DIYMinecraftCostume

My son is a huge fan of Minecraft and wanted to be Steve for Halloween.

This Minecraft costume was made from paper, cardboard, packing tape, wood and metal flashing.

We wanted to make a diamond helmet and diamond armor that could be worn by a 2nd grader.

The scale was as close to actual as possible.

This costume used 11x17 color copies on card stock taped together with packing tape and stuck on fabricated cardboard with spray adhesive. Custom made cardboard boxes were first cut out of 1/4" cardboard (cut 1/8 " undersize for later hot glue construction)

Next, the cardboard pieces were covered in card stock paper with spray adhesive.

Wood pieces were hot glued where strength was needed and then secured with screws.

Clear coat spray paint was used to seal finished costume to increase water resistance.

I spent way too much time on this and really enjoyed the process. It was worn at a party, in a school parade, and trick-or-treating. Everyone loved the way it looked just like Steve! (It photographed very well too!)

My son was very happy with his one-of-a-kind Minecraft costume!

Step 1: Color Copies on Card Stock

After downloading other images of costume skins, I decided to make my own in MS Paint.

I selected the visible grid background and made 1 1/2" squares for the face and 1 3/4" squares for the armor.

Small grey squares were added to indicate location of folds.

All files were converted to .pdf with Adobe Acrobat and loaded on a flash drive (for professional printer) and printed

on 11x 17"card stock in landscape format.

Each box is slightly undersized to allow each assembled print to be flush with the edge of each surface.

The finished head is 12x12". The finished helmet top is 14x14". The finished body is 7" thick, 14" wide

and 16" tall. (The height can be adjusted for your needs.) The arms are 7x7x7"

Step 2: 1 3/4" Squares on Armour Match Scaling of Game.

The finished

Step 3: Open Top for Ventilation, Hot Glued Foam Head Piece Hot Glued on Cut Plywood

Step 4: Foam and Wood Spacers, Fastened With Eyehooks / Tie-wraps

Step 5: Painted Plastic Screens Hot Glued at Eye Openings

Step 6: Shoulder Tops Made From Paper Covered Plywood

Step 7: Screw-reinforced Corners Covered With Glue.

While glue was still hot, metal (flashing) was held tight to seal area around screw.

Trim edge and cover with paper/spray adhesive.

Step 8: Invisible Super-plastic Hinges!

Since the armor goes over the head, we needed to have the shoulders hinged.

To make the armor look just like the real character, we needed to have invisible hinges.

The plastic from a drink cup was found to be more suitable than packing tape.

(You can bent it over and over and it will not break!)

First we cleaned the plastic with rubbing alcohol and then scuffed with sandpaper.

This was secured with spray adhesive, metal, nails, and more spray adhesive.

Step 9: