Adventures in Cosplay!

[Mimachiro]

Well, just means we have something fun to look forward to seeing from you for Katsu. You got the Ran-tails done, so hey, one out of two ain't bad, right?

[Byaaakuren]

Hm...I'm trying to make Byakuren's scroll. Anyone have any tips for the ends of the scroll?

Also, what's a great way to get the gradient in her hair?

[Bobsixtyfour]

Wooden rods painted blue?

[Dead Princess Sakana]

Also, what's a great way to get the gradient in her hair?

I met a cosplayer that managed the gradient really well a little while ago.
From how I understood it, she achieved it by taking a one-colored wig and adding the purple color via spray-paint. That way you can regulate the density of the color to get the gradient effect.

[Bobsixtyfour]

Moar updates:

Filling the holes with wax so they don't absorb water and start bulging the wood T.T


More wetsanding.... for the billionth time.


After wetsanding...


Decided to paint the bottom, so decided to mask the perfect wetsanded top part. NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES >_<


Mmmm... Kool-Aid (not really)


Tokin #4's roof being assembled.


Deploying wax barrier to prevent water penetration on tokin #3


More wetsanding water.


Tokin #2's base is painted now.


Tokin #1 drying after wetsanding...


After getting sick of fumes, had an idea to create a designated "paint drying room". Bathroom fan on 24/7 LIKE A BAWSE.... sucking out all my houses's heat T.T
From left to right Tokin #2 (clear coat drying), Tokin #1 (Clear coat drying), Tokin #3 (2nd layer of red)


Tokin #4's primer layer 1 being wetsanded


Tokin #4 drying next to tokin #3 (color wetsand)



Edit: Tokins 1-3's clearcoat will have to be stripped. Doesn't appear compatible with wetsanding/polishing.

[Reddyne]

Ran's done save for the amulets for the hat, which I will be putting on this afternoon. Pics from AUSA as they come. Got all that I'll need for Yang Wenli yesterday. Might need to dye the fabric a skosh since I could only find dark green fabric and the color of his Free Planets Alliance military uniforms are best described as best described as triple dark green. Also, 2 hours of normal work plus 6 hours of WTF hackjob cosplay yesterday. I think I'm taking a break from all of this next week. But just for a week.

Hm...I'm trying to make Byakuren's scroll. Anyone have any tips for the ends of the scroll?

Also, what's a great way to get the gradient in her hair?

For the gradient hair, a friend of mine simply used permanent marker. The ink stains the wig and looks pretty nice, though you won't get the true gradient look that way. That requires a method I can't think of off the top of my head. As for spraypaint? I dunno. You're looking to dye the hair, really, so if it's spraypaint, make sure it's not acrylic and that the paint seeps into the hair itself instead of just sitting on top.

As for the scroll, the plastic transparency sheets (or whatever the proper name for it is) are available in lengths which you can then attach to the two end rods. Hmmm... I'll have ask for the proper name directly.

[Iris]

Hm...I'm trying to make Byakuren's scroll. Anyone have any tips for the ends of the scroll?

Also, what's a great way to get the gradient in her hair?

Yeah, said friend that Reddyne mentioned literally sat down with a sharpie for like three or four hours (or maybe longer).  Be advised that it's gonna take that long as you're literally coloring individual strands.  Also, I think for the plastic transparency roll, you're looking for something like this: http://www.amazon.com/3M-Transparent-Film-Overhead-Projector/dp/B00004Z5U2.  I'm not entirely sure how he attached it to the end rods, though.

[triangles]

Clear shower curtain!
It'd be cheaper and use the translucent paint you can get at any craft store to make the markings. 

[Zakenna]

huh i haven't quite updated my progress in a while so I'll just do this real quick (yeah I just made them thumbnails because I'm lazy...if people want I'll post the larger images)

bondo curing upside down, primed , sanded down the base , filled dips with putty , reprimed and coated in black, sprayed on OD green, masked and hand painted black accents, masked and did yellow


Dry brushed silver, discoloration, pastel/pigment weathering


close up on the weathered stripe,some scratches and the coup de gr?ce the orange safety tip to show it's not a weapon(con rules and such)


I did a little more pastel weathering because I was bored so it looks a little more worn and used than it does now. Just gotta print out the decals and apply them, weather the decals and seal then I'm done for now. After it's done with AUSA and i have more time I plan on adding the trigger housing, safety pin and sight enclosure to make it more authentic but I wanted to get it done for AUSA so I had to cut some corners.

I might as well post some Touhou stuff since I was working on it.  I polished Roukanken up to a mirror finish using the method I showed Bob64. so shiny

[gammaraptor]

That looks sick my friend.

[Luna Scarlet]

just imagine when marisa gets a hold of the real thing...

[Zakenna]

and it's done(yeah I know my floor is dirty...)

close up on the decals they're still a little wet from the oil wash


heres the progress for those who care
printed out the decals on glossy printer paper then ran it through a sticker machine

 
then stuck them on

did some minor pigment shading to make it look dirty, sealed with a matte clear coat then did the oil wash.


I made a makeshift sling out of an old sax neck strap and two carabiners just incase the one I ordered doesn't come in on time.


now to pack for AUSA

[Luna Scarlet]

ready to join the army?  :3

[triangles]

Ready to BE the army  :V

[Zakenna]

and everyone's least favorite part of cosplaying at Conventions. Prop damage.

some paint chipping on the AT-4 from it hitting things. to be fair this isn't a bad thing as I just need to repaint the chips silver and weather them and it'll look more legit since the chips are authentic.


Bob's tokin though not so much. He unfortunately doesn't have access to the supplies to repair the dent so I offered to fix it up for him. It's the least I could do since he drove me. it's a pretty easy fix. I sand around the scrach to remove a little paint and give the putty something to stick to then fill it with filling putty (in this case I used the Tamiya Light curing putty because the dent wasn't that deep but if it were deeper I would have used epoxy putty instead)  from there I strip the paint down to the primer. Reprime, paint and clear coat. 


o yeah the strap I ordered came Friday...I left thursday so I guess if I get an SKS or an AK47 I'll have a sling. Until then it'll be used to hang the AT-4 behind my door
(my hobby desk looks like a mess but it's organized chaos. you know you're pro when you instinctively know where things are on your desk with out looking)

[Bobsixtyfour]

Been busy prepping for AUSA, and recovering from AUSA to post these, but heres whats been happening with the tokins since my last update:


Final red coat + a layer of clear minwax polyurethane (which took 3 days to dry). Now needs to be wetsanded to 2000 grit and then polished.


Wetsanding... again. Water is clear because its the clearcoat i'm sanding down.


Polishing down the clear.


After polishing for 2 hours...


Shit. It doesn't work. Turns out polyurethane doesn't polish very good, would have had to remove it to repaint, so I experimented a bit by cutting through to the red coat and then repolishing.
Left part is the color paint, right side is clearcoated. Result: This clear coat stuff doesn't polish. FAIL


Tried a different type of clear here... Rustoleum Lacqure. and after 7-8 coats light coats of clear... FAIL again.


Turns out I must not have waited long enough for the layers to dry.... so the top layer starts drying, and shrinks a bit, then the lower layers shrinks a bit more and causes cracking. DOH. CartmanGAWDDAMNNIT.wav

Anyway, ended up bringing tokin #1 (with clearcoat) and tokin #3 (Final Colorcoat) to the con... except I forgot a pack of fuzzballs... so only had enough to finish one in the hotel room.


Erectin' a tokin.


I ended up wearing it since we couldn't really figure out a way to attach it to the head/wig effectively.

Con damage (tripped over someone's legs while wearing tengu geta) oops:

[Reddyne]

With fabric, a pattern, and a wig purchased, Yang is well under way!

So, to add to my little collection of stories is my first experience with fabric dye. Now, I had to dye some of the fabric I will be using, which meant I had to take a wash basin of sorts and put it in the tub. Into the basin went the 2.5 yards of fabric, 1 package of dye, 3 gallons of hot water, and a pinch of detergent. After stirring it heavily with a plastic rod, I got a warped plastic rod and dye EVERYWHERE in that tub and a little on myself to boot. On top of all of that, I had to rinse the fabric about 25 (TWENTY FIVE!) times with warm water before the remaining dye ran off. This only exacerbated the issue. Not to mention that my hands were slightly burned from the constant use of hot water and both turned bluish-green from all the dye. It took me a good 15 minutes with a bathroom cleaning spray with bleach in order to shed the extra color from the tub. It only did my hands so much good and they still smell of bleach a day later.

[triangles]

Oh gosh dying fabric  :ohdear:

I did the stovetop method once after my parents upgraded to a front loader washer AHHH NEVER AGAIN.

I guess you had some sort of blend fabric to cause the run off issues?

[Reddyne]

Oh gosh dying fabric  :ohdear:

I did the stovetop method once after my parents upgraded to a front loader washer AHHH NEVER AGAIN.

I guess you had some sort of blend fabric to cause the run off issues?

Not in this case. It was 100% cotton. I think it's just a matter of how well the fabric retained the dye. Doing it by hand is really nowhere near as efficient as other methods may be, too.

Anyway, dark green fabric is now dyed dark dark green; the color of FREEDOM and the LIBERTY that stands for it.

[Bobsixtyfour]

Using 600grit sandpaper on tokin #2's red coat. Holding it with a soft cloth so I don't put fingerprints on the relatively soft semi-cured paint.


not pictured: Spraying the Lacquer clearcoat

not pictured: 6+ hours of carefully sanding the clearcoat with 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper

Applying rubbing compound (instead of polishing compound this time!) to the clearcoat.


One facet rubbed.... and holy shit that IS shiny.


Not pictured: 1 hour of careful rubbing

Finished result:




Compared with just a colorcoat (no sanding) on the left, finished product on the right.



2 more to go! And I'm probably not going to make any more tokins after this. I might make the wood-only part though (no paint), simply because the painting/finishing was such a freaking pain and it took forever.

[Aoshi-shi]

That tokin looks very, very nice.

[Zakenna]

yeaaaaah! that looks fantastic. if you're really worried about the paint being scratched you can wax it before going to cons

[Daya]

My god, I'd pay some good money for even a tokin base for my Aya.

I do like how it came out, especially with the shine. When I saw it, I thought it was automotive paint that gave it that polish.

[Berzul]

Stuff to consider making a Soga no Tojiko cosplay:

Bottom

I was thinking about the spirit legs, most of the pictures I have seen... were socks or something. I wanna do something like this. That means, having sculpture the sponge thing into radishes. but for that I would have to search for someone that deals with such stuff. Now how I want to make it is quite simple. I would have to make sorta like parachute pants suit for those two radishes. I would probably connect them just at the very top, so they I would both be able to walk and it would look alike the way I want. And... for the walking I had the best idea ever... The position of how Tojiko floats is very much like wearing high heels. Thus I plan sponging them around and just sticking it to the pants part with a attached velcro, much like the video showed.

Top

If I get the material looking shiny like this I would be ok. In addiction to that making holes and using a simple rope would be ok. But for the blue circles around the holes would be either plastic or just material. For the ofuda, just sew simple material there... and one tip on the collar and the sleeve finish, it just looks like she is actually wearing a jacket, thus I would be going for that too, since jacket would be the most simple thing to do.

Hat

For the hat I had the idea of taking any kind of sponge, leather, hard paper, and just sewing it into a "Pocket" on the wrong side so it would keep it's shape on the outside. Then sewing some little strings plus one long string that would able me to tide around my head would work. Otherwise it would probably fall over from my head... Of course that string would be kinda hidden under the wig.

Wig

The colour of the hair is kinda troublesome. Of course I can't sew a wig, so I would just look for it at shops. I have found something though that looks similar.

Other than that when and if I would start on this Project I will post later on.

[Chronopolis]

I might as well post some Touhou stuff since I was working on it.  I polished Roukanken up to a mirror finish using the method I showed Bob64. so shiny

Woooow. Do you have a picture of the whole thing?

[Reddyne]

Update just for keeping the thread active I guess?

The wig, shoes, and buttons for Yang are all in and they all work well enough for what I want. All the fabric is cut and I already finished the airman's scarf. Time to get to sewing and making fancy jewelry. How do I pocket?

[SuperParadox]

So currently planning out my Marsia costume for Anime North. I was planning on doing her UFO style but might just go with her default or Fairy wars design and save UFO for FanExpo.

.Still don't know what type of fabric I'm gonna use for sure (Probably cotton or polyester) anyone got any suggestions? Perfect place to buy a wig too?

[Zakenna]

no one does SA Marisa...I think it's her cutest design

Woooow. Do you have a picture of the whole thing?

not from the recent refinishing. just told old pics from when I first made them. (my first props and all)

[Byaaakuren]

no one does SA Marisa...I think it's her cutest design

That. I have been considering her, but I want to get others done first

[gammaraptor]

Debating on who I should cosplay at Taste of Animethon in around 2 monthes. Sousuke Sagara, Rinnosuke, or Utsuho if I decide to attempt crossplay =P.