I started this costume in the fall of 2013 when I was 13. I got my inspiration from watching Beastub and Ino’s videos of their quadsuits and fan videos of them.
To begin, I started the Duct Tape Dummy, which I failed at but it served its purpose of letting me have a base on which to start carving and gluing the digitigrade padding out of foam and making a sewing pattern.
Next I started on the fun part. The head. The head is made out of upholstry foam on top of a bike helmet covered in fake fur. I used TONS of reference pictures and added and took away foam more times than I can count. Once I had the correct shape, I covered the whole thing in duct tape and made a pattern for sewing. I airbrushed several peices of fur and hand sewed the entire head because our seeing machine sucks. The eyes are just plastic folders!
The next step was making the stilts which was really fun. The base is two different sizes of PVC that is jointed so it looks more natural while I walk. I hot glued foam on it and carved it to shape, then I made another pattern out of duct tape and hand sewed more fur! I practiced walking in he stilts a TON! I perfected my technique and the judges at a contest which I will get to later loved it and said it looked very natural.
The hardest part was sewing the bodysuit. I had tried making a pattern using the dummy but it didn’t work so I had to guess the pattern and hand sew it. I airbrushed the light brown stripes and made a cute bouncy tail.
The next step was the hooves. The hooves are simply different types of foam covered in stretchy fabric and plastidip, a spray plastic used on tires. Another easy part was the antlers. They were a wooden dowel rod base covered in expanding foam carved down to shape covered in lightweight air dry clay and painted. The last step was the collar. It is an active wire mesh (used in model volcanoes) base covered in see through stretch fabric with USB fans on the inside to cool me down and attached to the helmet with Velcro. When I was finished, i showed my costume off at a local comic con last year and again at Animazement last month where I entered the craftsmanship and masquerade contests. I won 2nd place in the novice division for craftsmanship and a judges award for my skit that I made in half an hour backstage with another quadsuiter in the masquerade.
Overall, it was so much fun to make and perform in. The only thing I would change is the eyes and adding a zipper so I can get in suit easier.
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