Sunday, November 8, 2015

Halloween 2015: The Purple General

Purple Shogun concept art, from 17-Bit
Hope you had a fun and happy Halloween! I know it was a week ago, but I still want to document my costume work for this year. I'll start with the most complicated of the costumes made, The Purple General.

The video game of the year for Big Bear has been an indie game called, Skulls of the Shogun from 17-Bit.

One of the characters is a purple shogun, and that's what he decided he wanted to be. Mama did her best to make it happen:

Purple Shogun collage

This was a pretty involved costume! I used the character art and also found some pictures of traditional samurai and shogun garb to guide me. I ended up working in layers:
  • Black t-shirt and sweatpants-- purchased,
  • Bolero jacket with armored arms-- Butterick 4385 with self-drafted armor plating,
  • A sash around the neck and a wide brocade belt-- Simplicity 1037,
  • An armor-plated skirt-- self-drafted,
  • and, last but not least,
  • The helm-- a lampshade base and a LOT of modification.

Purple Shogun helm collage

The helm seemed like the most important part to me, so that is where I started. It took a full week, 2-4 hours a day, to put it together. Supplies included the lampshade (and special wire cutters to cut it), black spray paint, duct tape, satin, foamboard, acrylic paint, Peltex, headliner foam, elastic, knit jersey, ribbon, Poly-fil, Nu-foam, fusible web, and (of course) some hot glue. There was also quite a bit of sewing involved in piecing the various parts.

Shogun helm, view of inside

Here's a picture of the inside. You can see the chin strap and the foam headliner I used to pad his noggin from the lampshade support crossbars at the top. And lots of duct tape.

I wish I had thought to take pictures in process, but in the thick of creation and problem-solving, pictures tend to be very far from my brain.

Thankfully, all of the disparate pieces came together in a pretty cohesive way and resulted in a very happy Purple General:

Purple Shogun, ready to strike

Worth it!

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