Cosplay Help: Gemini Spark

[Anime Master ZERO]

I wasn't quite sure where this should go, so I just put it here in General Chat.

For those of you who aren't aware, Dragonman.EXE. and I are planning to cosplay as Gemini Spark for Otakon 2008; he's going to be White and I'll be going as Black. This will probably be our most ambitious cosplay-related goal yet not only because of how much work it will take, but also the fact that having two people is mandatory for this cosplay to be effective, thus requiring a lot of coordination between us.

In any case, our biggest concerns right now are the arms. We need to make them big enough, but at the same time also allow enough mobility for us to do Gemini Thunder poses.

Any and all cosplay construction advice on this matter will be deeply appreciated.
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[RollEXE]

My first thought was, "foam"??

I'm not sure if foam would work, it might be hard to paint on and the texture won't be right, otherwise you could try cardboard I suppose. You can make it hollow on the inside.... the spikes might be a bit hard though.

Here's a picture for those who don't know who Gemini Spark is:

[Tachyon360]

Here's a suggestion on how to indirectly articulate the big hand.


Fit the finger joints with springs or elastic bands posteriorly, so that they're always extended when no forces are exerted upon them. Attach steel fishing wire to the tips of each finger and run them anteriorly, through several eye screws at each finger segment for stability. These will serve as tendons to flex the fingers. Run them through the palm, down the wrist, to where your real hand would physically be inside the device, and attach the wires to rings so that you could pull them with your fingers.

Figure 1. Brief depiction of finger assembly.


As for the palm, it would be made up of 5 stiff, flat segments attached together by hinges. Both posteriorly and anteriorly, there would be several segments of an elastic material pulled somewhat taught and stapled down. The fingers would be attached to the stiff segments by hinge joints, and the metal wires serving as tendons would run through eye screws placed along the stiff segments. The point of making the palm flexible like this is to better mimic the natural structure of the hand, allowing you to make a fist.

Figure 2. Brief depiction of palm structure, sans tendon wires. The numbers represent the attachment points for the fingers.

Color legend for Figures 1 and 2.
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[SeijinKage13]

I am speculating so far, but this is really going to help.

Hmm, the legs seem like a different story compared to the arms. Since there is an extra column on the lower leg connected to the foot, you need probably need something flexible, yet sturdy, to make it. Plus, the feet themselves probably need to be made out of the same material. Suggestions on the materials are beyond me since I can't create a cosplay costume, but I wish could learn how to make one myself.

About the hand, I have no real protest about it. But, I think the position of the palm should be like the original, flat and perpendicular to the fingers.

[Tachyon360]

You can do quite a bit with foam of different consistencies, from reconstructing the collumn-like legs to covering a hand assembly. The means to the end of the appearance is a fairly moot point in my opinion.
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[Anime Master ZERO]

We don't really care about the boots right now. Our biggest concerns are the arms.
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[SdazVarence]

When we made the Helmet for my Bass Costume, we used a sort of sheet foam, Kinda like construction paper, If you can find large enough sheets of Yellow colored Sheet foam, you might be able to pull it off
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[robo]

Hey, sorry to necropost here, but if you guys are still considering this costume, I found a link that may prove useful.
http://www.riversedgedancewear.com/cunbtreun.html
This unitard although slightly different from Gemini Spark's design, is surprisingly close. It is expensive of course, but that is because these are custom made (however, it's probably safer to order this than to attempting to sew unitards yourselves. I'm sure the seafoam/olive +white/black combination would work very nicely.