Rocket Raccoon Cosplay - Armor

Alrighty guys and gals! This was my first "official" cosplay. I am ecstatic with how it turned out and I hope y'all feel the same!

The inspiration for this cosplay was of course the AMAZING comic and movie Guardians of the Galaxy. I always loved the comics and when I found out it was going to be a movie I was super stoked! My fiancé started it by saying he wanted to be Star Lord for Halloween. Now, some girls would automatically pick Gamora or Nebula to dress up as, because they're girls. But, me being me, I love to do something different and unexpected :3 So, after seeing the movie twice, I decided Rocket was the character most like myself, and THAT was who I needed to be.

Now then, since this is my first tutorial, if there's anything on here that I didn't explain very well, or you need some help with when you're trying it out yourself, just send me an email to the address at the bottom of my About Me page! :D

-A rough estimate of what you'll need- 

Construction paper - for pattern

Sharpie, pencil, etc.

Scissors - duh

Ruler or Yardstick

A big pack of regular thickness fun foam.

3-4 large sheets of 1/8th inch fun foam

Low temperature hot glue gun (with A LOT of glue)

Paint! (brown, black, white, maroon, silver - metallic, cobalt blue - metallic, dark bronze - metallic, gunmetal grey - metallic, and if you can find it, clear/white glow in the dark paint) 

Velcro sticker rounds

First off, like when I plan out any possible cosplay, I turned to Google. After searching and searching, no one seemed to have ANY type of tutorial I could use for pieces like Rocket's armor. THEN the clouds parted and the storms cleared when I found Commander Holly had made videos for every part of her Rocket cosplay. But, that's when the storm clouds rolled back in...though her videos are AWESOME and very thorough, there was NO WAY I could do that much heavy fabrication in my dorm room. And lord knows a college student's budget is stretched as it is, there was no way I could afford the equipment. So here's where the creative genes kick in. I looked on Pinterest,  mainly for reference pictures, and just HAPPENED to stumble upon the perfect picture of someone's foam fabricated Rocket armor.

--To be honest, I almost peed myself--

THIS is something I can work with!

My next step, was to make a sketch of the pattern. Since the picture I found was a guy's cosplay, I needed to slim down the back piece and make it a tad more feminine.

After the sketch comes the fun part. I made a pattern of each piece out of fun foam (AKA craft foam) occasionally just laying pieces on me to make sure they were the right size. I wish I could tell you exact measurements, but I kinda winged it. Just try to measure your back (or get a friend's help)

Sorry for the crappy-not-so-awesome picture. I just wanted to show the scale of the pattern.

The Foam:
So here's the dealio. I used two different types of fun foam. Just regular thin sheets and a few pieces of thicker/sturdier foam (I believe 1/8th inch thick is as thick as it gets).

On the pattern, I attempted to color code the pieces. Also! Make sure you leave quite a bit of overlap between each piece. That way, you'll have something to glue together. I left about 1-2 inches for each overlap.

Ok, so I kinda had to reassemble the pattern for this picture. It's missing the two bottom tail pieces (yellow shown above). I marked X's on the pieces I cut out of the 1/8th inch foam (including the two yellow tail pieces in the previous picture!) You'll also need a 1/8th inch thick sheet for the backing of the entire piece. Just so it's not so flimsy and flip floppy. 

As for the shoulder straps and hip straps (you're gonna hate me for this) but that was purely a happy accident. I can't remember how, but I "winged" the shoulder straps and as a result, the scraps turned into the hip straps. I know, CRAZY and kind of annoying that I can't give you an exact pattern, but if you look at some of the pictures in the Painted section, you'll be able to see what I mean and "wing" it too.

YAY CRAFTING!

Now then! Got your pieces cut out?! FANTASTIC! Now we can be like the Avengers and assemble! Hehehe. Get it? Assemble......MOVING ON...

Ok, first and foremost. You will NEED a low temperature hot glue gun. If you use a regular glue gun, it will pretty much melt right through your foam or melt it down to a not so pretty state. But if you like to live dangerously and have the foam to spare, by all means, have at it.
Gluing it all together is fairly simple. Just follow your pattern's assembly and you're sure to do it right! In the end, this is what mine looked like:

The white foam is all the thicker 1/8th inch foam and the tan is all the regular thin foam. I also glued the tail in place between two of the pieces because I knew I wouldn't be able to attach it anywhere else onto my jumpsuit.


The Paint:
This was my favorite part!! I love painting as it is, and I got to go crazy with this part! Me being me, I didn't take any progress pictures, but I feel you'll get the idea by seeing it complete.
The main things to keep in mind are:

• Do the base colors first! If you're using colored foam, I suggest doing a white wash just so the colors you paint on will be true to the color.
• When you distress it, make sure you're putting thought into how you're doing it. Think about it! the nooks and crannies should be corroded with dirt and grime. Rocket is a bounty hunter, he's probably been in a TON of fights and been thrown to the ground a few times. When you distress, make sure you scuff and darken places that would have hit and skidded across the ground if you were thrown across a room! Remember! It doesn't have to be even! Nothing ages or corrodes at an even rate perfectly symmetrical! 
• It's not gonna be perfect the first go around. AND THAT'S OK! You just have to keep adding colors, messing around with tones, and light to see where the highlights and shadows hit. Painting will probably take the most time out of everything, so do it right and take your time!
• Test out colors on scrap pieces of foam. You'll have PLENTY of scraps and that's perfect to test out different colors! Play with everything. If you see a color in the store that would look good, test it out! THERE ARE NO WRONG ANSWERS!

Use mine as an example, but distress it how YOU FEEL it should be distressed. Just remember the helpful hints and you'll do great!

On the circle in the center of the back, I used a cobalt blue and the glow in the dark paint. I WANTED to use blue LED lights, but I didn't have time :/ The glow in the dark paint worked fairly well! But it was nothing compared to an LED light. 

CONGRATULATIONS! THE HARD PART IS OVER! Well, kinda. It was the day before Halloween and I still needed something to hold the armor onto my jumpsuit. I thought about metal snaps, but after testing, I was afraid of the snaps tearing right through the fun foam. Then my mom suggested the simple idea of stick on Velcro. THANKS MOM! Seriously. These things. Like $2 at Walmart. I had to use about 1 and a half packages to keep the armor on, but it worked GREAT. All I did was stick on 3 dots on each arm and hip strap. The trick to making them line up right is put the two sides together first, then peel off one sticker and place it on the foam. After you stick all the pieces on the foam, get a friend to help hold it while you peel and stick the other dots into place on your jumpsuit. It's just that simple!

So, cool! That's how I made the armor for the Rocket Raccoon cosplay! I'll be writing another post about the jumpsuit and gun here soon! STAY TUNED!