How to Make a Marvel "Doom 2099" Costume

I was commissioned to make a full Doom 2099 cosplay suit from Marvel comics. I really enjoy making suits of lesser seen cosplays, so i was down for the challenge. This build was a bit challenging with those giant shoulder pads and the addition of installing a voice box and speaker into the suit. Let's get started! Some of these steps mights be out of order as I was hoping around to different pieces during this build.

You will need the following materials and tools to make this suit in the way that i did.

1. Black 4-way stretch lycra fabric for the body suit
2. red fabric for the cape/ hood
3. various thicknesses of foam
4. red fairly lights
5. worbla
6. mini black buckles
7. masking tape
8. roll of paper for making templates
9. dremel
10. contact cement
11. sharpies
12. duct tape
13. exacto/utility knives
14. e6000 glue
15. red acetate
16. chalk to draw on fabric
17. sewing machine
18. tape measure
19. silver spray paint
20. hot glue/hot glue gun
21. heat gun
22. thick gauge wire
23. rare earth magnets
24. metallice black paint
25. 2 metal yard sticks (one for use, one to use within the suit)
26. black elastic
27. black straps
28. plastidip
29. spray paint
30. wood glue
31. dap Caulk
32. plastic wrap
33. zippers
34. black boots that will be permanently altered. i sometimes just go to the thrift store for these.
35. 1 black button
36. matte clear coat spray

1. With any suit I make, especially for epic cosplay suits, I look up a ton of references. I check out the source material (in this case comic books). check out movies, shows, action figures, models, and others' attempts to create this cosplay. I typically combine many of the elements together while also throwing in some of my own flair.
2. Since i purchased a drawing program, i also draw it out for myself and the client so that i can make sure we're on the same page. It also helps me with visualizing/brain storming how i will create each piece.

Optional: This step is not necessary, but it is helpful to have if you plan on working on the suit without the person present. I purchase a a pair of cheap clothes from the thrift store that will be destroyed.

1. have the person wear the clothes. make sure they are a long sleeve shirt and long pants.
2. take your duct tape and start taping them like a mummy. you will want to lay down many many many strips of duct tape instead of just wrapping them in one endless piece. The reason you do NOT want to do this is because it will get tighter and tighter on the person if you do it this way and can cut off circulation. So go with multiple short strips.
3. once they are completely covered, you will carefully cut the duct tape suit off them.
4. i then take that duct tape suit and throw it on my PVC mannequin and fill it with news paper.
5. Seal the seams back up and you should have a mannequin that is relatively the size of the person. I named this mannequin "Arthur"

here is a more detailed explanation of my mannequin process.

Optional: If you don't know how to sew, you can also purchase a black body suit somewhere and a black balaclava.. I like making my own now as I'm in control of a few more factors such as the fabric, perfect sizing, etc.

Glove

1. have the person spread out their hand on a piece of paper. You will trace the person's hand, just like when you made turkey hand drawings in kindergarten.
2. Once complete, you want to add an extra 1/4 border to the whole hand drawing. This 1/4 extra is your seam allowance when you sew this together. basically, your picture should look like a swollen hand with the seam allowance.. (pic 1)
3. cut out your paper template and grab your black fabric. Position the hand in the correct direction on the correct side of the fabric. Sometimes, fabrics have a different shine or texture on side than the other. Also, stretch fabric sometimes stretches better in one direction than the other. So if that is the case, you need to think this out - You need to the glove to stretch width-wise to accommodate the girth of your hand. you dont need the glove to stretch length wise to accommodate your fingers.(pic 2)
4. use your fabric chalk to draw out your template and then cut your 4 pieces out.
5. you can use needles or clips to keep everything together as you sew two pieces together. (pic 3)
6. Repeat twice and you should have 2 gloves. (pic 4)

Shirt/pants

1. For your shirt and pants, i usually just use an existing tshirt/ pants that fits them as a template. things like thermals are a great template to use.
2. measure the actual shirt and then transfer that measurement to the paper
3. fold the paper in half, lay the shirt on top and sketch it out.
4. add 1/4 of an inch along the entire border for your seam allowance
5. open up the paper and you should have a symmetrical paper template.
6. Use your chalk to transfer the paper template onto the fabric.
7. cut out your 2 pieces and sew together
8. Repeat this process for the arms and legs as well.

Balaclava (pic from another project, but premise is the same)

1. I had some spare cowls from other costumes, so i used it as a template to create a paper template. Don't forget to add a little bit of seam allowance
2. Use your chalk and draw it directly onto the fabric
3. Cut out your cowl from your fabric. Remember you need to two pieces
4. You can pin both sides together if needed.
5. Sew both pieces and try it on

You can have the shirt and legs as two separate pieces, or you can sew them together to form a whole body suit. But, if you do sew them together, you need a zipper in the back for them to get into it.

1. grab your plastic wrap and start wrapping it around your neck (pic 1)
2. grab your duct tape and start creating strips around your neck (pic 2 + 3)
3. carefully cut off the duct tape template in the back.(pic 4)
4. draw your design on one half of the neck guard
5. chop up the neck piece according to your design.(pic 5)
6. transfer to foam(pic 6)
7. cut out all the pieces (pic 7)
8. use contact cement to attach all the pieces together (pic 8)
9. use a zipper to close the back together.

Shoes

1. Grab your boots and your masking tape.
2. You will take masking tape and cover your entire boot except the sole of the boot.
3. take a sharpie and start outline all the little segments of the boot. if there are none, this is where you can become creative and design the "armor" of your boot.
4. once your template is drawn on the boot, use an exacto knife and carefully cut out each masking tape piece and lay it on paper. it might even be helpful to number them if there are many pieces. (pic 1)
5. from there, you will cut out all those paper pieces and those are now your paper templates
6. transfer the templates to foam and cut out each piece. You might want to take a dremel to the edges. (pic 2)
7. I tend to leave the front of the shoe as one whole piece (pic 3).
8. repeat this process 2x for both boots.
9. contact cement each piece onto the boot at this time.

1. Measure the the length of your shin from under the kneecap to a little past your ankle
2. transfer the measurement onto paper and cut out the rectangle
3. Mark where the top of your foot is on the drawing.
4. fold the paper in half vertically, and start drawing out your design.
5. cut out the paper design and transfer to foam.
6. Cut out the foam.
7. For this cosplay, i wanted to give some segments to the armor in order to create some dimension. So, i had a base shin guard and i added segments from top to bottom. I dremeled the tops and bottoms of each segment so that it created a little indentation versus having just a flat design.
8. contact cement all of the segments down. This is now your "Front shin guard"
9. I then take another piece of foam and sandwich my calf between the front shin guard with this "back shin guard". I use a sharpie to mark where everything will line up.
10. once the markings are there and my leg is out, I contact cement the front and back shin guards together. I then cut a slit all the way down the back to get it on my calf.
11. i use e6000 and glue down a bunch of mini buckles down from top to bottom. (pic is from different project but premise is the same)

1. For your knees, first measure how tall and wide you need them to be
2. transfer the measurement onto paper.
3. Fold the paper in half and draw out your design
4. cut out your design from paper (pic 1). For my design, i know i wanted these circular caps on either end, so i just needed to draw where they were going to be located.
5. transfer your design to foam and cut out. (pic 2)

1. get your measuring tape and measure from the top of the shoulder to the waist line.
2. transfer to paper, fold paper in half vertically and draw in your design (pic 1). also measure where the armpit is and mark that in place on your design as well
3. Open up your paper design (which should give you a symmetrical shape) and then transfer it to foam
4. draw in the details on the foam piece. (pic 2)
5. For this particular build, this suit has abs underneath some side armor. So, cut out the very center where the abs will be located. (pic 3)
6. turn it over and draw in where those abs should be.(pic 4)
7. now using your exacto knife, carefulyl carve out the shape of each ab. You are essentially creating a channel around each ab. (pic 5)
8. get your heat gun and apply heat to the ab area.
9. while still warm, grab something round and hard like a marble or a golf ball and press it into the warm softened foam to push it out. Do this for each ab. (pic 6 +7). You can even fill the channels with hot glue once formed to help it retain it's shape a bit better.
10. glue that center back into the original space, but make it so the sides of the stomach area overlap the newly formed ab section (pic 8)
11. grab some thicker foam and create and glue in the pecs
12. i used another later of foam on top of the pecs as designated by the design. (pic 9)
13. you can cut in your details with an exacto knife and apply heat to the line to open them up. You are not trying to cut through the foam, but just rather "score" it.
14. add the collar bone details.
15. create your collar and glue that in as well (pic 13+14)

1. Measure from the elbow to the wrist, but you are going to have to guess the overall circumfrence of the forearm guantlet. Doom has some ridiculously giant forearm guantlets, so just go big.
2. transfer the measurements to paper, fold in half vertically to create symmetry, and draw in your design (pic 1)
3. transfer to foam and use contact cement to glue the recessed area in. (pic 2-7)
4. use paper to draw out your template for the prongs that stick out of the guantlets.
5. Draw onto foam and cut out pieces. I had to glue three stacks together to get the desired thickness i wanted. (pic 8-9)
6. use your exacto knife to cut in the details. use your heat gun to open up the lines you cut in. (pic 10-11))
7. contact cement your prongs into the guantlets (pic 12)

some of these pictures are not from this specific build, but the premise is the same. Doom's suit did not have anything noticably special about his biceps, so this is where you get to take some liberties with the design.

1. measure out your bicep and cut a strip of paper that will wrap around your arm.
2. Once you have the measurement down, begin to draw in your design (pic 1)
3. create all your EVA pieces from your paper templates (pic 2)
4. i made sure to add a front bicep piece (pic 3)
5. The seam is located on the inner bicep (pic 4)

This helmet was done in two stages. The first time i built this, i made the face too elongated. I eventually redid a few pieces to make things more proportional.

I had a space helmet laying around so i used it as a template. If you dont have one, you can create a template from different sites if you look around. You can also try typing in the work "pepakura" Here are a few places to check out templates.

JF custom on the RPF.

Xieng Prod

1. I got my mask details drawn out and the transferred them to paper design.
2. use your paper templates and transfer them to foam
3. start contact cementing everything together.
4. pics 1-5 are the first stage.. after a few weeks, i was realizing that the face was way too elongated.
5. i redid a few pieces to eventually get a better fit.
6. add on your embelishments.

Some of these pics are not from this build, but the premise is the same.

1. Use a thicker EVA for the shoulder as it will give you a more stocky look.
2. Use your paper template to cut the front and back of the shoulder pieces. (pic 1)
3. Use a heat gun to warm up the EVA and push it into a large bowl or over a large ball to create a dome shape to the pieces.
4. cut a wide EVA strip for the middle part of the shoulder (pic 2)
5. Contact cement these 3 pieces together (pic 3)
6. i created an "under ledge" which is essentially just a wide strip
7. Glue ledge in place on the inside of shoulder(pic 4 -7)
8. now you can add your details with craft foam and grooves by using an exacto knife and heat gun (pic 8)

The belt is in two stages: a Base, and the top layer

Base Layer

1. This is a very simple process. Take a long strip of foam and create a belt. I sometimes will glue fabric or even straps to the inside of the belt so that the foam will not stretch over time.Remember where you want to have the buckle. i usually have mine towards my back hip so it is easy to open, and not messing with anything of the butt piece.
2. create a long triangle for the crotch piece.
3. Contact cement it to the belt.
4. Take the measurements you need for your butt, and transfer to paper. Draw in your design and cut it out.
5. Transfer to foam.
6. similar to the ab section, i cut out a slight groove in the middle on the inside of the piece to give a slight indentation of a butt crack.i fill the groove with hot gloe to help it retain its shape.
7. I heat the butt piece with a heating gun and press against a bowl to give it more of a curve.
8. attach the belt to the butt piece.
9. I use a piece of thin elastic to connect the tip of the crotch triange to the bottom center of the butt piece. this allows the pieces to sit against the pelvis instead of flairing out.
10. You may need to make a few adjustments with sizing.

Detail Layer

1. Now that the base is done, you can start creating the detail later. Doom has a LARGE belt, so i used thick EVA foam for this part.
2. measure length and width of the needed belt and transfer to paper. cut out and transfer to foam. (pic 5)
3. Using a piece of paper as the template, design the giant D and glue in place(pics 6 +7)
4. glue in some trim along the top and bottom of the giant belt
5. for splikes, i stacked several thick pieces of foam together and used my dremel to sand them down into a cone shape (pic 8)
6. glue them onto the belt (pic 9)

Some of these pics are not of this build, but the premise is the same

1. now that you have your belt and your shins/ knees done, you should be able to measure the space for your thighs
2. I honestly like to just take some masking tape and put it directly on the front of the thigh while the person is wearing the body suit.
3. I then draw the relative shape that i need and that is now my masking tape template.
4. transfer that tape to paper, cut out, and now that is your paper template to use for the foam
5. cut out the shape on the foam (pic 1)
6. use your heat gun to warm and soften that foam to wrap it around your thigh.
7. I do the same process of masking tape the back of the thigh to get the back piece (pic 2)
8. once i have both front and back piece of thigh, i glue them together (pic 3)
9. front there, you can add any details you want.

Just FY- The shoulder armor was quite the challenge to tackle.

1. You will need to measure how long and how wide you want your shoulder pads to be.
2. you will then need to divide that area into 5 strips wide, plus two small chest pieces.
3. What i did was i first made a mock up to see spacing.. I just glued a bunch of random strips together (pic 1-4)
4. once you have a solidified plan, start cutting out all your strips (pic 5)
5. start to layer them(pic 6-8). You need to glue and curve the strips simultaneously. i dont think it will work if you glue them while they are flat and then try to bend it.
6. got two square patches onto the chest, which will be used to glue in the armor later one. (pic 9)
7. for extra rigidity, i grabbed some thick gauge wire and bent it into a C shape. (pic 11-12)
8. glue the wire in place underneath the shoulder armor (pic 12)

Spikes

1. The spikes are like a tiered cake. I used 3 layers of foam per spike.
2. cut circles from foam, going from large to small and glue them on top of each other.
3. use your dremel or even sander to get them into a cone shape
4. Glue them onto the tops of the shoulder armor
5. cover one spike with masking tape and remove so that it is relatively the shape of a fan. transfer it to worbla and cut out your pieces
6. cover each spike in worbla, so this will prevent them from being bent.

DO NOT glue these shoulder armor pieces down yet.

Hood

1. spread out your fabric on the floor. make sure you are aware which side you are going to be using as they can look different
2. create a paper template. I just winged it. You can see my relative shape on pic 2.
3. cut out and sew together.

Cape

1. take your metal yardstick and see how wide you measure with the shoulder armor on. this should be as wide as the most outter strips on your armor.
2. Chop the metal yardstick down if needed. this yardstick is to provide support to your cape.
3. take your yardstick and create a tube from the fabric (pic 3)
4. measure how long and wide you want your cape
5. cut out the fabric and attach it to the fabric around your metal yardstick. (pic 4)
6. i created straps from the fabric, and sewed the male end of the mini buckles to them, and onto the fabric of the yardstick (pic 5-7)
7. i used e6000 glue and glued the female end of the buckles to the back of the suit. (pic 8 + 9)

Back armor

1. I created 4 more slots of armor that were removable. used magnets to keep them in place. They dont serve any purpose aside from covering up the exposed buckles (pic 10 + 11)
2. the process is the same as the previous steps for the shoulder armor

Shoulder cape

1. measure and cut your fabric to the desired length. I believe i just used a square shape for mine
2. put a button hole in a corner of the fabric
3. secure the button to the shoulder armor with something that will not break such as wire..

1. wrap your hand in masking tape including your fingers.
2. use a sharpie to draw all the segments wanted.. I usually use a hand base, and then 3 pieces per finger, 2 for your thumb
3. carefully cut off the masking tape and transfer to foam (pic 1-3).
4. cut out and glue into the shapes needed.
5. once you have your base assembled, you can start adding your details.

DO NOT glue these in yet.

Prep

1. Once everything is built, it's time to caulk all the adjoining pieces. Basically, use the caulk to fill in any gaps, unwanted spaces, etc. Also, if you layered any foam on top of each other, you should put caulk around the edges.
2. I masking tape my buckles, button, and magnets to prevent them from being gunky.. i think that its better to have a clean look than trying to paint over them.
3. Next task is to seal it. If it is foam, i recommend plastidip as it allows for flexibility without cracking of paint. However, if you have pieces that will not be moving, bending, or squishing, i recommend modge podge.

Painting

1. Once dry, I begin with painting all my pieces. i first hand painted a plain black acrylic paint on the black pieces
2. I then used a metallic black over the black areas
3. I used some silver to create some accents in the armor and break up the chunky black.
4. I used a silver spray paint for all silver parts. If it's too bright, you can add a wash of black watered down paint over it and then immediately wipe off to help darken the silver.
5. Once all pieces are painted, i apply a clear matte coat spray. at most, i would use a satin.. i dont like using gloss as i find it to be sticky once dry.

Assembly

1. Now that everything is painted and sealed, it's time for assemble.
2. remove all the masking tape from the buckles.
3. You can glue in your shoe armor pieces.
4. I attach the thigh armor to the belt with the use of elastic
5. for the hands, the only part that needs to be glued in are the finger tips. everything else can stay loose.
6. glue in the hood inside the collar
7. glue in the shoulder armor onto those chest pieces.
8. glue red acetate to the eye slots of the mask
9. use elastic to attach the bicep pieces to the shoulder pieces.
10. use elastic to attach the shoulder pieces to the chest piece.
11. IF you really wanted to for storage purposes, you could use gator clips to make the thigh and arm pieces detachable.

I had to outsource someone to make the voice modulator. But, i got some clear plexiglass and built a box around it. I housed it between the shouldblade of the back as the cape would cover it. Furthermore, i got a small speaker and housed it to the belt which was still covered by the Cape.

The microphone was glued inside the mask and disconnects from the main modulator box. the wires were hidding within the inside of the suit.

For the eyes, i ran some red fairly lights around each eye socket and made a little holding area inside the mask.

That should be it for this cosplay. It was a fun build and stretched some creative muscle. I think this suit would look great if there was a way to sit on some type of thrown or in some medieval background.

If i could do it again, i would see if there were smaller speakers that could be used and housed in a different location. Perhaps under the shoulder armor.

Anyways, enjoy!!