Hooray for improvising!!!

[K-Star]

Ok, so it's been almost three weeks and the company I ordered rank pips and a combadge (for my costume) from hasn't even shipped my order yet. Best case scenario, I get them in the mail next week. But there's a costume contest at my residence hall on Sunday, and no Starfleet uniform is complete without a combadge and rank insignia!

So what do I do? Buy some supplies and IMPROVISE!

I discovered that thumbtacks work with pin backings (those metal dome things you stick on the pointy end of a pin that you stick through clothing), so I bought some gold thumbtacks and used the backings from my section leader pin and my "PIT" pin to secure them to the collar of my costume. Then I got some relatively stiff posterboard type thing, drew a combadge, painted it gold and silver with some paint pens, and attached double sided tape to the back.

The result?

Here are some closeups:

Combadge:

Rank Pips (I couldn't find a sharpie to color in the half pip, so I just used a pen. When I find a sharpie I'll go over it again.):

 

[Trekker4747]

Looks good K-Star! :thumbsup:

 

[JD]

Not bad at all.

 

[Computer]

The pips look great, but if I may make a suggestion: try tracing the delta shield insignia onto a peice of cardboard and cutting it out, if you can find a glue stick apply it to the cardboard the put it face down onto a sheet of tin foil, smooth it out with an ID or credit card then rinse and repeat for the oval TNG era backing. This gives the com badge a more 3-D look.

 

[K-Star]

Meh... I don't have any tin foil. Wouldn't it need to be gold tin foil anyway? (EDIT: Oh wait I see what you're talking about... The "delta shield" is just that triangle thing... I thought the term "delta shield" applied to the design of the whole combadge. Meh.)

Besides, it's only temporary since I'm still waiting for the combadge and pips I ordered online. (I hope they come soon. The big campus-wide Halloween party is four days earlier than I thought it would be!)

 

[SPOCKED]

Wow! Nice work, K-Star

 

[K-Star]

^Thanks. BTW, the half pip looks even better now that I've taken a black marker to it instead of a ball point pen.

 

[Bryan316]

You could print off a pic of the combadge from a variety of sources and glue it to posterboard. If you use one of the "3D" pics, then folks might not know it was just cardstock unless they were up close.

 

[doubleohfive]

Nicely done. :thumbsup:

 

[K-Star]

Bryan316 said:
You could print off a pic of the combadge from a variety of sources and glue it to posterboard. If you use one of the "3D" pics, then folks might not know it was just cardstock unless they were up close.

I think my friend recommended that... I still can't cut smoothly to save my life so it would've made little difference . Besides, I was feeling artistic, and it's all shiny as a result.

 

[doubleohfive]

K-Star, now that you have the uniform, you should re-do that avatar of yourself aiming the phaser at the camera, except this time do it while wearing the gold uniform.

 

[K-Star]

^I totally would... If I had the phaser with me! That phaser/remote belongs to my dad, so it's back home while I'm at college.

By the time I get back home, I should definitely have the combadge and rank pips I ordered, so it would all look even better! (But what would my parents think if I told them I wanted to pose for a pic like that in full uniform? Meh, they might find it slightly amusing at least.)

 

[WillsBabe]

Nice job. The drawing pins make really good rank pins. You've worked hard on all this. Hope you enjoy wearing it all.