Some of my costume favorites

The Coat: Step One

First: Finding the coat



Now if you have the money you can get one made (1st Above), or find one from Cosplay (2nd Above: Note, not actually a Gambit trench) for $100 or more. But the best thing to do is to just look around for one online or in stores. You could probably get a good deal on ebay or google shopping and maybe you could find one at a store for less than the above or professionally made coats but your best bet is to do what I did and go to a bunch of Savers and Salvos in search of a great trench for a great deal. They usually have older styles anyways which works much better for Gambit. I found an amazing leather trench coat for only $20 at Savers that fits me perfectly and looks just like Remy's. You may have to alter it a bit, like I had to tighten it in the back and spray paint it brown, but it will be worth the small amount of work.

Also you might be able to ask around and get one from someone you know for less. Who knows!

Remy Funnies

Just some interesting versions of Remy I found, haha.

The Boots: Step Two

Second: Finding/spraying/making the knee pads

So for the knee pads I found some nice baseball shinguards. I had to cut some foam off of the top of the knee pad and then I spray painted it silver. Next I cut out two triangular pieces of foam and stuck them onto the knees, also I spray painted them silver. Stay tuned for step three.

The Boots: Step One

First: Find/spray the boots

Well I'm obviously going for his metallic boot look. First things first, you need the base of your entire piece. This would be just the boot itself. You want something tight around your foot that goes above your ankle and something without heels. It doesn't matter the color, you can just spray paint it silver like I did. If you have to get womens boots just make sure they look alright like mine. I couldn't find any any men's boots that lloked good and fit so I went with this which I am really happy with. Go with whatever look you want.

The Gloves

Finding a good pair of gloves can be hard. Luckily my dad still had his old motorcycle gloves from when he was a teenager. Of course I am going with the Uncanny X-Men: Issue 266 style when Gambit had the open fingered gloves rather than the more comonly known two finger opened gloves. If you don't have a pair you might be able to find some, just ask your friends and neighbors. A lot of newer gloves have logos on them that are hard to get off and might not be as good of quality as these. If worse comes to worst then just find a nice pair online somewear, I'm sure they aren't too expensive.

Real Quick!!!

A great place to shop for any costume pieces would be at Salvation Army or Savers. They both have great deals. Salvo has the better price but you are more likely to find what you want at Savers. If you can't find what you want try getting the best deals possible online.

http://www.savers.com/

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf

Face Mask: Step Two

Second: Cutting out the front/ears

Once you have the mask you can begin to shape it. Find a picture of Gambit you like and with chalk, while wearing the mask, draw the outline of what you want the shape to be. The best way to cut it out is with some type exacto knife or blade. The way I did it was I folded the mask in half and cut along the lines so that both sides would be even. You could just as easily use sissors though, but it might not be as exact. Once you have the shape you should tighten it to how you want it to look on your face. Then add some more velcro so you can make it as tight as you wanted. After this you can put it on and make a stencil for your ear holes. They should be a little smaller that your entire ear. Place the stencil where your ear is and fill it in with chalk. Cut out the ears and you have your face mask.

Face Mask: Step One

First: Finding a mask.

This cost about nine to fifteen dollars, I can't remember the shipping price, and you can find one you like at http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/

Preperations

Character Traits

Since August of this summer I have been growing out my hair, which I'm going to get cut in Remy's hair style, from his first appearance in the Uncanny X-Men: Issue # 266, a couple days vefore the project. I am already athletic but I am stretching to work on my flexibility and practicing hand stands to to work on my balance. I've been watching videos online for tips on bostaff techniques. I have learned enough moves to come across as "good" at least. I have read a lot of the comics which I borrowed from one of my friend who is a Gambit fanatic. I have recieved a lot of great information from lediableblanc.com as well. I've been working a lot on the accent. Lediableblanc helped me out with some terms, inflections, and etc. as well as this sight, http://louisianacajunslang.com/language.html. I've been listening to a lot of examples of the dialect. My friend Allison, who is in my acting class, is actually from Louisiana and she taught me a couple French phrases. I also took three years of French in Middle School, so... Unfortunately I won't be able to do the eyes, my parents won't let me get contacts. They think it will ruin my eyes and that it isn't worth it... it stinks but whatever. Llastly, I've been working on throwing cards and card tricks, which aren't that hard.

Costume Pieces

Trench Coat: I found a nice leather trench coat at Savers for $20. I have to tighten it in the back and spray paint it brown.

Pants: I have spandex which I will spray paint pink stripes on the sides.

Shirt: I found an tight, athletic, sleevless shirt that I am spray painting pink. A long sleeve black shirt underneath for the arms.

Gloves: I am using my Dad's motorcycle gloves which are fingerless.

Boots: I found some boots that go half way up my leg which I spray painted silver, some baseball knee pads/shin guards chich I also spray painted silver. I cut foam and sprayed it for the triangle emblem on the knee pad. I am cutting foam strips to wrap around the boots (velcroed in the back) and around the shin gaurds to make the whole piece look like full knee length boot.

Face Mask: I got a neoprene, motorcycle face mask with an open head. I still need to cut the front out and the ears.

I will have pictures of everything soon. : )

The Project

So I take an acting class at my high school. I am in SPS Honors (Specialized Performance Studies) and we are doing a fictional character project. So basically everyone got to pick a character from literarture and on April 13th we will walk around our school for a day as this person/creature completely in costume and character. Of course Remy LeBeau (Gambit) isn't really from literature but I convinced my acting teacher to let me do it because technically it is a "novel", a graphic one haha, he isn't the most well known X-Men character and he would be a difficult character to be physically, vocally and mentally. So he let me do it.

Anyways, to be more specific about the project, we have to read everything (or almost everything) that the character has been in. We do as much research as possible. Then we do presentations, explaining how we will play the character and from what point in time and so on and so forth. Next we do interviews as the character. So pretty much eight minutes of being asked questions by the class and the director as Gambit. Then we move on to private moments. This is a moment in time in which we are doing something that if someone walked in on us we would completely stop what we were doing. Finally, on April 13th we will walk around the school completely dressed as our character and acting like our character without breaking.

Also for thirty minutes every day prior to the date of the project we have to act as the character. After the thirty minutes we make a journel about what we felt and learned about our character. It helps us explore the world through their eyes and get a feel for how they would act in an every day situation.

So that's what I am doing. I just thought it would be cool to share what I am doing with everyone.

I will keep everyone updated with text, pictures and audio.