Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
The fabric store doesn't sell armor patterns alongside the sewing patterns, though,
so you're going to have to look elsewhere. Pepakura to your rescue!
Pepakura
is the
Japanese word for “papercraft,” as well as the name of a piece of software for creating
3D paper models. If you expand one of those models to be human-sized, you have a
pattern for making your armor. Unfortunately, the software is Windows-only, but it's
worth it to get your armor made.
You can create your own 3D models in software like
Blender
, but if you want to make
a costume of a fairly well-known character like Iron Man or Commander Shepard from
Mass Effect
, you can find patterns freely available online from someone else who did
it first. Just search for “pepakura [costume name].” There is also a
handy Instructables
tutorial
to get you started.
Resources for Costume Building
If you're interested in general costume building, the first place you should
go is the forums on
The Replica Prop Forum
.
Other groups exist for specific
interest groups, such as the
405th Infantry Division
for
Halo
and the
501st
Legion
for people interested in joining others with
Star Wars
costumes for
the Imperial side. (Those on the “good guy” side should check out the
Rebel
Legion
.)
Once you get involved with all of this, you'll find that unless you've done a particularly
spectacular job or something incredibly creative, your costume armor is just another
in a sea of the same character. For example, more than 60 people showed up to the
Mass Effect
photo shoot at Dragon Con in 2013. That's a lot of Sheps, and that's just
the ones who showed up for the shoot!
Even if you create an original design, it'll look like Just More Armor to all the people
who think it looks cool but would totally believe you if you told them Big Daddy was
this guy in the
Brotherhood of Steel
from
Half-Life
, which was this really dark spinoff
of
Super Mario Brothers
. (You should play it!) What you need is something just a little
bit different.
Add the Battle Wound
Enter your battle wound. The goal is to hide the tiny camera in one side of your armor
with the screen in the opposite side, flush with the armor. With an image of what's
behind you showing in front on the screen, the effect is that someone can see through
you. You might remember some news stories from around the time the third
Harry
Potter
film was released about a “real invisibility cloak.” This is a far, far cruder version
of the camera-and-screen technique used to make that cloak.
