Dustin McLean, Claire Max, and Benjamin Martin,
experts in the world of cosplay and DIY.
Masters of duct tape, cardboard, and hot glue,
together they are the DIY Costume Squad.
- Hey, what's up?
I'm Benjamin, and today I'm going to be making a first order Stormtrooper
from 'Star Wars The Force Awakens'.
And it's going to be made out of cardboard and
some random miscellaneous household stuff that I got for the cheaps.
So let's do it.
(Music)
I found a really good picture front and back head to toe of a Stormtrooper suit.
Definitely going to start with the base clothes which is going to be pretty simple
black clothes.
And then it’s just white armor pieces on top,
which I think I'm going to make mostly out of cardboard.
The helmet's going to be the big one, I want to make sure I get it right.
And then blasters, got a couple options for the blasters and
the rifle that he has.
But the very first thing is going to be the clothes.
Okay, so first thing is a pair of black sweatpants.
Got these for a few bucks at a discount clothing store.
I got a black turtleneck, same deal.
It was about 3 bucks I think, at Goodwill.
He has kind of some ribbed texture, so I have this dress.
And so I'm going to end up cutting that up, and
using it in pieces throughout the suit.
And I got some gloves, these are black work gloves from the 99 Cent store.
And finally, I have some dress shoes.
I couldn't find any that were white, but I got these ones.
Have a good shape, and I got them for about 6 bucks at Goodwill.
But I do have to mask off the soles, because those remain black.
(Music)
Okay, so first, I'm going to lay down some grey primer that's going to just kind of
prepare this material to get spray painted white.
(Music)
So while those shoes are drying I'm going to move on to a little
bit of the detail we've got to do for the clothes.
So I have this dress, and I'm going to cut it up,
because I'm just going to glue them right to the joints.
So that those are what's going to be seen through the armor pieces.
(Music)
Okay, so I'm finished up with the base clothes.
Moving on to the guns, we have a hand gun blaster.
And then I'm going to make one of the rifle blasters.
And I'm going to use a toy blaster that I got at the 99 Cent store.
And it looks pretty 'Star Warsy' as it is.
Gotta play with it at least once, because once I paint it,
I won't be able to play with it.
(Laugh) and then I have a toy gun here, it's a little bit bigger.
I'm going to do some modifications to it, but just a few.
I have a toy walkie-talkie here that I'm going to glue on the top.
And then on top of that I have a 'Ninja Turtles' pen that I'm going to use for
a scope.
(Music)
So I'm applying masking tape to the blasters in all the areas that I want to
remain white, because I'm going to then spray paint them black.
Now these aren't the right shapes, but they're close.
And so I'm going to be taking some liberties with the details, so
that I get the right style.
(Music)
The next step is going to be figuring out the body armor.
So I got some boxes here.
Woah, that is a big piece of cardboard.
We're going to make the chest piece first.
So what I'm doing here is I'm bending the cardboard along the corrugation.
If you notice, has a natural bend to it anyway.
(Music)
So I realize as I'm making this that I need to put it on my body,
kind of measure it to how it fits, take it off.
Do some cuttings, some alterations because it is a very snug fitting piece.
(Music)
We've got the back piece here and then the front piece,
starting to look like something.
(Music)
Yeah, my head doesn't fit, that's cool.
So I'm going to have to put a seam down the back.
(Music)
Wow, am I that skinny?
That's so tiny.
- Wow. (Music)
To keep the back seam closed, I'm going to be using some clips off these luggage
straps that I got at the 99 cent store.
(Music)
Cool, and now it's time to put some of the details on.
It has like little clips on each sides, so
I'm going to be using clothes pins for those.
I got this pack at the 99 Cent store.
I was like to try to use actual things to make the detail rather than just
drawing it on.
I feel like it gives a little bit more texture and depth.
Some of this linework detail, I'm going to be doing with tiny strips of tape.
You can use duct tape or really any kind of paint, but
once I spray paint them it'll show that detail.
So it'll look really sweet.
There's pouches I'm going to be using these little
plastic containers that I have.
And I also have some EVA craft foam that I'm probably going to use for
some of the details.
I'm working on this back piece, I'm not exactly sure what it is.
But it's a tube shape, there's another box element to it.
I think I'm going to use this index card case, I got it the 99 Cent store.
(Music)
Okay, so for the shoulders, I have pet food scoops, both were 99 cents,
just going to chop off the handles.
So that's it for the shoulder pieces, but
I'm going to attach them right to the chest piece, so that it's all one unit.
I'm just going to zip tie it.
(Music)
So I'm going to move on to the biceps and these are going to be plastic containers.
(Music)
So once these are painted, then I can zip tie them to the shoulder pieces.
Moving onto the forearms, I'm going to be making those out of cardboard.
(Music)
So I'm going to keep in mind is, this is all going to get spray painted over.
So feel free to use whatever miscellaneous stuff you
have to get the details in there.
So the forearms are ready to be painted, but before I do that,
I'm going to change up and move on to the belts.
There's a second belt that he has I got this belt, 99 Cent store.
And again, using some plastic containers, I got at the 99 Cent store.
I actually have this little tin, 'Star Wars' tin,
that I'm going to put in there as an Easter egg.
So I'm going to need to paint these right before I attach them to the belt.
(Music)
He does have a black bag, so I got this.
It's a dark blue, I'm going to spray paint it black.
While I wait for
that paint to dry, I'm going to make the cod piece out of this plastic container.
So here's the cut piece, I cleaned it up with some tape.
And it's going to attach onto the belt like that, but
first I got to paint it white.
(Music)
So while that's drying, I'm going to move onto the butt piece, the butt plate.
I'm not sure what it's called, but it protects the butt.
And this is a serving bowl that I got from the 99 cents store,
it's got pretty good butt cupping contour.
(Music)
Gotta say, this is a first for me.
(Music)
So for the belt, I'm actually going to put the buckle to the side.
So I can attach the boxes onto the front and then I still have access to the belts.
(Music)
So that’s done, I think we’ll move on to the legs.
(Music)
First thing, I want to do is kind of get a measurement of my thigh.
Think I’m going to use some cardboard,
much in the same way that I did the forearm pieces.
So I did one piece, and now I'm going to trace it onto another piece of cardboard.
So I have two, I don't have to do this all twice.
For the shins, I'm going to use the same technique I did with the thighs.
These shin pieces are way to skinny for me to fit my foot through.
So I'm going to have to leave them cut in half, and
I'm going to use these buckles from these dog collars to attach them.
(Music)
These things are looking pretty legit with the clip.
And it had like these bats on the bottom of the legs, so very specific shape.
So once I have this shape figured out in the paper, then I'm going to use that as
a template to transfer to cardboard or whatever material I decide to use.
(Music)
So the legs are all finished up, and the last part for
the body armor is going to be the hands.
The gloves, there is a little piece on the top of the hand wich is going to be these
toy shovels.
(Music)
The last two pieces are ready to get spray painted along with the rest of
the costumes, so let's head outside for some spray paint.
(Music)
I don't even know where to start.
(Music)
Here we are, all of the pieces are painted white.
There are some black details on in little areas, so
I'm going to just do those with some black tape and some black marker.
(Music)
It has a mechanism on
his right thigh to hold
his blaster in place.
And what I have is a door lock, it's a chain door lock.
What I'm going to do is attach the base piece on to the thigh and
then the knob will get attached to the hand blaster.
So I'm pretty stoked, because I've had the idea to do this with the door lock for
a long time.
And I've just never had the opportunity, so now I get to try it out.
(Music)
All of the pieces are done, the blaster's done and it's of course,
not a Stormtrooper without the helmet.
The helmet's pretty simple as far as the materials go.
I have some foam sheets, this is EVA foam.
I've got some white and some black, our handy dog collars.
I've got some mesh fabric, this is also from the 99 cent store.
And then this is a noise maker.
(Music)
Got it at 99 Cent store.
I'm going to be using this to create like the lip around the bottom,
because there is kind of fat lip on the bottom.
This is a helmet I got, it's like soldier helmet I think.
I do have this clear mesh which is shiny and that might work for the goggles.
I'm not sure, but we will play around with it when we get there.
Before I start adding too much to this, I want to get this chin strap in place,
going to take care of that right away.
It's the saddest helmet ever.
So what I'm going to do is make whole base helmet out of cardboard.
Then I'm going to then add stuff to it to create the shapes.
Boy the blast shield down,I can't see anything.
(Music)
All right, I know it's looking pretty wacky right now,
but once the foam gets on there, it'll fill in
all these contours and look pretty awesome.
So at the very bottom there's a black mesh material and that's going to be this.
And then I'm going to put the white elements on top of that.
(Music)
I'm using a scrap piece of foam that I have, so that I can make a template.
because I'm trying to get this eye shape just right.
(Music)
All right, now I'm going to be putting the white foam on top of all of this helmet.
I thought I could wing it, but it didn't work out.
So I had to take all of that stuff off, and I'm going to need to make templates.
So I'm going to be doing those templates with some construction paper.
(Music)
Part of the tricky thing with helmets is the curvature.
And so there's kind of a technique that you can cut wedges out of paper like
that or material.
And then you can fold it in, and it'll help you create that curve.
(Music)
As I go along I'm numbering these so that I can remember what order they go in.
(Laugh) I really want to leave it like this because I think it looks awesome.
But there are no rainbow Stormtroopers in 'Star Wars', at least not yet.
So I'm going to have to take all of this stuff off and
then trace them on to my foam sheets.
I got all of my Stormtrooper puzzle pieces ready to go, and
now it's time to attach them to the helmet.
(Music)
Got the helmet all wrapped with white foam, and
now it's time to put on some of the details.
Just going to use some sharpie and some black tape.
(Music)
Got the Stormtrooper helmet all wrapped in white foam, and
I think everything is ready to go.
So I'm going to go get suited up.
- Yeah.
- (Music) I think I got to call one of the squad
members.
Dustin, help.
(Laugh) - My God.
(Laugh) - Where am I?
You need help? - And so it like clips way on
the inside there.
(Music)
- Yeah, we did it!
- Hey.
(Noise) Yeah, all right, let's go.
So I am insanely happy with the way this turned out and
I can't wait to show it to the squad.
- All right, can't wait to see the finished Stormtrooper costume.
Ready?
- Super excited, yeah. - Okay, where is he?
- Where is he? - What's going on here?
(Laugh) - Yes, this is so awesome!
- Hey, wow. - Is he a good guy or bad guy?
Yes, he's a bad guy.
- Aren't you a little long haired to be a Stormtrooper?
(Laugh) - That's why they wear helmets.
- I'm the rebel Stormtrooper.
- Lots of little plastic containers- - Yep.
- So you can take your goodies for lunch.
- They function. My favorite
part- - I love that.
- Is the butt plate back here - Yeah-
- Butt plate.
- Everyone loves the butt plate.
- How secure is this?
(Laugh) - These guns are awesome.
- The guns are just Nerf guns painted.
- That looks fantastic.
- So how much did you end up spending on this whole thing?
- The whole costume was about $35,
$40 which- - Nice.
- Was mostly in the helmet which was about 15.
Most of it's cardboard which is totally free so.
- (Laugh) That's amazing.
- Cardboard and plastic.
- So that wraps up Costume Squad season one, but we're going to be back real soon.
But it will give you guys some time to think about what costumes,
you want to see us tackle and let us know in the comments.
- Yeah, and be sure and subscribe with.
We've got lots of cool video content to hold you over in the meantime.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
- Yeah. - We will see you soon.
- See you soon.
- All right, move along move along yep.
- Okay, yep.
(Music)