Zam…The great undertaking.

Na. it was taller than her wasn't it?

I'll measure the rifle we've doen tonight...if I remember

Word of warning though, even though I had a kentucky flintlock the 3rd part of the stick was custom made from my mums broom handle.....sssh. I went back one weekend and stole it. He he

The flintlock has a brass shim that hides the joint between the 2. So that's 2 pieces, the 3rd peice you have to make yourself. And it must fit the barrel and the supporting underbar.
Great fun, LOL

I've recently doen this so please feel free to pick my brains
 
Ok, now I don't feel so bad about the boots. I'm actually looking foward to it now. Does anyone have any pictures of the purple inserts on top of the boots?

I saw the brown ones on eBay, but they are suede. Either way I will stick with the ones I have now.

Thanks for the images of the rifle, Cal!
I guess I will give the rifle another shot (really no pun inteded!). If I can't get the proportions correct, then I am not really going to worry too much about it. I'm not sure if she even wants the rifle...I never even asked her! :)

We have an agreement. I will do all of the research and the building and take the credit for that. And she will end up with an awesome Zam, and she can take all of the credit for owning one of the coolest costumes in the Legion, and the coolest costume at any troop/even!

That way no one steps on anyone's toes for making it one way or another. It was a great compromise.

I really love building this stuff. It takes a lot of money, but I think it's well worth it!
 
If you can get a copy of the Reference CD, there are some good shots of the shoes.

Basically they were pieces of purple leather (matching the vest as best I could tell) that were glued on top of the boots. You could also see where they were also coming unglued on the Ref CD and at FIDM. For some reason, there is also a double row of stitching just outside of the purple leather area (Why?) and up along the brown band on the center. (I'll see if I can get to posting the pic I'm thinking of later today.)

Sounds like you've got a good arrangement there with your wife! :lol: My husband just looks at me and rolls his eyes...
 
The strap that I used for measureing the rifle was part of a camera bag that was stolen so I need to look around and find the measurement I have it written somewhere.

As for the boots I believe the purple sections on top of the boot were actually cut out of the boot. Another layer of leather was sewn inside the boot to overlap the holes from underneath... thus the stitching. And then the purple leather was glued into those holes. I've wanted to have a cobbler do that for me and he quoted me $150 2 years ago but I've never gotten around to doing it.
 
Tony, Becky is 5ft 5 and the rifle we've made is 5ft 6.
Barrel is 22mm

I could cut an inch or two off but we're waiting for her to be kitted out totally. Lid on, shoes on before we cut it.

I think it looks cool the way it is and my measurements were made on ratios of known lengths and proportions I worked out.

I did that by dividing the length of the stock on the photo by the actual length of the Kentucky stock in my hand. Got the ratio and then went from there
If that makes sense?
 
Are you guys saying I'm wrong on the rifle? Huh?? *screams* Actually, since I don't have it together yet, it wouldn't be any big deal - only more $$$ for another barrel.... *sighs*

But I looked on the Ref CD and I still don't think they cut out the parts for the purple pieces ... on the right boot, the purple piece is coming up. There are no rips or holes where it could have been sewn in place and it matches up with the rest of the purple piece. Also, if you look, you can see a white edge on the purple pieces, whereas if they were sewn under the boot at those seams, that wouldn't be there. I don't know what they intended, but I don't think that's what happened on the boots.... IMHO. I'll have to get that pic up though...
 
Where can I get one of these reference CD's you speak of...? :confused

I normaly hate being the 'n00b', but you folks have been really helpful! I am an expert on all things TK, but am very much a novice on all this Zam stuff. Granted I just started researching Zam pretty much the day I first posted on here. I will catch up to you guys sooner or later! (y) I'm a quick learner and very anal when it comes to accuracy/canon!
 
From the advice of JDFett from another thread, I got this in the mail today:

These swatches of 4-way stretch neoprene:
CIMG0869.jpg


Outside with no flash:
CIMG0861.jpg


Outside no flash:
CIMG0860.jpg


Inside with flash:
CIMG0858.jpg


Inside with flash:
CIMG0859.jpg


Thinkness compared to a nickel (on the left) and a 501st coin (on the right):
CIMG0884.jpg

If you squint you can see my driod caller in the background! 8)

I got the swatches from http://stretchhouse.com/neoprene.htm, it only took a few days to arrive and at no cost!

At $18.00 a yard, it's not bad. Worth a try.

Give me your thoughts - and thanks again to JDFett for posting that in the first place!
 
That looks pretty dang close to me.... :eek: At least color wise. I can't really tell the texture from the pictures (Seems "flatter" ) Is it lycra on the outside - like swimsuit material?

The Reference CD was made by DCB when he went to Australia to see Zam at the SW exhibit there - He then created the CD from his pictures. He's still around TDH, but doesn't deal with Zam anymore, but gave someone permission to copy the CD (and right now I can't remember who it was .. :confused ) I'm hoping they will see this thread and get into contact with you.
 
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The Reference CD was made by DCB when he went to Australia to see Zam at the SW exhibit there - He then created the CD from his pictures. He's still around TDH, but doesn't deal with Zam anymore, but gave someone permission to copy the CD (and right now I can't remember who it was .. :confused ) I'm hoping they will see this thread and get into contact with you.
It's Iceheart. :)
 
That looks pretty dang close to me.... :eek: At least color wise. I can't really tell the texture from the pictures (Seems "flatter" ) Is it lycra on the outside - like swimsuit material?

The Reference CD was made by DCB when he went to Australia to see Zam at the SW exhibit there - He then created the CD from his pictures. He's still around TDH, but doesn't deal with Zam anymore, but gave someone permission to copy the CD (and right now I can't remember who it was .. :confused ) I'm hoping they will see this thread and get into contact with you.

I've been thinking about this more and more. The pictures do this fabric a little more justice than what it looks like in person, but this stuff seems thin enough were I could hand dye it myself...I think...This stuff from stretchouse looks a little lighter than the images from the visual dictionary, and alittle too purple.

Stretchhouse.com only sells lycra, but this stuff doesn't have the sheen like the stuff on ZIA's webpage. It's a little softer than the wet suits I used to own, but I am no lycra expert...:lol: My wife thinks it feels like swimsuit material. Strecthouse says that it is neoprene (in the middle), but it is really thin, and when you stretch it way out you can see some light thru it. That's not really a complaint, more of an observation.

Like I said, it's worth a try.

Zamovar - Thanks for posting the new owner of the reference CD's. I will PM Iceheart later.
 
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in regards to the material is is a bit lighter than the pictures show, but it is definatley darker than some other material ive seen used...i think its a personal preference actually when it comes to this...some folks are going for the exact colors and other for the screen look...this material i feel is a good completment inbetween...it is a neoprene in the middle and the material can not be dyed as we tried to make it a bit darker and it did not take, and we used a ton of dye and let it sit forever and still got nothing. I will say that the topic is a tough one because everyone has a different thought on the way they see the costume and the way they want it viewed in natural light (trooping light i like to call it). I think there are some super looking zams here and i know how hard it is to get this together, hats off to everyone that actually has a wearable costume at this point:cheers , but i guess everyone has to follow the way they see it...sounds like even our darker zam thought may not be dark enough for tony:lol: I do hear that cause we actually would like to go a bit darker as well, but the price was real nice and the material looks very close to where we want to be;)

the thickness i like because of two reasons...one...it bunches up a lot less and looks more like the way her suit bunches up, two...it will also be a lot easier to wear as you wont be totally covered in a thicker rubber and sweating to death, trooping wise i think it's a more comfortable choice.

with all that said...to get more material than you will need...we spent 120 bucks...so that in itself, being as close as it is and being a readily available material speaks volumes...

we started dying some of our other leather items and the colors complement each other very well....and like i said in another thread...we are going for a darker shade of zam and everything so far seems to look real good together.
 
here are a couple pics of our material and the stuff we got going so far

no flash natural light inside
normal_progress.jpg

inside with flash
normal_progress2.jpg

another closer pic (no flash)
normal_progress3.jpg


you can see the many different tones depending on shadowing...funny thing is...the swatch shots i posted and that tony posted look different than the bulk material...but when we laid the swatch onto the material...same color...weird
 
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:love ***! That's Awesome! (y)

(y) Dude, I want to jump up and click my heels together (but I'm at work! :lol: ). I can't wait to put in my order for the fabric now! Look at that JDFett is my costuming muse....:lol: Now I'm inspired to hurry up and get this thing started!

Such a great find on the fabric! Stretchouse seems like a good company to work with. Like I said getting that swatch was simple and took no time to arrive.

I'm glad I'm not alone on wanting the darker shade! Zam IMO, wasn't as purple as purple as the action figures portray her as, but that's how normal fans think of her. None the less the finished costume will look awesome, no matter the shade of purple...plum...thing...:rolleyes :lol:

I'm just excited to get started on this!
 
I really think you can make any "color" for Zam work, as long as you make the whole thing pull together with the leather colors and the suit and the rest of it.

And as we've discussed before - the true color for Zam really depends upon the lighting situation. For some reason, this is true more for "Zam Purple" than for any other color I've seen :eek: On the one hand it is REALLY annoying ... on the other hand, it does give us more leeway on designing our costumes I think.

So, if you're happy with it... more power to you! :)
 
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Guess who's shoes arrived today? I'll give you one guess! ;)

Aimee has trouble putting them on and taking them off, but they fit her well. She will have to break them in. It seems they were only wore once or twice at the most.

Does anyone have any good images of here shoes? Or maybe a pattern for the purple pieces.
 
I really think you can make any "color" for Zam work, as long as you make the whole thing pull together with the leather colors and the suit and the rest of it.

And as we've discussed before - the true color for Zam really depends upon the lighting situation. For some reason, this is true more for "Zam Purple" than for any other color I've seen :eek: On the one hand it is REALLY annoying ... on the other hand, it does give us more leeway on designing our costumes I think.

So, if you're happy with it... more power to you! :)


couldnt have said that better myself;)

it really does depend on the lighting, and the concept you want to go for...there are so many issues with it...even the exhibit pieces really cant be perfect judges as no one really knows if that was the actual on screen suit, if it had been mishandled and worn out, if the color was totally gone from the vest due to exposure or use/bad storage, or even if pieces were missing and someone pulled stuff together at the last minute to finish it off...in the pics i just saw that tony put up, i noticed that the veil wasnt even lined??? shows that you never really know what your looking at. Thats why i just watch the movie and press pause...i judge by that because i think thats what uncle george wanted us to see
 
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Yeah, there are lots of places in the Visual Dictionary where things were thrown together in the last minute. I won't doubt if the same were done at FIDM. I need to get some software where I can do some screen captures of the movie and then go and print them out for a better judgment of color.

Also with the "run way" viel. I thought the same thing at first, but if you notice it's just how it's wrapped/twisted that the red isn't shown very well. http://imageevent.com/benaequee/costumes/dressingagalaxynyc Look at image 167 and for sizing click "Original"; from there you can see the red satin peeking throw some places (mainly near the ear peice).
 
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