And the adventure begins!

I just wanted to post to say Hi and thanx for putting all this forum info together. I've been invloved in costuming for a couple of years but they have been light projects involving a bit of glue a bit of my bad sewing and a lot of elbow grease.

I wanted my hubby to join in! Which costume does he pick but Jango lol - Ive always wanted to do Zam so now is the time for the adventure to start!

I was wondering before you all started your Zam projects - how much experience did you have in costuming before? Cause my skill list is kinda low LOL - but i am willing to trial and error!

At the moment im reading through all of your sections and posts and sketching and making notes. I'm also in the UK which may make things a little harder as i dont have Tandy Leather /cry. Anyway - thanx again for all of this invaluable info - its a very scary project lol

Well, rest assured, trial and error will be your friend, cause this was my first "real" costume from scratch. I had some experience with pottery making, which helped a tad in sculpting, but not much. Cause potters use a wheel, but at the same time, it helped me understand the differences in actual materials that are used.

Zam i am tell me you are kidding!? Your costume is the BEST one ive seen pictures of (thats not many to be fair - around 7) But i cant believe its your first one!!! (it wll be my first one too really) I love the way you have a consistant color throughout and your scale is pretty bang on!!! Also your helmet isnt WAY too big like i see most being

Im making lots of notes atm - I hope it wont take me years to finnish but i want to do it as well as i can

Well, I do have a greedo, but that was a 60 dollar costume. I didn't really put any work into it, so I don't coun't that.

Welcome aboard Langsuir666 !

I've made other props and have several costumes either completed or in the works.....I think I currently have 8 costumes, with 3 still in the works. I just started making a prop room and building mannequins to display them

So, the Zam isn't my first costume but I've had to learn how to do several things just with the shin guards with sculpting and making the particular rubber mold and of course the rotating machine.

Just do some research. You can find most of the info you'll need either here or just by searching the net.

Good luck and be sure to ask us anything......and oh yeah, show us your progress

Great! Another Zammer!

I have to admit to being a costuming newbie on this. This is my first costume since grade-school! And it will probably be my one and only at that! I've learned more about leather working than I ever cared to! *Still don't have the lace cutting down... though I am improving! *

There's a LOT of information here on the Zam boards and the other Dented Helmet forums.. and don't be afraid to ask something. Someone out there probably has the answer for you!

Well im still researching - my eyes hurt LOL Im now thinking even more that living in the UK really hinders making costumes. Everything i need comes from overseas i just cant get it in this country. I'm having to get most things shipped to friends in the U.S then pay them to ship them on to me. Tedious /sigh

Anyway i can get my leather at least - im having a job finding Lexol atm though.

My big big big ... HUGE problem is the neoprene. I was just wondering if anyone has made a suit thats not made from ZamIAm's fabric ? Ive just spent 2 hours wading through 'lycra neoprene' search engine results with no luck lol. Maybe theres another material that would work? I just like the thick look to the neoprene.

If anyone has any advice or contacts or even material spare please message me LOL

Welcome to the boards! I'm also building a Zam for my wife and we have been searching for a suitable fabric to make her body suit as well. We are down to experimenting with various dyes to get the proper color or close enough on a number of fabrics, most with some amount of lycra in the composition...
so i too would like to hear if any of you Zam'ers have found anything close or useable besides this one custome run of fabric that was done?

Everything else is easier to find parts to build/make, but this darn suit!!!! argh!

-thanks

Welcome!!

Good to see you here. Hopefully we can all work together and help make some cool Zam stuff without making it a biger pain than it should be. Zam is probably as hard as any Boba is - just research and take your time. We'll be here to help

The next best thing you can attempt is to first get a white Lycra and then also a light colored Car headliner material to try and bond the white lycra to. The key is to dye the white lycra to the color you would wish to consider and then getting the bonding as wrinkle free as you can. Once all that is done then you get to deal witht he same problem the Seamtress that has been working on suits for a few of us and that is sewing Neoprene is not easy and Car headliner is going to be about the same sort of problem.

I know ZIA, DCB and Myself argued over the color and the material for the suit for about a month before everyone agreed with me that it was neoprene that it was made of. ZIA then with some help from me did a lot of foot and phone work to get things rolling for us includeing getting dye sampled of several different lycra materials to match to the the color we all decided on. If I recall the Luycra that was used started off as a white Lycra that has a sheene to it and when the dye was added gave the purple a semi metallic look to it which is what was needed. It is a shame that another run of the material can be done. I know How much of a real pain it was to organise this because ZIA and myself talked ablot about it back then and geez it has been 2 years since most of us began this project. I bet most are further along than I am.

Actually, forget gluing the the headliner, you need a manufacturer to do that, in order to have it stay. The heating machines etc. are over a million dollars. The only real option is to sew everything together, you might get "bunching" here and there, but it's totally not worth researching the glueing aspect, wookie already spent a fortune trying that out. Oh, and check out my website, http://www.zamiam.com , it will tell you the process by which we figured everything out.

Dang has it really been 2 years? wow..holy pajeebies... no way!

Okies here's my progress - if you can call it that LOL.

I got some boots - they are not accurate but atm i cant afford to buy Pradas

I bought a purple leather jacket and am attempting to 're-make' it in a Zam vest style.

I bought some purple trousers in an attemt to experiment with not using neoprene (cause i havent got any lol) Color is good but thats about it. Shame i cant find a top to match it.

I think in the end im going to get something that vaguely resembles Zam but is nothing like accurate. I will continue my search for ppl who might be able to make my vest properly. Also save my pennies for the pradas

Hopefully one day i might get something like a replica hehe

Cool!

Sounds like you're plugging along there! Any pics to share yet? Any timeline on when you think you'll be suited up?

I can assure you that the chest armor should look pretty good! It's coming along!!

Im so greatfull to ya hun Im sure it will be awesome i cant thank you enough.

I just feel a bit let down that on my side of the project im so rubbish LOL. I'm holding out hope for making a good job of the skirt though - fingers crossed.

I bought some Fimo to have a go at the greeblies but its just not malleable enough its too hard and plastic - i think im going to move on to clay or some other thing.

The jacket i think will be ditched but i may sew it a little more just for the practice really. Its the wrong color and i not at all happy with it. Ill have to look into getting someone to make the vest for me.

I dont have much im proud to take pictures of atm lol - im estimating 6 months for getting a costume together - purely from a monitary point of view.

Well after months and months and months - I finally have ....
a string of beads and a vacuume cleaner hose. And i only have those thanx to Moncal lol

Missing out on Neoprene really sucks lol - i seem to spend 2 hours a day trying to find something i can use! /sigh

It seems Im forever going to be stuck wearing a bleedin' dress on the goodie side! I want armor and blasters! /stamps feet LOL

What I decided to do on my bodysuit is not the coolest thing I could use, or the cheapest, but I think it'll work. Denverfabrics.com has a shiny purple sportswear lycra that seems to be exactly the right shade and shimmer for the original costume. Doesn't quite look like the movie shots, of course, but it'll give me a few extra bucks to channel into the important bits, without sacrificing the overall look of the costume.

It's about $8 a yard plus shipping, and I figured on needing about 5 yards.

Might check that out if you're at all sewing-inclined. Welcome, and good luck!

Julie
hard at work

Another newbie checking in- and wanting to thank you all for posting so much info on how to make a Zam costume. I'm just starting on mine; I'm afraid it's going to be the thrift-store variety at first (&#36 and then I can upgrade little by little. I got the pics cd and it'll be extremely helpful- thanks for the link to that!

Please wish me luck!! I've been gathering some possible materials and am going to start on some part(s) this weekend. My goal is to be wearable for Megacon in February.

ZamGram

Cool! More Zammers!

Good luck on your costumes! Been working on mine for quite a while and I'm always amazed at how much more there is to do!

Just keep plugging away... A good costume by February is do-able. I'm aiming for SWC3 myself.