Hi all
Thanks for letting me join.

Quick intro, my names Pete, a "mature" guy from Portsmouth in the UK. Got into costuming in the summer of 2018 with a Dredd 2012 outfit. I then had an insane idea and spent 6 months hand making a Chewbacca costume!




And then I found myself wanting to make another costume and it really had to be Drake. I see a lot of you here make your own characters but I hope it's ok to copy the movie characters.
A couple of months ago I bid on a suitable steadicam vest (twin arm, side mounted) on eBay - I was happy I could make/buy everything else I needed but the vest was a requirement. I won it for decent price and that got me started.


I bought a flak vest and applied the patches and stuffed it with yoga mat to bulk it out. Cap with obligatory writing - annoyingly I got the arrow in the wrong place but Drake had more than 1 hat, right?! Bone necklace and hat adornments were made with bones and leather (and a feather pinched from my wife's crafting supplies!). I have a guy making me the dog tags and name tags (although he has gone a bit quiet lately )



Next up, the headset. I did a lot of research first (as I do for all projects) and can't thank everyone enough who has posted here in the past - it is a treasure trove of detailed information.
I'm trying to do this on a reasonable budget and I got lucky, again on eBay, with a broken T28 flash and a week later a decent priced Pentax 110 18mm lens.
Once I had those I got out my trusty 3d software of choice (Blender - which I use for a living), some hi res photos and got building. I've only just got a 3d printer (Prusa i3 Mk3S) so it seemed like a good project to start.
I printed a few iterations of the parts as I made adjustments and just got to grips with building models for 3d printing instead of gaming. Happy with my final version I printed it one last time, fixed it all together with the T28 and 18mm and was pretty pleased with the result.






When I was sourcing parts I also got hold of an old set of 70's headphones which had a split headband, knowing that the Beyerdynamics were a) rare and b) REALLY expensive! I'm going to strip that down and repurpose it for the headband and make a mic boom.

And that's were I'm currently at. Again thanks for letting me join, I hope it's ok if I carry on sharing my - close to, but not totally accurate, budget, but not super cheap - Drake build as I work on it and hopefully I might get to troop with some of you in the future

Sweet. I'm honestly jealous with how far you got with your Drake suit. I only have the hat!

How'd you get the bones for the necklace? Are they real or fake?

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Thanks mate. They are just chicken bones from some hot wings a friend of mine ordered on the way home from a Star Wars troop! I boiled them for ages to get the meat off and sterilise them a bit, then let them bleach in the sun. Drilled with a dremel, paper clips for links, and I YouTube'd finger crochet to make the necklace, not being something I was proficient in

welcome to the group I also troop as a wookiee lol its great fun and often upsets the rest of the group when they are asked by the member of public if they would move out of the way as they only want a hug and a pic with the walking carpet

WOW!! Welcome to the group and thanks for sharing your Drake build. Your doing great!! The headset looks amazing!

Where did you find the files for the Smart-Gunner Headset?

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Sgt. Cratty, James
A06/TQ0.0.52139E1
3rd Light Armor Recon, Delta Co. "Dragoons" 2nd Platoon
1st Marine Battalion
29 Palms, Ca

Ordering wings sounds like the best part of the process. I'll keep that in mind because I haven't decided how I'm making my bone necklace yet.

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I built them myself. I build 3d models for computer sims for a living so moving over to 3d for printing was quite straight forwards. I had the T28 and lens for real life scale and then worked off of photos of the original Vasquez prop that the Prop Store sold a while ago. It's not 100% accurate but I think it passes muster.

Ok, I'm going to call that complete other than getting a small headphone earpad. Just needs a bit of weathering at a later date.




Next up, printing the shoulder lamp parts while I work on the Smartgun model.

Excellent work, that headset is impressive! Ive recently got a 3d printer too but the results im getting need some work to say the least!

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Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Thanks mate. I've been quite surprised at the quality of the prints to be honest as all of the printed costume parts I've brought from other people in the past have required a metric crap ton of sanding and filling to make good. I'm still not sure whether it's a case of people printing on too low a layer level for speed, having a bad model to start with (I have rebuilt all the models I've not made myself using subdivisions and hard edges to increase the definition so they are at least the same definition as the print layer size I'm using as most of them are really low res) or whether my printer is a really good one - I kind of hope it's the latter due to the price it cost(!) but it may well be a combination of all 3 things.
Easiest thing I would say is check the model first, especially curves. Load it into any 3d editor and see if the flat edges that make a curve have a higher step distance than the print level you plan to use - because you could print in atoms but if the base model has curve steps of 1mm then it's still going to look really rough.

Welcome to the group. Excellent work on your costume so far.
For further details on Drake‘s gear and TShirt you might want to lookup the costume guide pdf on this forum.
Greetings from a fellow M56A2 Operator.

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Sgt. Frank Peters 'reload' Smartgun Operator
A03/TQ3.0.12136E1 "It will be no picknick!"
AL Colonial Admin. - Sergeant at Arms (SgtA) -- 2020-2022
GERCM - Executive Officer (XO)
UKCM Foreign Legion: The Deviant Dragoons

Awesome job on the headset. Are the files something you are considering selling or sharing on here.
All the same Excellent job so far

excellent! love your 3d files.

I cant' found the eye part nowhere , Interresst too

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FRCM
https://www.facebook.com/FRenchColonialMarines

Thank you. Sorry I'm probably being really dense but I couldn't find the costume guide pdf

I've had some enquiries about selling parts/files, etc. and that's kind of taken me aback as I was expecting to be the greenhorn who came to learn from all of you, so thank you for that. However I wasn't expecting it and I'm not really set up for selling things at the moment (I still use my wife's paypal when I need it!).
If enough people are really interested then I can look at getting set up for selling printed parts at some point so keep an eye on this thread, let me know if you're intersted and if I manage it I'll shout out. I'm currently working 2 jobs (doing some consulting and running my own business - both from home) on top of trying to stop my kids from killing each other and trying to help the wife where I can, along with walking a friends dog as he is super high risk, so bear with me as I was never this busy before this virus business!

I did pass by a topic about the PDF . . . and now I can't find it, either. Nuts.

If I see it again, I'll link it here.

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It is available here:
http://www.colonialmarines.info/files/alienscosplayguide.pdf

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Sgt. Frank Peters 'reload' Smartgun Operator
A03/TQ3.0.12136E1 "It will be no picknick!"
AL Colonial Admin. - Sergeant at Arms (SgtA) -- 2020-2022
GERCM - Executive Officer (XO)
UKCM Foreign Legion: The Deviant Dragoons

The printer has been working overtime lately printing out my M56 jigsaw.
It's based on 1 set of plans, about 4 different M56 models, 2 MG42 models, with pretty much every part rebuilt by me so I can get a decent resolution for printing at 0.2mm and so it all fits around a frame of 25mm and 20mm conduit that will bear all of the weight. Electronics will run through the hollow conduit from the muzzle (LED) and bike control block (switches) into a real MG 42 (well a Yugoslavian M53) drum mag which will house the Arduino, sound board and battery. The audio out will run through the secondary cable (XLR plug) from the gun to the vest so I can mount a decent speaker/amp behind the chest plate, the "battery" cable will be used in the circuit to create a "can't fire mode" when it's unplugged.
That's the plan anyway

That's incredible! if you ever sell files or kits, count me in.
I can't wait to hear how loud that speaker is, you should go way overboard with it.

That looks excellent, dude!
I'd be interested in the files if you ever do decide to share them, please! Would love a lighter headset, as the resin and real-Pentax one I have right now is a tad on the heavy side!

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MSgt, UKCM 42nd Reg., 1st Batt. : Hadrian's Wall. UKCM

Wasteland Workshop
Props, cosplay pieces, upcycled ornamentation, and miscellanea;
For the discerning survivor of the apocalypse.
Steve Fletcher : Maker, Scavenger, and Junksmith.
linktr.ee/wastelandworkshop

I've been doing lots of sanding recently but tonight I got all of the wires installed..

I know what I'm doing, honest!
Ah, there we go!
I have a stereo audio cable in there along with 5 wires for the bike control (think I only need 2 at the moment but there are 5 switches on it and you never know!), 1 for the muzzle LED, 1 for the cable to the battery and a common ground. Out of sight underneath are 2 more for the microswitch which will be where the real trigger is and will be operated by the cable from the clutch on the rear handle.

Now I can start to glue the pieces on in sequence - hopefully by the weekend I might have a solid gun-looking thing and I can start designing a steadicam bracket.

Woah, nice work. I'm in awe!!!!

Thanks Simon

I realised yesterday that once I assemble the main body it's going to be very difficult to store the thing anywhere or work on it easily without it resting on bits of itself that aren't part of the strong central core, so I designed and printed a quick stand for it.

Also last night I began work on the script with my old Arduino Uno and an FX Sound Board.. it's about 5 years since I last did anything with it but was kind of fun getting back into writing code for it.
Got enough of it working that I placed an order with Pimoroni for all the bits I need - including another FX board as the one I'm using now is a replacement I had for my Chewie costume, the old one died of moisture (you sweat a lot in there!)

Ahhhh, now I get why you need a pass through on the battery. Looking forward to seeing this up and running

Incidentally your Dredd costume looks fantastic. Did you make it all yourself?

makes me want to finish this.



been sitting on the bench for well over a year. Was thinking of doing the electronics display but i'm suffering from lack of skill and lack of space to put it