Thread: I need help making my first costume

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I've never made a costume before but I would like to attempt a boomer costume (from Left 4 Dead). I realize this may be much too hard for a beginner but I still want to try...If I manage to succeed I'll try to put it on the site

My first problem is material...the boomer is a disgusting and horrifying zombie
(wich makes it a perfect halloween costume)

Here is a url to a picture of it:

http://www.dinkparty.org/wp-content/...art-boomer.jpg


If you have any idea what material i could use for the large boil like parts of his skin that would feel anywhere near as disgusting as they look or at least look as disgusting (and where i could find it) it would be very helpfull

I think it would be the ultimate halloween costume so any help would be greatly appretiated

Very gnarley character! I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure how one would go about it, either. However, looking at the boils I can't help but think "water balloons." White balloons partially filled with water or clear balloons partially filled with a white cloudy fluid (with a little yellow food coloring to make it look like puss) would be effective boils (blow a little air into the balloons so you can see the fluid sloshing around in there). However, they may get annoying (example: 2 liters can start feeling heavy when you carry that much water on you for a while, like in a hiking pack).

Not sure if you are going as "full figured" as Boomer, or whether you plan on using more/less padding, but my thought is this (and I have no idea how well this would work): if wearing padding, carve depressions in the foam or have designated spots where you plan to have the boils. Then, with whatever clothes you plan on wearing, cut holes (not as large as the water-balloon-boils) and under those holes sew/fabric-glue on some sort of transparent plastic or maybe even a mostly translucent, stretchy flesh-colored fabric (would look like the skin is stretching over the boils, which would probably work best with the clear-balloons-with-cloudy-fluid-boils). Next, attach the clothes to the padding by sewing them on, and where the pouches for the balloons are located, cut a slit (probably in the padding) at the top of the space so that you can insert the balloons on the big night(s). Basically, this would make a pocket in the costume to hold the boils where you insert the balloons through the slit.

Hope this makes a little sense, and maybe this will give you or another member some more ideas. Good luck with it, it would certainly be one impressive costume!

ZM, you stole my idea!!! LOL. As soon as I saw the picture I thought "water balloons"!!! I think that balloons would make the perfect "boils". ZM does make an excellent point that if you filled them with water that they could feel a little heavy after awhile. I think that the idea of putting the balloons in a "pouch" formed from the fabric of the main costume would be perfect. For the one on the face sort of over the right eye, you could use a ball with the center cut out so that you could see through the fabric stretched over it and be able to navigate better. That is a great idea for a costume, good luck with it!! And keep us posted on the progress.

P.S. Welcome to the forum, hope to see you around!

Originally Posted by MHooch

ZM, you stole my idea!!! LOL.

I'm innocent, I tell ya' - you'll never be able to pin it on me, coppers!! Hehe, at least the water-balloons-turned-boils idea seems to be a good connection; if two people thought of it there may be something to it.

Originally Posted by MHooch

For the one on the face sort of over the right eye, you could use a ball with the center cut out so that you could see through the fabric stretched over it and be able to navigate better

I guess I overlooked the boils on the face. Hooch's suggestion sounds like a good one. I know there are lots of pathological prosthetics out there, but I'm not aware of anything like the eye pustule.

i like the ideas for the boils and ill try them out if i can manage to make the fatsuit part of the costume

but how do i make the large thing on the neck? i dont think that there are water ballons that large or shaped like it

What about latex? Boils are easy enough to make.

Heres a popped one and a dual one i did just takes a little bit of time

Halloween Forum - Toetag's Album: Gear - Picture
Halloween Forum - Toetag's Album: Gear - Picture

any balloon can be filled with water so just get larger balloons.

and going with Toetag's idea of using latex, you can latex the balloons for the neck thing and then go over it with latex and make them look connected.

another thing that could be neat is adding corn starch, gelatin, or some other absorbent powder to add volume and texture to the water balloons. that may add to the weight though.

as for the fat suit look online for tutorials, one site to check is Instructables, they have plans to build a lot of things.

good luck with the costume

i was thinking couldn't you use like a pair of queen size panty hose and stuff it with cotton and painted with latex.that would make the fat suit also use the feet of the hose to make the fat neck and the boils just use different color latex
light weight and can be sewn onto a over sized t shirt

One more vote for latex boils! You could paint latex into some molds that are little 1/2 spheres or something and then paint them. That way they would look how you want them to and still be lightweight and squishy.