Well, it is time once again to plan my Halloween costume. This year I was inspired by one of the year’s best movies (in my opinion), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or more specifically Yondu and his prototype fin.
After an extensive Google and Amazon search I discovered that buying a full Yondu costume is totally out of reach for me, cost wise. Instead I latched onto possibly the funniest scene in the entire movie where Star Lord tells Yondu that he looks like Mary Poppins, so this year “I’m Mary Poppins, y’all”. I will be Yondu in a Mary Poppins dress.
Planning the fin
Google searches gave me some good reference material to use in planning the project. I collected a small handful of images. Both sides of the fin in the movie appear to be symmetrical so I only need to make templates for one side, then flip them over for the other side.
Before I was able to start making templates, I need to know the shape of my head where the fin will rest. I pulled out some card stock and, after cutting out a small curve to start, I worked it into my hair and took a Sharpie and traced the profile of my scalp. I plan on shaving my head for this costume so I need to get it as close to my exact profile as possible.
“Shaving your head?” you may be screaming at this point. Yes, shave my head. I intend to wear this all day at work for our Halloween party so it not only needs to stay on my head. If I were to use a bald cap, I would sweat all day long and it would be very uncomfortable, also the fin would flop side to side as I move around throughout the day.
Now that I have a cutout template of my head, I need to get as close to the actual prop dimensions as possible. I found a photo of Michael Rooker in full Yondu costume from Comic-Con where his entire body is visible. The shot is as close to a perfectly level shot as I could find. Mr. Rooker is 5’10” which also happens to be my height so I knew that if I just did a little math, I would know the right scale to use when enlarging all of the photos that I have.
In the Comic-Con photo, Mr. Rooker is about 150 millimeters tall, this is a rough estimate since he is wearing boots, but I am okay with it. 5’10” is 1,778 in millimeters. To get the scale, you divide 1,778 by 150 to get 11.85. This is my scale. Now I need to figure out the size of Mr. Rooker’s head. Going back to the photo his head is about 20 millimeters tall so in real life it is about 237 millimeters (20 x 11.85). This is a great starting point. Now I applied this math to a black and white profile photo of Yondu and enlarged it so that he head is 237 millimeters tall. With the fin. The dimensions of the photo is 11 x 8.389 inches, perfect for printing on a single sheet of paper.
Using the cut template that I made of my head, I traced my scalp profile onto the enlarged photo and then cut out the fin photo so that it would fit my head. Because the paper that I printed the fin on is thin, I traced the cutout onto card stock and cut that out. The card stock cut out fit perfectly. Now I have a template with which to cut out the base plate.
The fin is made of layers, the core appears to be 1/4 inch and each layer appears to be 1/8 and 1/4 inch. I glued the printed fin onto card stock and then cut out each section.
