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Dustin McLean, Claire Max,
and Benjamin Martin,
experts in the world of cosplay and DIY,
masters of duct tape,
cardboard, and hot glue.
Together, they are the DIY Costume Squad.
- Hey, what's up, I'm Dustin, and
today I'm gonna be making a very
DIY 'Captain America' costume.
I'm making this for an upcoming episode
of homemade movies, so it's gonna be very
scrappy and homemade and DIY, using some
stuff I just found in some thrift stores.
So let's give it a shot.
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Okay, so 'Captain America,' specifically
from 'Civil War,' it's a pretty
straightforward costume
when you really look at it.
But I wanna fancy it up using
some foam with some of these
little panels and things.
I'm gonna just paint a shirt and
some pants blue, and
then there's some straps, the belts,
gloves, and then the helmet, of course.
That's probably the trickiest part,
really, is the helmet.
And then there's the shield, too, but
we'll get to that in a little bit.
So I'm gonna start with just
kind of the base of the outfit.
That's gonna be blue.
So, here's all the goodies that I've got.
This is the fun part.
Yar, so for the first piece here,
I found a jacket, and
this was $10 at a thrift store.
Thinking this was kinda like
a nice plain canvas to start with.
And then I'll add some pieces on
top of it and then paint it blue.
It's a pretty sharp jacket, okay.
Let's start by just trying it on and
marking up some shapes.
Because I'm doing this for
a homemade movies episode,
it's gonna be our friend Michael,
he's playing Captain America.
So I'm gonna make it so
that it will kinda fit me,
and then I'm hoping that he
can squeeze into it also.
So I'm gonna attach some various panels
of different shapes on here, and
for that, I'm gonna use craft
foam from the craft store.
These are $0.99 apiece,
super easy to cut, super easy to glue.
So, I just printed out a star from my
computer, that will just serve as a guide.
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Kind of just making this up, and
I'm looking at the pictures,
but I'm making up a lot
of the shapes myself too.
There, that's cool, so
I kind of made a negative shape
around where the star is gonna go.
So, I'm gonna trace these to
make the mirror image, so
I'll have the other side as well.
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Okay, so I'm gonna glue these pieces down.
Hot glue works really well
on this EVA foam, and
it works really well on fabric too,
it just soaks right in.
Okay, so this bottom piece,
I'm only gonna glue half way, so
that we can open the zipper later.
Yeah.
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So I'm just moving onto the arms,
it's a lot more of just kinda looking at
the shapes and kinda just faking it and
drawing the shapes out here,
cutting them out and gluing them on.
Saving the red ones for later, but all
the ones that are gonna end up being blue,
I'm just gluing right on.
Definitely SHIELD,
you can tell by the geometric pattern.
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I think that's the last piece of armor.
But what I'm gonna do for the arms is I'm
gonna cut a seam right down the forearm.
And then I'll line these edges with tape,
so that I can just tighten it down on
my arm and then put my hand in the glove,
and it'll all kind of stay in place.
All right,
now that all the foam pieces are in place,
it's time to paint them blue.
I picked up a handful of these blue
paint cans, they were $3 each.
So let's head out to the paint station.
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All right, so while I'm painting this
blue, I'm also gonna paint the pants,
which I picked up at a thrift store for
$6.
I made sure that these were kind
of the same color as the coat, so
that way the paint will sort
of sit on it the same way.
All right, so I just gotta wait for
all this paint to dry, and
then I'll pick this back up tomorrow.
Okay, the paint is all dry.
It's looking pretty good.
I've got my pants and my jacket.
So what I need to do is start
adding in some of these
other pieces that are gonna
really make it pop.
So there's the star, and
then I've go the abs, these red and
white stripes, so I'll just be
continuing on with craft foam.
I'll just trace these on here and
then cut them out.
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There we go, okay,
I think those are (Laugh) all the pieces.
So now I'm gonna glue them in place.
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(Laugh)
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Captain who?
It's the star that really sells it.
All right, so he's got this little
'Avengers' emblem on his shoulder, so
I'm just gonna cut that circle
out of some red foam, and
then draw on the A with a white paint pen.
It's like a Necco wafer.
(Laugh)
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Okay, so I'm gonna paint this star silver.
I already have some old silver spray
paint, but usually it's around 3 bucks.
Bam, that looks nice.
The finishing touches on this
jacket are gonna be to draw on
a few of the extra details
using a black marker.
I'm just looking at the pictures and
kinda figuring out where some
additional lines should go.
All right, so
now it's time to add in the velcro.
I have a little tiny bit left, usually,
you can get a whole roll of this for,
I think, 2 bucks.
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Sweet, okay, there are a few
red pieces on the pants too, so
I'm just gonna cut some pieces and
glue those on.
All right, so next up, I'm gonna move
on to some of the straps and the belt.
So I bought a handful of
miscellaneous belts and things.
They were around $3 each from
a few different thrift stores,
got different sizes.
All right, before I go too much further,
I'm gonna paint all three of these brown.
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I really like the little metal
buckles on this black belt, so
I'm gonna attach those to this belt.
All right, I'm gonna make this little
buckle piece in the back just out of one
solid piece of cardboard.
A cardboard that I recently used, so I'll
just draw the shapes and cut it out and
then paint it.
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Okay, the buckle is ready,
I'm gonna be attaching the belts to them.
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All right, I think that's ready to go,
I'm gonna move on to his belt.
I'm gonna make the buckle
out of cardboard, of course.
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I'm gonna do a very light coat of black on
here, this is $0.99, just to darken it and
make it a little dirtier.
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Tada, (Laugh) his belt has
a bunch of little pouches and
pockets all along the sides.
So I'm gonna use this fabric belt and
cut them, and just make a bunch of
little folds, and that will kinda
look like his little pockets.
All right,
I'm gonna start with gray primer.
That way, when I paint it brown,
you'll be able to see it better.
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Okay, I'm gonna glue all of these really
flat and then glue them all to the belt.
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I'm just gonna hit those
with brown real quick.
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I love these pouches.
Okay, I'm gonna move on to the gloves.
I found this pair at a thrift store for
$5.
And I'll cut the fingertips off and
then paint them brown.
And then I think that's
pretty much all I need to do.
Ahh, (Laugh) it's like a bloody fingertip,
it's the most unexpectedly morbid thing.
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I think he's actually wearing black boots,
and then there's some long spats, I guess?
So, you could just pick up
a pair of black boots, but
I'm gonna use these to extend my black
boots and make them even taller.
Okay, so I've got two more belts here.
I'm gonna cut each one of these into
three pieces and then glue them on here.
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I'm just gonna spray paint
these all the way black, so
they don't look like
'Edward Scissorhands'.
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All right, now I'm going to
attempt to make this helmet,
which I think is gonna be the hard part.
So I bought this foam pirate
hat from the craft store.
It was $2.50,
I also bought this party mask.
And I think it's actually papery,
this was $3.
So, between that and one more skinny belt,
I'm gonna see if I can put this together.
You know what, forget 'Captain America'.
I'm just gonna, there, that's my costume,
cool, ready for the party.
I'm gonna use the heat gun, very lightly,
which can probably soften this.
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It's really working.
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I'm just gonna change the shape of
this eye a little bit with some tape.
That's better, it's not quite so doe eyed.
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(Laugh) It's Darth Vader with a tiny face.
(Laugh)
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Okay, I think that's it.
So I need to paint this blue.
And then I'm gonna add in a few straps.
So first, I'm just gonna spray paint
the whole thing brown and the A,
and then I think that might be it.
Okay, so the mask is dry.
It was sticky for a little while,
so I let it sit overnight.
But I'm ready to finish this up.
It's looking pretty good.
I'm gonna put the straps on.
I just need to cut it into some pieces,
okay,
it's on the small side,
but that's pretty much it.
So I picked up some more velcro.
I'm gonna have these two pieces
actually attach in the middle.
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I'm just gonna make a little buckle
out of some galvanized steel wire.
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All right, so
I'm gonna make this little chin piece.
Probably just use some craft foam and
just cut out some shapes right here and
glue it on.
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So I just gotta add the final details,
A for the top, and there's some little
wing things, drawing a few more details,
and then that's it for the helmet.
For a while there, I thought this
helmet was not gonna work at all.
But I'm feeling pretty good about it.
All right, so
I think that's everything for this suit.
But there's one last thing that 'Captain
America' needs, and that is his shield.
For an episode of 'Homemade Movies,' Ben
made this awesome 'Captain America' shield
out of a trash can lid.
If you wanna get real DIY with it,
you could do that.
But I'll show you how to make one just
out of a piece of cardboard as well.
All right, so
I have this big piece of cardboard.
Everyone always asks,
where do you get your cardboard?
Well, I save big pieces.
This was left over from a TV
that I bought awhile back.
So here's a trick for making my circles.
Take a piece a string,
use that for the radius.
And then from your center point,
you can draw a circle all the way around.
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(Laugh) All right, so what I'm gonna do
is add a little bit more curve to this by
making a few slits along the outside
edge so that it can kind of curve down.
So I don't think I need to actually glue
those after all, I'm just gonna tape
all of them one by one, and
then I should have a nice curved surface.
All right,
just gonna make a little handle back here.
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All right, time to paint.
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I'm gonna use my string again and
do a series of circles, and
then I'll mask it off.
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All right, time for silver.
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There, okay, I got a few touch
ups I gotta do, but not bad.
So I was gonna just paint this inner
circle blue, but the masking kind of takes
forever and it's peeling, so I'm just
gonna make a separate piece of cardboard.
Plus, since this is a little flat,
maybe that'll give it
a little bit more dimension.
All right, I'm just gonna paint this blue.
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Blue.
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So the very last thing I'm
gonna do to the shield and
to the costume is to do a very
light layer of black paint,
just to kind of dirty it up and
make it look like it's really worn.
I don't know if the back of it's black or
not, but.
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All right, I think that's it.
I think it's time to try it on.
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I always get the baggiest pants ever.
Remember, I had to make these a little
bit big, so they could also fit Michael,
who is much taller than me.
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Nice.
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Okay, so I'm just gonna tape
these into place, like that.
Okay, lastly, the helmet, here we go.
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Okay, I guess all I need now is my shield.
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(Laugh) All right,
I think it's time to go show the squad.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- You're not Ben.
- I am not Ben.
Ben and Bianca just had a baby,
as you might know.
But I'm going to reveal to you
the 'Captain America' costume.
Here comes 'Captain America now'.
- What?
- All right.
- Wow.
- Yeah, with shields, all right.
- Looks fantastic.
- Looking good, this is Michael, and he is
playing 'Captain America' in the upcoming
'Captain America Civil War
Homemade Movies' episode,
which comes out next Tuesday.
Claire plays Black Widow in that as well.
It does fit on you a lot better
than it fits on me, I've gotta say.
This actually took a lot
longer than I expected.
- It's very detailed.
- I really started getting into
the nitty-gritty of wait, no,
this one fits with this one.
Does it feel like you could fight crime?
- Yeah, this is glued to my body.
- (Laugh)
- It really is a tight fit.
- Which is ideal for crime fighting.
- Give us your best poses.
- We got a breeze coming off the shield.
- I know.
- Yes, (Laugh) all right.
- Nice.
- We're back in business.
- Very cool.
- All right, well, thanks for
watching this special episode of
'DIY Costume Squad' and check out
the 'Homemade Movies' episode on Tuesday.
That's 'Captain America Civil War'
with these guys and this costume.
Be sure to subscribe and let us know in
the comments what other costumes you wanna
see, and we'll see you next year.
All right, best 'Captain America' poses.
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- (Laugh)
- And holding and clear.
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