OK, So It took me 2 weeks to put this costume together in a big rush for a new zealand game/comic/video game expo called Armageddon

As I left this till the last second it caused a lot of stress, and my wallet wasnt very happy with me, but I hope you all appreciate it :D

Step 1: Drafting the Pattern

So the easiest way to make the pattern for this costume is to use a mannequin.

You may find that this is expensive, so, you should do what I did, make one by wrapping duct tape around your body sticky side up once, add 2 more layers sticky side down, then fill it with expanding foam once your done. Only fill it bit by bit with the foam otherwise it well not set :D

To make your pattern, all thats done is a sheet of material is placed over the front and back quarters of the mannequin, from there you simply fold and trim the material back until it lines up where you want your seam allowances to meet.

A very important detail to make before removing your pattern is to add names/numbers and reference lines, this allows you to remember where and how panels go together, trust me, its very useful :D

Step 2: Transferring Your Pattern

This part is really simple, All you are going to do is trace your pattern onto your material, and add a 15mm seam allowance wherever there is going to be a seam on your costume.

Once you have marked out all your pieces (making sure it all fits on the material) Cut out your pieces with seam allowance and reference markings marked on the inside of the fabric with dress making chalk.

Make sure to add the seam allowance, and then double check again, because without it, your not gonna have a good time.

Once you've cut out your panels, your going to have to do the same thing again with your lining, making sure that it is a reflection of your original panels if you are using anything other than a plan double sided liner.

Step 3: Making Sleeves

Ok, to be honest, sleeves will usually be a pain, so I recommend you do as I did.

Get your sleeve pattern piece thats drafted to fit your inside tunic, Then simply draw desired pattern, cut up, add seam allowances, and then cut appropriate pattern pieces (make sure to think about how your going to assemble it all)

Step 4: Gauntlets and Chest Pieces

So these bits are really quite fun, you can use a variety of ways to make them, Including...

Making your core shape from foam, then covering it in builders bog.

Making one out of foam, then covering the front of it in plaster paris, removing the foam, and filling the mold with builders bog.

Or, simply making it out of foam.

The photos should make it fairly obvious how I mean.

After you have made your basic shape, you can use pva glue, wood filler pens, raising ink, or whatever you want to add your detailing to your piece.

Step 5: Trim and Panels for Robes

These bits of the costume are very minor, but somewhat important for detail.

The bigger panels on the waist are simply made from perspex, you can cut these to whatever shape you want, however, the easiest way of doing this is to take some card, cut it to the size of the panel you will be covering draw the shapes you want to be displayed, then cut up card.

The card pieces will be used to as stencils for your perspex plastic panels, from there you can sand, cut shape the panels however you want.

I cut out my panels, tapered the edges. spray painted them all metallic gold, and distressed them with a little bit of black paint.

When distressing anything, you want to put paint on the brush, then rub it off until there is almost no paint on it, then rub the material that you want to make look warn, if you still do this with too much paint then you can use a tissue to wipe it off and start again, lastly give it a coat of clear coat spray to stop the paint from rubbing off :D

Now, the trim.

This part sucks more than any other part of the costume, I took golden sheet metal from a craft shop I live near, and cut them into little 5mmx11mm rectangles, from there, folded them in half around a small rod, dabbed the inside with super glue, and then crimped them to the edge of the cloak. Its as simple as that, it just takes forever.Gold sheet

Step 6: Shoulder Pads

This bit was a bit of a cheat technique, but very few people noticed :D

This bit involves you having to make a cardboard template, fitting it to your mannequin to look good. then cutting it from a rubber door mat :D Thats really it :D

To stick it to your costume you can do many ways, but I found that getting shoe repair contact adhesive was the best technique. The adhesive sticks to rubber, vinyl, leather, and pretty much everything, which makes it suitable for this costume :D

Step 7: Shoulder Plate and Strapping

This part is very similar to the gauntlets and strap piece, However, instead of making it out of bog, I kept it as foam to keep it light weight as its only one shoulder.

Once you have made your shoulder armor to the size and shape you want, you can heat gun the edges to shape and curl them a bit more, then give it 2 coats of pva glue with a brush, then a third watered down layer to eliminate brush stroke marks. Add detail like the gauntlets, then paint and distress as much as you feel that it requires.

A buckle is required for this piece, I did not have one that was the right size so I simple cut one from a piece of aluminum using my rotary dremel :D

The next bit just involves you having to make the adequate strapping to fit to your body size. :D

Step 8: Ok. Now Some of You Are Gonna Find This But the Toughest.... the Scepter.

For this build you will need:

Rotary Dremel Kit

Detail Sander (you can use general sand paper, this just makes things a lot faster)

Craft/box cutting knife

Basic Sculpting tools

Oscillating multitool

Heat Gun

Hot Glue Gun

Materials.

Builders Bog

EVA foam

Liquid latex or casting silicon

Clear Casting resin

Blue Food coloring or dye

Wood......

Cardboard

Expanding Foam

Plaster Of Paris or casting plaster

Perspex Plastic...

First thing is first, you have to decide what size you want to make your scepter, You can make your scepter to whatever size, just as long as its the right size for you. If you make your scepter to big or two small, it will be very obvious very quickly.

For this step, I took a simple image that you can find on the net, Placed it into a drawing program, and added a box grid. Once you have a grid, you are able to free hand draw this onto a piece of cardboard to use later.

Step 9: Scepter Pt 2 Body

There are many ways of making your 2D image into 3D.

The scepter template was covered on both sides with "builders expanding foam", from there, a hacksaw blade was used to cut away the excess foam around the edge of the template.

From there you simply need to sand, and shape your foam to the shape you want your finished product to be.

Step 10: Scepter Pt 3 - Blades and Base

The blades of my scepter were constructed from pannels of perspex, you could use wood, perspex, aluminum, steel, whatever you like, just make sure that if you are going to use it for costuming, that you make it safe, noone wants to lose an eye.

How you produce this is completely up to you, for myself it was a mixture of using a rotary dremel, a miniature hand saw, and contact adhesive to build up multiple layers of perspex plastic to get the desired shape and thickness.

Step 11: Scepter Pt4 - Giving Your Foam a Shell

Builders bog is a very popularly used costume/prop makers material, It takes 2 parts, the bog, and the hardner.

Usually for every golfball sized bit of bog you use, you would squeeze a 25mm line of hardner from the tube to mix with the bog.

What you are going to do here is basically cover your entire foam sculpt of your staff in bog, a really easy way of doing this is to wear latex gloves and use your hands, If you dont have gloves, then usually covering your hands in canola oil will do the trick to stop it sticking.

Make sure that you give your model atleast a 3mm thick coat all the way around 'minimal', Ideally if you can make it 4 or 5mm then you will have a stronger finished product after sanding. The cleaner you can put this bog on, the easier detailing will become.

Note, in my picture I did the bog on foam in 2 separate halves, wouldn't recommend that way.

Step 12: Scepter Pt 7 - Making the Staff

This bit is really just up to personal style, I made my staff pole to about 70% accuracy for this.

I simply took a reasonable bit of wood, Cut a slight fat ended 'S ' shape into it with my oscillating multitool.

From there I filleted the edges to give it some curb, And then just sanded it down to give it that rounded smooth shape.

The base of the staff has to be a bit fat to make the staff look balanced, I did this simply buy gluing layers of EVA foam (camping foam mattress) to the base in a fashionable style. Once you are happy with your foam you simple cover it in builders bog.

Lastly you will have to cut a box shape out of the top of your staff, the reason for this? Your staff will go inside the body of the staff head, and this is where you will place your battery pack.

Step 13: Scepter Pt 8 - the Orb

Ok, so this parts up to personal style, you can buy glass orbs, crystals, whatever you want for this bit. I personally used whats known as "clear cast resin". It is a resin and a hardener kit that when combined correctly make a clear transparent material.

To make the right shape, I used Plasticine, made the desired shape, sprayed it with canola spray, then coated it in a few layers of liquid latex. The liquid latex is to make a mold for casting the resin.

Once you have made a mold about 4mm thick, you then need to make a 2 part mother mold to make sure it doesnt stretch when you do your casting, I used plaster of paris as this does not to be a fancy casting.

Simply make a border around your latex where the plaster will be cast, layer your plaster, remove Plasticine, and with a piece of gladwrap on the other half, cast your other half of plaster (the gladwrap stops the plaster from sticking to itself).

Now simply open up your plaster mold, remove Plasticine from latex, fit latex back into plaster, and BAM, your ready to pour.

The Clear cast resin is something that is usually very particular about mixing quantities, so make sure regardless of which brand you get that you read the instructions.

Once mixed, by simply adding blue craft dye or food colouring you can color your cast, I used about 5 drops of blue food coloring for mine.

Step 14: Scepter Pt 9 - Staff Final Details and Fitting It All Together

Step 15: Scepter Paint

The paint part of this was simple, I coated the entire thing (except the orb) in metallic gold spray paint, then with some masking tape help, sprayed the bladed areas in metallic silver, then distressed it with black acrylic paint, just like with the armor, befor giving it a spray of plastic clear coat for protection

Step 16: Finished Product.

Then if all has gone well, and you have followed these steps, you should have a well fitting, pretty accurate looking loki costume, the main key is to be patient, I had to rush this in 2 weeks of sewing, not fun :D