Vault Dweller Cosplay: Another not-a-car build

It is July, which means Halloween is just around the corner. The last worthwhile holiday until the world calms down in January. Last year I did nothing special as I'd recently moved, the year prior I entered a $50 costume contest dressed as a Minecraft character and won.

Now with my Grand Prix built pretty much done and the Auto-X season all but over. (I really should be updating THAT thread, but here I am) I needed a project to fill my time. I decided to put together a costume for this Halloween, and maybe the fall 'con season.

The video game fallout has been popular this year and I have been a fan of the series since the beginning. I looked at all the characters for one that would be simultaneously interesting, recognizable, and simple to build.

while researching I came across this:

Pretty awesome, but a little beyond my skills. I settled upon a simple vault dweller. A pretty straightforward design. I started in with the planning phase. I started up a new game and made the character look roughly like me, then dressed him in the desired outfit and took a few screen caps.

that's something I think I can do, even though it will require many skills I do not currently possess. Chiefly sewing, and leather-work. The hard edged props should be no problem.

Lastly I set about the lore reading all the fluff I could find trying to choose a vault. Each vault in game was ostentatiously a fallout shelter, but in actuality a twisted social experiment. Some simple, some sadistic, some humourous. I settled on Vault 11, the Milgram Experiment Vault.

With that settled I realized that the whole thing hinged on the Pip-boy. An arm mounted personal computer. Without it the costume would be incomplete. So it would be my first goal.

The special edition of Fallout 4 came with a replica pip-boy that was wearable. I took to flea-bay and found a used one for a mere 125 caps. It would need to be repainted to work, but that was something I could do. I placed the order and was committed.

I plan on posting all my progress here, warts and all as I put together this suit. As always: suggestions, questions, opinions and insults are welcome.

Cool build.

Just a thought, football shoulder pads cut in half will go a long way to get the shoulder bracer in the image.

Pair of used blue coveralls from your local discount shop would be a good place to start. Leatherworking I'm unfamiliar with, but sewing really isn't that bad by hand or with a machine. Machines can be finicky though. This is a really cool idea, I'm gonna have to keep tabs on it.

Check military outlet stores or if you have like a cop supply store around, it would be a lot easier to spray paint some belts the right color, but you may even be able to find some ready made utility belts.

Looking forward to this. Im a huge fallout fan

Your blurb about the vaults sent me on a Google binge.

I never realized that there were fallout series games before fallout 3.

Where do I get them, and what platform are they on?

In reply to Dusterbd13:

mosty on pc. pirate bay or good old games should have them. I think I've seen them on steam before too.

Remember old GTA then GTA3? kinda the same thing with old fallout and fallout 3.

I never realized that there were fallout series games before fallout 3.

This is funny but since i haven't played a single Fallout i don't feel entitled to be snarky in here. TOO BUSY PLAYING OVERWATCH.

I follow a fair number of cosplayers on Instagram. Of course that's kinda cheating because most of what you see is the finished products people feel good enough about to show off. I guess if one wants to actually learn something you have to actually go seek out real info on forums. Maybe i will learn something in this thread! It's something i've had in the back of my mind to try for a long time, even though im a pretty casual gamer. Still, the part of me that is a maker combined with that part seems almost enough to push me to start.

Good luck with the project!

Dusterbd13 wrote: I never realized that there were fallout series games before fallout 3.

The clue is in the name.

With the pip boy on it's way I began to look for a jumpsuit. I also looked at the pre made suits for sale. they ran between 90-150 caps and I wasn't impressed with any of them. Most of the coveralls I found locally were Navy Blue which is way too dark. The Vault-tec suits are actually indigo, and according to the lore, leather.

I found a store on flea-bay selling suits in a variety of colours including a Royal blue which is as close as I can get for around 20 caps. I did consider dyeing it but figured I'd be close enough as is.

Here I am peering into my absurdly high mirror testing the fit of the pip boy.

I started to look at the different suit designs from game to game. suits in the capital wasteland and the mojave are blue with sunburst yellow stripes, in the commonwealth the stripes are gold.

Vault 11 is in the mojave and therefore should be yellow. But I figure since there is already a variety among vaults accuracy isn't crucial. So my suit will be a mix of different styles. With that in mind I took off for the fabric store.

I was looking for yellow but came across this, and thought screw canon, i like this better. I also nabbed this fun textured leather for the sleeves. 'bout 40 caps.

I guess I'd better show you a better pic of the Pip-boy.

It looks brand new and that just won't do. So I'll have to repaint it before we're done. It's supposed to hold a smart phone, but mine is slightly too large to fit so i'll have to do something else about the screen. maybe a vinyl cut over a green transparency with an LED backlight... we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Very cool, indeed! I've got a friend locally who is big into wastelands costume and has taken some inspiration from Fallout, although he's a little more Mad Max.

The shoulder piece and bracer would be pretty easy to make out of EVA foam with a few coats of gesso. The $9.99/pack sets of interlocking anti-fatigue mats from Harbor Freight are a great source of foam and I discovered today the joys of using a bandsaw to cut and bevel. Right now, I'm in the middle of making "Fishbones" which is apparently a rocket launcher in the shape of a shark for my wife's Jynx costume for some event in Indy in a couple weeks and it's all about the EVA foam!

I'm not putting too much thought into the armour at this point. as I have a deadline and if I'm honest the costume will work without it.

My intention is to make it out of four leather belts, the shoulder will be formed out of a vintage Nevada licence plate rather than the leather. Floormats are definitely a possibility as backing. I've been researching foamsmithing for a while as I intend to build a full scale Word Bearer Dark Apostle but I have neither thye skills nor the space to tackle that right now. But c'mon, that's friggin' awesome.

Sweet, a cosplay project! Leather, if it's thick, pre-punch the holes then stitch. I would hand stitch, my machine isn't up to task. If it's vinyl-look leather or on the thin side you could get away without pre-punching and might be able to do it with a machine, depends on what you've got.

Aside from that, best bet is to buy something close and modify it, not just from cosplay specific sources either, a GRM'er shouldn't have any issue thinking outside the box.

I've done;
Pai Mei
2pac (lol)
Guile from SF (Used a cake form and a wreath form for the flattop)
Bane from TDK (meh, want to revisit)
Magneto (Mix of movies and comics, also want to revisit)

Our local con didn't happen this year so we're aiming for Halloween as well, have about 3 ideas bouncing around.

Wait... What's that in his hand?

A colt 2065 10mm pistol?

Why yes... yes it is. Alright I guess I'll need to get one of those too. I did a little research and found a guy on Etsy making 3D prints from the game's 3D renders. a mere 40 caps. How could I not?

3D prints are notorious for print lines. There's just no avoiding it. so I spent about a week sanding, and washing the parts with acetone.

I pinned it and glued it together.

Now it is ready for about 5 coats of filler primer and wet sanding.

That's about as good as it's going to get. I then applied a base coat of dark walnut.

Once that cured I applied a thin coat of pewter Rub-n-buff, a mix of carnuba wax and metal shavings that goes on like paint, but can be buffed to a shine.

That's starting to look like something. Now it's time to do something about that grip. I wanted something brown, but with some kind of texture.

I found this on a clearance table at a craft store and picked it up.

That actually looks really good.

and that's how it sits today. I need to finish up with the details like the magazine release and trigger guard, then start the weathering and I'll have a ready to go Colt 10mm.

Not a ton of progress since the last update, just a lot of gathering supplies the first new arrival is a resin cast of a Fallout New Vegas Pip-boy hand plate. It'll be mounted on the back of a leather glove and connected to the Pip boy with probably vacuum line.

But this was my victory of the week.

I was going to repaint it but I just can't bring myself to. The desert worn patina is just soooo perfect. This will be formed (probably with dead blow hammer strikes over a pipe, roughly formed is the name of this game) into the shoulder armour. I'll stud it with bolts and wing nuts and back it with some foam.

I turned my attention to the suit itself today. A while back I nabbed a used sewing machine for 50 caps off craigslist. I have no idea how to use it but it has an operators manual.

R T F M

I swung by the craft store this afternoon and picked up some thread and pins and one of those little tomato pincushions that you have to have. I think it's a rule.

I figured I would start with something simple. I set to work on the collar. folding it back along itself and sewing it down. I also used a peice of one of the pockets I'd removed earlier to craft a throat tab.

Doesn't look too bad.

and that was my first attempt at using a sewing machine. I think it went well.

Now I just have to eat all these damn cookies before I can put away all my supplies.

AClockworkGarage wrote:

My mother taught me to sew and use a sewing machine at a young age, and I confirm that you sir are following the sewing code to the letter. Well done, right down to the tomato pincushion and butter cookie tin.

AClockworkGarage wrote: Now I just have to eat all these damn cookies before I can put away all my supplies.

Okay that's funny I don't care who you are.

Today I took a stab at the vault numbers and it wasn't pretty. I wound up with a gilded condom. That just wont do.

I back burnered that project and I'm now wondering if there is a fabric spray paint that might work better... but I needed a victory today.

I decided that i'd have a go at the sleeves. I cuffed each arm with the brown pleather then turned the suit inside out. with safety pins I fit the sleeves to my arm.

from here it was a simple matter of sewing it up and cutting the excess.

And here we are as it sits today, wrapped around a big fat dude...

I haven't updated in about a month, but that doesn't mean I've just been sitting around eating bon bons. In the last photo I had some leather belts wrapped around myself as a mock-up of the leather harness.

Over the course of the month I gathers some used leather pouches. These are revolver speedloaders and I believe an MP-40 mag pouch.

it all got joined together with some flush head screws and looks something like this. well exactly like this.

The shoulder is studded with bolts and wingnuts which will be rusted before I'm finished

I've also begun working on the shoulder plate, metalworking is another skill I frankly don't have I began by curving the plate over a piece of pipe, then fitting a leather strap to attach it to my arm.

I still have to shape the top to my shoulder and stud the plate with bolts and wingnuts to match the harness. Not real sure how I'm going to do that yet but I have one major advantage. The suit is supposed to be built of scrap found in a post apocalyptic wasteland, so the worse it looks, the better it looks.

This is coming along quite awesomely, I think.

Just curious about something though. What are you going to do about footwear? some military surplus boots or maybe old work boots? The games never really get into it, so I guess you have a lot of leeway there.

But keep up the great work, it's a lot better looking than some of the fallout cosplay I've seen already.

No BB gun?

It looks great! I want a real Pip Boy...

No, no BB Gun. That was Fallout 3. Vault 11 is actually From New Vegas. No BB Gun in that one.

As far as footwear, I'll probably just wear a pair of my boots. Being a man, I only wear combat boots, so whichever pair I grab will do fine.

paranoid_android74 wrote: No BB gun? It looks great! I want a real Pip Boy...

A real Pip-boy EH? Yeah, I should probably get going on that.

I've got a brand new one right here. Too new. It came in this here case. I did some painting practice.

looks good, let's get to work on the real thing. I started by taking steel wool to the whole surface, then just bashed the hell out of with a flat file to give it some wear.

Then It got a series of acrylic washes, in browns and blacks to build up dirt and grime. then hand painted some rust spots.

finally I touched up the corners with a little pewter rub-n-buff to simulate paint wear. I'm mostly happy with it. If I were to do it again I would reverse the order of the washes from darkest to lightest, and I think I would mask off the white "ceramic" and not really weather it at all. But here we are...

well my first deadline came and went. Halloween. I've been having all kinds of trouble with the stripes... they will likely end up being painted on, but in order to be ready for halloween I ended up using Gold Duct tape.

Make it happen Cap'n.

So here it is, still wrapped around the same fat dude:

So it's "finished" for now. There are a few cganges I'd like to make before Emerald City Comic Con in march. I need to improve the mounting for the arm, maybe by attaching velcro to the sleeve and the back of the plate to support it instead of relying on the straps which became really painful after about 5 minutes. I also have to finish the glove and hand plate, and paint the stripes on proper. Finally the whole thing needs a good weathering.

All in all I'm pleased with how it all turned out and I'm starting to think about my next costume. Something a little more challenging and a little less normal.

Maybe Blasto:

Sometimes.

Sometimes a deadline approaches too quickly.

Sometimes you cut corners.

Sometimes you make compromises just to finish on time.

Sometimes years later, you wish you'd done it differently.

Sometimes you wish you could go back and do it right.

And sometimes... you do.

It's been 7 years since I called this project finished and frankly I've never been happy with it. The tape looked so crap that it overshadowed the parts of the build I was proud of.

In the time that has passed SWIMBO and I have gotten more into cosplay and now hit between 4-5 cons a year. I've always wanted to go back and finish the vault-suit properly. So for the 2024 season... I did.

Sewing is not my strong suit. Really all the soft side stuff is a weakness of mine. I'm good at the hard side. The armour, the props. I'm pretty darn good at painting.

So why am I trying to sew the stripes on?

Sometimes learning new skills is great, but sometimes, do what you do.

Getting the straps done properly lit a fire under me and I invested in better props, and finally reworked the armour so it wasn't painful to wear and this has become one of my favourite cosplays.

SWIMBO has even joined in with everyone's favourite inventor and tinkerer, Megaton's own Moira Brown.

So... if there's a project that you rushed through years ago and were never quite happy with, set some time aside to finish it right. You'll be glad you did.