Jazz - G1, Work Log

AUTOBOT JAZZ
Percent Complete: 70%
Cost So Far: $179.71
Start Date: August 24, 2008
Deadline: Discontinued

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Unfortunately, I have come to the realization that I will never finish this costume. It has been sitting untouched in the Shop and in my back yard since San Diego Comic-Con 2010. As much as I would love to see this costume completed, Jazz no longer holds my interest and the costume has simply become a chore instead of the joy it was in the beginning. I was a fool to try a costume out of this hazardous and heavy material and was not entirely sure what I was getting into.

For the rest of my costuming experience, I will vastly discourage persons from building a costume this way. The ending result is heavy, cumbersome, and just simply is not logical for a proper rig. Fiberglass does not bend in any way and does not give if you happen to gain weight as I have.

This is my reasoning. As far along as I am with this costume, it still needs a lot of TLC. I am guessing about a month's worth of solid work until it is ready for the show date. A few of the pieces already almost completed (namely, the upper arms and thighs) need to be re-made because I have gained weight since starting this project back in 2008. Not a lot of weight, mind you, but enough to make it matter.

So, unfortunately, this was a learning experience that I failed at. I bid thee adieu, Jazz, and maybe I shall come back to you at a later time with more experience and a better building method.

-Mirai

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KK.

I'm doing it a little different from other Transformers costumes I've seen recently, in the fact that I am using foam insulation and fiberglass for most of this, while also using Wonderflex to make the hands. I've already got it all planned out and I know how much money I need for it (relatively).

So, my time line for this costume was just a little off, but mostly because I ran out of money. I hope to have this sucker completed in the next few months for BotCon, but I won't be that saddened if I don't get it by then. My real deadline is actually Comic-Con 2010.

So, yeah, I've found out that I'm not the first person to cosplay as Jazz. There are about five other people out there that have their own Jazz costumes already, and they aren't too shabby. Oh well; I can still say that I'll be the first person to create a Jazz that's this pretty. I had originally wanted him to transform, but, after reminding myself that this was my first Giant Robot Cosplay, I decided against it.

One GOOD thing about doing Jazz is he's got a LOT of chest space, which, in my case, is a VERY helpful thing.

>>IMPORTANT<<

Since the posts are beginning to cut off some of my older pictures, you can now see ALL pictures (as well as LOADS of extra footage!) on my Jazz Blogspot that you won't or will no longer see here.

[Click Here!]

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Main (really really important) Parts

• Setup - Updated 05/06/10
• Head - Updated 01/05/10 [Video]
• Torso - Updated 05/06/10
• Upper Arms - Updated 05/13/10
• Lower Arms - Updated 05/13/10
• Cod - Updated 05/13/10
• Upper Legs - Updated 05/13/10
• Lower Legs - Updated 2/24/09
• Feet - Updated 2/19/09
• Full-Body Shots - Updated 5/13/10

Side (but still just as valuable) Parts

• Blaster Boombox - Updated 2/20/10
• Jumpsuit
• Gun
• Voice Modulator - Updated 9/1/08

CONVENTION STUFF

• Convention Photos 1
• Convention Photos 2
• Convention Photos 3
• Off-Site Posts/Funny Stuff

SETUP

As for the designs, I drew up every aspect of Jazz's body and was originally going for the more detailed version of his legs (IDW, I believe) before I got a different picture that said that my details were wrong.

(go to my costume's Webpage for now to see my design pictures)

MATERIALS/TOOLS USED/BOUGHT SO FAR:

>>TOOLS<<
Pencil/Pen - Self-explanatory, for making measurement markings and the design sketches mostly.
Permanent Marker - My brother used it, mostly. All we had and needed was black, and it was used for making large letters/numbers on my pieces so they wouldn't get mixed up with one another.
Kitchen Knife - We do have X-acto blades, but my experience with those nasty things haven't been good, so I just used this. For cutting through the foam, it left nasty edges, but when fiberglass came into play it didn't matter.
Metal Ruler - Well, a ruler. It's a flat, metal ruler with cork on the underside to keep it in place where we needed it most. Mine's 18" long and served as a good straightedge cutting instrument as well.
Packing Tape - Sounds strange, but it's my best friend when I needed to test out the costume.
Toothpicks - Used for temporary joints in my arms and legs at times when I needed to test.
Small Toothed Hand Saw - Had to use it to shape and form my wheels and wheel wells.
Varying Sized Paint Brushes - Used to coat the pieces with glue and paint. I used 1", 3" and 1/2" sizes to get it all in the right spots.
Small Tubs and Popsicle Sticks - Used for mixing the materials [bondo/resin/putty].
Sandpaper - Used to sand the fiberglass smooth. I'm using 80, 120, 150, 220, and 400 grit.
Squirt Bottle - Used during he wet sanding process.

>>MATERIALS<<
Insulation Foam - My main building material and a LOT of it. I bought 3 4' x 8' x 1/2" pieces, and I'm sure that should be enough.
Plexiglas - Fun stuff to work with, but difficult to attach since it tends to snap easily if you're not careful about it. I just bought a 7" x 10" piece and only used about 1/3 of it for my visor.
Flash Lights - Well, here's an obvious one for the record books. My headlights, just two, bright orange, gutted flash lights.
Square Dowels - For reinforcing my corners, mostly, on the legs, arms, and especially the feet where the Great Stuff was.
12 Volt Computer Fan - This one should be a no-brainer. Stuck it in my chest.
5mm Blue LED - Used in the helmet so that my visor lights up.
9 Volt, C and D Batteries - Pretty self-explanatory; for powering my electronics.
Brass Hinges - So that the back panel where my batteries are were easily accessible (and so that no one tried to run off with my Plexiglas window).
Bars and Pins - I don't even know what these things are called. They're used for holding on my back.
Fun Foam - HAHA. Love this stuff. Using it for my face.
Cardstock - Bought a couple 10" x 18" pieces to reinforce my face.
Shoes - Any plain, old tennis shoes will work, but in my case I had tennis shoes from a costume I never wear any longer. They were used in Jazz's feet themselves so I would be comfortable.
Elmer's Glue - A whole gallon of it. Well, more like 3/8 of a gallon, since I found it in my garage. Using it to seal up the foam edges to make everything rigid.
Square Wooden Dowels - Used it for strengthening on the arms, feet, chest, back, shoulders and feet. I bought 1" poles and have glued them to the inside of all my pieces to give it better rigidity when fiberglassing.
Testor's Blue Transparent Spray Paint - Will be used later on for coloring my visor.
Behr Grey and Pink Water Based House Paint - Any color will do. I used gray and, when I ran out of that, green. Used in place of a sealant so the fiberglass resin wouldn't dissolve the foam.
Chopped Strand Fiberglass Mat - The fiberglass that we used on my helm. Strong, sturdy material with several thousand intertwined, messy strands of glass.
KustomShop.com Gray DTM Epoxy Prime/Seal - Used for the final primer spray coat just before the painting. Sand this down and the pieces will be as smooth as ever.
KustomShop.com DTM Epoxy Hardener - Can't use the sealer without the hardener, can you?
Feather Fill G2 Polyester Primer Surfacer - Sprayed over the epoxy primer from before. Another thing to sand down and make baby-butt smooth.
Evercoat Metal Glaze Blending Spray - used like a putty to fill in those tiny imperfections I wasn't able to smooth out with the sander.
Black Gelcoat Resin Solution - the final black paint used on the black parts of the costume.
Cotton Fiber - Was placed in resin to thicken it to a pasty substance. Used to fill in dashes and holes in the foam and fiberglass where problems were had.

HEAD
((It's cutting off my pictures from before -- go see my WEBSITE for older pictures!))

TOTAL REVAMP.

I've decided that I don't need Wonderflex at all, actually, which makes me a VERY happy Fangirl.

I spent three full days just STARING at Jazz's head design as I tried desperately to figure out how to make it, what with all of the articulated pieces that look like they're straight from MC Escher.

Anyway, originally this was just supposed to be a prototype for the Wonderflex after it came in for me, but I've decided that this looks quite wonderful.

The basis of it, at first all we had was the back and the two sides. Trying to configure the other pieces turned out to be the biggest pain ever, so instead we configured Jazz's head to just be some very straight pieces.

My brother, otherwise known as my "gopher", "guinea pig" or "lifesaver", has been doing ALL of my mathematical work for me (I'm utter crud at math. xD) and so here he was configuring the front panels of the helm. He needed a piece to stick out to give him a base to work off of, and I thought it looked like a hat with a rim so I put it on. xD

At the end of the day, after several hours of bickering, measurement changes, and wracking our brains, I am VERY pleased with the final result. I had to remake the horns (they were way too small ant pointy) but now it looks quite fan-freaking-tastic.

>>UPDATE!<<

So, I flattened part of the top of the visor (since it stuck out from my head WAY too much) and also added the visor. Since the visor required an x-acto blade and a very strong hand, I had my dad do it (I'm a wimp, I'll admit it. ^^; )

>>UPDATE!<<

I had actually decided several weeks ago to take off the protective lining, so at least I could see with the helm on, but I then took some Ziploc baggies and cut them up to make a transparent protector instead.

After taking Jazz down to the Fiberglass company I'll be working with, I was instructed to coat all of the edges of the foam in Elmer's glue to give it a solid edge and to make sure that the resin doesn't get into any of the cracks; any tiny edge that's visible will be a target for the resin and my project would the have to be scrapped. So, I sat for about an hour coating Jazz's helm with the stuff. I'll be painting it sometime this weekend to get it all finished.

>>UPDATE!<<

After the glue had dried (after some three days of waiting) I decided to bust out the paint for this thing. The paint itself is Behr, I believe, and it's grey. Now, after learning, much to my great happiness, that I could have used house paint in place of the overly expensive epoxy or polyester resin, I went for it. Being an artist (and being involved in a wide array of artistic things over the years) I have several different colors of this stuff just lying about, and I figured I would gladly use it for my project.

After realizing that, since this is a helmet, people are gonna be staring at it a lot. So, I decided, even though I'm going to be having a full face mask on over it all, I'm also painting the inside as well, just in case something shows through.

Looks pretty good to me, methinks...

>>UPDATE!<<

To make a long story short, I took the helmet down to Fatboy Fiberglass and began to fiberglass the thing. First came some clay to help make the helmet more flat where the foam dipped in or raised in areas. After that, the fiberglass resin was luxuriously coated into place and the fiberglass itself, which is called Chopped Strand Fiberglass Mat, was graciously applied to as many surfaces as possible.

After this came the bondo. Nasty stuff because, not only does it get hot, but it also hardens very quickly, which makes it very hard to work with in large quantities. After copious amounts of sanding, more bondo, and then sanding again, this is, more or less, what it looks like now.

Shouldn't be much time left. I only have primer, some more sanding, and then it's painting time~

>>UPDATE!<<

After waiting and waiting and waaaaiting for several months for no apparent reason, I finally managed to get back into making this costume. Giving a call to Victor, I made my way down to the shop to work on the helmet again. After using some filler putty on the "bill" of the helmet as well as in some small cracks in the fiberglass and soft places, the mess sat alone for the night.

After coming back the next day, we got to do the "final prepwork" on the helmet. After knocking off some of the more sharper points on the helm, Victor drilled a screw into the top of the helm. Hanging it up on a wire over near the fan booth, he mixed up and then sprayed on some epoxy primer material.

After leaving sit for about two hours, since we had to wait until it dried, we then mixed up some "G2 Feather Fill" primer surfacer. The surfacer itself is the light grey material. The black speckles we "piss sprayed" on a moment later is just a black auto primer. The black speckles will be used in a later step to guide me in sanding the mess as smooth as a baby's ass.

>>UPDATE!<<

Deciding to play hookey from school that following Tuesday, I packed away a bunch of the pieces I had painted the night before into Jazz's plastic bin and took the whole mess down to the shop with Victor. I really wanted to do the final painting on the helmet, so that was my main want to skip out that day. I went and grabbed from 220 grit sandpaper and a sanding block to get the Jazz helmet as smooth as I possibly could. I spent pretty much all day doing this, and my arm and hand hurt like Hell afterward.

>>UPDATE!<<

Getting antsy to paint the helmet, I have began to grown very, very tired of sanding. I thought I was done with the sanding but, when I got to the shop to paint, Victor told me I had more painting to do. FFNGH -- I hate sanding so much. I know it's necessary, though, so I took some 80 and 220 grit sticky sandpaper and grabbed some paint brush stirring sticks so I could get into the vents and make them all smooth. After that, I took some Evercoat Metal Glaze blending putty so that I could fill in all of the divets and crevices that I wasn't able to get with the sanding from before, and also to fill in the hole where the screw was in the top of the helmet.

Finally came the part that I really wanted to do -- painting the final color onto the helmet. I was instructed first to do the internal parts with the paint and a paint brush; these pieces being the vents and inside of the helmet. These pieces would dry to be a flat black so that the internal impurities wouldn't be seen. After letting it dry for a day, I came back the next to paint it -- FINALLY. Victor set it up and made me a ball for it to sit on (made of old t-shirts and painters' tape, no less) and set the helmet on it. It got shot with a generous helping of black gelcoat resin solution and then set over by a space heater for faster cooling.



>>UPDATE!<<

"Are we done yet?"

"No, we've still gotta do ...."

"How about now?"

"No, there's still ...."

"Can I take the helmet home now to put the electrical visor in it?"

"NO."

GRAAAAAAAHH, I've had enough of sanding ....! The helmet is SO pretty, but it's not quite done yet. The paint bubbled ever-so-slightly when it was put on across the entire helmet so I got to sit down with 400 grit sandpaper and do what's called "wet sanding." Spray it with a little water, sand some of the black paint off, repeat, repeat, repeat ......... aaaand repeat.



>>UPDATE!<<

After having to force myself to stop working for three weeks (between the end of school, Christmas and New Years, I'd caught myself a nasty cold and had to quit production for the time being) I finally was able to contact Victor again and run my ass down to the shop. I spent almost the entire day sanding the motherfraggin' helmet. I had to get out every single little dip and issue in the paint job before I could proceed any further. The right side of the back panel of the helmet also had one really nasty-looking dip in it that no amount of sanding would be able to fix. So, we broke out the bondo to work a little magic and make it smooth.



After it was done, I held it up to Jojo, Victor's nephew, and said "look, a dalmatian."
He said "No, a cow."
Thank you, Jojo, now I have "Cow Jazz" stuck in my head.

Anyway, after inspecting it over and over again, I finally handed it off to Vic, who went and got Fred's head (the little head Victor made out of duct tape and old shirts to hold the helmet up) and set everything up for me, we got to spray on the sealer coat to make SURE everything was alright -- which, of course, it wasn't.



Now, by this point, I am PISSED. I spent all day making sure that helmet was flawless and then, come to find out, that there are 7 spots that I missed -- and I KNOW I got them all with the bondo before. I tried hard to get Victor just to leave it the Hell alone, but he insisted that we do it right. So, handing me a Heat Gun, he allowed me to dry the sealer paint faster before puttying the thing and -- yes, you guessed it -- MORE sanding.

As soon as the sanding work was complete, I had Victor inspect it. Once he gave me the all-clear, he fixed up Fred's head (which wouldn't hold the helmet upright) with lots of duct tape. Unfortunately one of the places where the bondo had been put in place had cracked through again, but we fixed that once we shot some sealer onto it (thank God). We waited around for a mere 20 minutes after the sealer was shot on before we got to shoot one final coat onto it - the final, shiny black layer.

TORSO
((It's cutting off my pictures from before -- go see my WEBSITE for older pictures!))

CHEST. This was, surprisingly, a lot easier then I thought it was going to be. Originally deciding to use Wonderflex on the top and part of the sides, it was going to take some time before I even got STARTED on this part. But, after taking a scrap piece of my polystyrene and finding out how far it would bend, I was surprised to see that I could just as easily use it for the chest instead.

Since the hole up top is too small for my fat head to fit through, the whole back panel is going to pop off for easier access.

I swear, though, having "Thoroughly Tested" on my chest was NOT intentional... xDD

>>UPDATE!<<

I added on the back panel now. We're planning on putting a fan back there in that space, but if it doesn't work out the way I want to, then it'll just be something that makes me look bigger.

Also, we decided to do a Flexibility Test with my legs, cod and chest and, sadly, I failed the test AND broke my chest in the same moment.

>>FLEXIBILITY TEST<<

>>UPDATE!<<

We're now beginning to work on electrical, and my brother (since he's a tech freak) is, not only my medic, but my lead technician. He's the one that's going to be hooking all of this together and everything. The headlights are actually just two crappy flashlights and are going to be powered by two D batteries each. The fan in the center is going to provide me with an excellent amount of air (I'm NOT forgetting my fans in this one!) and is going to be powered by eight C batteries in my back.

>>UPDATE!<<

I've actually taken two 4" x 15" strips of the foam and placed them right on the chest; I'm using them as the red stripes that run across his front; as seen in his transformed state that they do pop out form his actual body a little.

I'm also working on getting his bumper to pop out a little farther.

>>UPDATE!<<

Finishing off that part of the helm, I was forced to take a break from the costume by Vic, since the guy had to do some painting on a SWEET Mustang and, therefore, could not allow me to make dust, forcing me to work on the other pieces at home. FINALLY getting around to remaking the sides of the chest that had broken before when we were trying to test my flexibility, I took off the paneling for the "stripes" of Jazz's armor and made them rounded off, since they need to be round. Gutting the electronics out, I was preparing the thing for painting. After applying a GENEROUS coat of paint to the "stripes" on the chest, I abandoned it and moved to the back paneling.

After utterly FAILING at cutting out a straight line with the back window, I had my Daddy come out again and cut out the plexiglas window for me so that it fit the right size dimensions. Discussing possibilities with Daddy about how we were gonna get the window into the back after the fiberglassing was done (which wasn't gonna be possible) Daddy gave me a bonding agent for the plexiglas (which smelled BAD, btw) so that I could glue the window into place.

Leaving that alone, I began to paint the chest plating and cod pieces. Catching all without a hitch, I painted for three days straight before it was time to go back to Vic's.

>>UPDATE!<<

Taking the time out [and the gloriously warm weekend weather opportunity], I broke out the paint once more and began painting the majority of the pieces that still needed coats of paint. Because of the scare I had with the codpiece at the shop, I decided to no longer be stingy with my painting. Applying generous amounts of coat after coat of the green paint [since I no longer had any gray paint], the pieces now stand as being several ounces heavier than they were to begin with.

>>UPDATE!<<

There isn't much to update on with the chestplate at this time. I brought in all of the pieces for this part, but only got around to epoxying the inside of the back panel. Shiny, though.

>>UPDATE!<<

I am TRULY excited to be working on the chest and back plating again, as this entire time these two pieces have been sitting off to the side in the shop awaiting their turn to be fiberglassed. Mainly I kept putting these off because of the massive amount of modding once the fiberglass/painting was done -- the electrical work that needs to be stuffed into these once it's all said and done will be rather difficult.

>>UPDATE!<<

Sanding more of the chestplate came next and then that daunting task of making sure everything lined up again. Finding out that, while one of the lower struts in the armor didn't need to move over, the other did. Taping it at a funny angle, we went to town.

>>UPDATE!<<

One of my friends came to help me out today and we quickly finished up the work on the chest and back plating. Needed to fiberglass a little on the insides, so that was fun.





Workin' fer a livin' ...... Bondo'd as much as I could today after sleeping in until 1pm. After all these days of working, my back is beginning to suffer for it. Took a break from it all to give my back and arm a chance to relax, I soon went down to the Shop to get the chest and back plating to work on the bondo at home.

UPPER ARMS
((It's cutting off my pictures from before -- go see my WEBSITE for older pictures!))

PAIN IN THE AFT.

Stupid arms. I ((FIRST)) made them 6" across to fit my arms, thinking that was enough. It turned out too small to even fit up to my shoulder, so I then reformatted them and made everything a half-inch bigger. Trying it on again, I failed again, the pieces still being too small. I then, out of desperation, added one inch to the whole thing, FINALLY coming out with a design that *almost* worked. All around on my upper arms was a 4" tall piece of foam, but I realized that the inside jabbed into my arm pit. So, I cut off 2" and now they fit like a dream.

They're a pain to move with when I get my chest on, but they at least look great.

>>UPDATE!<<

I did a little flexibility test with the chest and shoulders, since I *still* hadn't done it, even though the shoulders were *perfect*.

I found that I had to cut off 1" from the sides to make it correspond with my chest, otherwise it wouldn't have gone up far enough.

>>UPDATE!<<

Originally the raised bumps on the upper arms were taped down but, after realizing that it would take me a lot longer to smooth over all of the imperfections in them, rather than just doing it this way. So, I took the tape off and hot glued the thing down instead. Now, with a couple more coats of paint on them, they're beginning to look more and more like hte other glorious pieces. I can't quite get into every single crevice of this piece, though, so I'm not sure what's going to happen to it all once I get down to fiberglassing.

>>UPDATE!<<

Once I got the blue bin of pieces to Victor, we mixed up some resin for the pieces (because I was no longer taking ANY chances with this baby) and slathered it all over every inch that I could reach with my brush.

>>UPDATE!<<

Having a chance to go down to the Shop a couple days later, I go to epoxy the crud out of the inside of the other pieces I didn't have a chance to get to until now. When I took the shoulders out of the box, I noticed they were skewed to one side. Jojo helped me clamp the pieces shut with epoxy for the glue and vice grips.

>>UPDATE!<<

Coming back a couple days later, I got to have help this time from my good friend Velocity. She wanted to come down to see me (since she'd been gone for so freakin' long during Christmas break) and said she'd help me work on Jazz to hang with me. Anywho, we got to do the fiberglassing this day. Velocity was the one who fiberglassed over the upper arms for me.

After sending Velocity home (after several days of heavy, heavy rain -- she had to stay an extra day until the river over my street subsided) I went back once more to work. Finding that she had used a bunch of small pieces instead of larger sheets for covering the forearms (love you, hun) I had one Helluva time sanding it all down.

Getting to finally do some test movements with the newly-fiberglassed pieces, I've found that the arm joints are rather tight. Going to fix those asap before the bondo goes into place.

>>UPDATE!<<

Getting to come back on another day, I played around with more fiberglass and resin. Generally, it went off without a hitch, getting to fiberglass the inside of both of the upper arms.

>>UPDATE!<<

To avoid boring the crap out of everyone, I'll 'jump' a little and just say I did more epoxy work, a little Fiberglass and -- dear Lord, is it really? BONDO. Which comes ..... more sanding. Luckily, though, my friend and brother both decided to come down and help me out.



After being sent home with the bondo'd pieces, since I am really beginning to run out of time here, I began to fiberglass -- and fiberglass I did. I spent three days straight getting all the pieces ready for the bondo, and that included more and more and more fiberglass.



>>UPDATE!<<

Darryl helped me with some of the fiberglassing and sanding today.



>>UPDATE!<<

These pieces came home with me last week, and I've since been bondoing and sanding just about every chance I get. At first I worked on it with my brother and friend all by hand with only one sanding block, so it was tough. However, I do so enjoy the belt sander I discovered, as it has since made this costume a fun thing to do, instead of a daily chore.

LOWER ARMS
((It's cutting off my pictures from before -- go see my WEBSITE for older pictures!))

So, I didn't have accurate measurements for this part because I had to wait until the upper arms were done.

First off, I made my pieces, but for some odd fragging reason I determined that to make them all fit right, the upper arms had to be 71/2" in width, when the upper arms themselves are only about six.

*headdesk* So, I remeasured after I saw that it was WAY too big, and now they're only an inch smaller then they were before.

Doing a text run with packing tape and toothpicks *a giant robot costumer's best friends*, I found that I had VERY limited mobility in my arms and could barely bend at all, so I then went ahead and lopped an inch off the inside of the arms so I could bend better.

>>UPDATE!<<

So, this has been done for quite some time already, I just forgot to update it. Essentially, I'm at the "I'm making details" step and I've added some to the arms and shoulders.

>>UPDATE!<<

This part's pretty simple. Painting more and more layers. It's gotten quite a bit heavier than it used to be.

>>UPDATE!<<

Once I got the blue bin of pieces to Victor, we mixed up some resin for the pieces (because I was no longer taking ANY chances with this baby) and slathered it all over every inch that I could reach with my brush.

>>UPDATE!<<

Having a chance to go down to the Shop a couple days later, I go to epoxy the crud out of the inside of the other pieces I didn't have a chance to get to until now. Jojo had to be my "mixer" today -- since I've no clue yet how to mix the epoxy resin the right way yet -- and I constantly bugged him for more epoxy. Coating every piece generously, everything looked pretty shiny.

>>UPDATE!<<

We got to do the fiberglassing this day. Between two days of work, we got both sides of both lower arms coated in the fiberglass. I made a boo-boo and stuck fiberglass in the little dips, though, and will have to sand those out later.

Getting to finally do some test movements with the newly-fiberglassed pieces, I've found that the arm joints are rather tight. Going to fix those asap before the bondo goes into place.

>>UPDATE!<<

I got to complete the fiberglassing along the outsides of both of the lower arms to complete off the deal. So far, so good.

>>UPDATE!<<

I didn't really do much on these pieces, other than making sure that the epoxy was coating every part of it. Fiberglassing the four little half-circle pieces for rigidity, they turned out looking quite horrible, all in all. Oh well.

Jojo also helped out by cutting a chunk off of the inside of the arm joints to help out with my mobility.



>>UPDATE!<<

These pieces came home with me last week, and I've since been bondoing and sanding just about every chance I get. At first I worked on it with my brother and friend all by hand with only one sanding block, so it was tough. However, I do so enjoy the belt sander I discovered, as it has since made this costume a fun thing to do, instead of a daily chore.

I also had found that I should have cut away at the foam on the bottom pictures' lip there. Now I've had to bondo the crap out of it to make it even with the other arm piece, and that's gonna make it incredibly heavy.

COD
((It's cutting off my pictures from before -- go see my WEBSITE for older pictures!))

I made the Cod last night as well, but I found that it's just too damned big, both in width and in height. My MAIN focus with the cod is I wanted it to be big ('cause Jazz has got junk he needs to hide! ) but I've found that with my thighs where they are, I can't walk... Dx

I've ALSO had a major issue with the back. I decided to make it kind of big because I have a fat ass and fitting it the right way in this thing is going to take some time and practice. This was just a model for now because I'm going to make it at least semi-round when I'm done, but still, I know know I need to cut down the size.

Also, I know this is just a prototype, but... My cod pulled a Pilot. It popped off when my brother and I were taking pictures... xD

>>UPDATE!<<

So, I remade the cod so that it actually fits ((AND looks good too!)). I was looking at pictures pf Pilot's cod and I found that hers isn't... well, it's not square, that's for sure. So I remade it to look more like hers and I found I am pleased with the overall result.

>>UPDATE!<<

Busting out the paint again, it was the cod's turn. Having a windy day forced me to actually tape the pieces down to the paper I was using to prevent them from flying away (even though the bastards did so anyway). Painting several pieces at once saved me a bit of time as I worked on one while another dried, coating every bit of the pieces that I could with the black paint. Catching all without a hitch, I painted for three days straight before it was time to go back to Vic's.

Repeating the process for the helm, I got to sit down with the back and begin to clay it out. Luckily, the cod pieces were smooth enough that they didn't really need the claywork, so they went straight to Vic, who did that part of the fiberglassing for me.

Realizing one of my biggest fears with the codpiece, I had found that the resin had decided to Slag with me and managed to eat away at one of the side and the front codpieces. When it came to the helm before, I put copious amounts of paint on every inch of that thing, while all of the parts I brought in the next time only had one layer on it. So, stupid me, gets to suffer the consequences of me cutting corners, and I think I might have to re-do those pieces. Not wanting to risk it with the back, chest and upper legs, I then decided to take the mess home with me to reapply even more paint to it.

>>UPDATE!<<

After finally deciding to remake that one piece [as well as take home the hip parts of the cod to be re-painted], I painted these with the other pieces that I mass-painted.

>>UPDATE!<<

Having a chance to go down to the Shop a couple days later, I go to epoxy the crud out of the inside of the other pieces I didn't have a chance to get to until now. Jojo had to be my "mixer" today -- since I've no clue yet how to mix the epoxy resin the right way yet -- and I constantly bugged him for more epoxy. Coating every piece generously, everything looked pretty shiny.

>>UPDATE!<<

Coming back a couple days later, I got to have help this time from my good friend Velocity. She wanted to come down to see me (since she'd been gone for so freakin' long during Christmas break) and said she'd help me work on Jazz to hang with me. She got to do the hips of the cod and the upper arms. She had such a tough time with these pieces, lol.

>>UPDATE!<<

Just one small update for this part. This one piece needed a bit of fiberglassing done to it, so I obliged. The other pieces of the cod are still sitting in the box untouched .... I'll work on those ones and the chestplate next time.

>>UPDATE!<<

To avoid boring the crap out of everyone, I'll 'jump' a little and just say I did more epoxy work, a little Fiberglass and -- dear Lord, is it really? BONDO. Which comes ..... more sanding. Luckily, though, my friend and brother both decided to come down and help me out.



After being sent home with the bondo'd pieces, since I am really beginning to run out of time here, I began to fiberglass -- and fiberglass I did. I spent three days straight getting all the pieces ready for the bondo, and that included more and more and more fiberglass.



>>UPDATE!<<

These pieces came home with me last week, and I've since been bondoing and sanding just about every chance I get. At first I worked on it with my brother and friend all by hand with only one sanding block, so it was tough. However, I do so enjoy the belt sander I discovered, as it has since made this costume a fun thing to do, instead of a daily chore.

The hip pieces are causing me grief .... They're getting smooth, but every so often they're sanded too far down on that one spot and causing it to get into the foam or fiberglass underneath ... then I have to add even more bondo. Not so very pleased about it.

UPPER LEGS
((It's cutting off my pictures from before -- go see my WEBSITE for older pictures!))

Legs really weren't that difficult. The upper legs are at least the right size, so they're about as basic as could be. I'm not worried too much about where they're going to stay, just if they're going to get in my way of me walking. I'm afraid of it messing up the lower part of my legs which in turn is going to make me fall on my face.

>>UPDATE!<<

Since there REALLY isn't much to say on such flat, boring pieces of material, I'll just say that I brought out the upper legs when I was painting the torso and cod pieces. I could only paint one half of it before letting it dry to paint the other half.

I had originally brought these pieces along with the chest and cod pieces to Vic's but, after seeing the cod pieces get eaten by the resin [since I decided to cut corners and only put one layer of paint on these pieces] I got frightened and took the whole mess home to apply more paint.

>>UPDATE!<<

Painting these off with the others, they're now much heavier than they were before.

>>UPDATE!<<

Once I got the blue bin of pieces to Victor, we mixed up some resin for the pieces (because I was no longer taking ANY chances with this baby) and slathered it all over every inch that I could reach with my brush.

>>UPDATE!<<

Having a chance to go down to the Shop a couple days later, I go to epoxy the crud out of the inside of the other pieces I didn't have a chance to get to until now. Jojo had to be my "mixer" today -- since I've no clue yet how to mix the epoxy resin the right way yet -- and I constantly bugged him for more epoxy. Coating every piece generously, everything looked pretty shiny.

>>UPDATE!<<

We got to do the fiberglassing this day. Between two days of work, we got both sides of both lower arms coated in the fiberglass.

I got to test out how my fat thighs would fit into these pieces. It's a tight squeeze, but I can manage .... I also have to duck-waddle if I don't want the pieces to rub against one another and squeak.

>>UPDATE!<<

Just about finished with the legs and ready for bondo. Gotta do the insides of both of them now and then sand the crap outta them.

>>UPDATE!<<

To avoid boring the crap out of everyone, I'll 'jump' a little and just say I did more epoxy work, a little Fiberglass and -- dear Lord, is it really? BONDO. Which comes ..... more sanding. Luckily, though, my friend and brother both decided to come down and help me out.




>>UPDATE!<<

These pieces came home with me last week, and I've since been bondoing and sanding just about every chance I get. At first I worked on it with my brother and friend all by hand with only one sanding block, so it was tough. However, I do so enjoy the belt sander I discovered, as it has since made this costume a fun thing to do, instead of a daily chore.

I've discovered that the longer pieces that are angles at the bottom have skewed inward -- all four of them. Some major sanding and bondo work will be needed here to make the pieces completely straight. Hm. Luckily Jazz's thighs are completely white, so it'll be slightly less noticeable than the black paint would.

LOWER LEGS
((It's cutting off my pictures from before -- go see my WEBSITE for older pictures!))

K, I built the lower legs, but I've found that the suckers are too big. That's what I get I guess for having huge thighs and small calves... xD

I completed a test run with these legs for te time being yesterday with packing tape and toothpicks, and I've found that I can walk perfectly fine like this. I think I'm just going to make my feet take up the bottom if the space in the legs so that I don't have to worry about the spacing in them.

I had a walking test too and it went well *does happy dance*

>>WALKING TEST<<

>>UPDATE!<<

So, I'm beginning to get the back panels of my legs completed, and I've decided that, with the wheel wells, it's going to be a solid mass. So, I took six layers of 9" x 9 1/2" foam and glued them together with Elmer's glue, just to hold it all together. I'll be cutting them down to size later today if I'm feeling better and if the glue is dried.

>>UPDATE!<<

After letting the glue dry for two days, which apparently wasn't enough time due to the fact that when I cut into it it was still wet anyway, I grabbed my father's hand saw and began to shear off the pieces. I had issues at first determining how far the curve was going to go down/where the wheel wells will be, but I managed to do it the right way, for the most part.

After realizing that I had accidentally cut them out in the wrong direction ((one of them is 9 1/2" tall X 9" wide, the other is 9" tall X 9 1/2" wide)) I went ballistically crazy on myself and stopped working for about two hours because I was so mad (I have a tendency to flip out over small details). Resuming work after some coaching from my mother, I decided to ditch the wheel wells for the first ten minutes and make the tires, lust three pieces of foam glued together.



The tires themselves are 8" in diameter, which meant the wheel well had to be about 8 1/2" at least. So, taking my knife I began to meticulously cut into 4 of the 6 layers of foam in the inside of the wheel wells to make the space for them.



>>UPDATE!<<

First time working on these since ..... oh Primus, I don't even know.

Finally dragged 'em out of the back of the garage and found that a couple of pieces were missing -- like, just gone. Bought a small sheet of foam and cut out a few pieces to have fun with. After taping it all securely back together, I began to shape away at the tires and wheel wells with the belt sander. That part was fun and made a bit of the mess, but at least the tires are "round" now.

FEET

Well, these themselves are a little... difficult. Since part of the foot can't really be made until after I do the details on the legs, I just eyeballed it and I hope that it'll be right. The side piece was difficult because I had to eyeball the curve, but it looks like a good curve as it is.

The fuzzy thing on my foot is actually a shoe covered in brown a white fuzzy material. They were originally made for my Ryo-Ohki Costume, but, seeing as this costume no longer fits me (I got taller and my chest grew up) the shoes now serve no purpose to me.



It REALLY looks awesome right now and I'm very happy. On the bottom I'm having a sprayable material called Great Stuff Insulation Foam for padding underneath my foot. Since it takes 8 hours to fully cure and harden like a rock, it's going to take a while before I can actually mold up and shape my foot. I'm also using the same stuff to permanently stick my shoe into the foot, and, since it takes about 8 hours to fix it right ((OH PRIMUS)) I'm going to have to sit still for at least three until the majority of it hardens.



>>UPDATE!<<



TOTAL REVAMP.

OK, I have *officially* taken Great Stuff off my list of materials, as I am now no longer using the stuff (not to mention that it SUCKS). I didn't realize I needed a solid base to fill in, for when I first used the material it puffed out the foam like crazy then, after sitting for a few more days, shrank, therefore causing the bottom of my foot to cave in on itself.

Now, instead, I'm using a solid piece of wood and curving the edges up that way. Not to mention that after a day of walking around, the Great Stuff would have just collapsed on me anyway. It was a horrible idea to stat with.

>>UPDATE!<<

Dragged these out with the lower legs to work. Ended up buying a 2x4 and taping it to the bottom -- yeah, that's the bottom of Jazz's feet, making the foot a good *probably* 10 pounds each. That'll be fun. Had to cut off one entire bottom because of the Great Stuff on the bottom of one foot and, therefore, had to remake the bottom of one foot before the wood went on.

(also found that the foot makes a good hat.)

BLASTER BOOMBOX

With the completion of the Jazz costume, I also want to create a functioning Blaster boombox, which means that I have to go out and find a working boombox like Blaster and paint it up. I've seen a person create a Blaster boombox before, but the last one I saw wasn't a functioning one, even though it looked awesome. I need my Blaster boombox while I wander around as Jazz just in case I don't have someone portraying my rock-and-roll counterpart.

JAZZ'S MUSICAL SELECTION
I have craptons more on my iPod already. These are just the songs that I still need to buy/get from somewhere that I want on the playlist.

1. Amii Stewart - Knock On Wood
2. B-52's - Love Shack
3. Benny Goodman Orchestra - Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)
4. Blues Brothers - Twist it (Shake Your Tail Feather)
5. C&C Music Factory - Everybody Dance Now
6. Cars - Shake It Up
7. Chubby Checker-The Twist- Doo Wop Pop
8. Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
9. Creedence Clearwater - Lookin' Out My Back Door
10. Cranberries - Zombie
11. Crystal Method - Name of the Game
12. David Bowie - Let's Dance
13. David Bowie - Dance Magic Dance
14. Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round
15. Deep Purple - Space Truckin'
16. Depeche Mode - I Promise You I Will
17. Devo - Whip It
18. Dobie Gray - Drift Away
19. Duran Duran - Girls On Film
20. Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf
21. Duran Duran - I Don't Want Your Love
22. Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know
23. Duran Duran - Meet El Presidente
24. Duran Duran - New Moon On Monday
25. Duran Duran - The Reflex
26. Earth Wind and Fire - Boogie Wonderland
27. Earth Wind and Fire - Let's Groove
28. Earth Wind and Fire - September
29. Eddie Rabbit - I Love A Rainy Night
30. Eddie Grey - Mustang Sally
31. Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight
32. Foreigner - Hot Blooded
33. Jett, Joan & The Blackhearts - I Hate Myself For Loving You
34. John Cougar - R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.
35. Journey - Be Good to Yourself
36. Journey - Only The Young
37. Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
38. KC & The Sunshine Band - That's The Way I Like It
39. Kinks - That's What I Like About You
40. Kiss - Calling Dr. Love
41. Len - Seal My Sunshine
42. Los Del Rio - Macarena
43. Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic
44. Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Impression That I Get
45. Modern English - I Melt With You
46. Mon Chi Chi - Robots
47. Naked Eyes - Always Something There To Remind Me
48. New Radicals - You Get What You Give
49. The O'Jays - I Love Music
50. The Outfield - I Don't Want to Lose Your Love Tonight
51. Oingo Boingo - I Love Little Girls
52. Oren Waters - Digga Digga Dog
53. Orleans - Still The One
54. Paul Oakenfold - Starry Eyed Surprise
55. Peaches and Herb - Shake Your Groove Thing
56. Pilot - Oh Ho Ho It's Magic
57. Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
58. Power Station - Get It On (Bang A Gong)
59. Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
60. Robert Palmer - Simply Irresistible
61. Romantics - What I Like About You
62. Roxette - The Look
63. Sam The Sham & Pharaohs - Wooly Bully
64. Semisonic - Closing Time
65. Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam
66. Vitamin C - Smile
67. The Who - My Generation

JUMPSUIT

GUN

VOICE MODULATOR

SO. For this part it was really a no-brainer what to go with. Now, at first, it was hard, simply because I've never used a voice changer of any kind before, so I didn't really know where to go. My brother was looking through a few of the places for a voice changer kit, and he found a Voice Changer Kit for very cheap.

I bought the sucker today, so I'll have to update on this section later when it comes in to see if it'll work

>>UPDATE!<<



Jazz .WAVs

It was absolutely AWESOME, but -- It broke... Well, something went wrong and it really did sound like Jazz, but now something happened and it's not working right, if, at all. I'm hoping it's just a speaker problem.

>>UPDATE!<<

I love my family... xD

My dad looked at the voice changer and found out that my brother wired something wrong when he put it together, which is why the speaker suddenly went shoddy.

FULL-BODY SHOTS

I thought it would be neat to make progress pictures like this with the full-body thing. So, this is what I have so far, after only FOUR DAYS of work so far I'm EXTREMELY pleased.



*My shoulder fell apart during this test of flexibility... xD

>>UPDATE!<<

Not really "full body" but it's the first time I've seen the shoulder/arm together with the chest in a while.




>>UPDATE!<<

Again, not a "full body" since the other pieces are at the Shop still, but .... I'm getting there!



>>UPDATE!<<

Getting closer to those "full-body" shots ... Was too terrified to put all that weight on the foam-only lower legs.

CONVENTION PHOTOS 1

CONVENTION PHOTOS 2

CONVENTION PHOTOS 3

OFF-SITE POSTS/FUNNY STUFF

This place will be saved for comments/quotes that will be found after the conventions are over, just because some of the things that I've read about my costume are quite funny/stupid/induce WTF moments from me.

I can't believe I haven't said how awesome this is! The helmet is made of awesome :B (Jazz fan)
Is the Insulation really easy to work with? I'm considering using it.

Haha, yeah, thanks! xD

Actually, insulation foam is VERY easy to work with, albeit it's quite messy, so it would be best to do it outside. Or make sure you have a shop vac if you decide to do it inside...

The foam is really flexible too, although you've got to make sure that you get one with a "skin" on it; if you just get the ones without the skin, it'll snap very easily (found out the hard way xD)

UPDATED!

• Head
• Torso
• Feet
• Voice Modulator

Hey man, I totally forgot to tell you sooner about the feet. Sorry!

But yeah. I was going to cut up a welcome mat for the soles, so I made a trip to the flooring section of Lowes... turns out those were too thick to cut and expensive, so I just walked around a bit more and found that they had industrial-grade plastic flooring on rolls for like, a dollar a foot. Anyways, that's what I used. And by the end of the day, they still looked to be immaculate, even after dragging my feet on concrete and all.

Looking awesome so far!

Haha, that's what I thought it was. xD

I think Daddy said I could have the mat on the bottom of his garage floor, but... I can't remember now, so I'll have to run the idea by him again.

Ohhh it's coming out so nicely honey! Loving it!