Decisions, Decisions

Which looks better...the plum/grey fabric in the first picture or the plum fabric in the second photo?

Canvas Backpack

Soldier ape sporting standard issue canvas backpack (that really works) and new uniform. Can't decide if I like the plum sleeves or the gray/plum sleeves.















That's cotton batting in there for now. Got to look for soldier's rations...

Can Opener

Dang! I forgot the can opener!

Sideshow Cornelius as a sharp shooter. Very impressive, no?

M soldier ape portraits

Here is the same vest with a painted "M". Used a silver pen, but because the fleather is shiny, it started rubbing off. Just good enough for photos, but not good enough to be permanent. Wonder if reflective tape would work? If it's thin enough, it may be a possibility.

Still looks fierce to me, though!!

Dog gone sun! Where in the world did you go today? I could have had fantastic images! Ratz!!

Here are his boots fresh out of the oven. Amazingly, they came out OK after they were painted. Yes, they look "rough" but with the right amount of dust from marching around in the Forbidden Zone, it doesn't matter. Or I could probably re-sand them and then spray them with paint--I just used 3D fabric paint, so that's why you could see the brush strokes. I trimmed the rough top of the boots with a pair of scissors. Aren't they so teeny weeny and cute?

Escape Zira

I couldn't decide which photo was the best one. Guess I'll have to see them all side by side...I got smarter while taking the photos--I got rid of the harsh shadows cast by the sun by using a piece of paper to bounce light back to the shadows on her face. These photos are a thousand times better than the first photos I took of Zira on her original Planet of the Apes costume with the eel skin leather. Also, I finalized the frog closures. They are no longer "working frogs" as they had started originally--I rewatched the movie and realized that the frogs on her jacket were just decorations.

The arm holes in the above photos were originally blanket stitched but look unfinished but I have added some trim to them now and they look better. Guess you see all the details when you take such closeups. Anyway, I am happy with the photos I just took.

If the sun is shining tomorrow, I will take a better portrait of Julius now that the broom I have made for him has been painted black. I also painted an M on the soldier outfit...so I might take more photos of that as well.

Where is Cornelius?

Busy baking the turkey in the oven...while Zira chats and keeps company with their good friend.

Grape juice plus

Zira holding a "glass" of wine. Made of a button and some string which had been superglued into a stem shape.

Just wanted to share: We had a family night out at IHOP last Sunday. My sister was not eating her hash browns, and my 8-year old asked her, "What kind of savage are you?"

Thought that was too funny. I think it's from watching too many Planet of the Apes movies...the line probably stuck in his head from the Escape movie, when Cornelius slams his fist down and says, "Savages! Oh, they are savages!"

Gorilla soldier

What I've done:

Finished cuffs with snaps. Sanded down boots and repainted. Top-stitched side vents of vest. Painted hands black.

Zira and baby co-star

Here are some photos showcasing Zira's Escape outfit underneath the swing jacket. My favorite is the close-up of her and the baby chimp. It looks almost like a real photo doesn't it? Kinda eerie that way...

Wish I had more time this morning to take better photos...Will have to be patient and wait this weekend. By that time, her outfit will look a bit more "polished."

Here is the update on Zira's Escape outfit. I completed it at midnight, but as you can see, I need to re-do the button closure. Looks like a rush-type job the way it looks, and I still need to sand and paint her boots. I am very happy with the way the outfit came out. I lost one cuff somewhere along the way--guess I'll have to whip another one tonight but I'll sew it down so it won't get lost again.
I got smarter with baking the boots! I baked them upside down on a stand I made out of tinfoil--it looked like a ring holder, so that as the boots baked, they did not flop over like the gorilla soldier's boot when I first baked it. When I took the gorilla boots out of the oven, my heart felt as flopped over as the boots I saw. Luckily for me, I was able to make the boots unflop--used a pair of forks for that--before the boots cooled down too much.

Gorilla soldier

Here is a draft gorilla soldier. Need to re-sew the back of his vest because it's off-center and I need to paint his hands black and sew cuffs for him...and maybe fix him with some type of net. And his bandolier needs painting, but doesn't he look just too menacing?

Here is a photo from the back. On an interesting note, the boots this fellow is wearing was hand-sculpted by me on Sculpey Mold-Maker. When purchased off of Ebay, this poor fellow was wearing two types of boots: a hero boot and a general ape boot. Bothered me a lot, and didn't want to pay $15 for a pair of reproduction boots, so I baked these myself in the oven. These photos were taken at 7 AM on an overcast day. Sadly, no sun in sight, but the flash makes it look like it was taken at night.

Julius, from the Planet of the Apes

This is a draft for Julius' outfit from the Planet of the Apes. I need to sand down his boots and repaint them so they don't look so rough, but it's still pretty neat that they are "rubbery" and are strong enough to be taken on and off. The other item I need to sculpt for him will be a broom so that I could take an official photograph of him.

Here's a photo of Julius holding a broom. Too excited to take the photo to paint the broom handle black. Someday when I find the spare time...And if you look up close, I updated his glyph so now it's more accurate.

Cornelius and Zira

Here is my favorite couple looking swanky in their hand tailored outfits with eel skin leather trim. I can't wait until this weekend to take better photos of them. I am so proud of the way their costumes came out!

A closeup of a flower from the garden. The weather is still amazingly warm. Someday I'll find out what this one is called.

Here is another garden spider. I think it's a jumping spider, because it was busy hopping around.