Velociraptor costume

If you made it feathered then you could skip the skin.

The fabric that allows for ‘vision’ in the neck is a sheer fabric, like an organza. If it’s thin enough, you can always use two layers if needed.

Those links listed by drag0nfeathers are a great place to start. Also, check out beastcub, beetlecat, and monoyasha on youtube. They have stuff up on youtube to see some of their projects and sometimes tips. Beastcub has one regarding heads and jaws, to get an idea of different types. For what you are looking for, you’ll probably want a hinged jaw and use springs (this is what is in drag0n’s kyuubi head and what I am using on mine. It takes a bit of work to get the tension just right but play around with it before you foam it. (yeah…. I foamed first on my NinaChimera drag0n.. hence the issues I had with the tension on the jaw).

If you wanted to make it ‘feathery’, there are fabrics that have that little ‘fuzz’ sticking out of it, kind of a fun fabric sort of thing. It would look like little feather sprouts without being completely all feathers. There are also fun furs that look sort of like feathers with ticking, which could also be fun. The fabric they use is a suede-like fabric with a pattern to it that sort of gives an impression of ‘scales’ (I’ve seen that type of fabric). Since it’s soft and suede-like, it should airbrush nicely for those subtle markings. Just sew it like you would any other fabric. If you look closely at the pictures posted by that cosplayer, you can sort of see where the seams are.

For the head, whatever you use as your frame, to ‘fur’ it, I definitely recommend using the tape method. I just wrap the thing in plastic wrap and cover it with brown packaging tape (duct tape works too… whatever is handy). The plastic wrap gives the tape something to stick to that isn’t foam for when it want to remove it (it will already have a nice backing then instead of still being sticky, since it does pull off of foam easily. Matrices shows this I believe on one of her tutorials.

The eyes are just the resin eyes like drag0n has on her kyuubi and I am using on my costumes, only they are following eyes. To do that, you would take two resin blanks, glue them together with a drop of E6000 (unlike regular superglue, it dries crystal clear, but requires some ventilation to use… it smells! and it takes a little longer to be fully cured ‘ie. dry’ and a bit more work room. It also sticks to many more surfaces) and press them together. Once dried, you would paint the back side of one of the resin blanks, giving you the following eye effect. The resin kits can be gotten at craft stores like Michael’s or ACMoore (that’s where I got mine… I just use flexible artist trays for the molds… silicone works the best, because it’s flexible for easier removal later). You’d also need mold release (or just order them from someone).

A moveable tail… there are different ways to do it, but it depends a bit on what you want to use and how mechanical you want to get. Monoyasha had a great one of her checking out the stilts on her Toothless quad, but she took down the video on youtube (probably because she thought it was too revealing of her techniques, since this is what she does for a living).

Yes, I know… I still need to post my pics from Anime Boston of my Nina Chimera and I should post up the progress pics for it (not many and for the other fursuit projects – Naruto’s 2 tailed beast Nibi no Nekomata and a pokemon – Blaziken). Need to tweek Nina as well. Still getting cleaned up after the con and getting paperwork that I have due this week taken care of. :glasses:

Wow, Thats an Ambitious. I wish you luck!

The links that siberika and drag0n provided are great.

For Skin… Vinyls and the like are not breathable and fairly stiff as well as they can be fairly uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. There are some lovely Faux Suede fabrics out there that do breathe and look great if they are airbrushed or painted. They are also a bit cheaper and have some stretch unlike most of the good vinyls I’ve seen out there. For the Head and Claws a good option is to use the Pink insulating Styrofoam (also comes in blue). It’s very lightweight, rigid, durable, relatively inexpensive and sands and carves beautifully with basic tools you probably already have (however is very messy and has a few quirks). You can either just coat and paint it or you can give it a skim of apoxie sculpt. I use this stuff all the time for Stage Props and stuff. I can’t say I’ve ever found a tutorial on the web fro working with the pink styro so if you (or anyone) are interested in more info about using it and it’s quirks or have any questions you can PM me 🙂

As for eyes… maybe Dreaming Tree could help you out? A feathered Dino would be fun but conceivably more work (those feathers…) and as for coloring, use your imagination! I’ve seen Raptors of all sorts in a variety of colors… even have a model of one that has tiger stripes 🙂

FYI (dino-geek speaking ;p )
Raptors are part of the Dromeosaur family. The Raptors used in the Jurassic Park movies and shown there are actually closer to being Deinonychus. They used the Velociraptor name because it sounded better. Real Velociraptors are only about the size of a large dog and have a longer narrower snout. That bit of info might help you out when looking for references 🙂

Monoyasha is AWESOME… personally, I think Beastcub is sort of rude. The few times I have talked to her she’s been very short with me and wanted a down payment before she would even give me a quote. I know she is usually booked solid so it probably comes with the territory, but I just thought it was sort of arrogant.

Oh her blogs she seems like someone I’d be friends with. Great personality and I know she does a lot for animals as well, but as far as business, yah… no thanks. Beastcub would charge at least $2000 if not more like $2500 with her rates.

Monoyasha is most def the better choice and I have personal experience with her too. She’s VERY professional and corteous ^_^ She made my Kyuubi head and I’m also commissioning the bone suit add on thru her in a few months.

Her Toothless Quad suit is EPIC!!! Her prices are reasonable too and I thin kshe would probably find it very interesting to do a Raptor.

Wow… those are NICE! *wants*

A down payment BEFORE getting a quote? I guess unless you aren’t concerned about money and are dead set on her as a commissioner, but that doesn’t sound like a sound business practice.

Griffinlover – If Monoyasha is offering you a slot and you’d rather have someone who is more familiar with that type of costuming make it for you, go for it! I’ve bought foot pads and noses from Monoyasha before and she is absolutely awesome to deal with. Drag0n’s kyuubi head is awesome (I still don’t know how she managed to make the foamies do that without ripping… maybe I need to play with it more. If I really don’t like how my Nibi head comes out, I’ll end up commissioning her for it. She has a werewolf costume that I think she still has for sale that, if the muzzle wasn’t so narrow looking (I like how Qarrezel shapes her wolf face/muzzles – thinking old school World of Darkness, since I’d double the wolf as a Garou/Worgen cosplay) and the coloring was a bit different to fit either of my gaming characters, I’d probably jump on getting it.