Just a quick update, the Ion Blaster is starting to take shape! Hope to get it finished this weekend, as well as finally getting a start on his torso. Time’s a tickin’!
Wow! Your work is spectacular. I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Same here, I think the gun will be the best part of the costume.
I think I might go as Elastigirl for this Halloween. 
Kewl, same as Virginia I believe!
Lol really? Thats funny. 
I’ve taken a break from the Ion Blaster, because I was becoming self-concious about not having started the body.
I decided to tackle the torso first (still figuring out the midriff and the lower body). To do this, I started by acquiring a large, flat cardboard box (below).
I knew it’d be a challenge to make the torso from a flat cardboard box; I wasn’t even sure it would work, but after much deliberation I just started without too many blue-prints to hand.
Zurg’s torso is far from flat; rather, it is quite a rounded, curved shape. To get around this, I discarded most of the cardboard box, keeping only the opening/closing flaps and a small section of body underneath. As you might notice in the photo above, I curved the flaps into a more rounded shape. I then cut out what would become the main foundation of the torso:
What followed was the toughest part of this construct. The front and side flaps were curving in such a way that it was hard to join them up (notice in the photo, diamond shaped gaps appeared between them on each side). I had to join the tips of the flaps together and fill the holes with masking tape. On the inside, I put a few strips of wire along these joints to make them stronger, and reinforced them with strong box-sealing tape. I also made arm-holes on each side of the body.
However, after much enforcing and reinforcing, the torso was still pretty flimsy and I wasn’t confident of it surviving the night in a packed pub. So to reinforce it further and give it that extra bit of strength, I turned to the old reliable: papier mache.
Once it had dried I was finally confident that it was strong enough to take on the hustle and bustle of a crowd. All that was left to do, then, was add one more strip of cardboard behind the cut out curved section in the front, and then paint it:
And there you have it! Once the paint dries I must get to work on his chest plates, then the torso will be done.
Looking good so far! How many hours have you put in your project so far?
Oh man too many to count! I started in the middle of August though!
Dang! It’s looking super good, when do you expect to be finished with it?
Thanks 
I don’t want to jinx myself, but I really hope to be finished next Friday.
Saturday is a write-off because I will be away, and only coming back the next day just in time to head out for the Halloween party!
This is a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland, so thank God I have all day Monday to work on it!
Keep going!
I sure hope you can finish it.
Ah, you’re Irish? One of my ancestoral homes. I visited Ireland two years ago, beautiful country with very friendly people. I enjoyed it more than England and Wales (I’m sorry an British members!)
Cool! What parts did you visit?
The torso is effectively finished!
Finishing it off was tough, which was all down to the chest/shoulder plates. I started out by taking flat cardboard and making a (very) rough shape for the chest plates. I do not have many photos of this, because I wasn’t convinced while I was doing it that this would work. I made the shoulder plates separately with the intention of fusing them together with papier mache (since they are supposed to be one piece).
Here is the initial, and admittedly quite shoddy picture of how I started out:
From there I had to glue it onto the torso, which was quite difficult. Mostly because I was attaching it to an area of the torso which was quite thin. Not entirely trusting superglue to do the job, I turned to epoxy which was messy but did the job well. When it dried I then topped it off with superglue.
This wasn’t the last job before applying papier mache, however; I was very unhappy with the quality of the shoulder plates, so I tore them off (thankfully I had only used box-sealing tape up to this point to join them on). I redid them from scratch and once again joined them to the torso. Once this was done, I could apply the papier mache:
Once that dried, with the aid of a hair dryer, I was able to apply the silver paint/red lining:
And that’s where I’m at. The torso is done, I have the cape just about finished too thanks to my talented girlfriend. I’ll post those up soon. Today being bank holiday Monday means I need to get the bulk of the work done, here’s hoping that happens!
EDIT: I just realised that, in the last photo, there is a hint towards Ciara’s costume this year. Brownie points for whoever guesses 
Ugh, I can’t find the hint to your friends costume! Frustration!
I went to Dublin, Waterford, Blarney, County Clare, County Cork, County Kerry, and we drove through Limerick. So mostly southern Ireland, I loved it!
Wow, you covered a good bit of ground - I’m in Cork myself, good to hear you passed my neck of the woods.
The hint is in the top right - the two blue things - also quite relevant to this forum
Is she going as Mrs. Potato Head?
Also, your Zurg costume looks awesome so far!
Or Mr. Potato Head?
But Mrs. Potato Head doesn’t contain blue parts!
What could it be…?
One of the aliens or Flik?