Andrew R Gross

Tony, Jack, myself and a bunch of other friends dressed up to see Avengers: Infinity War at the Arclight Hollywood, and it was a blast. I started my costume six weeks ago, because I wanted to do something pretty ambitious.  I'd made a Captain America costume for Civil War in 2016, and based on the lessons I'd learned, I wanted to make this costume as a leather jacket that I could use as an actual day-to-day jacket.  I also decided that I didn't like the costume Cap wears in this new film, and so I'd ignore it completely and make something like what I thought his costume should've been. The outcome The final result was this jacket, a harness, and a belt.  It's made of some kind of artificial leather. The outfit is based off the uniform a disaffected Steve Rogers adopted when he renounced his identity as Captain America in 1988.  In the movie (left, below), Captain America is wearing the costume from his previous movie, but it's distressed and dark...

I made a replica of Mjolnir according to the classic descriptions (as opposed to the well known comic book version).  Unfortunately, Tony and I were both concerned that it might be too brittle for casual use during a party, so he used an alternative, but I was generally happy with the look and it has a great heft.  I'm definitely going to use plaster like this again in the future. Mjolnir, crafted in the classic Norse style

Last weekend, we went to a truly amazing party.  In celebration of the solstice, everyone was asked to come in the guise of one of the ancient deities.  Upon arriving, we were each given three coins labeled with the powers conferred by our characters, and told that we could not use the powers, but were able to trade them and use the ones we received.  We were also each given personalized win conditions.  I attended as Loki, the god of mischief.  Tony attended as the mighty Thor.  Jack came as Heimdall, the watchman.  And we had a blast.  The Egyptian gods, Greek gods, and Aztec gods were present, but the Norse gods clearly owned the night. At the party, I arrived in the guise of Sif, Thor's wife and goddess of the Earth.  Heimdall was given instructions to reveal me, so I spent the beginning of the party trying to evade discovery.  Eventually, after several thwarted attempts to uncover me, Odin and the rest of the Norse gods used som...

Voldemort mask: start-to-finish how to

Last weekend, Julie and I went to ComicCon. This was the second time I'd gone to a comic book convention, but the first one was much smaller. We went for a couple hours on Sunday, so we only experienced a slice of it, but that was more than enough. Someone gave her free tickets, so we went. Obviously, she went as Tony Stark and I went as Captain America. It was a lot of fun, despite the incredible burden it was for Julie. She spent the day walking around a bustling convention hall, which was a hell of a way to get back into walking now that she has her walking boot. While eating lunch, a stranger was gushing about what a great Drunk Tony Stark costume she had. She chuckled and sighed and explained that it had just been a regular Tony Stark costume when she'd left the house. Julie met Eric Powell, the creator and writer of The Goon .  If you haven't heard of it, the Goon is an incredible, funny, and original comic that is really worth buying.  If you have hear...

In preparation for Civil War, I pushed hard to finish the Arc Reactor prop I described in Part I .  Afterwards, I posted it to Reddit on the DIY forum .  It got a total of 3599 'upvotes' and 207 comments.  The next day, Jack told me that a coworker asked if his brother was Andrew, because she'd stumbled across the post, which had been reposted to another site entirely.  F' yeah. The finished product The inspiration Wearable Arc reactor prosthetic DIY

It has been a wild month.  On the 13th of April, Julie SMASHED her leg.  Totally f'd it all to h.  Then on May 6, we went to see Captain America: Civil War in theaters, in costume.  I was Captain America. This is the third time we've dressed up (cosplayed, it's called) for a movie.  My mom asked, "Is that something people do?"  Kinda, Mom.  Kinda.  People do it occasionally, although for a movie this size it's not quite as common.  Still, the reaction is fantastic.  People take pictures with you and geek out.  It's a lot of fun.  It's better with more people, and this time we rolled deep: eleven people were in our group, five in costume. This costume was a real milestone for me.  I've always enjoyed making costumes for Halloween and such.  Usually, I've relied on resourcefulness and lucky finds at Goodwill.  Often, the key is distilling a character's look into a few key items/colors/shapes/icons etc to make i...

This was a very busy week. Firstly, I was getting ready for a party.  The chicken coop I built for my neighbor is finally done, and it seemed like the time to throw a party.  It wasn't our original plan to hold it on Halloween weekend, but it worked out well.  Instead of going to a costume party, it was really refreshing to hold a party just themed with enjoying the fall.  It wasn't any kind of protest against traditional costume parties, which as we all know are one of the best kinds of parties.  I really felt in the mood for a chill evening though, and it worked out great. Part of the reason I didn't feel the need to attend a costume party was because I put all of my energy into preparing for a costume contest at work.  Last year, I arrived just before Halloween.  My new coworkers immediately informed me that our department would be holding a costume contest on the Friday afternoon before Halloween in which all the labs competed fiercely. ...

I went with friends to the premier of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" in costume, by which I mean that I made Captain America's shield. I'm outlining the basic build process for the sake of others who might learn from my partial success. TL;DR: I cut costs and got an okay product, but with way more work. Basically, there is a right way to make a Captain America Shield.  Buy an MH brand saucer sled and paint it with stencils.  I didn't want to spend $38 on the sled, so I found a much cheaper, flimsier one and then tried to strengthen it with fiberglass.  It worked, but I spent a week and a bottle of fiberglass resin just to get a saucer that was almost  as nice.  Frankly, I should of just spent the $38. The painting went well enough, but the fiberglass took so much time that I didn't get to paint the back or apply a gloss coat, and I had to rush the star on the front an hour before the movie started.  See below.