Killing Yourself With Cosplay
Jul. 17th, 2012 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinnatiousI thought I'd do an in-progress post on my frankly stupidly ambitious cosplay plans for an upcoming con. Because honestly the freakout when you realise how little time you have left and all the misadventures you have of trying to assemble it are probably more interesting than actually wearing the costume itself.
For anyone not yet aware, I'm attempting to do Kain Highwind, Duodecim-version. Yeah, that massive Duodecim Kain-inspired fangasm never entirely went away. It's made me do stupid things. Ever since I had some notion that this would be my cosplay magnum opus - the cosplay I could retire happy on, giving myself a clean break from this time-and-wallet-hungry hobby. Obviously that part of the plan isn't happening, but hey, Kain cosplay!
I'm trying to make everything first, and then do all the painting in one go, so that I theoretically don't have to remix paints and have nightmares colour matching like I did with Riesz. This has the advantage of letting me try the whole thing on to make sure it fits together and make any necessary changes WITHOUT destroying work, but the disadvantage of making me very nervous as no one part is yet 'finished'. Paint also requires drying time, just to make me that extra bit nervous.
This is a recent-ish picture of the helmet. I've since done some sanding on it so it's a little less bumpy, and a little bit of edging on the beak. Honestly I could spend ages on it but I've had to prioritise and, you know, make sure I am clothed. In that respect, this is a really weird costume as I have been working from the extremities inward. PRIORITIES.
Anyhow, the big issue with this one has been getting the area around the eyes right. Still haven't quite managed, I'm sort of going to be relying on paintwork to hide my deficiencies as a sculptor here unless I can fit in some more alterations. It's also been tricky managing the weight balance. It's a little front-heavy at the moment, but that will be evened out once I add the hair to the back. I have to keep restraining the urge to add the hair now, because obviously adding hair before painting is a bad idea.
Boots! Not final colours, obviously. The art store doesn't carry dark purple craft foam. And there's no point anyway since it's going to be sealed and painted six ways to Sunday.
These made me want to cry. Boots, they are really damn hard. Also, there are spikes at the back, but you can't see them in this photo. They look kind of stupid since they haven't been painted yet anyway. (Though honestly, everything looks stupid before it's painted.)
I am in very real danger of running out of craft foam. This is kind of distressing, as I thought I'd bought enough for both this cosplay and the next cosplay. As in, I may have actually totally cleared out the store's shelf when I went shopping. They weren't quite sure how to react to somebody hauling out $70 worth of craft foam. 'What's it for?' 'A suit of armour' *Shopkeeper gives me a blank look and then awkwardly hands me the receipt*
Arms! This is an in-progress shot, the spikes have since been finished. These were actually probably the easiest part so far, except for that weird triangle bit that doesn't make any functional sense and briefly stymied me for no good reason. Nothing about Kain's armour makes any sense. He has spikes on the back of his legs, how does he crouch for his signature jump move? Maybe he jumps so high because the spikes dig into his thighs like a row of cattle prods. For that matter, those fins on his back? No leaning back, ever.
In any case, the arms were fairly easy, except for the stupid stuff-up I made regarding right and left arms. Since my dominant arm is slightly larger, I actually went to the trouble of measuring out right versus left instead of just straight-up copying the pattern once I had one arm down. It was awesome! ...Until when the time came to glue on the spikes, I accidentally got the left and right arms backwards. *facepalm* I wound up having to do a bit of surgery to restore a bit of give to the right arm and a slight nip-and-tuck to make the left a little more snug.
I've done the collar and the shoulder pauldrons too, haven't taken a picture of those yet. Now there's only the thigh armour... and the codpiece... and the entire torso... and the lance. Oh, and that skirt-thing too. And painting everything. I am so incredibly out of my depth.
This is either going to be marvellous or a disaster of epic proportions.
FOUR WEEKS TO GO.
For anyone not yet aware, I'm attempting to do Kain Highwind, Duodecim-version. Yeah, that massive Duodecim Kain-inspired fangasm never entirely went away. It's made me do stupid things. Ever since I had some notion that this would be my cosplay magnum opus - the cosplay I could retire happy on, giving myself a clean break from this time-and-wallet-hungry hobby. Obviously that part of the plan isn't happening, but hey, Kain cosplay!
I'm trying to make everything first, and then do all the painting in one go, so that I theoretically don't have to remix paints and have nightmares colour matching like I did with Riesz. This has the advantage of letting me try the whole thing on to make sure it fits together and make any necessary changes WITHOUT destroying work, but the disadvantage of making me very nervous as no one part is yet 'finished'. Paint also requires drying time, just to make me that extra bit nervous.
This is a recent-ish picture of the helmet. I've since done some sanding on it so it's a little less bumpy, and a little bit of edging on the beak. Honestly I could spend ages on it but I've had to prioritise and, you know, make sure I am clothed. In that respect, this is a really weird costume as I have been working from the extremities inward. PRIORITIES.
Anyhow, the big issue with this one has been getting the area around the eyes right. Still haven't quite managed, I'm sort of going to be relying on paintwork to hide my deficiencies as a sculptor here unless I can fit in some more alterations. It's also been tricky managing the weight balance. It's a little front-heavy at the moment, but that will be evened out once I add the hair to the back. I have to keep restraining the urge to add the hair now, because obviously adding hair before painting is a bad idea.
Boots! Not final colours, obviously. The art store doesn't carry dark purple craft foam. And there's no point anyway since it's going to be sealed and painted six ways to Sunday.
These made me want to cry. Boots, they are really damn hard. Also, there are spikes at the back, but you can't see them in this photo. They look kind of stupid since they haven't been painted yet anyway. (Though honestly, everything looks stupid before it's painted.)
I am in very real danger of running out of craft foam. This is kind of distressing, as I thought I'd bought enough for both this cosplay and the next cosplay. As in, I may have actually totally cleared out the store's shelf when I went shopping. They weren't quite sure how to react to somebody hauling out $70 worth of craft foam. 'What's it for?' 'A suit of armour' *Shopkeeper gives me a blank look and then awkwardly hands me the receipt*
Arms! This is an in-progress shot, the spikes have since been finished. These were actually probably the easiest part so far, except for that weird triangle bit that doesn't make any functional sense and briefly stymied me for no good reason. Nothing about Kain's armour makes any sense. He has spikes on the back of his legs, how does he crouch for his signature jump move? Maybe he jumps so high because the spikes dig into his thighs like a row of cattle prods. For that matter, those fins on his back? No leaning back, ever.
In any case, the arms were fairly easy, except for the stupid stuff-up I made regarding right and left arms. Since my dominant arm is slightly larger, I actually went to the trouble of measuring out right versus left instead of just straight-up copying the pattern once I had one arm down. It was awesome! ...Until when the time came to glue on the spikes, I accidentally got the left and right arms backwards. *facepalm* I wound up having to do a bit of surgery to restore a bit of give to the right arm and a slight nip-and-tuck to make the left a little more snug.
I've done the collar and the shoulder pauldrons too, haven't taken a picture of those yet. Now there's only the thigh armour... and the codpiece... and the entire torso... and the lance. Oh, and that skirt-thing too. And painting everything. I am so incredibly out of my depth.
This is either going to be marvellous or a disaster of epic proportions.
FOUR WEEKS TO GO.
