Several years ago I became very lazy and decided not to shave for a couple of months. In passing someone mentioned I vaguely resembled Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine and a Homemade Wolverine Costume idea was born!
My first preparation again was to not shave for several months. While fake mutton chops are workable, they just aren’t as fun or legit as the real thing. I bought a leather motorcycle jacket, leather pants, and black boots at a thrift store that as closely resembled his uniform from the x-men 3 movie.
I started with the jacket. I used yellow fabric paint to apply the X-men designs on the jacket, then used black fabric paint to add “definition” where there was padding, stitching, etc. to add a more realistic look. I did the same for the pants, though these were much easier than the jacket.
Now came the tricky part. In my first trial run I purchased cheap black leather gloves, cut out slits over my knuckles, and fashioned some claws out of cardboard, covered them in duct tape for the “metallic” look, and then taped them to the inside of my gloves. I found these to be very crude but effective. I decided however I needed a much more realistic approach.
I purchased some bass wood and some wood carving tools, sandpaper, and molding putty at a crafts store. I looked online for hints as to the size and determined that the middle claw was about 14″ and the outside claws 12″. I cut out basic claws, then sanded and whittled them down to look more realistic. I cut about a 1.5″ chunk off the back, leaving only a small piece on the top that would fit over my hand. I cut sections of a wire coat hanger and bent them to attach to the claws and wrap into my palm. I then cut a small section off the bottom where I used the putty to attach the wire. I cut a section slightly narrower than my hand of a 3/4″ square bass wood piece and drilled 3 small holes where the spaces between my knuckles were.
I then fed the wires through, bent and adjusted them, then glued them into the block. Basically it allowed me to “fit” the claws to my hand, so when I closed my fist, you couldn’t see the block, yet the claws appear to come right off the top of my hand!
Time to put the costume on. After donning the outfit, I used mascara to thicken and darken my beard (hey it wasn’t perfect!) so it was really “wolverine” like. I also used a ton of hairspray and gel to give the pointed wolverine hairstyle, which I found is a modified version of the “ducktail”. Voila! Wolverine is born.
Total cost, about $75
You have the best and closest look to Wolverine that I’ve ever seen.
Good work!
I loved this Wolverine costume. Wolverine is one of my favorite X-Men (and Marvel) characters.