X2 Nightcrawler costume

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Maelstrom
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X2 Nightcrawler costume

Post by Maelstrom »

I never realized how much work went into a jacket like that! Several hours per sleeve? Yikes! :eek

Considering how well-made, yet well-worn, the jacket is in X2, I have the feeling this would have been something Kurt "inherited" from a close friend/parent figure. Not as in, "he died, it's mine", but more like, "every lead acrobat has had this, it passes now to you". (Romani have a REAL problem with the idea of truly inheriting anything: anything a man/woman has in their posession when they die is considered marime, and has to be gotten rid of.)

MovieKurt's tail has a set of "rings" about halfway up. Is that a detail you're worried about? Can't wait to see thie finished spade! :nodyes
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Post by Saint Kurt »

That particular tail I'm wearing is what I call the "static tail". It's really not static - it can be twisted and bent into position, and it moves as I do, but it's not directly puppeteered in anyway. I made it for 2 reasons, to test my designs on and so that I would have something in case my hospital stay was longer than the promised 5 days. (It was.)

Unfortunately, my tests showed that any detail with any weight ruins the way it moves. The original spade was a work of art, carved out of light weight polymer clay and contained all the details of the movie one. It was made in two parts that were to clamshell over the plastic base. It was too heavy. It was a disaster and they were ruined after I carved away at it trying to reduce the weight.

My best option to get the level of detail is to use 4 part cold foam. I'll have to make a new spade, make molds, and then make foam versions. It really gets into the realm of movie level fx work and right now I don't have the energy. Even thinking about it makes me tired.

Before I even attempt that though, I'm going to try working with latex rubber. I may be able to get okay results with that and I have all the supplies I need for it.

For the time being, I'm going to use the static tail with all detail airbrushed on. Later this summer I will build a second one with all the cabling to attach to my hand controllers so I can puppet it. Hopefully at that time I'll have more energy to build the spade correctly. If not, I'll airbrush that one as well.

I'm kind of disappointed too.

-e
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X2 Nightcrawler costume

Post by Elwing »

*worships you quietly* I hope the hospital was nothing too bad? Anyway, I think you are doing fantastic, especially on the colors. I did a sculpture of moviecrawler once (I thing the thread is still floating around here somewhere) and getting the paint job right was amazingly hard. The problem is that the colors as they appear in fotos and probably in real life are nothing like the way they looked in the movie. They used blue filters all the way trough it. So you have to choose, really, between warm oranges and browns and cool greys and blues. I see you used the warm palette consequently.

Also, I might have missed this, but do you have any event coming up where you plan to wear this? And do they have a costume contest with sufficiently huge prizes? I mean, girl, do you ever deserve them;)
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Post by Saint Kurt »

It is done.

The sewing at least. I'll do the feet after this weekend - there was no way for the latex to cure in time. I actually own a pair of blue shoes though, so I'll wear those. There's a masquarade at the con I'm going to this weekend that I really enjoy competing in. (One of the few.) Hopefully I will make an impressive entry because I've somehow managed to enjoy a very good reputation as a seamstress and researcher without ever winning a thing for my work.

The new cross actually looks kind of different from the movie one in the photo I saw. I'll see when it gets here. My argument is still that there are so few people who actually know what the prop looks like, that it might not matter. I have like 5 rosaries now and I'm jewish! But I'll let you know. :)

The coat looks great with the paint on it. View the fruits of my labor here:
That's Ms. Nightcrawler to you!

My boyfriend has suggested that while wearing this costume I set off a stinkbomb upon entering or leaving the room. I'm sure that would make me very popular...

-e
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Post by Saint Kurt »

I have long enjoyed a reputation of a very good costume builder while at the same time never receiving any awards or accolades for my work. I'm happy to say that Nightcrawler changed that!

Convergence 2004

I'm going to enter more competitions this summer and even if I don't win anything else, it was still so cool to have won the first time out. Thanks for all your encouragement and help!

-e
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Post by Singe »

Wow, congratulations! I'm glad to see you got kudos for all your hard work. It really is a wonderful costume, flakey neck and all. Where did you get those yellow contacts, anyway?
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Post by Maelstrom »

Fantastic! :D And finding Wolverine to pose with was a great stroke of luck, too! Doesn't it feel good to finally get accolades after all your hard work? I once got a "best workmanship" award for my "Rocketeer" costume because of a jetpack so realistic the judges were scared that it might spray stuff on the stage. :LOL But seeing as the bulk of that award rightly rests on my husband's shoulders, I can only claim a small amount.

The scars on the makup didn't really show up that well in the pics, but I'm sure they were great in reality. Do you think you'll be able to solve the "flaking" problem in later tries?
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X2 Nightcrawler costume

Post by scheherazade »

your costume so totally rocks! *love for costume* I'd love to see more pictures of it, especially once you get your feet!
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Post by Saint Kurt »

Thanks guys.

Actually I didn't have to look very hard for Wolverine since he was one of my roommates and I've known him for years. (This is his second Wolverine costume too. He's REALLY into Wolverine...)

He had that amazing jacket commissioned - it's all leather and the workmanship is just gorgeous. When he found out the jacket was going to be arriving in time for Convergence, we decided to "debut" the costumes at the same time. He's a total ham. At one point he was looking for me asking if anyone had seen a blue elf. Someone got it and gave him directions. It was pretty funny at the desk getting my key fixed too.

The highlight for me actually happened as I stepped off the elevator for the first time. There was this kid who looked around eight and he had this look of awe when he saw me. He said "Nightcrawler, you're my favorite XMan" and shook my hand. It was so cute I nearly died. Later he found me again and sat with me and started telling me all kinds of stuff about his friends and his dog and god knows what else. I really was Nightcrawler to him. It was so cool.

The makeup problems have something to do with the pH of my skin believe it or not. I've talked to 2 professional (as in worked on movies I've actually heard of) effects makeup artists and they've never seen anything like that happen either. I'm going to be changing the additive I use to seal it. I have several things I'm going to try.

-e
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X2 Nightcrawler costume

Post by bluefooted »

Excellent job! Congrats on your win - you really deserve it. I still can't believe the amount of work you put into this :eek

You might consider trying to enter your costume (or a pic of you in it) in XDay 2004. It's kind of fun and you get some nice comments - no cool trophies or anything, though ;)
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Post by scheherazade »

Oh dear, the link to the rest of teh Convergence pictures isn't working... and I'd really like to see this wolverine costume you speak of.
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Post by Saint Kurt »

Doh! I went and broke my own link. Sorry about that. It turns out .mac accounts can be a bit stupid about how they manage their .html.

Anyway - I fixed the links. You can see all the pictures now. Look out though, since I couldn't use .mac's thumbnail feature, it's pretty image heavy.

Enjoy.
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Post by scheherazade »

yeay! now I can see!

I love the beer-drinking pics. I think that's where you seem at your Kurt-y-est. *g*
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Stick a fork in it!

Post by Saint Kurt »

It's done. I finished my feet and tail spade. I still plan on making a second more complicated tail, but even if I never get to that part of the project, I'm satisfied that this is a finished costume.

Feel the blueness

And I get to wear it tomorrow at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry as part of a hollywood movie exhibit they're doing. I'm so stoked.

And now that Nightcrawler is complete, I'm working on another blue demon.

Once again thanks for all your help and encouragement. If it hadn't been for this project I would have never found this board - so I've really enjoyed sharing it with you.

-e

(edit: Yes it's true. I spelled nightcrawler wrong in my link. It's fixed now. :) )
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X2 Nightcrawler costume

Post by Singe »

Those latex feet and tail additions look incredible. They must have taken incredible patience, but the first link to the mac site isn't working. :/
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Post by Saint Kurt »

Thanks. This is a test of my new avatar.

We just did amazing event at the new film exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. I ended up being Nightcrawler, in character, for about 8 hours. It was insane. I'm sorting through the pictures now. And there's even film footage.

I'll eventually post the story of the whole thing but it rivals Angels in length... Scary.

But, I'm really just checking out my avatar right now, which is cool because it's me.

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Post by NWKurt »

Originally posted by zamweasel
This is a test of my new avatar.
Hehehe!! I like it!! Videos? Ooooo! Gotta see 'em Zam.

Have fun at SDCC, you lucky devil, err... ahh... Elf! :D

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X2 Nightcrawler costume

Post by Singe »

Originally posted by zamweasel
And there's even film footage.
:D In character for eight hours even? That's awesome. I'd love to see that.
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Post by Saint Kurt »

I've done quite a few events as Nightcrawler now and it's easily my favorite costume ever. It's a pain to put on, but I have so much fun.

I just looked at my schedule and it looks like I'll be doing something as Nightcrawler every weekend until I move. In the meantime here are some photo albums from previous events. I'm really starting to get the character down now so you can see as I get more experience, my poses and facial expressions look better.

July 21st: Museum of Science and Industry

Micheal's Photos
Trent's Photos (some really great ones)
My Photos

San Diego Comicon

My photos


This weekend I will be going to St. Louis for a competition. Hopefully Nightcrawler will do well again.

Wearing it is fun, but I kind of miss working on it. Perhaps it's time to do another incarnation? I would love to do his classic comic book costume.

-e

[Broken image link fixed by a mod - BB]
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X2 Nightcrawler costume

Post by Maelstrom »

Zam, would you like some of the pictures I took of you from the convention? Many are duplicated, but a few aren't. (Notably the "Blue sign, blue person" shot ;) ) I'll have a new computer soon, which will give me back my on-line access, so I could either send the pics to you, or just put them up on a webshots page and let you grab what you want.
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Post by Saint Kurt »

Sorry I didn't respond earlier. I don't know if anyone else had this problem, but I couldn't see a reply button, nor was quick reply visible. Obviously that problem went away...

Yeah - if you've got good/funny pictures from comicon please send them my way. (Or put them up in like photo bucket or something) My address is zamweasel@rcn.com



Also, I've heard I was on TV from comiccon and that's cool. But I have also been on film as Nightcrawler. Sort of. Well, you'll see:


Go to: http://www.escapefromzircon.com/
And type in "2692" where it says "enter your group number".

Then you can see what a dork I truly am. :)

-e
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Post by Northstars Love »

LOL! I loved the movie Em! Where was it filmed?


It would have been cool if they had you "bamf" out of the plane instead of using a parachute. :LOL


Will there be more of it? Reminds me of those serials you see before the movies like Flash Gordon. heh
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Post by prettyminotaur »

I can't wait until you finish your Illyria, Zam! All of your costumes are awesome...
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Post by Saint Kurt »

That Illyria costume has been finished for over a year (I've even done a repair on it due to hard use by the wearer). :)

That website is a little out of date. All those costumes are finished, sold and gone. The only ones still in my possession are Nightcrawler (which really can't comfortably be worn by anyone but me), the X-wing pilot, and my fancy can can dress.

Now that I'm in vet school I don't have time to make costumes. It was fun while it lasted though.

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Post by Angelique »

Definitely deserving of the win, if not more. Did you get any cool prizes, or just the satisfaction of winning?
In our family, the awards we've won have ranged from pretty good ($100 for third place, for a Borg-assimilated Agent Scully, and about $500 worth of prizes for when my husband and I entered as Obi Wan Kenobi and Shaak Ti) to utterly lame (gift certificates for convention vendors who, because the con had ended by the time the awards were given out, were closed).
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