Brown & Decker Like Black & Decker, only not.

Hey everybody.

So the *Con has passed, but it's left me wanting more. A LOT MORE.

Throughout the weekend, I saw many costumes that I IMMEDIATELY wanted to start making. But the goal is not to get over my head on this stuff. We sat in on a couple costuming classes, and I feel like I learned a lot. One of the big things is making costumes on budgets, and what we've been doing so far, is not budget. I want to be able to make quality costumes that look good, and reflect well in cost at the end. So the challenge for the next couple of weeks are to get some stuff turned out before Halloween and save cash. Again, I've had a TON planned, but can only do a few at first. Here's what's planned.

So first, I'm going to try to help a friend out, and do a Zatanna costume before Halloween. If you're not familiar, she's a magician/super hero from the DC comics universe, namely Batman.



I'm going to take a couple liberties with it, to make it a little more conservative, because the costume will be worn at work. I want to do the whole thing for a maximum of $100.

Also, these budgets are set not for the wearer, but for me. Also, it should be noted that these are right now, not being done on commission, but just as a challenge.

Next up, at the Con, I didn't see any Gordon Freemans. He's the silent protagonist from the Half-Life games. I think it's because the suit is more complicated.



The challenge is clearly the body armor. This costume will test my constructive abilities, where as the previous will test my tailoristic abilities (not a real word).

Recently, me and Jimmy have gotten into a show called Adventure Time on Cartoon Network. Great show. Makes no sense but really cool. Also, we saw quite a few guys at the *Con dressed up. I think it'll be a quick little costume, but a lot of fun.



I'll be doing Finn, the kid. The whole thing I aim to do in $30 to $40. This includes backpack and his sword.

Lastly, a costume I only saw ONE of, a deadmau5 mau5head. Very cool dude, deadmau5, and he's known for his crazy mau5head outfit.



The picture is a little small, but it's one of the only ones I could find with the xs on his eyes and the sequins. That will be the one I do, but in blue. The whole thing will run about $20.

Again, the price goals are for me alone. The next couple weeks are tests that I've set for myself to challenge myself as a costumer and tailor.

That's it for now. Time to get started.
Andy

EDIT:

So guys, it seems I've come to a conclusion about what costume I want to do for Halloween this year. I really want to do Starkiller from the Star Wars game The Force Unleashed.



My goal is somewhere between $100 and $150. The issue is I'm not sure how much raw material and special orders I will have to do. That could influence the final cost. I'm willing to go up to $200 for it, because I want it to look really good. I'm also doing a custom lightsaber.

We'll see.

Hey guys.

So Dragon*Con has come and gone this year, and what a year it was. We did Ghostbusters for a couple days, and they were a huge hit. We also got to meet the official Georgia Ghostbusters, as well as some other local groups.

Learned a lot too. Sat in on a couple panels, and it was plenty reassuring. Everytime we sat in on a costuming panel or prop building panel, people would ask questions and the pros there would respond with the same answers we had. Try Smooth-On, use insulation foam, etc. Man, that felt good.

Also while we were there, we met a couple celebrities. Notable, Lou Ferrigno, who was the Incredible Hulk in the classic T.V. show; Chad Vader, star of his own webseries; and Volpin's wife, wife of esteemed prop builder Harrison Krix (CHECK HIM OUT!!!)

Here's some pictures.



There she is! There's Volpin's Portal gun!!!









Andy

Hey guys.

Back by popular demand, here's some more pictures and details about our packs.



Everything is 1:1 scale to the movie, and all the details are accurate down to the decals. A few liberties were taken given the time and resources we had to work with. There is no gun mount/gun, but there is holes drilled for the adapters if we get a chance to come back and work on it. This was mainly due to time constraints. On my pack though, since there's no mount, there is a sound module where the mount should be. It has a button that when pressed plays the Ghostbusters theme song (I tossed around other sounds, but taken out of context of the movie, they didn't sound right).

It weighs about twenty pounds and the pack itself is mounted to a Army ALICE pack which evenly distributes weight across the body, making the pack feel SUPER light. The ALICE pack was a little harder to find out here in the middle of nowhere, but it's what the original busters used, so it's what we used.

Also, the pack has no working lights, also due to time constraints. So instead the cyclotron lights were replaced with reflectors that mimic lights when outside and with pictures taken with flash.

It was a fun project, and we're really pleased with the results. Next update will be Dragon*Con!

Andy

Hey everybody.

So, today marks a great day. The day we finished the proton packs. Between yesterday and today, we're at almost thirty hours. Which brings the total on the pack time to about fifty or sixty hours (real exact, I know).

Also, this is a sad day, in that it begins the next big hiatus for the Brown & Decker industries. Today is the last day at Jim's old house, and one of the last days before Jimmy's new job.

Brown & Decker is done for a while.

But not before Dragon*Con.

We've still got a few weeks, and there's still a few more details, but out Ghostbusters costumes are nearly complete. Today the packs were wrapped up.

Here's some pictures.











Man, what an experience.

Just the patches for the flight suit left. Unfortunately, our packs wont have guns because we ran out of time. Still, they look great.

It's been a lot of fun, and the garage here at Jim's has held many great times. But things change, people move, but a hobby like this stays forever.

Andy

Hey guys.

Well, another long and very successful day has come and gone, and yet again, I'm always more and more impressed with our progress. In case you guys didn't know, Jimmy's going to be moving away soon (very sad, I know) so our Brown & Decker work will become a little more sporadic. Nonetheless, we're going to try to keep up with it.

So the plan is, we figure we have a few more really good days to get in our work before the *Con. It's all coming to the wire.

Today started at seven (or eight, technically, I was late). I pulled into a gas station and grabbed us some energy drinks, and told the cashier that I was late for work. I'm proud to say that this is my full time job. The plan was to get our parts to the Gesso states.

For those of you who don't know, pink insulation foam LOVES to melt, chemically, literally. It dissolves with spray paint; it dissolves with super glue; it dissolves if you look at it on a Wednesday. If it weren't for the fact that it was super lightweight and easy to cut, we'd probably never use this. That's where Gesso comes in. I honestly have no idea what it's meant to do. As prop builders, we're the sort of in between people: We walk into electronics stores buying wires and switches with no intention of them ever having any functioning purpose. We also go to Lowe's and Home Depot buying materials and using them in ways that were never intended to be used.

God, I love my job.

Anyway, long story short, it was a good day. Lots of work. Really hot outside. Here's some pictures.







We next meet on Monday, and our plans are to FINISH THE PACKS. You can see they're getting close.

Andy

P.S. The bumpers are Hot Wheels tracks for bonus points.

Hey guys.

So it's been a while since we updated the page, and for good reason. Last we spoke, we talked about the helmet and molding. Well it turns out that didn't work out. We didn't have enough molding supplies (namely latex) to totally cover the project, but we thought we'd push it. So by pushing it, we're back at square one.

On an unrelated note, Inception is an incredible movie.

Now to make that unrelated note, related, after I watched Inception I had this incredibly lucid dream in which we went to Dragon*Con and everybody was impressed with our Ghostbusters costumes. Ghostbusters. An idea that has been tossed around by Jimmy and I, but never followed through. It was time to begin.



Ghostbusters is a cult hit with an all star cast. Our plan was to attempt to be as cool.

The outfits are incredibly detailed, and made from a lot of parts that were ok in the 80's but not available now. I like a challenge.

Our plans were to have two full costumes, goggles, proton packs, a trap, and a PKE meter.

First we started with the Ecto goggles (I have to type kind of quick because I only have a few minutes before work. The goggles let the 'Busters see invisible clues.

Ours were built off a modified pair of welding goggles. Modified for your enjoyment by Brown and Decker.







Next we started on the pack. Here's a picture of what we're aiming for.



and here's us.











It doesn't look like much yet, but the motherboard is made out of Masonite (the stuff clipboards are made out of) and the parts are insulation foam, meticulously cut by hand. The next step is Gesso (for great justice) and mounting.

Also, last thing before I go, we got the tickets for the paranormal investigations class at the *Con. We were the last few slots. AND, we did make it to the Army surplus store for supplies. A final picture then I really have to go (I'm going to be late).



Brown & Decker industries would like to take this time to remind you that bustin' makes us feel good.

Andy

Alright, it's been a while since our last update. Vacation's over now, so it's time to jump back to work. Having only two months until Dragon*Con, Andy and I are working diligently on completing our Daft Punk costumes.That is a small Brush-On Molding Kit and ApoxieSculpt. Not shown in this picture are several cans of rigid expanding foam. The plan is to make a mold of a helmet, fill it with expanding foam, then shave away until we get the shape that we want. Once there, we coat it with the ApoxieSculpt to give it a hard shell which can be bondo'd and sanded.

Hey guys,

So day two has come and gone, and I can honestly say it was pretty successful. All that was done today was some more basic shaping and carving of the Soul Edge. Now, I was a little nervous about this project when I started. Jimmy and I had never worked with expanding foam in shaping, just for...you know, what it's supposed to do. Well, let me tell you this much, it saves a ton of time. I'm not how I would've done this project any other way.

If you're just tuning in, last I wrote about how Jimmy is up visiting his friends in the north, and I'm working solo for the next month. My two main projects are the F.L.U.D.D. from Mario Sunshine and the Soul Edge from the Soul Edge and Soul Calibur series (if you're a fan of the series, it's modeled after Soul Calibur 2's Soul Edge. I chose this one because I felt it was instantly recognizable.

)

So anyway, the course of action was to build the skeleton, cover it in foam, and carve it down to size. Here's where we stand today. I have one side almost completely finished, where as the other side...hit a little snag. Seems like there was a little pocket of air that got sealed in the center of one of the sides, leaving not only a huge cave of unset foam, but also a major structural weak point. So consider it halfway done on carving. The next step is to fill the hole and keep on keepin on. Only thing is I'm running out of daylight and it's hot outside. Saving it all for tomorrow.

Oh, almost forgot, here's some pictures.



Now, the idea was to keep it as true to the game as possible. Only issue with that is the one in the game is modeled to be around 8 to 10 feet tall. When you live in a small apartment, it's hard to get a prop like that around. What's even worse is if you have a workshop in the next town over, you have to pack that thing in your car, and if you're like me and drive a small car, a big prop doesn't exactly fit in. Anyway, long story short, here's a picture with me next to it to give you an idea of how tall it is. I give it around six feet.



Andy

Hey guys,

Jimmy's going to be up in Michigan until almost the end of June, so it'll be just me for a while.

So, since it's just me, I started working on some projects I've been holding out on. The first is the F.L.U.D.D. from Super Mario Sunshine.



Cool little backpack styled device used for just the one Mario game. One of my favorites.

I've wanted to make this build for some time, but never really gave it much thought until I saw these guys do it, and it inspired me. It's going a little slow because I'm working on my own, but here's about a day's worth of work.



Haven't been keeping up with the developmental pictures as much as I should, but as of today, I have the head completely finished and painted, and the skeleton and body ready. Just a little bit more on that.

The other project I'm starting is the Soul Edge from the Soul Calibur series. Very cool game and my favorite fighting series. The Soul Edge is a blade that houses the soul of Inferno, a being of pure evil. DUN DUN DUUUUN.



It's a big prop. And by big I mean ten-feet-long big. For real.

The idea was adapted from a method used by Kamui Cosplay, who is an INCREDIBLE costumer, but that's for later.

So the plan is to build the skeleton of the sword by drawing out the general shape on thick foam board and piling on a TON of expanding foam.



After a couple hours (and a couple cans of foam) it starts to take shape.





The next step is the start carving it in to shape, but that's for another day. More updates will follow.

Andy

Hey all.

Man, what a long night. We spent quite some time making some more Arc Reactors. My fingers are all cut up. We made about seven, and if anyone's interested, we'll do a deal before the premier. Out of the seven, a few are already claimed.

1.) Jacqueline (Marvel Girl)
2.) Ben
3.) Graham
4.)
5.)
6.)
7.)

Anyway, here's some more pictures.









Andy