ACParadise Forums

hi all.

im kinda stuck on a project i would like to do shinji ikari from neon genesis evangelion, and i have been scouring the net for materials or outfits to build his plugsuit. i would like to keep sewing to a minimum so i have found a site that sells dancing outfits in various colours.

the breastplate would be constructed out of hard materials, the place i found does a suit but it has no arms/ gloves and before i make my mind up how hard is it to sew/fasten lycra to itself and other materials?
and if so what sort of stich/adhesives etc would be good?

the arms possibly may not neeed to be of the same material just as long as it looks good





heres the lycra suit that im going to use as the base.



thanx for any advice.

kindest regards

neil abraham

I recomend looking for plastic armor. there's a group I saw on Tech-TV that builds Starwars suits and Halo suits for a hobbie. try looking for them.

Sterling wrote:I recomend looking for plastic armor. there's a group I saw on Tech-TV that builds Starwars suits and Halo suits for a hobbie. try looking for them.

That was probably the 501st Imperial Garrison. Of the thousand or so of them, I know of about 5 that do comission work, though I'm sure that there are others.

Stormtrooper armor is made by vaccum forming, just like the armor method I perfer to use when making my comission pieces. In fact, it was a member of the 501st that introduced me to vaccum forming.

im a scifi modeler myself so i have no probs with the armour im just unsure of how lycra will react if i try to add the arms neck and details in more lycra or another material.

the plan i had was to fabricate using templates arms and gloves and to raise the neck, also some detail would be sewn on like the stripes on his legs etc.

the armpur would be a seperate peice out of fibreglass and hopefully i hope to superdetail it past what the anime shows. (lots of detail yeah) *rubs hands together*

i originally wanted to use a wetsuit but their like £/$ 300.00 and id have to cut it up to add bits and it would be so hot on a con day.

thanks

neil

You could buy the wetsuit material for about half that much, if you could make it yourself. Personally, I think that's the best way to go.

Lycra isn't too scary for sewing; the suit you picked will be fine after you add long sleeves. If you can practice a little on some scraps (maybe you or a friend has an old swimsuit you can cut up), that will help too. If using a sewing machine, get some needles marked for stretch fabrics and use a zig zag stitch. Gently stretch the fabric in front and behind the needle as you feed it through the machine. You can figure out the best tension settings and stuff when you do some practice runs. I don't know how well or badly hand sewing works on Lycra because I've never tried it. Seems like it would be hard to stretch while sewing that way, but I suppose it's not impossible. Good luck!