Instructables user gpetit1 (Gary Petit) recently decided to make a new Grim Reaper costume to replace one he made 15 years ag0. He made Reaper costume 2.0 stand at eight feet tall and three and a half feet wide. It has exposed bones and appropriate proportions so that nothing about it looks human. He put a lot of planning into the build and ended up spending around $500 on making the creepy costume from the ground up. Materials included a backpack frame, PVC pipes, LED lights and battery packs, aluminum crutches, and more. Here’s how he constructed the frame and rib cage:
Build a PVC stand to build everything to size. Mount the Alice pack frame on the stand so it is at the same height when it will be worn. Disassemble a pair of aluminum crutches and size up the aluminum poles to be used as extensions on the Alice pack to raise the shoulder level higher than your head. I used the existing poles that have 1” extension settings so the shoulder height can be adjusted up or down by 1”.
Attached the PVC pipes to establish the shoulder width and use the flexible PVC pipes to build and shape a frame for the ribcage. This is a trial and error process because you have to plan for how this will fit around you and how you will get in and out of the costume. I used several paper templates to establish the exact size of the ribs, arms, neck and skull to get the exact proportions I wanted for this. I carefully positioned the location for the shoulder joints using ringlets screwed into the PVC. Everything else will be based on this so take your time and make sure you can fit well in this before continuing.
This is where you need to have some artistic abilities. I never attempted something like this before
I’m pretty surprised at how well this came out but I just took my time and kept referring to reference images and constantly adjusting. The paper templates make it easy.
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Each weekday this month we’ll be bringing you ideas and projects for an Electronic Halloween! Expect wearables, hacks & mods, costumes and more here on the Adafruit blog! Working on a project for Halloween this year? Share it with us on Google+, in the comments below, the Adafruit forums, Facebook, or Twitter— we’d love to see what you’re up to and share it with the world (tag your posts #ElectronicHalloween). Tune in to our live shows, Wearable Electronics with Becky Stern, 3D hangouts with Matt, Pedro, and Noe, and Ask an Engineer, featuring store discount codes, ideas for projects, costumes, and decorations, and more!