New Rarsuit: ISO Standard Calibration Werewolf
The newest member of my rarsuit stable: Iso the werewolf (aka ISO Standard Calibration Werewolf, Imperial (SAE), Qty. 1 -- metric werewolves wear green or gray flannel and are slightly shorter).
I was aiming specifically for a Halloween-focused suit for particular events and outings. There were several goals: the suit needed to be easy to transport, easy to don & doff, reasonably comfortable without cooling...and most importantly, it needed to be easily recognizable by laypeople. That's been an ongoing issue with other suits; folks thinking Krampus is a goat or a werewolf or a wookiee...I'm sure anyone who's done outside-fandom events with outside-normal species knows what this is like. So...werewolf. Because peoples' minds are in a particular "slot" around Halloween, and because there's an almost canonical werewolf stereotype that one can aim for.
Partial suit (head, hands, feet, tail and arm+leg cuffs) made by Takumori (Scaleworx Creations), using the Snarly K9 blank and accoutrements from DreamVision Creations and some long-pile fur from fabric.com (I'd brought some short-pile as well, but it wasn't a good match...anywhere you see short fur, he shaved that all down!). Taku added red LED eyes and a fan in the muzzle, both powered by a USB-rechargeable battery and with nifty invisible buttons. Standard-issue red flannel shirt from eBay and blue jeans from Goodwill were distressed with a 4" belt sander (fun! fast! messy!). Arm & leg cuffs were sewed to the garments so it'd be less time-consuming to put on, and anywhere there's a sizable gap I sewed a patch of fur so it'd show through, but not have to wear an entire hot fur suit underneath. To make him more imposing ('cuz I'm a beanpole) there's an upper-body muscle suit (also via eBay -- it's actually a wardrobe item from the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes, there were dozens if not hundreds of these made for extras so they're reasonably priced for the quality). Since the shirt would be open, I made and attached a fur front piece, laying the pile certain ways and stitching to create some contours without doing the whole perfect-shaved-six-pack thing. As a last-minute addition, I did some drybrushing (white acrylic paint) on most of the parts to add some variety and bring out certain contours.
I'm not much of a werewolf person normally and wasn't "emotionally invested" in the character -- it was just to be a simple suit to fill a particular niche -- but it way exceeded my expectations (thanks mostly to Taku's work) and I'm super excited to start werewolfing! Raawr!
I was aiming specifically for a Halloween-focused suit for particular events and outings. There were several goals: the suit needed to be easy to transport, easy to don & doff, reasonably comfortable without cooling...and most importantly, it needed to be easily recognizable by laypeople. That's been an ongoing issue with other suits; folks thinking Krampus is a goat or a werewolf or a wookiee...I'm sure anyone who's done outside-fandom events with outside-normal species knows what this is like. So...werewolf. Because peoples' minds are in a particular "slot" around Halloween, and because there's an almost canonical werewolf stereotype that one can aim for.
Partial suit (head, hands, feet, tail and arm+leg cuffs) made by Takumori (Scaleworx Creations), using the Snarly K9 blank and accoutrements from DreamVision Creations and some long-pile fur from fabric.com (I'd brought some short-pile as well, but it wasn't a good match...anywhere you see short fur, he shaved that all down!). Taku added red LED eyes and a fan in the muzzle, both powered by a USB-rechargeable battery and with nifty invisible buttons. Standard-issue red flannel shirt from eBay and blue jeans from Goodwill were distressed with a 4" belt sander (fun! fast! messy!). Arm & leg cuffs were sewed to the garments so it'd be less time-consuming to put on, and anywhere there's a sizable gap I sewed a patch of fur so it'd show through, but not have to wear an entire hot fur suit underneath. To make him more imposing ('cuz I'm a beanpole) there's an upper-body muscle suit (also via eBay -- it's actually a wardrobe item from the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes, there were dozens if not hundreds of these made for extras so they're reasonably priced for the quality). Since the shirt would be open, I made and attached a fur front piece, laying the pile certain ways and stitching to create some contours without doing the whole perfect-shaved-six-pack thing. As a last-minute addition, I did some drybrushing (white acrylic paint) on most of the parts to add some variety and bring out certain contours.
I'm not much of a werewolf person normally and wasn't "emotionally invested" in the character -- it was just to be a simple suit to fill a particular niche -- but it way exceeded my expectations (thanks mostly to Taku's work) and I'm super excited to start werewolfing! Raawr!