Detailing Secret

One of the most often asked questions about the Nightmare costume has been a surprise - how I pulled off the gold detailing on the helm visor and breastplate...and the answer is kinda silly: it's just a bunch of cut-up stickers. The particular brand I used is called "Class A'Peels" and they have a pretty extensive line of metallic finely die-cut decals - although if you check out any scrapbooking and paper crafts supply source, you can probably find even more.

The areas that I applied the stickers are made of Foamies (rather than the textured foam I used on most elsewhere) because they were flat and smooth enough to allow stickers to adhere to them. After painting the Foamies by hand to visually match the texture of the rest of the armor, I started placing them on and over each other, like making a mosaic - sorta intensive placement, but a very straight-forward task of just matching the swirls up. I honestly just eyeballed it all as I overlapped the stickers to recreate the shape of the actual filigree from the game model. After pressing them all into place, I also coated them in clear acrylic varnish decoupage-style so they would stay put.