Couching in the Dark (backdated)

Saturday and Sunday I set out to try and get most of the wiring harness sorted and the next phases of the lighting done. Things were dramatically hampered when we lost power in the storm in the late afternoon Sunday, which stopped me from doing any soldering or machine sewing. As a result, this post will be slightly more chaotic in nature. I ended up spending several hours hand couching with that annoying invisible monofilament by lantern light sunday evening.

Wire extensions for cuffs

I took advantage of one of my favorite tricks, using a blind hem stitch on the machine to couch something onto a costume. In this case, it was couching wire to the seam allowance inside the back-of-sleeve seams, so I could bring power down to the cuffs. I then hand couched the wire to the seam allowance in the armscye and shoulder seam, brought it through the collar seam and couched it along the lapel wiring on the collar seam line.

Starting the upper back assembly

In the film, the ID disk actually slots onto a backplate on the costumes. After playing with some ideas, I settled on a 2-layer design out of 6mm foam that I could use to hold the USB power bank and power convertor, then connect to all the other wiring. For this I used edge-lit LED strip, which is a slightly different color, but gave me a really clean look. I also placed a latching on-off pushbutton so I can turn off the power without unplugging the battery, which will be hidden when the ID disk is in place.

Finishing the ID Disk, switching things up

I ordered some white soft latching on-off pushbuttons, and they arrived Saturday afternoon, so I could start more wiring and finish the ID disk. for visual reasons I had made the inner slop of the disk slightly shallower, so the inner ID did not reach the table if the outer OD was resting on it. After experimenting with it sitting flat like that, I decided to actually build the underside as another pair of cones; it took a couple iterations to get it right. The longer inner cone also gave me space to place a pair of switches so I can switch the inner and outer light rings separately

And then the lights went out. So I started gluing

The disk actually clicks into a hub in the hero props in the film, so I decided to build a stack that the ID disk would snap onto. I realized sense I was working in foam I could use a slightly over-sized hub that the hub would grip. WIth no power, I couldn’t print circle templates so I had to go old-school and do it with a compass (well, an improvised compass). It ended up taking 6 layers of 10mm foam to create a hub that looks to work. I still need to sand the edges to even it up a tiny bit. (about 10mins max on the belt sander at work)

Couching in the Dark

I rigged a couple of LED lanterns, and continued with hand work, laying out the light patterns for the lower back and the boots (which had arrived Saturday afternoon). VERY grateful that the adhesive on the silicone worked as solid basting, it made working by hand in the gloom much less stressful. Couching with monofilament is even more annoying in the dark.