Death Star Plans



For Halloween Nick is going to be Darth Vader, and for his wheelchair costume I made him a Death Star! I wasn't always 100% sure it would turn out. So I had a couple of back-up plans, and I started really early in case I need to start over.

I thought the best way to do this was with paper mache. I looked to see if I could water proof paper mache, and I could. And I figured it would be light enough so that it wouldn't weigh down the wheelchair, and I can cut out what I want.

First thing was blowing up a 3ft balloon!
I picked 3 ft because it would cover the chair. I bought a 5 pk on ebay, but have since found them at our local Michaels.

 

I looked at some different recipes for paper mache and wanted something that was strong enough.
Ultimate Paper Mache is a blog that I used for all of my resources. They have recipes and videos.
http://www.ultimatepapermache.com/paper-mache-recipes

I had lots of torn up newspaper, thanks to some co-workers and collecting newspaper over the last couple of weeks. And I made the traditional flour and water paste.

I had to find a box to sit the balloon on and support it while I added the papers. And also to remember that if you do it all on one side, the balloon with tilt.

I spent one day, and used a whole 5lb package of flour, but I finished it.
I put about 5 layers on it. I added some features to the paper mache, like the laser lens and the equator of the death star.

 

Kyle was excited to pop this huge balloon, but after it had dried, the balloon popped itself. I was at work, but Kyle said he heard it from upstairs, and the dogs ran upstairs terrified of the animal that sounded like it was scrambling around inside.

It took a couple of days for the balloon to dry and once it was dried I could see how it fit on the chair.

And it ended up fitting perfectly!

 

Once I knew it was fit it was time to problem solve to try to get it to sit how we wanted on the chair. Of course I first looked at what we had around the house, and we had a bunch of large hula hoops. Which fit perfectly into the base of the chair. Just one hula hoop isn't enough, so I wrapped 3 together. It still needed another base farther down, so after exploring our home depot I found that sign stakes that can fit into the inside of the hula hoop, and then hold against the base of the chair. And then I taped everything together.
I added some pool noodles inside to help the hula hoops to stay in place.
I also added a hula hoop around the middle to help it to stay in place

After making sure we had it balanced properly it was time to make sure I cut it out properly.
I spent an afternoon pulling Nick in and out of the chair so that I could get it cut the right way.

I wanted to make sure Nick wasn't hidden inside the Death Star, but that he also had the ability to fully move himself around (so there had to enough space for his arms to go back).

Once I had everything cut out properly and I knew that Kyle and I could get it on and off (yes it takes both of us), then it was time to paint it.
Looking at the website and recommendations to make paper-mache waterproof, I wanted to put a base that would then get painted. So I made a gesso, which is a paste that will harden and help to make it waterproof.

I used white glue, drywall paste and white paint. It called for 2/3 joint compound and 1/3 glue. But I used about half and half by the time I was done. I watched a video and pretty much you just mix everything together.
But here is the thing. It dries very quickly! So don't do what I did and just mix everything together in a large batch. I ended up losing half of it once it started to dry before I was done.

I ended up using a paint brush at first to put it on, but that didn't really work. Towards the end I just grabbed a handful of the compound and smoothed it out by hand.
The recipe said to sand paper it to make it smooth. I started to sand paper it, but in the end I decided smooth wasn't that important. This took about 1 day to dry

Once I had my base it was time to paint it. But I needed some inspiration for how to paint it. And by this time this was my one chance, I wasn't going to make another one if I messed this one up. I used metallic grey and black paint to use.

To help to clean up the edges I also used pipe wrap (which I use almost every year) to go around all of the edges to make them cleaner. And painted everything.

I did 2 layers of paint and then drew out the squares.

I mixed the black and grey metallic paint to make a metallic dark grey. Which turned out well. And then coloured everything in. I also added some green into the laser. I wasn't that happy with how my laser turned out (it looked more like a radiation symobol to me). And so I redid it a couple of times before I was happy

I also added Nick's name into the bottom of the Death Star, fitting it into the design.

I found the right picture of what I wanted to do with the lights. And then just started painting the lights on. Again no design, just random lights.

I did the lights one time, looked at it and didn't like it after a couple of areas, so I painted over it and started again. And I redid the laser part until I was happy with the design.

After a coat of verathane it was done!
Darth-Nickolas was happy with the result!

Now I just have to hope we can get it onto the wheelchair!
But you will have to wait for the final result!

Planning for Halloween

We start thinking of Halloween really early. And while the beginning of September may seem early, really it has been since last Halloween. But now that it is September, it is time to get to work.

Nick is going to be Darth Vader this year.
Simple, I thought, we will make his wheelchair into a tie fighter. (We do a wheelchair costume because if we plan on walking Nick gets tired quickly).

This was my idea for his chair. And I've been collecting supplies for it through the summer. Pretty simple I thought.

 

And then I googled Darth Vader's tie fighter and realized that it was different!

 

OK, no problem we can still do this. I just need to figure out how to make it bend.

When we were at Easter Seals Camp we were talking about Halloween and Nick told someone he was going to have the Death Star.
I said that isn't what he is going to have, but that is a FANTASTIC idea!
And so then I started thinking!

I took some pictures so that I could photo-shop my idea to see if it was possible.

And I think I can do this!

 This is my inspiration!

No I just need to order my supplies! I am so excited to get started on this!
And if I have time, I will do the tie-fighter for Nick's walker!

I also talked to Katheryn about her costume, she wants to be Elsa again, but this time Ice Queen Elsa. We looked at a bunch of different dresses (on E-bay) and she found one she likes, and I ordered a wig and we will get some other supplies for her. So Katheryn is happy too

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a big thing in our house.
Over the years we have put a lot of work into our costumes and start thinking about it in the summer (if not November 1st). And over the past 4 years we have made wheelchair costumes as well.

 Here is a review over the years:
2014, last year we had Elsa and Michaelangelo with his shellraiser

2013 we had a Superhero and Tyrone with his neighborhood

2012 we had Cinderella and her carriage, and a Pirate with his pirate ship (my first wheelchair/walker costume)

2011 was the year of a Princess and a Knight

2010 we had a whole family theme with Little Red Ridinghood and the Big Bad Wolf

2009 we even had halloween costumes before Nick was born! Lady from Lady and the Tramp and a Pumpkin

2008 Katheryn was Lady from Lady and the Tramp as well, but it was a hot Halloween and Katheryn didn't wear it except to get a couple of pictures

In the summer we started talking about Halloween. and Nick wanted  to be Captain America.
Alot of Nick's costume isn't really the costume, it is the matching wheelchair costume. I had bought a Captain America little boys costume online in the summer, but when it came it was the wrong size and it was also a one-peice costume. Which does not work for us.

Last year Nick's costume was a sweatshirt costume, and it worked very well. This year Nick's sweatshirt didn't have the mask, but that's ok. Thats why we have face paint

Katheryn was very specific that she wanted to be an angel.
I think I spent more time on her costume this year, finding all of the perfect pieces to come together.
Her wings are feathers (and she molted the whole walk). Katheryn has also liked wearing wigs, so I got her a fun blond one with ringlets

 The weather was beautiful so we didn't need to layer the costumes this year and had a very happy Captain and Angel

 Nick's costume looked FANTASTIC, if I do say so myself.
Everyone thought that it was great

Katheryn and Nick decided to do some play acting for us

Captain America running down an Angel!

I think that angel is full is mischievous!

We got a costume for Rory as well.
It is supposed to be a unicorn with a princess. I bought it a month ago, it doesn't fit now, so we got some velcro for it to fit on her back (the head piece we couldn't do anything about)

Soon it was time for some trick or treating!

 

Both kids had a great time trick or treating. All of our houses have stairs, so Katheryn went up with Nick's bag (unless the owners came down with candy... some people did). And Rory was very well behaved for the walk

The kids had a lot of fun trick or treating and both kids got lots of compliments on their costumes. It started raining right at the end of our night and their bags were full so everyone was happy to go back home.

Katheryn stayed out a little while longer to hand our some candy herself

I had to go into work Halloween night (thanks to a co-worker who stayed an extra hour so I could stay for the trick-or-treating).

Of course I don't like wearing plain old scrubs on any type of holiday. So I made up some fun Birthing Centre shirts for us all to wear. Halloween themed of course, I 'heart' Mummies

Another successful Halloween done.
Tomorrow we will start planning for next year!

Creating a Costume - 2015

Nick decided that he wanted to be Captain America for Halloween this year.

OK, so what does Captain America use that I can make into a wheelchair costume?

(Nick got too tired last year with his walker costume trick-or-treating, so we decided to only concentrate on the wheelchair this week).

I did some google searches to see what was out there, and found some ideas. But I thought really all I needed was a kids bike that I could tear apart. It also allows it to be waterproof, which is a must in our Ontario climate (and it has rained the last 3 years)

Luckily I was able to find one, and it was already taken apart!

Ideally the handlebars would actually be attached the the wheel. But that's ok we can work with this

First we needed some more inspiration

Then Nick I took a trip to Canadian Tire to check out what they  had.
I didn't have a big idea, so we just browsed for some inspiration. The plumbing section seems to have the most selection of parts that I was looking for. And of course some spray paint, glue, and duct tape. Also some gloves (in case it is cold), a touch light and bristol board.

Then I needed to put the bike together.
There was grease all over, so I covered everything with some shiny duct tape. I had thought it was only silver duct tape, but it had writing all of it, so I had to spray paint it. I had bought a T-shaped pipe cover and used it to hold the steering wheel with the wheel and taped it all together.
(It held, but was very loose)

Pretty simple, but still didn't really look like Caps' motorbike

So I made up some shields for Nick's wheels out of the bristol boards.

I got some straight pipe covers to boost up the bike's appearance and then spray painted everything

Too late I realized I got silver all over the wheels. So I spray painted the wheels black

We added the light and now it was starting to come together

Now I was stuck, I didn't have any ideas about how to actually attach it to Nick's wheelchair. So I enlisted Kyle's help.

 We bought a broom handle and spray painted it silver, and then zip-tied the bike to the chair. It also lifted the wheels off the ground.

The last problem we had was how to keep the bike off of Nick's lap.
What we needed was something for the bike to just rest in.

In the end we had a bike rack that was able to be tied to the chair and sit around Nick for the bike to rest against. We covered the rack and the sides of Nick's chair with the pipe covers (which also protects it) and zip tied everything together.

Here is Captain America!