How to Make a Marvel: "Dr. Doom" Costume

There is gloom and doom… when things go boom…. in DEXTER’S LAAAAAAABBBB!.. just kidding.. it’s Dr. Doom. Ph.d in DOOMOLOGY!

*this was my first cosplay attempt that i made in 2008. It’s still a great costume, but i’ll write a few new things that i’ve learned over the years into this tutorial.

Materials

-cardboard

-poster board

-1 large plastic garbage can

-green fabric

- thick brown belt

-work gloves

-boots

-grey pants

-grey long sleeve tshirt

-gold chain

-silver spray paint

-Gold paint

-safety pins

-plastic clips

-dowel

-brown leather

Step 1: CLOTHES and SHOES

CLOTHES

Wear your grey pants, regular belt, and long sleeve shirt

BOOTS/ SHOES

For the Dr. Doom shoes, i took option 1, grabbed some old dress shoes and spray painted them silver.

Option 1) : Paint
You can choose to spray or paint them. If you do this route, i suggest hand painting, because you will have a better chance of matching your shoes to your actual costume. If you do this, those shoes are now deemed your “costume shoes” FOREVER!

Option 2): Tape (Image 1)
If you want to save your shoes for actual daily life use, consider covering the whole boot in masking tape, and then going with option one ( above)

Option 3) :Foam (Image 2)
If you want to take it a step further, consider covering your boot in craft foam. If you want to be able to be able to salvage your boot for later use, do option 2 and then option 3. Take a hair dryer or heating gun and warm some craft foam. It will then bend and mold to your boot within reason. Cut the shapes along the natural seam of the shoe as you glue your pieces. Later, take a thin piece of foam and glue it over the seams to make it appear as one solid boot.

Step 2: Tunic

When you make your tunic, it can be kinda flowy. Also note that it is about mid thigh level (Pic A).Cut your green fabric into a long “nightgown shape/ tank top” (pic B).. you need two pieces for the front and the back. i sewed the sides and the shoulders together.

Step 3: Cloak

Hood
make your hood (follow the pattern located in “how to make a storm shadow costume.”

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Cobra-Storm-Shadow-costume/

Cape
Fold the hood in half so you find the center of it (pic C)

Match it up to the center of your cape. Pin it together and then sew it. add two straps on each side of the hood to tie it together. You now have a cloak.

Step 4: GOLD FASTENERS

Cut out two circles from cardboard ( i used a cup for a stencil).
cover them with poster board or comic cardboard to give it a smooth look.
Paint them gold.
On the backs of the circles, glue your safety pins.
Slide your gold chain in between the pins and pin them to the cloak on either side of the neck. (pic D)

Step 5: BELT

i found a WIDE brown belt in a woman’s clothing store. only problem was that it was super tiny. so i cut the belt in the middle, took some brown corduroy scraps i had, and made an extension.(pic E)

Step 6: GUN

You can probably opt to just buy a toy gun, or you can make one. I didn’t have time to make one, but i can tell you how i would have.

i would have cut out approximately 6 shapes of the gun’s main body and glued them all together. Then i would have cut out 2 pieces of cardboard and glued them together for the trigger.. and 3 pieces of cardboard for the trigger guard. I would have attached the dowel/ tube to the end of it. and then added the rest of the details with miscellaneous objects. Dr. Doom’s gun is a pistol.

Step 7: GUN HOLSTER

Doom has as leather gun holder for his pistol.

Cut 2 shapes out of the leather that would outline the gun (pic G).
now take one of those shapes and attach a belt strap to the back. Remember that Doom’s gun is on his right side.
Once the belt loop is attached, sew the 2 sides of the holster together.
lastly, cut out a cover, sew it on, and attach a button. or use velcro.

Step 8: ARMOR: Part 1

I made this costume in 2008, and I was learning about the use of plastics as a medium. I used a garbage can, but since then, ive learned how to use other things such as foam, bondo, etc. I would probably have still used a garbage can in some parts, as it does look more armor like. i was able to use 1 garbage can to cut out all the pieces i needed. You also need a heating gun for this. a Blow dryer will not work to warm the plastic enough.

Shins

i cut the shape on a side of the garbage can.
take a heating gun and warm it to the shape of your shin.
once warm, dunk it in cold water to cool the plastic into the proper form.

at the time, i didn’t know about the plastic clips, so i just tied the backs together with shoe laces. But i would like to see if the clip system would work. i think it would give it a cleaner look.

Step 9: ARMOR:part2

THIGHS

Do the same process to the thighs that you did to the shins. Just keep in mind that there is a flap at the top. This is to connect to your real belt underneath your tunic.

Step 10: ARMOR: Part 3

Attachment (Image 1)

take shoe laces or some type of strap (velcro), and hook it into your regular belt. this way, the thigh armor should stay up now.
Cut out 8 circles and put them on either side of your knees and ankles (pic J)

Progress: (Image 2)

thus far, this is how everything should look together

Step 11: ARMS

You can choose to just wear a long sleeve grey shirt as both my friend and i did at the time.. Or you can make shoulder, bicep, and forearm armor.

I would have used high density foam or maybe have tried the garbage can, and incorporated a design similar to a medieval knight's

A few key things to note are that there would be clips on each section so you could lock yourself in and out of the arms. also, you would need to make flaps on the ends of the forearm and bicep.
Poke a hole through the flaps and make them connect with each other.
once that was done, i would have taken some type of fastener and hooked them together (pic L).
i would have taken some foam and stretched it over a ball or bowl and made some type of elbow covering. Don’t forget about those 2 circles on each side of the elbow (4 total).
Also, put a velcro strap or some type of device so that you could place something behind your neck, to hold the shoulder pieces in place.. like a string or velcro (pic M)

Step 12: GAUNTLETS and HAND/FINGERS

Wrist Gauntlets (Image 1 + Image 2)

For the hand gauntlets, we just went the lazy way because we were running out of time. But to give it a more armored look, you can cutout wrist guards out of foam or cardboard, and put velcro on the sides to attach them.

Hands / Fingers (Image 3)
For the hand gauntlets, we just went the lazy way because we were running out of time. But to give it a more armored look, you can cutout wrist guards out of foam or cardboard, and put velcro on the sides to attach them.

This is a tutorial that is somewhat similar to the concept

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yMYu12zd0

Step 13: MASK

After EACH of the following steps, skin/cover the newly added cardboard with poster board or comic cardboard. it will give it a nice clean look.

1. Begin by making the crown illustrated in my previous tutorial, “how to build a Darkseid costume”

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

2. Skin or even bondo (if you are up for more work) the crown.
This is not very important because you will be wearing the hood of the cloak. but sometimes, its better to do things the full way.

3. Once that is completed, add two side pieces on either side of your head. its should contour to your jaw line. (pic P). Skin this

4. Once that is completed, add a chin piece of cardboard and an eye mask shape to your mask. skin these pieces

5. Now, you want to add 2 “L” shape pieces on either side of the face which connect to the chin area and underneath the cheekbone area. Skin once completed. (pic R)

6. For the next step, add a mouth cover and rectangles over the eyes.you can use this time to cut out the eyes and the mouth if you haven’t. skin these pieces. (pic S) i found a piece of grated plastic.. the stuff that holds oranges or onions. i glued that in for a mouth to help with breathing while still giving a metal look.

7. Lastly, Add cut out a place for your nose, add the nose itself and skin it. Now you can take your glue and add “rivets” around the eyes, nose, and mouth area. (pic T)

8. paint entire mask silver