Harkness Shirt Found and Purchased

I did a little driving around town over the past few days. Went to four different stores looking for a navy or dark blue button down shirt with light buttons. For some reason, this combination is just really hard to find. Go figure. Today, after a frustrating stop at a place that specializes in men's clothing, I gave up and went online. Two links later and I found the PERFECT shirt. It's this one, from Old Navy.

If you need one for your own costume, you can get it here.

For reference, this is the costume I'm going for. It changes from episode to episode, season to season, so I really just had to pick one that I was happy with.

It looks like he's wearing some pretty straight forward dark grey slacks, which will be next on my list.

This is my primary reference picture. Navy shirt, grey suspenders, white buttons, white undershirt. No problem

Nose Cone Work, Metal Supplier Found, and More.

Where to begin! This will be a very meaty post, as a lot went on today, much of it relevant.

First off, I plopped my first coat of heavy build primer onto the nose cone today.

Here's the primer I'm using. I picked this up this morning in Fountain Valley.

I had a phone conversation with a buddy yesterday, and we were talking about materials he was unfamiliar with. I kept saying again and again, the thing you want to do is experiment on a smaller scale. Don't jump straight into the full sized project, start small. Well, with this nose cone, I'm following my own advice. This primer is new to me, as is its application and use. This is why I'm starting small, with the nose cone, to learn all about how to use this stuff. I learned a few valuable lessons today. First, I think the stuff dissolves plastic cups. I mixed up a tiny batch in a plastic dixie cup, and I think it started to eat through it. In the future, I will find a more suitable mixing cup. I'm also not really sure what the mixing ratio is between the paint and the activator, though my assumption was that even if you under-activated, it would cure eventually. I'll need to confirm if this is correct later on tonight, but we shall see. I also realized I don't know what to use as a solvent for this stuff, which I will need in order to clean out my air brush. Oh yeah, that was the other lesson I learned. I figured because I was painting a small piece, I could do it with an air brush rather than my paint gun. Bad call. It took forever, and I don't think I got it on very evenly. No worries at all, as this is purely a test bed. I'm not concerned about doing it wrong here, and that's by design.

Second, I got my portal gun yesterday. I already have a video up on youtube for it, though it's not particularly original. Here's a pic:

Bo The Welder sent me on a mission. We are in the middle of moving the engine, and Bo is going to build new engine mounts. To do that, we need some steel. Box steel, to be precise. I told Bo I knew about a metal store in Irvine, and I would check it out. I had never been there before, but I drove past it every day on my way to my old office. I always wanted to check it out, and this was my big chance.

Obviously, the place is called Industrial Metal Supply Company. Here's a link to their website.

I'm not going to lie, this place is amazing! They had so much great stuff, and the prices were really pretty low, compared to what I've seen online at places like McMaster Carr, which I totally love, mind you. I even asked one of the guys who worked there how they can offer such good prices, and he told me "volume".

They had TONS of remnants there, at wacky low prices. If I ever eventually get ahold of a mill and lathe, I will be buying ALL of my stock from here.

ooooo. Plasma Cutter. Only 1,000 bucks! Might have to get it.

I saw a nice little welding table for 100 bucks there that was practically calling my name. I almost got it right then and there, the only bummer is that I have no place to put it.

Totally unrelated, but this caught my eye at Target. People always ask me if I'm related. I am not.

Lastly, something of a costume update. I got my undershirts for my Captain Jack Harkness Costume. It's starting to look like this is going to be one of my main costumes for both SDCC and DC. It's coming together very nicely, and I think it will look great once it's all finished.

Captain Jack Harkness Holster Finished

Here is the finished holster. The dye didn't turn out perfectly, as it's a little uneven in places, but I think it will suit my purposes just fine. I'm happy with it.

For reference, here's the stuff I used to dye it and then seal it up. I got both of these at my local Tandy Leather store. The one in Costa Mesa, to be precise.

Harkness Vortex Manipulator In Transit

With all of the fun at the recent Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles, I have redirected some of my attention toward this piece, which has been on my list of things to make for some time now.



Some of the good folks over at the RPF drew up the parts and uploaded them to shapeways a while back, so it was just a matter of going there and ordering the parts. They should be in my hands in a few days.

Then comes the hard part, making the leather bits. I'm thinking I'm going to commission our man Kai Norman to make it for me. Depending on his schedule, I may end up taking a stab at it myself, now that I see how thin the leather involved is. There's a good chance my sewing machine would be able to handle that. We shall see.