seams and to stop me filling in the extra edges after I made the mask longer I decided to cut out pieces from the thin foam to cover the mask. This worked great and helped in giving me the cut-out look needed for each side of the mask.

I also cut out a piece to cover the eyes and cut out the holes my son will use to see through.

To recreate these I have used kids bubbles and strips of thin foam sheet glued on top.

I have created a crude guide to show the process. Add to the end of this a cork or in this case a rubber bottle stopper.

Once this was complete take one of the hard plastic straws and using the heat gun bend it into the desired shape

I find that once you find the shape after heating , dunking it in cold water solidify's it immediately.

Cut it to size and hot glue the tube to the end of the breathing tubes and the back of the ear.

On the front of the tube again heat a hard plastic straw until soft then bend into a 90 Deg angle Cut to size and Hot Glue to the chin piece of the Mask.

Cut out two Strips from the thin foam and glue one around the biggest tube and glue onto the side of the mask as seen in the photos , repeat for the other side.

Finally for the inlets on the side cut apart 2 plastic straws per slot and glue together so both of the bendable parts are on either side

Then cut out the pieces for each side of the face. these will hold the last piece of plastic tubing and help hide the seams at the end of the eye hole mask , connect the finial Unibrow to both pieces then.

I decided on a light up Switch to power the lights . No other reason other than I thought it would look cool . I decided on putting the switch on the side of the head by the ear. This was because this went the furthest out from the head.

As you can see in the pictures it didnt go far enough so I had to add an extra piece of foam.

Once the button was glued into place I set about wiring it too the 9 volt battery and the LED strip.

The wiring diagram is in the photos. The 9 volt battery is hidden inside the other ear. Both are then covered with foam to protect and hide from view.

The wiring is set in such a way that the light on the switch only lights when it is on and draws no power when off.

The LED strip is then fed through a hole in the mask and wrapped around the outside of two plastic tubes which are pushed through the eye holes. The tubes where made from cut pieces of the bubbles tube used earlier.

This way when he looks through the eye holes my son wont see the LEDs directly.

Finally cut out the eye structures from the thin foam using the template and glue in place around the outside of the LEDs.

You should now have the LEDs between the inner and outer pieces of the eyes

ok , the mask can be lightly sanded and sprayed as it is . But I thought Id try out the plastic coating method. This is the process involved.

Firstly lightly sand down the entire mask and remove any rough edges also.

Make sure the LED's are covered.

Next coat the entire mask with PVA Glue using a brush.

Leave to dry then repeat. - Do this until the mask is slightly tacky to the touch.

Next is the plastic process . I am using polycraft 2000 , this involves mixing equal parts of two liquids which then turn to plastic.

One thing to note, this turns very very quickly , within 60 secs its hard and the brush is also plastic and needs replaced. Wear gloves if doing this.

Like the PVA , do about 5 coats and you should be left with a milky like colour on the mask.

Once dry and hard it can be sanded down to make it smooth using fine sandpaper

Once finished I added the plastic pipes that run along the outside of the mouth piece , made from the plastic straws and heat gun.

Ok , during the painting process I was informed that the helmet had to look battle worn and not new and shiny .

So I sprayed the base coat of Grey Primer onto the entire mask. ( The LED's and Button are covered )

Next I covered it in a metal finish Silver.

Then Sprayed the final Grey colour back on top.

I then did the Gold detail of the mask and the side.

Next was to mask out any area that wasn't to have the Chrome touches and the Chrome was sprayed.

Masking tape was removed and essentially the Mask is complete.

To do the battle marks I put tape on areas of the mask, pressed hard then quickly ripped it off again. This revealed the silver underneath giving it that battle chipped look.

Lastly I cut out the Red lenses using clear plastic sheets coloured in with Red Permanent Marker and inserted into the eye sockets.

Ok I have different posts on how some of these where done please follow the links below.

Here is how the rocket boosters where made .... Rocket Boosters

Here is how the Infinity Orb was Made .... Infinity Orb

First though the Coat was created by spraying an old brown jacket with a Maroon fabric Spray

The Gun is a Star Lord Nerf Gun - Masked and Sprayed to the correct colouring - There are quite a few instructables on this so I wont do another on this.

The Belt Buckle was created from foam and went through the same plastic process as the Mask then sprayed with the metallic finish paint and highlighted using a permanent marker.

The Boots these where made from a leather look vinyl sheet and shaped Foam. I used starboardsky Instructable on his boots for inspiration see here ...... Star Lord Boots . I made mine with vinyl instead glued onto a foam structure and at the back I used Velcro straps so they are easy for the child to take on and off. I then used another velcro strap to secure the rocket booster to each boot.