Some perspective, please.

The title is what I've been repeating to myself ad nauseum over the last day or two as we hurtle towards D-Day. This year, D-Day is the eve of Halloween rather than the day itself, robbing us of a precious 24 hours. I write this as I wait for a hot glue gun to heat up enough to apply one of the final touches to the costumes, slightly worried as I look at the clock, and I recall last year's panic finish to the season. Thankfully, I have found a picture which offers me that much needed perspective. This is the torso for my costume at midday on October 31st of last year:

And, just a few short hours later:

Believe!

Sibling Rivalry

If build progression was a race, poor Kang would have been left in the dust of his sibling. It wasn't by design, but we seemed to race ahead with the construction of Kodos during the last week and a half. Read on to see the disproportionate progress made.

Meeting of the Minds

It was a momentous occasion over the weekend as Kang and Kodos met for the first time. The costumes were started in different locations and, due to their unwieldy sizes (to put it mildly) the idea of transportation seemed a daunting task. I managed to get Kodos into my car through some questionable contortion antics (not without having to reflect upon the wisdom of transporting him in such a manner) and brought it to my girlfriend's house, where Kang has been dwelling in his infancy these last few weeks. Here is a picture of the extraterrestrial siblings united:

As the photo suggests, Kang is just a little lopsided, which we're trying to offset with the positioning of the features. I'm already happier with the shape having made a start on his mouth, so hopefully adding the rest of the features will improve him further.

The clock is ticking away, but we're getting there. I'm playing a game of catch-up with the progress reports, so we're further ahead than the photo suggests. More updates to come soon.

One other item - you're never truly in the thick of a Halloween project until the pen and paper come out and a list is made. That's how I know we're really in business.

If you're wondering what the 'utility belt' refers to, we couldn't decide on a name for the blue thing around the waist(?) of the aliens. As a big Batman fan I'm only too happy with the label we came up with.

Escalation of Commitment

It's an old chestnut in studies of management and other disciplines; when one invests enough time and energy into a project that they feel they cannot abandon it, even if it is demonstrably not a good idea for whatever reason (pragmatism, perhaps, in this context), it is described as a case of escalating commitment. You have gone beyond the point of no return. You are throwing good money after bad, and other such idioms. Looking back over the Halloween'ing season so far, I can't help but draw parallels to the current project. 

Tea with the Pumpkin King

I feel like I've neglected my blogging duties lately, but more progress has been made than written about. I've been at grindstone all day today, and the next progress post is forthcoming. In the meantime, it doesn't feel like Halloween season until this guy comes out to offer a liquid boost to productivity:

 On that note, 2013 is also the 20-year anniversary of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Not a year goes by (or hasn't done since this hobby started) when the DVD or Blu-ray isn't watched for some inspiration, and Danny Elfman's score is more often than not the soundtrack to costume building. An absolute fixture of the season.

The Visitors take Shape

Kang and Kodos have taken the first steps in their quest for world domination: they have grown bodies. At this stage they are infant bodies, granted, but they are bodies nonetheless. The workflow has largely followed that of previous Halloween endeavours - shaping the costume out of wire, overlaying the frame with soft card, then papier mache. So far, we are one third of the way through this year's routine.

There has been one addition to this year's materials: foam insulation tubing (which appears not to have a name here, but referred to as backer rod by North American retailers from what I've seen). This wasn't my first experience with the material, having used it to make dreadlocks for my Predator costume. The reason I elected to use it for this project is because I thought it would make for a more tidy framework, rather than using nothing but wire. I've found that constructs from wire are quite bumpy and uneven, usually looking pretty poor until card and papier mache even things back out at a later stage. The first step in creating this year's costume was thus:

There are three lengths of tube there, held together at the joint with duct tape. Of course, sticking to my 'cut now, ask questions later approach' I didn't carry out my due diligence with what has come to be known as the 'doorway test' (I and my friends have been felled on more than one occasion by the width of door frames; I usually take it as a sign that I'm on the right track when a costume work-in-progress is touch and go). Later I would discover that it was a little too big; but luckily, the tube has attempted to resolve itself back into its natural shape against the duct tape, the result being a bit more of an oval shape. It is subtle enough that it hasn't ruined the shape, but it makes it just about narrow enough to get through doors. 

The next step was to start building up the frame. Another reason why I went with the insulation tube was its flexibility:

I wanted to shape it from four sides and have the lengths of tube meet at the top. This took several lengths that began a little something like this:

This was a tricky juncture; while the tubing was flexible, it didn't stay in shape on its own accord. The next task was therefore one of multitasking, attempting to hold the material in shape while stitching wire around it that would hopefully do a more permanent job:

We created wire circles from the base to the top. From studying dozens of reference photos we arrived at the conclusion that they don't have any kind of defined shape (they are essentially blobs, after all). But for the purposes of construction, we gave them a more rounded appearance that was inspired from the best Kang and Kodos costume we have found online. This is how each costume looked once the circles had given shape to the frame:

 

With this step complete, we gave the skeleton more shape and support by running wire vertically from base to tip. That brings us to the current state of the costumes: 

"I'm Kang..."

"...and this is my sister, Kodos."

The next step is to overlay the frame with soft card as a primer for papier mache which, in the last couple of years, has helped to boost the robustness of our costumes. When they're as obtrusive as ours usually are they inevitably take a beating in a packed venue, so it's a particularly important step. I don't want to jinx myself, but I always consider the wire framing the hardest and most awkward part of the process. I'm hoping that from here on out it is mostly monotonous work. This is the first costume since my first Halloween outing as Evil Dead's Ash that I haven't had a mask, as such, which I'm hoping removes some of the more intricate and time-consuming work.

Halloween 2013 will be Intergalactic

At least, I hope so. I've been reluctant to confirm, even in my head, the idea that has been knocking around in there for the last few days because of the sheer work that it promises to entail. I'm not averse to putting excessive hours into a Halloween project (clearly!) but real-world commitments threaten to be a little more imposing this season, and part of me thinks that this idea would push me for time were I free as a bird. 

However.

Upon inspecting the date of my first post on the blog last year, I noticed that I was similarly tardy in getting into gear last Halloween, and that worked out okay. It was, in fact, this very date last year. And, much like this post, it was a mere declaration of intent without having made any meaningful start. It wasn't without some stress, sure, but that made it all the more gratifying in the end. 

This idea is predicated on the sheer fun of building a team costume last year. The final costume will likely be bigger, but mercifully there are likely to be less individual components. And, while I thought it would be hard to top the recognition that last year's duo would garner, I think this team-up would make at the very least a good stab at it. 

This year, we will go on an earth conquest mission as the lovable alien duo Kang and Kodos, of The Simpsons fame:

Actually, we're Quantum Presbyterians.

Sure, The Simpsons isn't what it used to be (in my eyes anyway) but it has left an enduring legacy of lovable characters and endlessly quotable nuggets of wisdom. This costume idea ticks pretty much every box I have when it comes deciding on a project. It's big, it's eminently recognisable, and it fits the profile of previous work in terms of workflow. It also ticks a recent addition to the criteria list materialising out of last year which is, where possible, a team costume is the way to go.

It will be a long two months with plenty of peaks and troughs, but I wouldn't have it any other way.