Knight in Shining Armor Costume

Every year we have a Halloween party at our local tavern downtown. And every year I come up with mostly homemade costumes. One year I went as a fortune teller machine. Every year it is getting harder and harder to get creative. I actually started to plan my 2015 costume the day after Halloween 2014. I am not sure how the idea of a knights costume came to me, but I knew I wanted it to look as authentic as possible. My costume consist of mostly cardboard and duct tape. I gathered cardboard throughout the year. I also did research on what suit of armor I wanted to replicate. This costume was somewhat of a learn and create as you go. I started to create the costume the beginning of September. I started with my shield which I replicated coat of arms for my last name. I then worked on my helmet and then on to the chest piece and rest of the gear. All together I had 20 pieces to my costume. The metal parts were cut cardboard shaped into the piece I wanted and then duct taped. I then attached velcro and elastic to hold it into place once wrapped around my body. After all the pieces were completed and fitted properly I took shiny silver spray paint to them. For designs (such as on the breast plate and shield) I used puffy paint to outline and then spray paint over it, afterwards I used acrylic paint to paint over it. It took almost two months to complete. My knight was able to walk normal and even dance. I was able to move about quite easily. My costume was not very expensive, the cardboard cost nothing, I used four big rolls of duct tape which cost me around $15 and two cans of spray paint at around $7. I bought two of the same sweaters with large holes from the local thrift shop for 50 cents. I then spray painted them in silver to use as my chain mail. The rest of my supplies were from my craft room. Even with it raining my knight costume made it through the night without too much damage to it. I really enjoyed seeing the faces of my friends and strangers who was wondering who was inside the suit, (I went incognito the whole night until the reveal) People were really impressed with the amount of work I did. I loved it.