Mars Attacks!!

"Being a galactic overlord isn't the easiest of jobs. There's rebellions to quell, planets to crush beneath my heel and hell, even stars to make go super-nova.

The worst thing is - you've got to be 'on' constantly. Can't afford any slip-ups with the cutthroats and brigands I call my crew. That also includes looking my best all the time.

My beard was getting a little long and unruly so when my fleet entered the Sol system, I decided to give you humans a break. Even though I was feeling particularly cranky.

If I could find someone who could make my goatee look presentable, I'd allow your little blue-and-green planet a chance to join the Empire on their own, instead of enslaving the population as I was planning to do.

I may be ruthless and despotic, but I do keep my word. It's a point of honor with me. Just ask the inhabitants of Canopus IV ... oh, wait. You can't. I told them I'd blow up their planet if they didn't bow to my will. And they didn't.

But, hey - that proves my point, right? RIGHT?

I tracked down this Terran named "Russ Sharek" and I was mightily impressed by the fact that he didn't faint dead away when I teleported into his studio. I told him what I wanted and the stakes that were involved.

He got to work right away - and I *am* one happy conqueror. Beautiful, simple, elegant and quickly and skillfully done.

You've got Russ Sharek here to thank for your continued existence. And you'd better be nice to him ... OR ELSE."

Praxis
Commander and Overlord
Galactic Third Fleet
S'karian Empire

For the longest time, I've always wanted a really good looking, evil alien mask along the lines of Ming the Merciless from the old (and new) Flash Gordon productions. But I never found anything that quite fit the bill.

Then, I came across some of the custom creations from Wes Branton at Composite Effects, a special-effects studio out of Baton Rouge. What struck a chord with me was his creation of a blue genie reminiscent of the djinn from Aladdin:


So I explained what I wanted to Wes and he was more than happy to oblige. Like Andrea and Russ, it's a great feeling to find someone who's not only extremely talented and creative, but amazingly down-to-earth, with a killer sense of humor, and has a VERY firm grasp on customer service.

Wes and I can discuss a project and our back-and-forth produces an amazing result.

When I got the mask, I noticed that the beard was a little longer than I had wanted it - Russ, of course, being the completely twisted individual I know and love - came up with the idea of an "alien beard ornament" to keep the goatee in shape. So, I promised him a product shot. And a testimonial to go with it.

So, I can add Wes Branton to the short list of "amazingly capable artists" and more kudos to Russ for making a galactic despot a happy camper.

HALO - the saga begins

Well, it's been a while. Other things have been taking up a bit of my time, but that hadn't stopped me from pondering my next project. And yes, that means getting another costume done. I still seem to be on my video game kick. First it was Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 5; now it's the Master Chief (or a Spartan II supersoldier) from the HALO series of games on the Microsoft xBox. I came across several videos on YouTube with guys in HALO armor (though the proper term is 'Mjolnir Armor' ) - some of it was just plain sad and laughable, others were some damn impressive pieces that folks were wearing. I did try to contact one company - Nightmare Armor Studios - but the place went out of business. Several places offered do-it-yourself kits, but I don't have the time and inclination (or wide open spaces) to take on a project like that. Some of the places that offered full sets had a one-size-fits all policy (which from experience, never works) or were way to expensive. For some historical background:

MJOLNIR battle armor is a fictional suit of battle armor in the HALO series of video games and novels used by the Spartan II super soldiers, most notably by the series's protagonist Master Chief.

This powerful armor has recharging energy shields, and a head link for AIs' (Artificial Intelligence).

In the 26th century, soldiers have used performance enhancing equipment for hundreds of years, and the MJOLNIR battle armor represents the current pinnacle of military technology. The armor was envisioned by Dr. Catherine Halsey, who realized that no normal human could wear the armor without literally shattering every bone in his body through a horrifyingly violent and uncontrollable chain reaction of muscle spasms; The armor endowed its wearer with a very powerful amplification of physical strength, to the point that a human without surgical augmentations and a lifetime of grueling physical training would be crushed by his own amplified strength. However, the Spartan II Project super soldiers are capable of using the armor with devastating expertise.

The suit of armor stayed in the "nice to have" category until I came across one of the best looking suits made by a Canadian FX company - FilmProps Inc. Shawn (the owner) had posted a few videos on YouTube and I was completely blown away by how professional the suits looked. Video link is here. (I haven't had exactly great luck with Canadian vendors - long-time readers will remember my so-so Boromir clasps from Wareham Forge and my rusty scabbard from Darksword Armory) So I contacted Shawn and we started to talk about the suit. He would make it to my measurements and I could have it in any color I wanted. The suit itself is made of a two-part polyurethane resin used for rotocasting. The material is poured in layers and cured in silicone molds to create thick, durable armor. It would include LEDs in the helmet as well as in the weapon. (weapon? Of course, I got a weapon!) So I sent off a custom measurement chart to Shawn and let the project begin. I decided to get a medium-dark metallic blue with battle damage. I must say, third time is the charm - Shawn was a pleasure to work with; he always responded to emails, always kept me up to date with the suit's progress and was good enough to pose in the armor for me before he boxed it up and shipped it. As it turned out, Shawn and I were approximately the same size, so this was an added bonus! Here are some of the work-in-progress pics that he sent me. I'll be posting more pics as well as the adventures I had getting into the suit the first time.

Housekeeping

Due to the recent spate of comments that have nothing to do with the blog itself - from buying plasma TVs to colon-cleansing in more languages than you can shake a stick at ... I'm turning on comment moderation for the blog.

What does this mean?

This means that when someone posts a comment, I get a notification, and I can choose to "publish" it on the blog or throw it away. I can't edit the comment itself, only decide whether or not it should go into the circular file.

Apologies in advance.

Resident Evil 5 - Outtakes

I had gone the lycra route with the shirt, but after I received it, I wasn't that happy with it. I always screw myself when I think I'm saving money - I should learn by now.

With that said, I tried the shirt on again and did a little bit of original interpretation of the Chris Redfield character with it.

Looking at it once more, it really isn't too bad ... what do you think?

Resident Evil 5 - Chris Redfield

I walk past a Gamestop store every day to and from work. One day, they had a picture of this incredibly striking character for the Resident Evil 5 game. After a bit of research, I found out that the person I was seeing was Chris Redfield.

The game begins as Chris Redfield is deployed to Kijuju, Africa, to join Sheva Alomar and apprehend Ricardo Irving, who is attempting to sell a bio-organic weapon on the black market. Along the way, they witness a local being fed a parasite, which quickly takes control of his body, turning him into a Majini. From here on, almost all Kijuju locals seen by Chris and Sheva have been turned into Majini. While moving to the location of Irving's deal, Chris and Sheva find Alpha team dead, except Captain DeChant, who gives them a hard drive containing data about Irving before he dies.

As the duo progress, a friendly helicopter is downed, and all nearby BSAA units are ordered to go to the crash site. At the crash site, the duo is ambushed by Majini on motorcycles, but are then saved by Delta team. Among Delta team is Josh Stone, who gives Chris data from a hard drive that contains a picture of Jill Valentine, his old partner, who was presumed dead after a confrontation with Albert Wesker. Chris and Sheva continue, and eventually confront Irving. During this confrontation, a hooded figure arrives to aid Irving's escape. Irving leaves behind files which indicate that an oil field in the Marshlands, which was used to test out bio-organic weapons, is the deal location. The duo report this to headquarters, then attempts to regroup with Delta team. Upon arriving at the rendezvous point, they find that Delta team has also been defeated by a bio-organic weapon, but Sheva can't find Josh among them. After defeating the bio-weapon, Sheva suggests reporting back to HQ, being the two sole survivors, but Chris expresses an interest in finding out if Jill is still alive. They continue on to the Marshlands, eventually finding Josh alive, and when he asks what happened to the rest of Delta team, Sheva tells him, "We're the only three left". They pursue Irving on a boat, but he escapes again and the oil field is blown up while the two escape with Josh on a speedboat. The trio locate and catch up to Irving's boat, and Chris and Sheva board it. Irving confronts the duo, and then injects himself with a virus, which causes him to mutate into a gigantic beast. Chris and Sheva defeat the mutated Irving, who is detached from the gigantic beast body, and upon death, he tells Chris that he will find answers to his questions in a nearby cave.
The outfit itself was interesting - white, black and OD green shirt, carpenter-type jeans, black gloves, hiking boots, a harness of some sort and some other accouterments. Plus an automatic pistol and a tactical earpiece/microphone.

Sounded easy, right? I thought the only difficulty I'd have was the shirt. And you know how I love a challenge ...

I was wrong.

The Easy Pieces

I already had the hiking boots and I also had a pair of Hatch Specialist gloves. All I needed to do with them was to slice off the fingers. I found a perfect earpiece/microphone from a dollar store. The item was wired to fit into a phone, so again, out with a pair of scissors to finish it off. I also had a military web belt and a drop-leg holster from a previous costume.

Chris also appeared to have a cellphone on his belt. I found a great beat-up Nextel phone and a holder for it on eBay. Total price, including shipping - $7.50. Officer Redfield also appeared to have some round thingie on his belt loop. A carabiner compass took care of that. Ebay again, $3.00.

So far so good!

Chris also appeared to have some magazine pouches on his belt. Those I didn't have, and trying to legally get any type of firearms equipment in New York City is harder than finding hen's teeth. A number of my friends are police officers, so I crossed by fingers and called up one of my buddies.

"Hey Steve, do you have any spare Glock magazines?"

A pause. "What do you want magazines for? You don't have a gun ..."

I explained what I needed them for and he laughed. "I'm pretty sure we have a couple of damaged ones we were going to throw out. Those good enough?"

"Perfect! They only have to look good in a mag holder!"

"You need one of those too?"

You don't ask, you don't get. "I'm looking for something that I can tuck into a pair of pants or on a belt."

"We've got some old paddle ones we don't use any more. I'll bring that over with the mags."

The pants that the character was wearing looked to be carpenter jeans. "OK," I thought, "those should be easy." Well, yes and no. It was easy to find carpenter jeans. It was not easy to find carpenter jeans in a 28" waist. {28" waist? Yep. Well ... I fill a 28" slim jean fits quite well ... All those extra ab exercises - reverse crunches, side planks, regular crunches, etc. are paying off handsomely -- including (unfortunately) to my tailor!} Plus carpenter jeans are loose fit jeans - the character had snug ones. So, off I went to American Eagle outfitters. I bought two pair of jeans on sale. I brought them to a dry cleaner/tailor I know and showed him the pictures.

"Can you add some extra material to reinforce the knee area and make a pocket?"

"End of the week okay?"

"Woo-hoo!"

The First (sort-of) Snag

The shirt patches posed somewhat of a problem. One patch each was being sold as part of a "Collector's Edition" of the Game for the Xbox-360. I did have some very high-resolution art for the patches and brought them to some local embroidery stores to get an estimate. They were quite cheap -- if I wanted to buy a hundred of them.

Nope.

Ebay, as usual, came to the rescue. About a week after the game was released, the patches starting appearing on the auction sites. I did need to spend a little more than I had expected for the patches (one I got for $10, the other for $12), but still, the progress on this outfit was coming along quite well!

The Shirt

Now that the patches were had, off to the shirt. I thought of getting some UnderArmour compression shirts and having Andrea sew the black and white pieces onto an OD green base shirt, but -- she doesn't work in lycra. Then the lightbulb went off - David.

David of the "300" Spartan leather Speedo fame.

I gave him a call and explained what I wanted - not a problem!! As with all of David's work, the leather shirt is a work of art. The added bonus here was his comments as he was measuring me - "You've really developed nice big shoulders and a very trim waist!" We've also added a slight bit of padding around the shoulders and on the sleeves; ONE - it smoothes the leather out a bit and TWO - it makes getting in and out of the shirt a LOT easier. The sides of the shirt have the four-way stretch mesh and a hidden zipper.

A hidden zipper?

Well, when we were going through the fittings, in order to get the shirt as snug as possible, there was no way to get it off once it was pinned on! David had to cut it off me! These are the little bows to reality that doing a costume like this takes.

The Second Snag - The Harness

I would have thought that this would have been an easy item to find, but all the searches for "tactical vest" or "military vest" or "SWAT" or "MOLLE" didn't find me what I was looking for. I even came across a pair of military suspenders that were close, but no cigar.

Then I found something from K2 Scuba that was exactly what I was looking for. Perfect down to the connectors on the front. In speaking with both the owner Tevis and his incredibly talented sales rep Summer, I found out that the harness needed a backplate to go with it. After all, it is supposed to support an air tank! Nevertheless, a little bow to reality was in order. I was also pleasantly surprised when Summer and I were discussing what size harness I would need. After giving her the measurements, her response of "You're so buff!" was quite an ego-booster.


The "Big Knife"

Chris also appears to have a large Bowie or other type of knife on the harness on his shoulder. Looking at regular sites on the Internet, it came as a surprise that large knives aren't that popular. Swords are, but unless you're willing to spend a couple of hundred dollars (which I wasn't) there was none to be had. From some other screen captures of the game, it appeared that the "big knife" looked like some type of machete. But regular machetes are pretty big suckers, too - too big to wear on the harness.

So ... back to Ebay.
I found a "small machete" - about 16" long - which was perfect for the costume. Cost: about $40.


DOH!! and Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Now the hard part ... how to attach the scabbard to the harness/backpack? I thought ... magnets! Great idea! I got completely caught up with that idea and found some neodymium magnetic badge holders through a Google search. They were two-piece items -- one piece had adhesive on one side of a small metal plate, and the other piece had a metal plate with magnets. I figured I could attach the adhesive side on the leather scabbard.
After I placed the order, I smacked my head ... the backplate was aluminum! Summer and Tevis told me since it was for the costume, why go with steel? The aluminum plate is much lighter. True. But it's also non-magnetic.

Enter Sumo Glue. With this polyurethane glue, I was able to glue the plates holding the magnets to the aluminum backplate. The plain metal plates attached to the leather scabbard with the adhesive tape on them.

So ... what do you think?