The Wonderful Creations of Professor CaT Pardus: Project "Extinction", Post apocalyptic "costume" in 3 days

So once a month around here there is a Club night that generally has a theme to the night. Well this time around its going to be "Extinction" basically Post Apocalyptic theme. So you dress up for the theme and if you get there early enough you get in free... added bonus but not really the goal in mind. My girl and I started trying to think up some ideas using mostly what we already have. We came to an odd revelation, what is it that makes an outfit exactly "post apocalyptic", i mean we all know the meaning, basically put, after some huge disaster and those remaining have to scratch by to try and rebuild some kind of life. Think Mad Max or Tank Girl or more recently movies like The Road, Terminator: Salvation, or Book of Eli. But like I said What makes a costume post apocalyptic. Is it just being dirty? that seems far to simple. Is it a combination of bits and pieces one would have found and collected to make life in a nomad world a bit easier? That seems a little better. Maybe need for protection, bits of "armor", mask against dust storms, goggles? So some basic accessories.

So after all the thoughts had kind of come together, I realized, I better get on it :). Only a few days to get things in order.
Boots, Check. Pants, Check (found some awesome pants with a ton of pockets about a 2 months ago) Shirt... ugh no idea. So e went out to try and find a suitable "top" to my costume, with the thought of it being not just for the costume and actually found a pretty awesome shirt that fit the bill. Kinda a para military look to it with a bit more of the added on later feel. Basic clothes... check.
Then came time to find some accessories to add to the feel.
First I ran across some old shin guards I had picked up a while back for a different project I had in mind, since the other project only called for one I figured why not use the other for this. Giving it the look and the feel was honestly pretty easy on this one since they had already seen some use and were a little banged up anyhow. The end result turned out beautifully. Here is a before and after shot.

Before:

After:

So I had thought about perhaps a gas mask, I've got a full face mask but A. it is a lighter greenish color and I didn't really want to mess with trying to get the look right on that one just yet. and B. didn't want to be roaming around in a full face mask all night. Option 2 half mask gas mask... I know I have one from my old HAZMAT days...but no idea were it is, and the cheapest I could find on short notice was $20... besides I could pull off something more interesting. So I started thinking about it and ended up making 3 masks in total...
Some progress shots :)... left to right Basic form, Paint, Aging.

Finished Maskes

The "brass" one

The "Beat up" one

The "Cracked" one
This mask now Available in my etsy store

Next goggles... I have a pair already but honestly my girl put them on and frankly they fit, so, time to scrap some together... I started scrounging and found the bits and pieces I was looking for. After a bit of test fitting and messing around I had these...

Not to bad but boring. I had specifically tried to get them looking like they had been put together from different pairs to give it the "make do with what I can find" feel. since they were a bit to boring I started finding more bits around and cobbling them together and ended up with these....

MUCH better fits the feel a lot better than before. The paint job is a lot more in the vein of well used and abused.
So after all this I had intended to put together a quick shoulder piece but unfortunately ran out of time. Oh well perhaps next time I'll get one done in time.
Over all the costume turned out great and we had a great time. I gotta say my Girl looked awesome and The mask looked great on her. As the night went on we got asked where we had gotten the masks a few times, which was flattering and frankly I may start selling em soon, once I improve on them just a bit :).

Here are some pics we managed to get over the night showing off the costumes in full. Enjoy :) you can click on any of them to see the bigger versions.