Researchaholic

Part 4 Painting I decided to use a flat black spray paint. Be careful to not over apply. We sprayed the whole thing three or four times to make sure we had a black jet.

The third phase was paper mache. GLUE: I used 1/2 cup of Elmer's Glue mixed with a 1/2 cup of water for each application. PAPER: I used news paper for the first layer and 11x17 computer paper for the second layer. USAGE: I tore the paper in to two inch wide strips. Then I pulled the strips through the glue. I then wiped off most of the glue by squeezing the glue soaked paper between two fingers and pulling the paper through. Then I carefully applied the paper to the surface of the cardboard. I did my best to make sure there were no bubbles under the paper. That was a lot easier with the news paper then with the white printer paper. LESSONS LEARNED: If you have a long flat surface, like a wing, apply the paper to both sides of the surface at the same time. If not when the paper mache dries it will cause the surface to bend or curl.

Part 2 of this project was the cardboard construction. I have now completed that part. The pictures show both my prototype and the actual costume side by side. Part 3 will be applying the Paper Mache.

I wanted to put some "Paper Mache" on the costume to remove the sharp edges and add some strength. It would also be great if this costume lasted through more then one child. I looked up "Paper Mache" on google and liked this link How to Paper Mache . After reading I decided that I would try and find some Elmer's Art Paste. One person made a comment that it was low cost and very good. Plus you didn't need to worry about bugs eating the glue, which appears to be a problem for glue made from flour. However, I could only find the Elmer's Art Paste online. No store near me carried it. So I just went with Elmer's Glue and Water Mixed.

Here is a photo from the top. Please excuse the messy construction zone.

The homemade F-117 costume has take shape. This is mostly just cardboard and lots of hot glue. I increased the size of the model I built by about 25% to make it large enough for for my son to fit in the middle. This model is not to scale. I built a few parts, glued them on, built a bit more, and glued some more! Overall it is really starting to look good.

I decided to build a homemade halloween costume for my son this year. I started by looking at pictures of the F-117 on google images. From there I looked at pictures of an F-117 radio controlled airplane called a park flyer. The appearance was simple enough that I felt like I could build a costume that looked good. Next I found a set of free plans from parkjet.com I then built a very simple model from those plans which is pictured here.