This year is DragonCon for me.  My friend Mike has been before and I decided last year I was definitely going to go.  Not only go but go in costume as something.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I love the Dredd film from 2013.  A great take on the character and also a design for Dredd that looks reasonable while still staying true to the comic artwork.  I decided this year I’d be doing my first cosplay as Dredd.

After months of buying pieces here and there I’ve got the base for my costume.  I’m still missing some pieces I can put together between now and September and have some work to do on these, but after lots of gluing, painting, and stitching, here is the base for my Dredd:

The helmet is fiberglass.  I got it from a UK vendor.  It came in plain grey and needed some trimming, sanding and finishing.  I used a base of Rustoleum matte black primer in a couple coats, the masked off the entire thing except the trim and used Rustoleum gloss red for the accents.  The brass badge is hand painted, I used Citadel Balthasar Gold actually, which matched relatively well with the brass I used in other parts.  I still need to gloss seal the whole thing, add a visor (I’ll use a motorcycle visor) and add an insert that will make it actually wearable.

The shoulder pads were tricky.  All my Warhammering got me prepped for textured painting but these are bigger and took some thought on how to mask and paint.  I masked off all the black portions on the left pauldron as a test since it was an easier piece.  It worked pretty well, but because of all the manipulation some gold got under the tape and in other places the tape pulled off the acrylic paint.  I against used Citadel Balthasar Gold and Citadel Abbadon Black for touch ups and it worked pretty well.  The spray paint was more Rustoleum, this time hammered copper.

Then there was this freaking eagle…  Masking off this eagle made me insane.  It was already primered black, but adding the gold was a process.  I put in Terminator Genysis and ripped masking tape into various shapes and sizes in order to get it into all the nooks and crannies.  It ended up working pretty well but had the same problem as the simpler pauldron, the ripped tape, because of its frayed edges, didn’t cover cleanly and some gold seeped through.  It was the same process as the other shoulder pad, using Citadel paints to touch up mistakes.  It still came out well.

With basing done I’m hoping to finish weathering over the next couple of weeks.  After that it’s collecting the various other parts I need and finishing up the Lawgiver (I’m planning on LEDs in the display screen.)

I’ll post updates as it goes!