In early 2021, I fell bass-ackwards into the Marvel fandom world. Not sure how it happened really but I just really got into Sebastian Stan and The Winter Soldier and it all fell apart from there. At the time, I had short brown hair and a proclivity for sleeping in my eyeliner, both of which made me think I was the perfect candidate for a Winter Soldier cosplayer. That summer I got to work on what would be my first EVA foam prop. I bought the arm pattern off of XiengProd on Etsy and constructed it using various spray paints and sealants. The pattern had to be adjusted slightly since I got them long arms but it was a really well done template. I added a long evening glove spray painted silver underneath both of the arm pieces.
Most of this costume was constructed from existing pieces. The mask is from Zaklabs on Etsy, the jacket, knives and utility belt are al from Amazon. Things like the kneepads, prop gun and pants are from the thrift store. And clock the first appearance of my “cosplay boots”. As seen in other cosplays such as showgirl Bill Cipher and Daredevil.
Some of the props that I made myself in this piece are the two back pieces and the prop gun. You can get a better look at the back pieces in the slideshow below. They were both made out of EVA foam. The prop gun was made from a NERF gun that I painted black and added a PVC barrel onto.
The Winter Soldier
Completed December 2021
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The Winter Soldier (AKA Bucky Barnes) is a character in the Marvel universe. He was originally a soldier for the US army and bestie to Steve Rogers (ahem Captain America). He was captured by Hydra during the war and brainwashed into The Winter Soldier. In universe, he has since been rehabilitated from his “programming”. Good for him and his mental health, bad for us who liked the long hair and mask.
Like I mentioned before, it was really my resemblance at the time that drew me to cosplaying as this guy…And also because I was obsessed with him. It was a fun cosplay experience for me. I did this cosplay in December of 2021 when the mask mandate was still in effect for COVID-19 so going as a character with a mask built in was actually super helpful! I got a lot of attention from a large number of Captain America cosplayers though, some of it was welcomed! Some! One of them was actually The Colorado Captain! He was very sweet and took a bunch of pictures with me.
See how this costume was made!
The morning that started it all! I looked in the mirror and went "oh god...wait a sec I can do something with this."
After I decided that I wanted to create a full Winter Soldier cosplay, I had to convince my friend, Katie, to go as my Captain America to C2E2 and used this as a visual aid. She said yes!
Laying out the arm pieces from the XienProd pattern I got from Etsy.
How the arm looked after contact cementing it together.
This is how the chrome spray paint looked after a few layers of plasti-dip and Worbla Flexbond. I designed the hand piece and glued it to the top of an elbow length evening glove.
The most stressful part of this whole build tbh. Painting the red star on the arm gave me so much unnecessary hell.
One afternoon while building this fit, I was driving around my neighborhood and found this near the trash on the side of a road. I picked it up and turned into Captain America's shield. Honestly I couldn't think of a more perfect piece to use it on! How appropriate, right?
The inner arm supports were made using discarded accordion leather pieces.
I killed my workout ball while making the front of the shield...dug that knife in a little too deep! But this method was one I found online that involved wrapping the shield in many layers of plastic wrap to a workout ball and then molding the piece to the ball with a heat gun. Worked out really well!
Progress of the shield
Captain America's back piece designed to hold the shield. Made from foam and again...used accordion leather pieces.
I designed the back piece for the Winter Soldier using very grainy set images I found online.
Here it is with the EVA foam.
And this is what it looked like completed!
Designing the knife holders in the back was also a hard task due to lack of reference photos.
A raw piece of EVA foam vs. one that I grinned and sanded the hell out of. Looking back, I'm sure there's an easier way to smooth out those pieces. Probably air-dry clay or EVA molding clay.
This is how the finished knife holster looked!
The goggles I ordered ended up messing with my hair too much so I ended up gluing them to a pair of old sunglasses that I had.
My very brightly colored NERF gun. I sanded down all the parts that said NERF and painted over them with Flexbond.
The gun was sprayed with about 3-4 layers of black Plasti-dip and that was really all it needed. The Plasti-dip is naturally matte so it made it look more realistic. I added on the longer barrel with a PVC pipe. It fit perfectly into the tip of the gun. And as per convention guidelines, I took orange ductape and wrapped it around the tip of the gun.
The jacket I ordered from Amazon needed some tailoring in the middle area. This was definitely meant for a man and so I took it in to fit my bod a little more.
And that's it! I got these boots from Amazon as well but they ended up being so painful, I only wore them for one day.
Katie and I at C2E2 in December of 2021!