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beetlews · 2 years

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DOFP Magneto Cosplay Tutorial

I’ll try and make this as comprehensive as possible but bare with me;

This certain costume Magneto sports isn’t the hardest out there to make, but there is a lot of complicated pieces such as the cape or the armor. So lets just get into this;

The maroon undershirt that is under the armor and cape isn’t very complicated. It’s an almost skintight turtleneck that is stretchy, almost knit spandex fabric. But I want to keep that initial knit look to it, so the best way to find the right color of fabric you’d want you’d probably have to dye either a white or a red a burgundy/maroon color. The undershirt-turtleneck is more purple than the cape, but not too purple so maybe something like a maroon dye would work best. There isn’t much to this piece, but just to hem the edges and make the neck of it fit correctly. Compared to the leather turtleneck that is also a part of the costume; I’d say make the maroon neck just a few cementers taller than the leather one, maybe 2-3 cm’s so it shows from underneath it. (more info below)

Now moving onto the vest/armor pieces. The vest is what you attach the armor pieces to, as well as the leather turtleneck. The leather for the turtleneck, I’d suggest getting the closest thing to leather, faux leather. But sense it’s in a very visible spot, and considering if you want to go for accuracy, I’d look around for leather/faux to re-purpose. If you don’t mind that much, a cheaper faux leather would do. But there is elements of the cosplay that have both shiny and non-shiny leather. So I’d suggest getting the closest thing you can to a non-shiny pleather.

For the rest of the vest, it’s hard to describe the fabric. Either a thicker canvasy material where you can see the grooves in it, and to make sure it’s sturdy enough to hope the armor in place with minimal movement. Or the other option I’d almost describe it as that one pores fabric that could be on a backpack or a cheap ballistic fabric??(I’m still trying to figure it out so you may have to do some research on your own)

Making the vest fit as well as possible, I’d suggest making a duct-tape dummy so you can make sure it fits you well and your armor doesn’t clash or bend too far. Speaking of armor, The vest is going to be on the tighter side, and depending on the fabric, won’t have much stretch to it so add a zipper in the back. Also so the armor pieces don’t get damaged while slipping the vest on and off. The bottom of the vest is also a strange thing, It sort of has a curve to it as it goes around the body. There are also some stiffer armor pieces on the bottom of it, so look at some reference pictures for that.

There are many ways you could potentially attack the armor to the vest:

Velcro (I’ll probably pick this option when its time for me to make mine)

Magnets (very fitting because Magneto har har, but you’ll need strong magnets so your chest plate doesn’t pop off while you bend over)

Snaps

Now the armor pieces in general. There are 11-12 pieces in total to make on the chest. But most of these are also not just 2-d but 3-d. They have curve and layers to them, so I’d work with 2-3 layers depending on the piece. On the main chest piece. (more below)

The lighter gray lines are just to show depth and where the armor sloped down. I’d also take the time to look at reference pictures to get it right. As you can also see by the blue lines, there is leather showing from under some pieces. Id just loop the fabric around on the edge so it shows from the front, but I feel like that part isn’t essential. The dots are just small bolt-like circles, you could either use foam to make small circles or use painted googly-eyes to make a more dome-like shape.

The materials you’ll need for making the armor are:

(I use) 5mm EVA cosplay foam

Plasti Dip, It can be used as a primer and fills in any small pores/inconsistencies in the foam

(This is optional but if your prone to mistakes) Acrylic Gesso

DAP contact cement for gluing (Note that is doesn’t hold up to high stress bonds)

(Also optional but will definitely help very much) Heat Gun, foam can be shaped and hardened with it, it’s way better than having a bunch of glue seams in foam

Spray paints and clear sealant

Your preferred method of attaching to armor to the vest (I’ll be using Velcro for my examples)

(Optional) Black felt to line the back of the armor to keep make sure the glue doesn’t come undone somehow #precautions

Using a heat gun is much better than anything I’ve ever done with just gluing seams. It could definitely be used to make more form fitting chest pieces for this cosplay.

Attaching the armor to the vest, sew one side of the Velcro to the corresponding spots on the vest. Then the other side of the Velcro, sew it to the felt, then glue the felt to the armor pieces. It should be sturdy enough just in case there are some things that break. And don’t be afraid to use a lot of Velcro to ensure that they don’t come off. (more below)

Now for those gloves!!!

I wanted to have a couple tricks/ small performances I could do as Magneto so it’s time to break out the magnets. Minus the electromagnetic wiring and complicated things-

I purchased a donut magnet that was roughly the size of my palm. And it’s very important its a donut magnet because you would need to attach to to you hand, not just the glove. If the magnet was attached to the glove, it would pull and eventually break the seams or worse, rip the whole palm of the glove. So instead, just wrap a wire through the hole and around your hand a couple times to make sure it’s secure. I’d recommend getting the strongest magnet you can, fabric interfering with the magnet and what it’s trying to attach will only make it weaker. This part is mainly optional, but it’s something to consider.

This is where the shiny faux-leather comes in. The whole of the gloves are made of it. Trace your hand on a piece of paper, going up to about mid forearm. After that, cut out on the shiny leather both a from and a back for both hands. Make just to leave enough seam allowance so you can easily get in and out of the gloves. As you can see in the picture above, it has layers to it so take time to figure out a loose, layered look that you like. Also to the gloves, there are 2 Velcro wraps that wrap around the arm and tighten the glove on. Both of those are hemed as well as the bottom of the glove. It doesn’t need to look exactly perfect, just maybe about an inch or 1/2 of hemed edge at the bottom of the glove.

BTW if you do include the magnet in the hand, I’d suggest making it only one hand because both hands may cause some problems. Like holding your phone, looking at merch, or even just accidentally picking up things you don’t want to. Even just getting stuck to doors or other metal things are something to consider.

Now for those pants, personally I’m just going to diy a pair of pants for this cosplay. I applaud you if you do decided to sew your own. But to make this easier for myself I’m going to buy, tailor, and work on a pre-made pair of pants. Like the picture says:

Baggy pants, but not too baggy on the lets, just enough looseness. In the reference pictures they also look a little thick, like a dressy/ tougher material. On the sides of the pants, there is a weird striped pattern(but thats just most marvel character outfits at this point). You can cut out the pattern and sew it back in so it looks like how it does in DOFP, or you can just grab some puffy pain and draw the pattern on there. That’s what I’m going to do.

NOW FOR THAT DAMN HELMET!!!

I have the basic instructions already on the picture, but I’ll go more in depth.

Patterning your head; it may sound strange. Basically what you will need to make a accurate shaped helmet to your head you’ll need a couple of things. Plastic wrap, duct-tape, and a marker. You wrap your head with the plastic wrap, make sure you don’t suffocate yourself. Then you use the tape to build up where you want the helmet shape to be. Following how it looks in the picture, plus a pic of Erik w/ it on, mark out roughly where you want the shapes to be. It may take a could of tries, a couple layer of tape, but eventually you’ll get something that is a 2-d version of the helmet. I usually only do one side of my head, then reflecting the pattern back over when it comes to cutting the pieces out. Just be careful you don’t go past the middle because that will cause problems when constructing it. Using the marker, also draw out where the features are, like the weird ass horseshoe thing on his forehead.

Cut out the patterned pieces. This includes the tape pieces and the foam pieces. I’d watch a couple YouTube tutorials on this if your completely unsure. While cutting the helmet pieces up, it won’t stay in one piece. I’d suggest making a seam down the middle of the head where you flip your pattern over to. I can’t tell you much besides; try making a draft with kids foam first to make sure it looks correct. Also what can happen while cutting the foam shapes out, try to keep your scissors as straight as you can and not at an angle.

Using glue to rough up the helmet. Besides the obvious glue together the helmet and use the heat gun; the texture of this helmet is one of the roughest ones so you don’t need to be super careful with the gluing. You could also use some acrylic gesso to give it a rougher look. Also you can use the gesso to fill in some of the seams that are on the rougher side.

Paint. Then paint your helm! Not much to it besides; Plasti Dip, spray paint, acrylic paint details, seal with clear spray.

WARNING THAT IM NOT SURE ABOUT THIS PART STILL, IT WILL TAKE SOME EXPERIMENTING WITH TO GET RIGHT!!!!!

So with the cape, this is what I have figured out so far.

The top of the cape is like a wrap-around situation on the neck. It’s a stripe of a thicker burgundy fabric, It has a thicker look to it but make sure the cape won’t be too heavy. Because even a double-layered cape made from a cotton blend definitely has some weight to it. So the cape will be heavy, that’s just a fact you need to accept. In the pic is the shape of the cape that Magneto wears. The shortest part of the cape falls roughly under the crotch. And the longest part is falls roughly mid shin to foot. The cape is also wider than it looks, it drapes down.

The cape has 2 layers to it. On the outside layer, the one that’s facing outwards, is a burgundy. The inner layer is a black non-shiny faux-leather. The sides of the cape are sewn together on the edges, but not the bottom. For some reason on the bottom of the cape, it’s not sewn together, just both pieces hemed.

On the top of the cape, there is a bit where it drapes down onto the shoulders and off to drape.

Thank you for your interest about this :)) If you have any questions, or if I was too vague about something, go ahead and ask.

Also here’s my Youtube-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Th4OO7dRZs4hDL7c79fyA/about

#magneto #erik lehnsherr #x-men #x-men cosplay #cosplay tips #magneto cosplay

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