Next up is building Rocky’s body. He’s such a simple character design that I’m going for a very simple onesie style fursuit rather than one with sculpted padding. I’m using the Andrea Schewe Simplicity 2853 pattern for the starting point. I will, however be using a number of tricks (including Matrices’ technique for installing the…
This weekend I set out to build Rocky’s tail. It’s quite long/tall (extends above his head in many animation frames), and I want the costume to be generally huggable, so I needed it to be soft. I detailed previously my decision to laminate NuFoam stabilized fiberfill with an inner piece of EVA to give it…
One of Rocky’s signature features is his giant fluffy tail (it often rises taller than his head in the cartoons). After finishing his head and flying cap, that tail is my next major construction challenge (and I only have 4 weeks left! eep!). I investigated several ways to make the tail free-standing and self-supporting, but…
We need Bullwinkle’s iconic magician’s top hat for our on-stage presentation, but Moose has Large Head. Plus, packing issues.While I have an actual opera hat (collapsible Top Hat) it is Kevin-sized and far too small for the Moose. I found a popup cylindrical black hamper/wastebin that was 12×15″ and ordered it. The proportions are off…
So I cut out and sewed the furry fabric for the Bullwinkle “tunic” torso piece. I flopped the fabric over to the not furry side, used a silver sharpie to mark the pattern and used my good scissors to cut out the material. Sorry I forgot to take pictures. But I left it “inside out”…
I got all the final bits finished in time, and here are some fabulous photos from Gallifrey One!(Most of these are courtesy of Linda Wenzelburger… Thanks!)
Monday, still no power, so I took a large bag of parts to work so I could use my soldering bench there. I got leads attached to all but one of the remaining pieces of LED strip for the costume, and finished the wiring harnesses to connect to the power distribution from the upper back….
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…
Couching the lighting strips… While the adhesive on the rectangular silicone tubing for the LED strips is really handy, experience has taught me that it will peel off of fabric at the least opportune time, so I should only trust it as basting.I’ve now hand-couched all the LED casing for the cuffs and “lapels” to…
Today’s work was a number of fiddly bits. Magnetic Connectors I bought a half dozen polarized magnetic connectors (only connect one way) that have mating USB-A cables for them, so I can keep battery connections moderately secure but they can break away if the cable snags hard on something. The device-end component, however, has pads…
