HOW TO BUILD A JUDGE DREDD COSTUME

BY KEVIN GOLDSMITH

LEG ARMOUR

Then the trousers. I used a pair of mum's dark blue slacks. I did not trust the elastic, so I cut holes on the inside waist - one at the front then two at either side and two at the rear to go either side of the three seams. I then added some string that I found at the back of a cupboard, and I think came from a Venetian blind, threaded it through the holes to form a draw string and tied the ends to stop them from fraying.

Then came the knee pads. I found some bits of leather and cut them into two oval shapes with straight sides, measuring 5 inches by 10 inches. I then cut 3/4 inch wide strips for the top and bottom borders, and then cut 2 strips of 1/4 inch thick foam. I then tied these strips - the leather at the front and foam at the back to make the pads look thick, using 4 lengths of twine on each side. The tied ends of each of these were glued flat to stop them from fraying or coming loose. Warning! Do not use UHU glue-this stuff is as stringy as buggery!

I then cut 6 further strips for each pad, all 30mm wide, and cut the tops and bottoms to the correct angle. These were sewed at the top and bottom, and a 3mm gap was allowed all around. I then cut 4 further pieces - again 15mm wide, and cut them to fit the four remaining straight sides.

At this point I had to decide how to attach the pads to my legs. I thought of using Velcro, but did not think that it was strong enough, and I was getting short of webbing anyway and my local haberdashery shop had recently closed down and cleared off to god knows where, so I had a search through some drawers in the dining room and mum's sewing box. I found about a dozen 'garters' that she had made for me to hold my long winter socks up at school. These proved ideal.

I put two on each leg, and marked on with chalk where the ends of the pads would go. I then sewed the 'garters' together with the aforementioned end pieces to the pads - another job done.

(1) Inside and outside of basic knee pad.

(2) Inside and outside of completed knee pad, showing 'garters' and outer detail.