Dragon*Con 2011 Part 1: Wayne's Story

After a year straight of preparations, Dragon*Con 2011 is now just a memory. Just like last year the con did not disappoint and lived up to the hype we put on it. This year was particularly interesting as we entered our first Dragon*Con costume contest, met some of the celebrities in the prop and geek community, and learned that things don’t always turn out like you plan. Here is my take on the epicness of the weekend.

Thursday

This year we discovered that although the convention officially starts on Friday, the party is well underway starting Thursday night. People were already going around in costume and socializing on “day zero” and we know for next year to get to Atlanta early on Thursday rather than midafternoon. We did not suit up for the night due to other plans, specifically meeting up with Harrison Krix, better known as Volpin Props. Dave and I have talked to him online here and there throughout the year, but this was the first time we all met in person. We presented him with his “My First Fiberglass” certificate for successfully using our fiberglass technique on his Thomas helmet, so hopefully it shows up in his next drunken casting video…


Group Shot of 2Story and Volpin Props

After meeting Harrison we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and prepare for Friday. Space is very limited in the hotel room so drastic measures needed to be taken to make sure we didn’t break anything.



Friday

Friday we managed to get up around 5 am to get our badges, mainly because we were so full of adrenalin and anticipation we couldn’t sleep. After several hours in line and almost reaching the point of beating the super nerds in front of us to a pulp, we finally got our passes and proceeded to put on our Daft Punk gear.


David having his glove attached

I don’t have any pictures of the suits on my camera as it is very hard to manipulate with the gloves on, plus I can only see blurs with the helmet on. Judging from the camera flashes we were a big hit, and I am pretty sure this is the only full pair of Daft Punk that was going around the con. David will have some good shots in his post, including what we believe will be the most confusing picture on the internet. This is one of my favorite shots, as a lot of people really wanted to see these three suits together.


Daft Punk and Deadmau5

Around lunch time some stomach pain that started Thursday evening began to get real bad. I won’t go into details but I was starting to worry about throwing up in the helmet or worse. Still we pushed on and made it back to the hotel for a photo shoot with David’s friend Chase, who took some great shots of our ODST last year. The pictures should be up this week. After the shoot we went back to the hotel to rest before the big completion.

Even after getting out of Daft Punk I was feeling terrible. My stomach was a mess, I was sweating, and I seriously thought I was not only going to miss the contest, but miss the rest of the convention. After trying some Hail Mary remedies of antacids, sprite, and Gatorade, I managed to improve a little, and knowing I had a really good crew with me made the decision that I was going to make it to that contest regardless if I was going to leave it under my own power or not. After preparing a cooler with drinks, ice, and medication, we suited me up in Delta and made our way to the Friday Night Costume Contest.


Go Team Delta!

Judging went very well and most of the other contestants complimented us greatly on our suit. After several hours of waiting for prejudging to end it was time to make it over to the main ball room to walk across the stage.


Walking on the Stage

When it came to my turn I walked on stage and noticed that there were A LOT more people in the audience than I though. Imagine filling two large movie theaters full of people, that is what I was looking at. The M.C. started to read my information and I strutted my stuff, and then pulled the trigger to start the drill…

The drill did not turn. The chuck came loose.

In a desperate attempt to get the drill to spin I held the trigger down and kept jerking my arm trying to get it to catch. Finally, it caught, the drill spun, and I raised the whole assembly over my head.

The crowd went wild!

After all the contestants went on they announced the winners. I was a little disappointed we did not win in the major categories, but we did receive one of the few honorable mentions. I still think the crowd cheered loudest when I walked back on the stage.


Let’s Hear it For Delta!

After the competition we headed back to the room. I wanted to pose for pictures but the cool packs were well melted and I would have passed out in less than 30 min. Originally I was planning to put Thomas back on and head to the masquerade ball, but I was exhausted so I put on an ODST shirt and hit the floor for a bit before crashing and heading back to bed.

Saturday

Apparently I was so tired the night before I forgot to hit save on my phone when setting the alarm clock, so we did not get up early enough to march in the parade. In retrospect this actually was a good thing as the sleeping in made me feel a lot better. As David, Jecca, and Ethan made their way to the parade to watch I stayed behind for a few min to get my Aperture Scientist (the Portal Gun) costume ready. When we were planning for the con I thought that I was going to be in Thomas for most of the con and the Portal Gun was only going to make an appearance on Sunday. I decided not to go that route due to the visibility in the helmet. If I stayed in Thomas, I wouldn’t be able to actually see any of the convention and my memories would literally be of blurs. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the Portal Gun since it is heavy and I was kind of cheating by wearing a lab coat and calling it a costume, but I hit the floor. To my surprise I was grabbed by more people wanting pictures than when I had the proton pack the year before! Portal was really big this year, and I found several people dressed as Chell, a bunch of scientist, and even a few personality cores.


Little Chell

In the afternoon I changed out and grabbed Delta’s helmet for the “Meet the Winners” costuming panel. Although they encouraged winners to bring the whole suit, I only brought the helmet to save some time and let the rest of the crew enjoy the con. I loved the reaction I got from the crowd when the helmet made a loud thud when I set it on the table. The panel was very informative and provided some excellent tips for next year. After the panel I took the helmet out for one last spin before dinner. Even without the suit, plenty of people stopped for a photo op.


Splicer, Delta, and Little Sister

After dinner I hit the floor again with the Portal Gun and ran into Jonathan Coulton. For those of who don’t know, he is the musician who composed “Still Alive” and “Want You Gone” for the two Portal games. He actually stopped me as I was walking by so he could check out the gun. After explaining how it was made I asked him to sign it. At first he didn’t want to mess up the gun, but I insisted and now like the proton pack the Portal Gun is a collectable instead of a prop.


Jonathan Coulton and Crew Examining the Portal Gun


Seal of Approval

Sunday

Most of Sunday was spent once again showing off the Portal Gun and taking pictures of other great costumes, which are all up on our Flickr account, so check them out. One I have to mention here is the unbelievable Wheatly puppet from Portal 2. In addition to being incredibly accurate, the eye moves AND BLINKS, plus it talks! I think this girl won best prop at the cosplay contest.


Wheatly Puppet

We also ran into Crystal with her Luka Megurine costume which features the headphones and arm display that we built. I think she did a pretty good job with the outfit and it was cool to see another one of our creations getting appreciated at the convention.


Luka Megurine at the convention.

Later in the evening I went and saw the masquerade costume contest. The first hour was pretty good and they had some really great skits. My favorite was a where a 6 year old dressed as a little sister was saved from splicers by the Kick Ass Big Daddy. Then there were about five skits in a row that were, painfully, painfully terrible, and I ended up walking out because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I did get some ideas though for possible acts for next year.

All in all the convention was a blast and defiantly worth the effort we put into preparing for it. As far as were we are going from here prop wise, it’s a bit of a mystery. There are a lot of projects we want to do, from the complex and huge to the simple but unique. There is also the question of how much time do we want to spend on a single suit again. Personally, in the immediate future I am planning to make a deadmau5 head for Halloween and casual wear and plan to take another look as the wiring for the Tron versions of Daft Punk. As far as the next big project or which contest if any we’ll compete in at Dragon*Con, I really don’t know, we are just going to have to wait and see.

Check out all the great costumes we saw on our Flickr page!

Finally, here is a preview of my next short term project which may lead to something considerably more complex for D*Con 2011.

Luka Megurine Props

Before I get into the details about the what, why, and how of the build, I am going to break tradition and show the final product first so that when I post this link on facebook the correct preview image shows up. So with that in mind, here is the prop that this post will cover:



Now onto the details. Back in July when we were wrapping up Subject Delta and Daft Punk, I was chatting with a friend of ours who makes amazing sewn costumes about what she should be for Dragon*Con. At some point in the conversation, the character Luka Megurine came up. Luka is a Vocaloid; a digital pop start with digitally created voice and specific character design to accompany the software. During “live” concerts, the voice is played back accompanied by a live band while a holographic image is projected onto the stage. The program is huge in Japan, and recently made its North American debut at this year’s Anime Expo.


Luka Megurine Character Model


Live Performance

Since I had some time to spare with Delta and the Portal Gun wrapped up, I offered to make the headphones and arm display while she made the dress. The head phones started off using a piece of 2” PVC and balsa to create the proper shape of the ear piece. After a lot of sanding and putty work, the piece was molded in Rebound 25 and two castings were pulled to serve as basis for the working copies.


PVC and Balsa Rough Sculpt


Adding Window Details


Painted Buck Ready for Molding

The tab that connects the ear pieces to the headband was sculpted from balsa and added to each working ear piece copy. Additional putty work was done at this stage as it is easier to sand a surface smooth on resin than wood due to the grain. After putty work was complete, the pieces received a coat of gloss paint and another; final mold was made with Rebound 25.


Final Bucks Ready for Molding

Each ear piece was cast in fiberglass and then the windows were trimmed out for lighting. Windows were made with Lexan painted with solid maroon and transparent blue paint. The ear pieces were each painted gold and the windows attached with hot glue.


Ear Pieces Trimmed


Windows Attached

The lighting elements were created using four blue LEDs soldered on circuit board. The lights are powered by two N size batteries wired in series to provide 3 VDC, so no resistors were needed on this build. Three wires run along the head band to complete the circuit. The lights are turned on and off by removing one of the batteries.


Light Boards for Headphones

The headband is a regular headband from JCPenny that was wrapped in brown fabric to match the character’s. It is attached to the ear pieces with a combination of bolts and Goop. Gold trim was added based on one of the character’s earlier renderings. The mic was taken from a computer headset.


Wrapping the Headband in Fabric


Gold Trim and Mic Added

The arm display started as a layered block of balsa sanded to a curve to fit the wearer’s arm and allow room for the electronics. The piece was coated with putty and sanded to a 400 grit finish. The display window was made using pieces of plastic and the speaker port was shaped using a cap from a spray bottle. The keys were made by cutting the rubber buttons off a TV remote and gluing them to the buck with silicon.


Original Block


Final Buck with Keys Glued On

The piece was molded and then cast in fiberglass. After trimming the piece, it was painted by alternating between black and brown paint to achieve the proper dark brown. The keys were masked of and painted golden pearl.


Painted Panel

The display window was created by printing a sound wave pattern onto transparent decal sheet and applying it to a piece of lexan. This was then hot glued to the back of the panel with hot glue. The display is illuminated by two LEDs powered by a single disk battery. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of the electronics as I was in a rush to deliver the piece.

Here are the glamour shots of the final product:









We will try to post some pictures of the full costume when the dress is finished. David is in the process of finishing up our fifth and final project for this year’s Dragon*Con, and then we’ll be making our final preparations to travel down to Atlanta. We hope you all have enjoyed seeing us make cool stuff this year and hope to see a lot of you in person at D*Con! We will update our facebook page as much as possible to keep you updated on when the various projects are wandering around the convention.

See more pictures on our flickr page.

Daft Punk: FINAL

So this project hasn't been covered very well on the blog, and that's mainly due to the fact that I've been focusing on completing it rather than blogging about it. So in what seems to be my new blogging style, I'll just hit on the highlights.

After both of the helmet castings and all of the hand pieces were cleaned up and prepared for chroming, they were shipped off to Creations N Chrome in California. Right off the bat, the Thomas helmet was damaged during shipping. Something had either fallen on the box, or the box fell, but either way, the helmet was not in any condition to be chromed. A spare casting was rushed out to replace it soon after and they were able to maintain my requested due date, despite the new helmet being shipped a week after the original requested arrival date. While my overall experience with CnC was pretty good, the quality of work they returned to me did not match the quality of work I've seen on their other projects. The main problem that occurred on both helmets was pitting in the chrome finish. Guy's helmet was also damaged in-house. While they did repair it, the results were less than desirable. I've done enough ranting about it on Facebook, so I won't do it here, but I will say that I am not convinced in the least that the pitting problem was a result of anything I did on my end. Despite their defects, I am happy with the finished helmets overall. However, I cannot endorse CnC right now. If you choose to use them for your own project, it should not be done so at my recommendation. Results may vary. ;)

Anyways, completing the overall look are tuxedos from Men's Warehouse. Specifically, our costumes are intended to be replicas of Daft Punk as they appeared at the TRON Legacy movie premier. This is definitely a project I'm proud of. Enjoy the photos, and please check out the flickr album for more! These costumes will be debuted at Dragon*Con 2011 throughout the weekend.

More photos in our flickr album!

Subject Delta Part 4: Complete Suit

The last month has been a mad dash to get this thing finished. Luckily things started to come together pretty well and the final product came out better that I could imagine.

We’ll start with the glove armor. The back hand and knuckle guards were sculpted from balsa and molded so I could use fiberglass pieces. The Delta was made by layering tape and then applying bondo. When the tape was removed I had a perfect engraved symbol.


Master Positive for Glove Plates

The approach that worked for the finger tips was to stuff an identical glove with masking tape and apply resin directly to the glove, thus making the fabric part of the composite material. Bondo was then added to smooth the surface out and washers added to the tips. The fingers were cut off and tape removed, which gave me fingers that fit perfectly on my gloved hand!







The plasmid irises were made using layers of cardboard cut into small circle and arranged inside a PVC fitting. Again, molds were made so I am actually wearing resin copies.


Formation of the Iris

The boots were the piece I was dreading the most, as if they were crappily made I would have a hard time walking. I started by getting a pair of boots that actually fit and built up a foam structure around them. The boots are zip tied to a piece of plywood sandwiched between the foam to keep them on my feet. The foam was paper mached to help hold everything together. The outer cover was made using poster board and duck cloth as well as grommets for the shoe laces. Fiber glass caps were made for the toe guards. The soles of the shoes are cut up car floor mats glued to the bottom with goop.


Foam Build Up of Boots


Wrapping Fabric Around Boot


Full Boots

The belt weights were made by carving 3 blocks with different types of damage and making molds. 15 copies were cast and weathered, and attach to the main belt with zip ties.


Casted Weights


Painted Weights

Using lessons I learned building the portal gun, I made two boards for the Adam and Eve tanks with the appropriate super bright LEDs. The front lights on the helmet are actual bulbs to provide a soft yellow glow rather than the clean light from an LED. A 4” fan was installed in the right tank to blow air into the helmet. In total there are 20 AA batteries in the helmet allowing it to run for 8 hours.


Adam and Eve Tanks


Helmet Lights on

With construction complete, Dave and I began weathering everything with acrylic paints and mineral spirits. The jump suit also received an ample amount of spray paint.


Dive Suit


David Meating the Drill

After a week of weathering it was time to put the full suit on for the first time. This is the result of over 8 months of work:


Proof I am inside the suit























And some movies of walking and the drill in action:




I am very pleased the look of the suit. Personally I have never made shoes, or moving props, or anything like this before so it is a major accomplishment for me and defiantly a bit of a self-esteem boost. We ran into a major issue through which I down played for a long time, heat exhaustion. For this shoot I had the helmet fan on and the two front ice packs in the cold vest. At the time I was planning to make the gasket for under the helmet which would not have fit with the back two in. I was already sweating even before I put the suit on as the weather in Huntsville has regularly been over 90 degrees this week, and the shop is not air conditioned. The padding didn’t help anything either. After about 20 min the heat finally hit me like a brick, and we had to get me out of the suit. The air conditioning at the convention will help by actually putting cool, dry air into the helmet, but padding will be removed and much of the Rothco jumpsuit will be removed. Additionally, I will be wearing the full cold vest with all four packs as well as some cold bandanas. We are planning another photo-shoot on Saturday so we’ll see how much the improvements help then.

If you want to see the suit in person, you will need check out the Friday Night Costume Contest on September 2, at Dragon*Con and cheer us on. Due to the thermal issues and mobility restrictions I will not be walking around the convention in this suit as we did with the ODST or the RCGB. Those suits are much, much more comfortable than this thing.

Thank you everybody who has been following the build. This was a personal attempt to push the limit of my abilities and win or lose at D*Con this was a huge success. Your comments on facebook and the forums keep us working to impress you all.

And finally a big thanks to my partner in crime David. There is no way on earth this ever would have happened without his help. Last year when we finished the ODST he said that that project proved that we could build just about anything, and I think all our projects this year have demonstrated that point. Check back soon for updates on our Daft Punk Suits and we hope to see you all at D*Con!

Check out all the Delta Related Pictures Here