Keira's Vocabulary Parade Rocket Costume...

[luke strawwalker]

Thought I'd share this...

Keira has a "Vocabulary Parade" at her school every year around this time. Usually we try to overlap her Halloween costume into doing double duty as her Vocabulary Parade costume. This year the teacher told us the word needed to be "science related". Ok, since Keira intends to be an "alien kitty" for Halloween, that sorta eliminated the double duty thing...

SO, after a bit of head scratching, we came up with something "science related". Nothing says "science" as much as a ROCKET does, wouldn't yall say?? SO, we decided on a "rocket costume".

After a few hours work on an old white band T-shirt of my sisters turned inside out so it's "all white", this is what we came up with. I came up with the idea for the hat myself. We colored the T-shirt with Fat Sharpie Markers, did the roll pattern and lettering and added the details on the S-IVB, and did the flags, and drew on the rocket nozzles with a Silver Sharpie. She wears her red velvet pants underneath for "fire" coming out of the rocket nozzles. Her softball visor holds a paper "capsule" rolled from posterboard using the Payload Bay.com transition sizing tool, and using a bit of scrap BT-50 and another mini transition to cover the soda straw tower legs, which are swiped straws from McDonald's. The tower is topped by an old Alpha III nosecone, and the tower given a coat of white spray paint. The capsule attaches to the visor using some yarn made into Estes "teabag" shock cord mounts glued inside the rim of the capsule, to which the tower legs and the teabags are stapled for extra strength.

She also wanted "Apollo 13" put on each sleeve and I decided to add the NASA meatball to each sleeve just to jazz it up a bit...

Gotta print off a "ROCKET" sign (her vocabulary word) for her to carry in the "parade" around the school...

Hope yall enjoy! Later! OL JR

 

[stealth6]

Let me be the first to say how WAY cool that is.

Not least of which because you did it all with recycled/found bits - very low tech but with excellent results - heck, you even used an old t-shirt inside out! Again, way cool.

She's got good people for parents - hope she gets lots of props for her costume.

s6

 

[JAL3]

But is she stable?

Looks Great!

 

[T-Rex]

Awesome, Dude!

 

[luke strawwalker]

Thanks!

As for stability... well, MY first thought was to go "Saturn IB" on it and have her wear white leggings... and paint one leg black with sharpie markers, with the red "UNITED STATES" going down a block left white with the red letters in there, and just the red lettered "UNITED STATES" going down the other leg. (BOY am I glad I didn't do THAT-- coloring the T-shirt with fat-tip sharpies took about 4.5 hours!!! Doing a pair of leggings too would have probably added another 2.5 hours to that!) The idea was, the "interstage" (stripes) would have been at tummy/waist level and the leggings would represent the first stage tanks... but then I'd need a pair of black and a pair of white terry cloth wristbands (sweatbands) and then mismatch them to the opposite color leggings, and staple/glue/tape some mini-cardboard "fins" to the sweatbands on her ankles... Top it off with her red "twinkle toes" shoes (the red glitter loafers she likes-- sorta like Dorothy in "Wizard of Oz"... )

Betty came up with the idea of the red pants doubling as "rocket flames" and I liked that idea, so I shortened up the "rocket" to just the T-shirt and put nozzles at the bottom of it where her legs come out from under the shirt. She's got all 8 nozzles of the Saturn IB, but it's sorta a "stylized" Saturn IB, because I didn't have the time or ink (or energy) to do the entire tank cluster for the first stage... so she gets a striped thrust structure with stringers right above her "engines" and a broad kerosene tank, then an "intertank" with corrugations, and the LOX tank with the "UNITED STATES" and flags ala Saturn V, and then the interstage and S-IVB above it with all the greebles, and the black IU ring above it. Should have probably gone narrower on it and sorta like a black ring around the neckband of the shirt tapering out to the sleeves, but I was afraid it wouldn't look right... but I think it would have looked better when it was on her... The black IU is too wide as-is. She even has little red "umbilicals" (though she had to quiz me what they were for).

The shirt looked a lot different on the cardboard. We cut a chunk out of an old TV box and pulled the shirt over it to do all the graphics. That way it was basically the same as drawing it on paper-- used a yardstick and the Sharpies and measured out the roll pattern (7 inches wide on each stripe since the shirt was stretched out to 28 inches wide on the cardboard, so she has a fully accurate 4 black bar 4 white bar roll pattern!) The black rings at the top of the roll pattern and for the "thrust structure" roll pattern are the width of the yardstick-- the roll pattern on the interstage is 3 inches below the yardstick-width black band... everything else was just sketched by hand (used the yardstick to keep the hand-lettered writing straight and cut a square of cardboard to trace around to do the flags, complete with 12 stars each (hey, that's 48 in all, close enough-- those other two don't even really count do they?? LOL)

She got a kick out of it... Hope it's a hit tomorrow at school... and she REALLY surprised me asking for the word "Apollo" on it, and I had to talk her out of putting it on the torso of the shirt, finally she accepted it being put on the sleeves, but then she wanted "Apollo 13" on it... She liked the NASA meatballs I added too... Had to look up in ROTW to get the proportions of it right...

Later! OL JR

 

[JAL3]

It sounds like Keira is stable...there may be some doubts about her dad though...

Nice Job!

 

[luke strawwalker]

It sounds like Keira is stable...there may be some doubts about her dad though...

Nice Job!

Hehehe... Betty and Keira might well agree with you... OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Let me be the first to say how WAY cool that is.

Not least of which because you did it all with recycled/found bits - very low tech but with excellent results - heck, you even used an old t-shirt inside out! Again, way cool.

She's got good people for parents - hope she gets lots of props for her costume.

s6

hehehe... thanks...

Maybe next year I'll add a couple BT-80 SRB's under each arm and send her as an SLS...

LOL :lol::roll::lol:

Later! OL JR

 

[JPVegh]

I don't use this word too often but... CUTE!

 

[GregGleason]

That's pretty cool JR!

She's definitely "Go For Launch!"

Greg

 

[troj]

Cool, JR, very creative!

As for stable....she may be, now, but we'll ask again when she's about 14.

-Kevin

 

[WillMarchant]

Most triumphant costume!

But how can "alien kitty" not be science related?

 

[Micromeister]

That is just TOO Cool Luke! Great work, She should have a great time in the parade.

 

[hcmbanjo]

Nice work Keira!
It's always good to see a well made costume, something other than some unimaginative store bought stuff.

Thanks for posting the pics!

 

[new2hpr]

That is beyond awesome! Excellent detail work, and it's great that your daughter is so science and rocket inclined.

I've spent the past week doing costumes for my kids (daughters as butterfly and gecko, and my son as Steve from Minecraft). You can guess which one took all the time.:eyeroll:

-Ken

 

[plastic_gorilla]

What kind of motor you got in there?

 

[luke strawwalker]

What kind of motor you got in there?

A tricycle motor... LOL

Later! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Most triumphant costume!

But how can "alien kitty" not be science related?

I dunno where she even came up with the idea for an "alien kitty"... guess I watch too much 'science channel'. BUT, that's what she's just been SET to be for Halloween for MONTHS already.

I figured it would be too far out for the vocabulary parade... everybody would be "what's that??" and holding a sign saying "alien kitty" doesn't exactly fit with the vocabulary word list ideas...

So, voila... a "rocket"...

Later! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Cool, JR, very creative!

As for stable....she may be, now, but we'll ask again when she's about 14.

-Kevin

That's what the wife says too...

Thanks for the kind words everybody...

Later! OL JR

 

[WillMarchant]

Fair enough, she ended up with a great outfit! I did a search for "alien kitty" on cafepress.com to see what turned up. The usual mixed bag of stuff...

I dunno where she even came up with the idea for an "alien kitty"... guess I watch too much 'science channel'. BUT, that's what she's just been SET to be for Halloween for MONTHS already.

I figured it would be too far out for the vocabulary parade... everybody would be "what's that??" and holding a sign saying "alien kitty" doesn't exactly fit with the vocabulary word list ideas...

So, voila... a "rocket"...

Later! OL JR

 

[[POW]Eagle159]

But is she stable?

Looks Great!

Nope, Needs nose weight! :wink:

That is beyond awesome! Excellent detail work, and it's great that your daughter is so science and rocket inclined.

I've spent the past week doing costumes for my kids (daughters as butterfly and gecko, and my son as Steve from Minecraft). You can guess which one took all the time.:eyeroll:

-Ken

Minecraft is awesome....Steve HAD to take all the time, Right? All the boxes too.

 

[NJRick]

Luke,
a Saturn 1b costume??? that is AWESOME!!! good choice for a rocket!! She is adorable...just load up the shotgun Luke ....before you know it boys will be knocking at the door....(my daughter turns 21 this December....trust me...always good to keep that shotgun locked and loaded!!!) You guys did a great job with that costume!!

Rick