As previously introduced, my Foam Corps moniker is Foameo - that chap in the bulky grey suit up top. I'm a pretty mediocre hand with a sewing machine, so when we start looking at a new round of costumes, I'm the one who aims for more structural outfits.
So this time, I'm going for this bad boy:
Yes, this... costume... is psychotically complex. Yes, I'm still going to try and build it. This would be a good time to reinforce T-paint's earlier observation: we are pretty much lunatics when it comes to propmaking.
But look at the upsides with me: As the ultimate villain, being Nightmare will make for great scene-setting with everyone else's outfits. The costume has room to build in lifts so I tower over the masses, something I'm terribly fond of. I'll get to build that articulated claw I've always wanted to do. His nonexistent midriff and exposed joints mean it will be much better ventilated than my last two big projects - I won't have to build in fans!
Obviously, there are some hurdles as well. In the clear light of day, then, let me briefly run down my plans for each. Hopefully this will help make me accountable for all the trouble my big mouth gets me into. I'm pretty long-winded when I get going, so I'm putting it under a cut.
Armor: Nightmare's organic-looking "armor" is too bulky for any sort of traditional prop armor construction. The Corps' usual armor techniques of cutting and heat-shaping EVA foam or plastic are out the window. The sheer bulk of it means that whatever it ends up being made out of has to be light, while still being able to stand up to a pounding. Fragile outfits lead to heartbreak.
For a while, I was looking into purchasing an enormous block of rigid foam to just carve the suit out of, like a sculptor with a block of granite. I spoke with an industrial supplier and it turns out a block of foam with the right properties and size would cost at minimum $500, and probably a lot more. If I absolutely knew it would work, I *might* have considered it as a plan, but as is? Nahhh.
So, I looked elsewhere. Last year I ended up using a bit of expanding foam in patching parts of the Grey Knight. It was hard to control, and sawing it into shape meant I had to re-coat with bondo to get a workable surface... but I could tell it had potential.
Cutting the foam breaks the skin, so it's got to be in the right shape from the start. That means sculpting a blank of the armor, taking a mold, and casting it with the foam. Simple.
Soul Edge, the Demon Sword: This thing is approximately 6' long, 2' wide, with a glowing eye and an orange crystal superstructure surrounding a solid interior blade. It is enormous.
To make the sword even remotely wieldable, it is going to have to be as light as I can make it. Once I decided to use expanding foam for the armor, it was easy to plan the same for the opaque parts of the sword. I'll be sculpting the hilt and interior blade, making molds, then casting them with lightweight expanding foam, using them to conceal the wooden haft that will hold the thing together.
But that part is easy, compared to the clear parts of the blade. Making it solid is out of the question, so I'm stuck using clear sheets and sculpting facets. Plexiglass is the only obvious answer I can come up with. I made a test build of it a few weeks back, and it seemed promising... but I managed to crack the core sheet just cutting it, and the tip had some phenomenal wobble. These are bad signs in a prop I want to be hefting around and pretending to hit people with.
For the final build, I'm going to spring for polycarbonate sheeting. It's stronger than plexi, and will hopefully give me a more solid core to the blade. The same techniques will apply to the other clear parts of the suit, including the awesome unicorn spike on the helmet.
THE CLAW: Nightmare's 3-clawed right hand is nearly 2 feet long, and an essential part of his look - he's had it through every incarnation. It is way to big to 'operate' with one's bare hands, and a non-grasping option is unacceptable.
I wanted to build animatronic hands for both Big Daddy and the Grey Knight. Both times, wiser heads prevailed and we went with bulky gloves instead... but the desire lingered. I feel I have a decent grasp on the theory behind making a functional giant claw, so I'll be building in some simple joints and a tether system to operate with my fingers, encased in the palm of the claw. Its hard to describe but once I build it, you'll get what I'm talking about.
Lights: Okay, this isn't actually very hard. I'm planning on using several high power LEDs in the hilt of the sword, on the 'stomach' of the armor, and mounted in the helmet. These are easy circuits to build, but the high power LEDS really cook through batteries. The suit is bulky enough to conceal a lot of wiring and battery packs, for which I am quite thankful.
Smoke Plume: Nightmare has a plume on his helmet made of purple smoke. I intend to include this feature in the armor. As a propmaker, I will admit this is a transparently greedy plan to incorporate a showy effect, in hopes of pushing the outfit over the top.
Now, my original thoughts had been to build in a container of water in the back of the torso, and drop some dry ice when it would be appropriate to kick the outfit into 'high gear'. Unfortunately, dry ice does not last very long - in water, in a cooler, anywhere. It would mean a tremendous amount of overhead, never mind the whole "pumping carbon dioxide through your helmet will make you pass out" thing. It was not a good plan.
I had almost given up until I came across an ingenious little device known as an ultrasonic fogger. Normally they go in lizard tanks to amp up humidity, but it turns out they are small enough to fit in, say, a nalgene bottle mounted on one's back. The only trick will be powering it, since they require some pretty killer voltage.
Incidentals: Armor fitting, painting, etc. The stuff that you know will happen, but can't be bothered to think about during planning. There are a hundred smaller projects associated with any ambitious costume, and they will almost certainly take as long as the big stuff. That's how it goes.
Well, that's my plan. We have about 3 months to go. Wish me luck, and I'll try and keep you posted!
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