Loki D.I.Y. Halloween Costume 2016

         My Halloween 2016 at Ohio University was something that me and my girlfriend wanted to attend together with a couple's costume. Since we are both huge nerds, we decided to go as Marvel characters. My girlfriend quickly found a Captain America dress that she fell in love with, so her decision was simple. I have always loved the fantastic armor and cloak worn by Tom Hiddleston in his portrayal of Loki in Marvel movies. I decided that I was going to do a mashup of the costumes seen in Thor, Thor: The Dark World, and Avengers. It all began with me finding an Assassin's Creed costume on Amazon that could be ordered in a variety of colors. To match Loki, I went with the colors of black and green.

        I removed all of the buttons and extra straps from the jacket and ordered buckles and strapping to use for the armor pieces.

         I found a wonderful black fabric that matched the horizontal weave of the jacket. I cut the fabric to size and marked it for cutting. I also searched for a good green fabric to use for the cape. The picture above is to show the importance of bringing a piece of material with you whenever you are trying to match fabric to fabric.

         The coat tails were removed from the jacket and the new black fabric pieces were stitched into place. The fabric for the cape was also cut to size and layered to give it a proper look to match the one seen in the movies.

         While work was being done on the fabric, I was also piecing together the armor and scepter to complete my costume. This was done primarily using EVA Foam and PVC piping. The foam was cut to size and then bent into shape using a heat gun.

         One of the most striking details on Loki's scepter in Avengers is the bright blue jewel glowing near its curved blade. To achieve this look, I filled an Easter Egg with hot glue and wired a simple LED to be placed inside. 

         The end result turned out much better than I had expected. The PVC for the shaft was heated and bent into place and EVA foam was added to make up the blades. The blade section of the scepter was also removable from the shaft to reveal the batteries inside.

 
         The next order of business was creating the iconic horned helmet. This also would be created from EVA foam. I took a rough measurement of my head size for the side panels of the helmet and created a head form using tin foil covered in duct tape. Once it was removed, I marked cutting lines and registration marks in order for the dome shape to be created from flat EVA foam panels.

         Once the patterns were traced on the EVA foam, the pieces of the helmet and horns were cut out using a box knife.

         At this point the pieces were heat formed and glued into place using Weldwood contact cement.

     Once all the amor pieces and scepter were complete, then I went about applying the base coat of black primer followed by several layers of metallic gold Rustoleum spraypaint.

         Once the gold dried, the final layers of paint were then applied to blade sections of the scepter. I used a metallic platinum can of Rustoleum spraypaint to do this.

         At the end of the day, the gold paint made the armor stand out much more. However, in hind sight, I also really liked the look of the dark grey armor. It looked similar to the dark armor Loki wore in the first Thor movie.

         If you can't tell, my girlfriend absolutely loved her dress. The socks, chucks, and jacket only added to her love of the costume. We went out that weekend and had a great time together at Ohio University. We both got tons of compliments and were even featured in the local newspaper. Definitely a weekend and costumes to remember.