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[sharkgrrl2000]

Hey guys

After last AN I decided to cosplay Omnimon.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs29/f/20...y_OmegaZXA.jpg

I've never made anything like this before and I don't know if I have enough time to pull this off well. What do you guys think?

[ShinobiXikyu]

More details are needed before total strangers can make an actual guess. What's your general experience level for making armour/costumes? Do you have people to help you out? How much time per day do you have to work on it? Do you get bored quick or can you work for ages on end on it? Do you have to wait for online shipments to arrive? What were you going to make it out of?
Now, just by looking at it I'm going to say, probably not unless you can devote a TON of time to it.

[Naiagu]

I would probably have to say, it won't be ready by this year unless you plan on not sleeping for a while. As stated above, shipping, figuring out measurements, painting and fitting it is going to take a while. I've never made anything like that before either but my regular cloth cosplays take about a month or two to fully complete. This seems a bit more work than that. If you have the time to dedicate to that cosplay alone I'd say go for it anyway. Focus on that cosplay. It well get tiresome and nights will get long but keep at it and you may be able to finish in time for con season.

[Ani_BEE]

If you start now and work with the most basic materials (cardbaord) then maybe. You also need to have the storage/ floor space to create this.

http://gundamgeek.tumblr.com/

I lack room so Armour is not something I would tackle. >_<

[sweet_kat22]

Wow something like that would take a long time. I worked on one costume for many months and it was just stretchy fabric. Good luck if you make it next year should be a better time.

[Tsukune]

This is doable in my experience all you really need is patience, materials, and a solid construction plan. I'll try and give you some quick construction pointers but my time is short so this post will be brief.

Recommended materials

I personally would recommend making the highly intricate looking pieces out of super dense foam i can e purchased at lowe's and is used for insulating housing. It is easy to work with and all you need is an exacto knife and a the patience to spend hours carving and sanding your pieces to get the right shape. Resin is my preferred hardener of choice but if your low on cost mod podge is an excellent substitute as it is affordable and dries clear. For the flatter pieces you can use hard cardboard its can e found again at lowe's or home depot and looks a lot like a thin piece of plywood but it's actually hyper-dense water-resistant cardboard. I'm not sure it's exact purpose in construction of houses though I think it's used as bedding/separator when sealing floors. You can do the entire suit out of foam or a combination of foam and cardboard both are very resistant and will make your overall suit lighter. The third option is carving your armor out of upholstery foam and covering ti with fabric, these can be found at walmart of any major sewing store.. I use the last option for making muscles and carving out legs in fursuits.

The Plan

First and foremost you need to design a plan, how will you stand in the suit, and more importantly how ill you move. How much will it weigh, how will you put the suit on and take it off, and what electronics will it have it any. How will the armour attach to the suit. After you finish your design you can begin making your suit you will need to fine tune your design a few times as you make the suit as things on paper don't work the same way as in real life. Gravity is a bitch.

Construction

Once you've gathered the necessary materials I'd recommend making a duct-tape dummy they have proven useful to me over the years for creating an accurate but form fitting costume. You'll need someone's help to make this and tutorials can e found online. Creating a bodysuit to attach the armor and act as a sweat barrier so your sweat doesn't damage the suit is also extremely important. Depending on which method you choose to construction you're armor it can e sewn, glued, and Velcro on with little difficulty. Once your armour is all carved out you can either paint it and seal ti with mod podge or sew fabric over top of it [fabric can be airbrushed for detailed effects]. Remember the internet is your friend you will find lots of tutorials and references all over the internet. And while I myself am not a furry their techniques have proven useful to me. And you will need some of their techniques when making the head, that I can assure you.

Detailing

Detailing is pretty simply though it can be time consuming depending on how much detail work is there. Your luck out since your armor is mostly white. The actual detail work can be done with airbrush, foam or regular paint just make sure if your painting directly on the foam that your properly seal the paint of it could rub of or worse melt. I recommend looking up tutorial for properly painting and detailing armor there are plenty of resources on techniques that can be used.

Electronics

I recommend deciding beforehand what and where the electronics before you start building the related piece. I recommend making glowing eyes it's always an eye catcher and relatively easy to do. You can make eyes y casting an LED it a resin eye than painting the back. Adding and wiring the eyes to turn on at the flip of a switch is a relatively easy thing to do if your confused look up tutorials.

Well I'm outta time, but if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask I'll do my best to help you out just be sure to give proper credit - that's all I ask for.

[sharkgrrl2000]

Thanks for useful advice Tsukune! I am currently not working so I have lots of time on my hands to get this going. I've collected as many pictures as I could and started sketches for each component of the costume. Guess I have to plan this out really carefully

[PurpleDuckie]

It may be possible, even if you are new to making armor / using the materials, but you definitely want to start as soon as possible and give yourself a lot of time to work on it each day.

One way to determine how long it will take is to create a work schedule, giving yourself at least a week of breathing room before the convention. Lets say you can work 5 hours a day on the costume, set a specific job for that day that will take about 3-4 hours and see if you can fit the entire process in that time frame. Remember it's not just making the base of the armor, but painting (and allowing the paint to dry) and working on how each piece will be attached (strapping / velcro / etc)

Why the shorter time amounts? That last week (or more) will allow you to test the costume and fix any minor issues, and add any additional details - plus it's never fun to stress about a costume right before the con! The reason I say 3-4 hours out of a 5 hour work period is because you may need to go to the store to get more supplies, restart what you were working on (in case of mistake), or have it interrupted (friends, family, the need to eat etc). If you do finish in the 3-4 hours it gives you an extra hour to catch up / get a head start in other areas!

Hope this helps you out!