This weekend finished chopping up the remainder chassis of the Jeep for lower legs assembly.
Was helpful to borrow a reciprocating saw (sawzall) to do the cutting.
The lower leg sections should work fine attaching directly to the motocross boots.
Also completed repairing the motocross boots, they both had some heat damage to the plastic from previous owner. Found the boots on eBay cheap.
While looking at leftover plastic pieces from the mustang I used on Prowl, found the steering bracket and came up with an interesting idea for the back of Hound.
I could mount the steering bracket on the back with two tires bolted straight on. The Jeep did not come with doors, so no doors sticking out like Prowl. The G1 Hound character from the 80's never had doors anyway. Might continue with this idea and either add to it or modify.
That bracket on the back would actually help with the missile launcher mounting bracket.
The tires I will repaint black with grey rims and the bracket will get painted grey as well.
Tempted to dry brush a simple brown coat on the tire treads for effect, like dirt on the tires.
Today I jumped right in and began working on the torso.
Last weekend I cleaned up the Jeep and disassembling it completely.
The moto-cross chest protector arrived from eBay earlier on Wednesday.
With the Chest protector I can rivet the plastic directly and have less parts to assemble when suiting up.
Started cutting up the front end of Jeep and figuring out the basic layout on the chest protector.
So far so good.
My shoulders will not line-up under the front wheel fenders, that's ok. I will customize however neccessary.
Now to figure out the back and how it will assemble with shoulder and neck area.
I have to keep in mind how I am going to take the suit on and off with minimal complexity as possible.
Friday night went supply shopping.
Re-stocked on spray paint and sanding blocks.
Found a storage bin at Walmart that is the perfect color green, and the spray paint color Hunter Green matches pretty good.
I will look for other color greens that might match better.
The heat gun, gloves and floor mat I got at Harbor Freight Tools. Good place to shop for tools and supplies when you're on a budget.
The floor mat material is good for forming light weight costume pieces.
Cut into shape, form it with heat gun, hot glue gun the pieces together, then paint.
This is a new method I will be trying, maybe the forearm pieces this will work for.
Found some vinyl angle brackets discounted at hardware store.
These are the same brackets I used on Prowl for the missile launcher mounts.
This weekend I met with a private collector of Power Wheels vehicles on Greensboro NC.
I Acquired two vehicles for upcoming Transformer costumes, a Jeep and Lamborghini.
The Jeep is perfect for Hound and the Lamborghini is good for Arcee or Sidwswipe.
I will have to re-paint both, but that's OK, get the color I want.
The Jeep is disassembled and getting cleaned up for fitting ideas.
This time I will use motocross chest protector plates for the costume torso assembly, it was easier to find inexpensive chest protectors vs used backpack harnesses on eBay.
Mysticon 2015
A great year for this event, attendance sold out!
The panels and programming I went to were cool.
Always glad to see the vendor hall packed.
There were many awesome Cosplay participants.
Spectacular Masquerade event Saturday night.
Congrats to all participants and winners.
Many attendees glad to see Prowl again.
Looking forward to Mysticon 2016!
