DreamVision Creations Items.

I ordered claws, hinges and my fan from DreamVision Creations, which is owned by Monoyasha who made the velociraptor costume I'm so fond of. I ordered all the claws I'll need except for the one "hook" claw as I intend to make that one myself since I'd rather a different shape than what they offer. Overall I'm very pleased with my order although there was a little mix-up about getting holes dripped in some of them that I'll go over in a second.

 This is the fat raptor claw, which will be used on the toes. It looks really neat, haha.

 I spoke to Monoyasha about how she sewed these claws onto the fabric of the toes instead of gluing it down because it came right off when glued. I requested holes drilled at checkout for them but it was overlooked by accident so currently we're trying to figure out if I've got the right tools here to do it or if I'll need to send them back to get it done. I certainly don't want my raptor toenails to fall off while walking around. :P

 I ordered four fat raptor claws. Two for each foot.

 These are small feline claws for the dewclaw--I probably could have gone for a large feline claw for that but this'll do just fine as well. These will be glued down and I don't think we'll have any issues with them falling off...they're solid, not hollow and will probably be glued down with E6000. The only thing that makes me worry about these falling off is how they are going to be upside down.

 Skinny raptor claws, which will be used for the fingers. Six in all, one for each finger (duh).

 V-hinge for the head, which will be installed on it when it's all done. Sure hope it works well, haha.

 $8 will get you four pieces in all, enough for one head.

Then the fan! I ordered the 3 inch wide fan with toggle, $33. I don't have any batteries around to test it, I'll need to buy some 9V batteries (which are way expensive but that's all right) but I don't think it's going to be loud or anything based on now that I've played around with it a bit.

Raptor Legs. And kneecaps are annoying.

 So after the thighs were done, I kept working on the calves/ankles. I'm very proud of how the legs look from the side, still unsure about the future for the front of them. Haha. Very easy process to snip snip snip away and it's probably my favorite, way more enjoyable than the math and measuring.

 As you can see, I have a little piece at the bottom that runs along the side of the foot. I removed that as it was a hassle when walking.

 I'm still quite proud of them.

 Using the Foam Fast 74, I attached the legs to the dummy and then tried it on a while later. Gluing was easy, the stuff isn't as messy as I thought it would be. 

 Back of the leg. The back around the thighs won't be padded, at least not yet, as that's where the tail will go and we're going to try and make it fit around the tail as best as we can. Currently my goal is to be at the head-making by mid November. 

 Current front of the thighs...the one on the right isn't as carved down as the one on the left in this image. Not sure how much I like it honestly, haha. :b I think it'll look a lot better when I see fabric on it...but I dunno. We'll see.

 Obnoxious selfie with the dummy in the background. Didn't have anyone to take a picture for it. I think it's coming along well, keep in mind the kneecap is supposed to stick out further than the thighs so it will be more "bent" looking. But honestly? The kneecaps are giving me hell.

 Again, not sure how much I like the way it looks yet. Gonna have to see it with kneecaps and toes before I can really determine precisely what the thighs need.

 Okay, so lemme just say I have made many kneecaps that I have yet to be happy with. Circular ones from 2 inch foam were good for walking but they didn't look right. Made an oval pair and it looked terrible from the side. Tried laying up two together and it didn't look like knees. Not where where I'm going yet with that but I do know the legs are super-duper padded and are going to be the hottest part of the costume. Just gotta be glad I'm not putting any foam inside the legs...

 My foaming around the ankle zippers. The spandex will be put specifically around it so the zipper will not be seen from the back. Also keep in mind there will be a dewclaw back here toward the inside but I think I'll work on that when I have the front of the leg done and have the claws here (which, by the way are on the way! All of them ordered from Dreamvision Creations except for the raptor "hook" claw which I will be casting on my own since I want a different look than what they offer).

 More kneecaps I was not happy with. The Foam Fast 74 is pretty great. With the Super 77 it left this weird crusty feeling between the foam that was really difficult to cut through. The 74? Nada. It's like it's one solid piece of foam. It's dreamy.

Once again, more kneecaps I'm not happy with. I've experimented a lot so far but it looks like I've got more to go. Currently I've got this planned:

- Finish kneecaps. Front toes. Back dewclaw.

- Redo the toes on the shoes. Not happy with how they look and I think I've got a better method of doing them.

- Redo the fingers. I want a more muscular look to them. 

- Start carving the head from the rigid foam, then use the clay to sculpt over it and yadda yadda yadda. That's when I'll get into some more detailed tutorials. Right now it's just kind of boring foaming that's easy to figure out, haha. :b

Gridding, Raptor Thighs & Chosen Fabric

 Haven't updated lately because I waited for Foam Fast 74 to come in, which is supposed to work WAY better than Super 77. Super 77 hardly works at all and I'm sure Foam Fast will work much better than it. Although not one store in my entire county had even heard of it, hardware, craft, upholstery, nobody even knew what it was. I ordered from Zoro Tools on eBay for $16 and it shipped the same day, arrived 3 days later. Totally recommend them.

 For the patterning we used the above image and made a grid on acetate to transfer it over. The legs need to be symmetric and this was the best way about going around it. The math is aggravating but very much worth it in the end. 

 I believe the grids for the thighs are 2.5 inches, but I might be remembering wrong. It was a bit tedious and we ended up coloring the sheet so we could keep up with the layering. The kneecap will be added last and I will not be offering these patterns for others to use, at least not right now, sorry about that.

 All different pieces of paper. We used this brown paper my dad uses to wrap fish that we get from Office Depot, anything that's big enough will work though but we have a ton of this stuff so it works well.

 All cut out and layered up!

 While I was working on the thighs my fabric sample came in! It's from Spandex World, the one on the left as the other one is the cotton lycra in dark brown. I much like this sample and intend to use it--a nylon-spandex mixture it's a rich, chocolate brown that feels like it will breathe very well and take paint well. It's matte milliskin. 

 Carved down. Probably took me about an hour to get this far, I'll probably smooth it down more depending on how it looks with the spandex skin. I may end up liking the sort of uneven texture but I may not.

 Good look at the fibers. It feels very smooth and stretches very well.

It has such a nice color to it. Anyway, I haven't done all that much lately but today or tomorrow I'll do the patterning for the calves and maybe even the ankles. I plan to redo the toes and probably the fingers too because I'm not sure if I'm happy with how they look, but that'll be fairly simple. It's coming along so well! I'll be going to Home Depot soon to get stuff for the head.

Tail, fabric, feather test and zipper!

 Better look at how I'm holding the tail up. Another strap or two will be added to the crotch, but for now this holds it pretty darn well. 

 The best thing if you do this is when you sew the nylon webbing around to fit, make SURE you push it up as absolutely far as you can make it go. I thought I had mine pushed up, but that purple dot is just how much further it went up when put on which resulted in quite a bit of sewing to fix it (the beltloops had to be made shorter, shorter and shorter...)

 I ordered some fabric samples from SpandexWorld, the brown is cotton lycra and the pink was for the mouthflaps and it's a milliskin type fabric. 

 The pink is in the coral color, the piece is so tiny it's nowhere near enough to use for the mouthflaps unfortunately. I could *maybe* get one out of it. Not sure what I plan to do about that, but it's a last decorative bit of the costume anyhow I suppose. It's perfect for what I need, just not enough of it.

 The brown feels like it would work perfectly but the color in real life looks like a blackish green depending on the lighting. In this shot it showed up more brown though, but it just isn't the right shade. Spandexworld has a "dark nude" color that's much too light so I guess I might get a sample of that and the white, and maybe try dying it. I don't know what I'll do about fabric now. It's nice and thin and breathable, feels like it will take paint well but I just don't know about it.

 It looks much different than it feels, though, oddly enough.

 Feather test! I sewed it onto the old sample from Johann's though, by the way. It's just a random one I had around here. It seems like it'll hold well, if you tug straight on it then it'll pull right out though. It holds well when I shake it around, doesn't slide but I don't know about it. I'd rather sew than glue but this is the best way to go about sewing it and it still moves--it might hold better to just bucker down and buy up all the E6000.

 I changed my mind about the Velcro and decided to input a zipper, and we did so over the weekend. Way prefer it and I don't recommend velcro for a suit unless it's to cover up the said zipper. It holds the costume better, is slightly roomier and is just generally preferred. Seriously.

You can also sort of see where I pulled the torso foam off. We've decided that the legs need to go before the torso and that's what I'm doing next, although it'll be very hard. :x