How to Make a TMNT: "Shredder" Costume

Scourge of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oroku Saki is a bad@$$.. don’t lie to yourself. Go ninja, go ninja, go!

Materials:

-Black shoes

-black pants

-grey fabric

-purple fabric

-black fabric

-cardboard

-bondo

- black elastic

-2 Black strap handles (can be from a book bag, laptop bag)

-thin elastic (the kind used for wrapping presents)

Step 1: CLOTHES

CLOTHES

Put on your black shoes and black pants

TUNIC (Image 1)

1. Your tunic is basically a tank top. Grab your grey fabric, cut out a tanktop pattern twice (front and back), sew the shoulders and sides and it should be snug (pic A).

LOIN CLOTH (Image 1)

1. For the loin cloth, cut a black strip of fabric for your waistline. Sew a grey rectangle onto it. If you really want to, you could sew a rectangle on the back side too, but the cape will cover that. I just used a safety pin to close the loin cloth in the back.

Cape (Image 2)

1. Grab a sheet of purple fabric and just wrap it around yourself. i just took the ends and wrapped them around my neck a few times, and then safety pinned it closed. (pic C)

Step 2: ARMOR

Once you get this technique done, the assembly process is fairly the same, except for the helmet.

FOREARMS AND HANDS (Image 1 + Image 2)

1. For the forearm, grab some cardboard and cut out shape in picture D twice. 
2. Bend it around your arm to get a curve.
3. once done, glue the two pieces together to give it support. set that aside. this is a pain, but cut 12 “blades” from cardboard.
4. Glue 2 blades to each other to give some support. you should now have 6 blades.
5. Now, take your blades and your forearm guard and bondo everything. Just be patient and keep sanding everything smooth.
6. Once your 6 blades are bondo-ed glue them to the bondo-ed forearm guard and bondo the creases .you want to do this so that the blades don’t break if/when they get bumped.
7. Take two strips of black elastic and glue them to the completed forearm guard.
8. Now REPEAT for the second arm. 

Hands (Image 1 + Image 3)

In pic E, you are going to do the same process, but these are hands guards.

1. Cut out the shape in pic E twice.
2. cut out 4 LARGER blades and repeat the same process as you did with the forearm guards above.
3. take some black hand straps and glue them to the bottom of the guards.
4. Repeat  entire process for your second hand.

Step 3: SHINS and SHOULDERS

Shins (Image 1 + Image 2)

For the shins, you are basically doing the same exact thing as the forearms, but the guard will be a little bigger because im assuming your calf is bigger than your forearms (pic F)

Shoulders (Image 1 + Image 3)

Now in pic G, you will see the shoulders.

You need to basically make 2 miniature helmet crowns. the explanation of how to build the crowns can be found in the “how to build a darkseid costume” tutorial.

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-DCs-Darkseid-costume/

1. Just remember that the diameter of the crown will be the size of your shoulder.
2. once you build those 2 crowns, start to make the spikes. it takes 8 pieces of cardboard to make 4 blades. bondo the shoulders, and also the blades.
3. Glue them on and bondo the creases.
4. Once this is complete, take some elastic and run it from one shoulder piece to the other. The elastic will be across your back and be hidden by the cape.
5. I also took some thin elastic and made a loop in each shoulder, so that your arm could slide through, the shoulders would stay on, and you’d still be mobile.

Step 4: MASK

1. Take a piece of cardboard and fold it around your face.
2. Bend and glue the bottom of the cardboard together (red side) so that it will be angle around your jaw/chin.
3. take a triangle of cardboard and bend it in half.
4. Glue it to the top for a nose guard (green).
5. Once constructed, LIGHTLY bondo the mask.
6. Take some elastic (orange) and poke it through the corners.

Step 5: HELMET: Part 1

Base

1. Begin by making the crown, as found in the “how to make a Darkseid costume        ”https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-DCs-Darkseid-costume/
2. next, add a sheet of cardboard (or you can do it in sections) around the crown. Now is the time to make the adjustments so that the helmet doesn’t catch your shoulders when you turn your head. 
3. Shorten as needed (pic J). 
4. Once completed, add a second later about midway on your helmet (pic K).
5. Afterwards, add little rectangles of cardboard (about 4 or 5) between the your J and K level. you are trying to give the impression of connectors. 
6. Bondo the whole thing now

Front T

1. Cut out a long slender diamond which will go from left to right on the helmet.
2. Get a triangle and glue it to the side of the slender diamond to make the top.
3. you should have an upside down “T” (pic M).
4. glue the “T” to your bondo-ed helmet.curve the edges so that they run along with the helmet (pic N).

Step 6: HELMET: Part 2

Fin

1. now, you want to take 3 more strips of cardboard and glue them to make a “fin” on your “T. ”
2. the Green line symbolizes the fin. the fin is there to assist in making the straight edges when you are bondo the “T”..
3. Take bondo and fill in the angle (pic P).
4. sand it smooth and spray it silver.

* I also bondo-ed the inside of the helmet so that the cardboard would not catch on my head. i didn’t pay attention to minor details on the inside. I also put some foam inside to give it a better fit.

Step 7: Finished!

* if you want to feminize the costume, wear some short black shorts
* extend the loin cloth
* shorten the tunic and show the mid-drift

it's time for some turtle soup!

If you want to see an interview with the cosplayer, the link is below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baF-h59Jca0&list=FLrlqQh40hO1Ft7LFRSijk4Q

Links to other costumes in pictures

Kuma
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Afro-Samurai-Kuma-costume/

Red Hood
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Batmans-Red-Hood-Jason-Todd-costume/

Splinter
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-TMNT-Splinter-costume/

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