Introduction: How to Make a Big Hero 6: "Honey Lemon" Costume
A dash of perchloric acid, a smidgen of cobalt, a hint of hydrogen peroxide, SUPER HEATED TO FIVE HUNDRED KELVIN, and... you have Honey Lemon of Big Hero 6!
For the 2015 Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, my friends and I wanted to go as the Big Hero 6 cast. We nominated our friend to be Honey Lemon and the rest was history. Want to be a super heroine? Well, let's get started!
Material
- EVA foam (walmart)
- 2 pairs of purple stockings (Target)
-1 pair of wedge shoes (thrift store
-1 pink/purple dress or jacket
-airbrush and/or acrylic paint
-craft foam
-worbla
- plastic balls (eBay)
-clear plastic (home depot)
-bondo
-modge podge
-wood glue
-cardboard
-small plastic buckles (Ebay)
-heat gun
-sewing machine/ needle + thread
Step 1: Chest and Back
1)For the chest, take your tape measure and measure from the shoulder to the bottom of your rib cage. Now add on 1 more inch to the width. From there, cut out that measured rectangle out of the scratch paper.
2) fold it in half, draw in your template and then start cutting out the general shape from the folded paper (pic 1). When you unfold it, you should have the front piece (pic 2) *this pics is not the actual chest plate, but the concept is the same.
3) do the same process for the back. (pic 3)
4) Cut these out from the EVA foam (pic 4). From there, i started cutting out the segments of Honey Lemon's armor. I did it in 3 pieces. left, right, and abdomen.
5) In order to make the curves for the breast plate, heat the foam with a heating gun. it should be more malleable. From there, grab a bowl and use it as a round object to place the warm EVA on. Push and pull the EVA foam on the bowl to get the foam to the curve you want it. (pic 5) once you have all the left and right breast plates, and you have the abdomen cover, glue all three pieces together.
6) From there, press the chest AND back foam pieces onto the person. The reason you added an extra inch to the width is so that you can make the fitting flush. Overlap the side flaps of the chest over the side flaps of the back piece. Mark off the excess foam and cut them off. (pic 6)
6). Glue your plastic buckles onto both sides and clip them in. (pic 7)
7). From there, cut the back piece in half where the crease is. The reason for this is that your back is not perfectly flat. It will look nicer if the armor is more contoured to your body. (pic 8)
8) Just as you overlapped the side pieces, overlap the two back pieces till they are nice and contoured to the shape of your body. Mark and cut them to the correct shape. Now glue them together.(pic 9 )
9) Honey lemon has a circle in the center of her armor, where the bottom of her sternum is. Since i glued her chest armor together from three pieces, the pieces all conjoin right in the center. i needed to replace that circle with one solid piece of foam. Cut it out with a template and glue in a solid piece. (pic 10)
10) now get more foam and put it into the shoulder sections. I just took some extra foam, placed it in the vacant gap where the shoulder strap would be, mark it, and then cut it. Glue in place once completed.
10) From there, grab your paper templates and draw in your extra details, such as extra plating, pectoral pieces, etc.. Basically anything that you want elevated.. You can use either craft foam or EVA foam, depending how thick you want it to be. cut out those sections(pic 10 , 11)
Step 2: Shoulders and Belt
Shoulders
1) To make your shoulders, you want to cut out a giant tear drop shape from your scratch paper
2) use that template and cut it out of foam. save that paper template though (pic 1)
3) grab your heating gun and heat both sides of the shoulder in a bowl
4) while hot, press the teach drop shaped eva foam into a ceramic bowl to get a nice dome shape.
5. Cut out little circles and attach them to the front of the teardrop pieces.
6) Attach them onto the chest pieces with elastic strips
Belt
1) honey Lemon's Belt is just a long plain strip with a rectangular belt buckle in the center. Just use a long strip of EVA foam. I used a plastic buckle to join the belt in the back of the costume. That way, the belt would look seamless in photos.
Step 3: Dress and Tights
Dress
1) we got lucky and found a pink rain jacket at a thrift store. I removed all the extra stuff, like the buckles, buttons, and sleeves.
2) Then, I sewed the jacket closed so that it was now a dress. (pic 1)
3) it was just a bit too bright pink for me, so i took it to the basement and sprayed it down with some purple to mute the color a bit. (pic 2)
4). I then used the original pink fabric from the sleeves of the jacket in order to make the accents. Cut up your strips and sew them onto the dress (pic 3 and 4)
5) in order to get the new sleeves, i grabbed pair of purple stockings from target. Then cut off the waist band and then then right in half at the crotch. I used the legs of stockings as arms and the waistband as the turtle neck part.
6. sew them in place.
6) for thumbs, i just cut a little hole where the thumbs poke out in the sleeves.
Sleeves/ Tights
1) We found some purple-ish tights at target. I asked her to wear them as i took my air brush and sprayed on a criss/cross pattern on it. I had some mesh laying around so i wrapped it around her legs and then sprayed. (pic 5)
You should now be at this point in assembly
Step 4: Shoes
1) We were able to find some wedges at a local thrift store
2) Took the airbrush and gave the shoes a spray to match the correct color. (pic1)
3) Took some acrylic paint and painted the bottom of the shoe with that purple/pinkish color (pic 2)
4) took some craft foam and cut them into strips. Paint them and then hot glue them onto the front of your shoe. I just painted the tips of the shoes as well (pic 3)
Step 5: Helmet
1). You want to take your eva foam to make the helmet. I find it easiest to use the crown method that i have done with cardboard.. you are making this out of foam though.. From here, you are using a sharpie and just eyeballing the general shape and counters of the helmet. its like creating a puzzle, but with foam pieces.. cut away things you don't want, and just keep adding where you do want. (pic 1 and 2) (picture is not of honey lemon, but premise is the same) pic 3
2) Once you have the foam helmet, hot glue the foam helmet with cardboard. this is because you will have to bondo the helmets to give it a hard exterior. i wasn't sure that bondo would stick to foam well, so i went with a cardboard shell first. (pic 4)
3).once completed, start bondo-ing the cardboard helmet. just keep adding layers of bondo, sanding, and repeat until you are satisfied.(pic 5 + 6)
Step 6: Helmet Details
1) For Honey Lemon, she has the ears on each side. I first drew up a paper template and then cut it out of EVA foam. (pic 1)
2) I dremeled the edges and then i used a exacto knife and heat gun to expand the cut on the circle portion of it. (pic 2)
3) i thought that EVA would probably bend with us being so active so i worbla'ed each ear. that way, it was nice and hard (pic 3 + 4).
4) glue each ear to the side of the helmet and then fill in the gap with caulk.
5) make a paper template of the detain section. (pic 5)
6) cut out the templates from your craft foam and glue in place (pic 6)
7) this is what the helmets should look like. don't forget the very front face decals. (pic 7)
Step 7: Purse
1) Start off by making the general shape of the purse from EVA foam. I wanted to make it functional, so i knew it was going to be hollow. So, cut 2 side pieces, a bottom, and a front and back. Glue all the pieces together. make sure the sizing is correct. (pic 1,2, 3)
2) now, take a pieces of craft foam that is the width of the bag. i glued it right onto the front of the bag. HOWEVER, i did not glue it to the back of the bag. i used velcro to keep it down. This way, the bag can open and close, but you don't see the seam in pictures. (pic 4,5, 6)
3) draw out a heart on a piece of scratch paper for the front. Use the template and draw it onto the front of the bag. do NOT throw away the template yet. Once done, use an exacto knife and cut it out. (pic 7)
4) use the same paper heart template to create a yellow border out of craft foam. Glue that in. (pic 8)
5. Take your plexiglass and cut out the shape of your heart. I used a dremel to sand down the edges.. Then i took a heating gun to the plexiglass and bent it a tad to match the curve of the purse.
6)I found a print of the buttons online.(pic 9) I used photoshop to get it to the right size. printed and cut it out. i used some spray to glue the paper to the plexi, and then to the inside of the bag (pic 10)
7) on the sides of the purse are two circles. It is the area where the bag strap comes through with the balls (pic 11, 12)
8) cut out a long strap from your EVA foam to be the purse strap. Glue in place on the sides. I actually cut a notch into the side of bag so it have a better hold when i glued it in.
9) Lastly, attach your plastic balls onto the strap. I personally did this by painstakingly creating some hooks out of thermoplastic. However, we eventually ran out of time and sewed them directly into the strap, which also seemed to work fairly well.
10) add your trim to the bag with craft foam.
* In the event you want to make a working electronic purse, you probably use an iPad mini to slide in. it would probably alter the shape of the bag a bit though.
Step 8: FINISHED!
- you can use caulk to fill in any gaps of spaces in your foam.
-ALL foam pieces should be painted first with modge podge glue to seal it. Foam is pretty absorbent, so it's just wasteful to paint directly on it. You can use several layers of elmer's glue also if needed. Of you can plastidip all the pieces..
-paint all parts the designated colors
"NOW THAT'S A CHEMICAL REACTION!"- Honey Lemon
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More tutorials of the pictured costumes are located here:
