Well, it looks like my "Plan B" was the movie's actual "Plan A", lol. Head almost entirely in the neck it is!

I took a TON of caps from the DVDs today for reference. I'm having a friend make a 3D model of the helmet for me, which will be used to spawn a papercraft base. So, the plan now is:

* Dome - vacu-form. If I have time left over, I'll do a cracked open dome for fun.

* Helmet - removable, no moving parts this version. Fiberglass over papercraft base + general findings for the mouth and vents.

* Neck - heavy fabrics and rubber matting. Zips in the back.

* Bib - rubber matting + findings for the valves and tubing.

* Leg/arm braces - Probably fiberglass.

* Fingertips - Not sure yet. Leaning towards wonderflex as a base + sculpted valve tips.

* Jumpsuit - Scratch-made, probably. I don't want any zippers/seams/pockets that aren't in the movie.

* Belt - Going to hop on the StarWars costuming forums to see what people use to do for their custom belt pouches. I'd like these to be functional because, lol, no pockets.

* Buckle - I'd like to cast this as a resource for other Hellboy cosplayers.

* Boots - Going to ebay/thrift some heavy boots as a base.

I was surprised how much fun I had as Rorschach, mainly due to the sheer amount of people who flagged me down for pics. Having Batman call after you excitedly is a real gem.

I can tell you now that fans of the comic really appreciate the extra details. Most people knew the blood on my coat came from the kidnapping case. It was a revelation for some to learn that this same coat was Rorschach's backup outfit after the prison break.

People do appreciate the grime, a tight-fitting mask, proper hat, unfastened epaulet, etc. I still have some little tweaks to do (like shorten the coat length and rough up all the hems and seams in the coat with sandpaper), but was very happy how people picked up on the weathering job. Now I just need to remember to pose with the journal and sugar cubes!

Edit -- Some minor changes after wearing the mask at Otakon. Here is the short and sweet final tutorial.

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Mask is 3 layers of nylon tights:
1) Black with eyeholes. This layer hides your features.
2) White with eyeholes. This layer keeps the mask from looking grey.
3) White with no eyeholes, black Sharpie inkblot. Black design should go over eyes.

Mask is disposable and will last about a day before getting too grungy. Safety-pin the eyeholes layers tightly so that they don't shift.

Tips:
1) Use a Sharpie instead of a regular fabric marker. The Sharpie is far less likely to bleed.

2) If you can't draw your inkblots over a head form, insert a still piece of cardboard (to catch any ink bleed) and draw your design on the smallish side so it will look good stretched.

3) Go slow with the Sharpie; it likes to catch on the fabric. It feels tedious, but you'll be done before you know it.

It's an impulse costume, but I'd like to do it before the movie hits.

The plan is to cosplay Rorschach as he appears near the end of the comics -- after he's delivered his final "never compromise" to the rest of the team and goes outside.

Breakdown:

Trench coat: I found a good deal on a Burberry tench on ebay. It's amazing because these things cost like $1k and I picked it up for a mere fraction of the cost. Too bad I'm gonna wreck it; I am making it into what I call the "dog coat" -- the coat Rorschach wears when he kills the dogs during his flashback to the little girl's kidnapping case. So, I need to:

* Look at dyeing the coat. Most trenches are khaki, but since the comic and movie palette use secondary colors and browns, I'm going to try to darken it.

* Undo the left epaulette -- a little detail I've always appreciated. It's a nice bit of asymmetry, which is unusual in depictions of the character.

* Add general weathering. The coat is old and Rorschach's clothes are manky to begin with. I'll rough things up a bit with sandpaper and other techniques.

* Add old, dried blood stains.

Scarf, hat, gloves: All easily found on ebay and elsewhere. All will be appropriately weathered. For the hat, it's important to get the correct style of small fedora -- a lot of people get hats with too wide a brim. Also, will be replacing the band with one in purple.

Shoes, trousers: I have the same type of pull-on boots Rorschach wears. At the end of the comic he doesn't wear pinstripes -- it's his grey pants from the prison. So, he probably isn't wearing a suit coat, either. One less layer, thank god.

Mask: I found someone that does a very good looking end-comic mask, so I'm just going to buy this.

Other accessories:

* Sugar cubes. I've found some wrapped, but not the right color. So, I'm going to check my arts & crafts storage to see if I have any green foiled origami paper.

* Calling cards: I plan to make a few of these using india ink -- folded paper, inkblot style.

Though it'd be fun to do the journal or Veidt-branded hairspray, he doesn't have these items at the end of the comic (I still may bring the journal, though, because I like to have a notebook on me). I recommend anyone who is doing pinstriped Rorschach to give these small props a whirl.

I've done a lot of looking at that helmet. Krauss is, quite literally, a smoke and mirrors trick, and once you know what to look for, the effect jumps out at you all over the place.

There's a good picture here that shows you a bit what is going on -- the inner white bubble is the actor's head; it looks like the inside vent apparatus is pasted on either side and mirrors complete the trick of making it look like there is more space. The very front of the helmet seems to have some distortion going on, too, to help with the effect.

When I've paged through some of my video clips frame by frame, I can see weird perspective things happening inside the helmet. If you click through the clip where Johann is introduced to the team -- when we first see his head (0:46), go frame by frame -- the front part of the inner vent is missing when we see him from the side, but when he goes to 3/4 view, suddenly it snaps into place.

I want to say that the mirror/distortion is actually just a special lense fitted inside the front part of the helmet. It feels to me similar to the distortion created by a Fresnel.

Fresnels come in soft PVC and flexible acrylic sheet versions -- I'm just not sure *how* flexible. But they are inexpensive and I've seen them all over the place, so it's time to hunt around and find some possible candidates.