Death Korps of Krieg Cosplay

Hello everyone!

I made a Death Korps of Krieg cosplay for a school project and thought I'd share it with you. The cosplay is a Combat Engineer mixed with some parts of the Grenadier and with a build in voice changer and speakers so people can still hear you when you put on the gasmask. I spend a lot of time on this project and learned a lot and if you have the time / recources its a nice way to learn more about the different machines and techniques to get into making cosplays. Let's begin!

Step 1: What Do You Need?

Tools:

• Solderering Iron, with a pointy tip.
• Solder, preferably for electronics this solder contains flux so you do not need to apply it yourself.
• Lasercutter or figure saw.
• 3D printer
• Vacuumformer
• Sewing kit
• measuring tape

Material:

• 2x 3mm triplex 400mm x700mm
• Leather or fabric that looks like leather. Dont use leather thats very thick because it makes it harder to sew.
• Prototyping material, paper or thin cardboard will do.

Clothing:

• Gasmask, you can find cheap gasmask on ebay or other sites. I am using the GP-5 Soviet Gasmask alternatively you can use the Shalon 4a1 Civilian Gasmask for the more iconic pointy mask style of the standard Kriegsman.
• Millitary Trench / Longcoat, I have no experience in making my own clothing so I found a nice longcoat on ebay. Search around on the interwebs and you'll find a good deal on one. Mine is a used German Officer's Longcoat.

Electronics:

• Arduino.
• Arduino Waveshield.

Adafruit has their own tutorials on using the waveshield and making it into a voice changer.

Optional:

• Solder pump, for removing solder when you solder something the wrong way around.
• Solder wick, for removing solder that the solder pump cant remove.
• Rubbing / Isopropyl Alcohol for removing flux and grease from a PCB after using solder wick.
• PCB clamp, saves you a lot of time and twisting your hands in impossible positions.
• Solder Iron cleaning equipment.

Step 2: Inspiration

I took my inspiration from some pieces of artwork and projects other cosplayers made. It is going to be a mix between Grenadier and Engineer and the Engineer uniforms.

Step 3: Making the Flak Armour.

The flak armour is one of the easier steps. Here we will use the triplex to cut out the shapes that we will be using for the armour. The armour is based of the Engineer uniform. I attatched a Illustrator file with the drawings. The dimension are made to put over the triplex plate.

Cutting the armour.

I used a lasercutter to cut the shapes out. Otherwise you' ll have to print out the shapes and put them on the plates and cut them out with a saw.

Next up is attatching the straps.

Cut off 2 straps around 2.5cm x 30cm.

On the top chest pieces, put the straps through the chest piece as seen on the pictures.

Fold the ends a few times untill it can't move through the slits and then sew it together.

The strap pieces can be pulled through the slits to make the effective lenght shorter like the straps on your backpack.

Attaching the other pieces

The width of the piece decreases the futher down you go. On the inside of the armour you can put fabric straps to hold the sepparate pieces together. The straps can be attached with glue or short nails, what you prefer, I used super glue.

Step 4: Modifying the Gasmask

I bought a GP-5 Soviet gasmask kit with a filter, extention hose , bag and extra lenses. DISCLAIMER: The GP-5 Filters contains a low amount of asbestos! There is minimal risk as long as the asbestos is not disturbed, torn or broken but it is still dangerous especially if you use it for long periods of time! Attach the extention hose and tuck the end away in a backback or something it will still have a creepy look. Keep the cap on the filter and just use it as decoration or something or buy a sepperate filter that fits the GP-5.

Taking measurments

First take some measurements of your head and the mask. You'll need the following measurements:

• The height and width of the mask.
• The diameter of the eyes
• The circumference of the nose where you attatch the filter.

Use these measurments to draw the general form of the mask on paper and cut it out and test if it fits on your mask. If not make the right adjustments.

Cutting and sewing the fabric

Use your papermask to cut out the fabric as seen on the pictures. Make sure to bottom is the circumferance of the nose. Wrap this around the nose and sew it together. Start in the corner and move down. This way you tighten the fit around the nose. If you have trouble keeping it in place you can use a rubberband and some pins.

To fit the top of the mask better fold it and put a pin through it. The fold should have a triangle shape. Cut out this triangle shape so you only have 1 layer of fabric and not 2 and sew the edges together.

After sewing everything you can cut away the excess material.

To fit the edges of the fabric to the gasmask I recommend using glue. If you want the fabric to go all around you can cut additional pieces. You can trace over the shape of these pieces from the gasmask.

I haven't done this because I am planning on buying a helmet that will cover these parts.

Step 5: Placing the Electronics

After following the Adafruit tutorials here and here. You need to place the arduino. If you want to take it to a convention or make it portible I recommend putting the arduino in a box that you can hang from your belt or fit in a pocket. If you just want to take fancy pictures you can skip this alltogehter but do bear in mind the GP-5 does not have a voicediaframe so you will sound like Pyro from Team Fortress 2.

You need to put the microphone in a balloon and tighten the end with a rubberband. Place the micrphone in the mask near your mounth. Tape the cables to the sides and to the edge of the mask. If you do not mind destroying the resperatory checkvalve you can drill through it and put the microphone through there and hide the cables between the fabric and the mask.

If you are using the same speakers I am using you can put them into the gaps in the armour. I 3D printed boxes and attached them to the armour in which I put the speakers. I have attatched the file.

Step 6: Creating the Shoulderguards

For the shoulder guards I am using a 3D printer and a vacuumformer. With the 3D printer I am creating the mold that goes into the vacuumformer but you can also just print it. If you want to vacuumform you need to download the files Shoulderguard_1.2.stl and Shoulderguard_2.2.stl. If you do not want to use a vacuumformer use Shoulderguard.stl and Shoulderguard_2.stl. You need to print both objects twice. Make sure that you mirrorShoulderguard_2 or Shoulderguard_2.2 for the second print. In total both print take around 6 to 8 hours to print with 20% infill. Shoulderguard_2 and Shoulderguard_2.2 need support but Shoulderguard and Shoulderguard_1.2 don't if you place them upright as seen in one of the pictures.

Once printed you can glue the 2 Shoulderguard pieces together and the 2 Shoulderguard_2 pieces together so your left with 2 components. You can then place the mold in the vacuum former to create a shoulderguard piece and attach that to your coat. If you do not vacuumform you can do that with the 3D printed pieces.

Step 7: Painting

If everything fits you can start to paint everything the way you want it!

Congratulations you have a Death Korps of Krieg uniform!

Now go out there and do the emperors will! Emperor Protects!