|
a cock shaped fruit posted:Right, started to paper mache my Pepakura, and suddenly it was like I opened my eyes and saw the Matrix. I could suddenly see exactly how I could make it out of foam, and save myself hours of paper mache'ing. So 20 minutes later I returned from the 24 hour store with yoga mats and a roll of duct tape, and a few hours later: Halfway up the page, but I figure I'd throw this idea out there, in case anyone needs it. In the camping section of your local Walmart, you should be able to find blue foam bedrolls for ~$7.50. It's 20 x 72 x 0.5, easy to cut up with scissors, and pretty decently stable, if you need it to stand on its own. I'm going to use this stuff this year, instead of the extra expensive mattress topper I used last year for my build.
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 21:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 22:01 |
|
|
neogeo0823 posted:Halfway up the page, but I figure I'd throw this idea out there, in case anyone needs it. In the camping section of your local Walmart, you should be able to find blue foam bedrolls for ~$7.50. It's 20 x 72 x 0.5, easy to cut up with scissors, and pretty decently stable, if you need it to stand on its own. I'm going to use this stuff this year, instead of the extra expensive mattress topper I used last year for my build. I'd recommend against these, they're cheap but all the ones I've seen are soft, floppy and easily marked. Much better off with a decent EVA foam or something like Plastazote.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 23:15
|
|
|
Yeah, my local kmart sells those green mats at $4AUS a pop.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 23:20
|
|
|
Fatkraken posted:I'd recommend against these, they're cheap but all the ones I've seen are soft, floppy and easily marked. Much better off with a decent EVA foam or something like Plastazote. This is true, but if you, like me, are looking for something as a base material to attach fabric or other flexible things to, then they work pretty well. They're certainly better than the mattress pads I used for my build last year. Those were far softer and much more flexible, but more than twice the price.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 06:37
|
|
|
It's getting the tiny things just the way you want them that is the most fun, I think.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 03:53
|
|
|
Man everyone is making such awesome stuff right now. I too feel lame posting my current prog shot but I am just super happy with this skirt. Everything went so smoothly which is unheard of for vinyl at least in my case.  The suspenders are from another costume. I am planning to make Tifa's as they are all fancy and different. I still need to cover the gloves which I finally found some material for. Also I have a few more touch ups for the shirt. Styling the wig will be fun. Then it's just a matter of finding the boots. Which is proving to be a pain, I am entirely to picky. But after the wig came in yesterday I had to try it all on. By the time I get the rest of it made I should also be far leaner from all my gym shinanigans. Though it will be a while still to finish this as it's currently just a side project to keep me busy until my first round of materials for my FFXIV Archer outfit get in so I can start on that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 14:48
|
|
|
I've got a couple questions for you guys. First, I'm looking to make a ton of strips of fabric that look like dirty, frayed, tattered bandages. I'm currently thinking of using muslin, which I'll dye and dirty up, then cut into strips and fray. Does anyone have any good tips for quickly/easily fraying lots and lots of fabric? Is muslin a good choice? It's certainly the cheapest I could find. What about cheesecloth? I've heard different things about both fabrics, and I'd like to get a bit more solid info on working with them. My other question is how do I go about making some faux leather straps? I don't need them to be ultra-realistic, obviously, but just something that looks enough like leather at a glance. My first thought was to find a pleather couch that someone was throwing away and cannibalize it for the material, but maybe someone out there has another good idea for it?
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 20:19
|
|
|
Go to a thrift store and get the cheapest xxl leather jacket they've got. They usually have several that are really big and ugly looking that they sell for ~$10. For the bandages, most cheap fabric will fray like a motherfucker as soon as you cut them without hemming them. If you want them especially beat up just put them on the ground and step on them/grind them against concrete with some rocks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 20:51
|
|
|
neogeo0823 posted:I've got a couple questions for you guys. First, I'm looking to make a ton of strips of fabric that look like dirty, frayed, tattered bandages. I'm currently thinking of using muslin, which I'll dye and dirty up, then cut into strips and fray. Does anyone have any good tips for quickly/easily fraying lots and lots of fabric? Is muslin a good choice? It's certainly the cheapest I could find. What about cheesecloth? I've heard different things about both fabrics, and I'd like to get a bit more solid info on working with them. Easiest way to fray up some cheap fabric fast... Wash it. It'll usually fray out a bit on the edges and saves you a butt load of time. As for the leather straps... How about just getting some remnants? I'm not sure how long you need them to be but... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...emnant&_sacat=0
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 22:56
|
|
|
does cosplay that costs me a dollar for a packet of safety pins count? my zipper fly broke as soon as I got there so it was down for like 12+ hours. also i got blisters on my feet and walked around shoeless for 12+ hours.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 04:28
|
|
|
horchata posted:does cosplay that costs me a dollar for a packet of safety pins count? Where is this at? That same guy took my picture for the past two years. Dude gets around!
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 06:27
|
|
|
They came! They finally came! I ordered these originally April 19th and then only now showed up because everything went about as bad as you could think it could go. Also: bought shoes and glitter! This is going to end in nothing but glittery tears for me very soon. I will post pictures regardless.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 07:23
|
|
|
Red Robin Hood posted:Where is this at? That same guy took my picture for the past two years. Dude gets around! It was at Anime Expo
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 17:08
|
|
|
Ive been working on my Steampunk Sonic screwdriver. I really couldn't think of something too original and I didn't like what I saw online so I went with something like a miniature steam train. The only thing I really can't think of beside a few details is like the emmiter. Not sure if I should go with a light like the new Doctor who or just a solid piece like the classic show. I'm no good at electronics so I don't think I would be able to wire anything. But what do you think?
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 18:17
|
|
|
Throb Robinson posted:Ive been working on my Steampunk Sonic screwdriver. I really couldn't think of something too original and I didn't like what I saw online so I went with something like a miniature steam train. The only thing I really can't think of beside a few details is like the emmiter. Not sure if I should go with a light like the new Doctor who or just a solid piece like the classic show. I'm no good at electronics so I don't think I would be able to wire anything. Do the gears mesh? Are they attached (or do they seem to be attached) to a moving part? Do they in fact look like they are relevant to making the device actually function? If the answer to all these questions is yes then it's fine, though I'd personally take the idea of functionality one step further and at least have them behind glass, there's a reason why no (small) functional object that uses gears has it's guts open to the elements, one stray hair or piece of gravel and the whole thing's borked.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 18:46
|
|
|
duros posted:Also: bought shoes and glitter! This is going to end in nothing but glittery tears for me very soon. I will post pictures regardless. You're going to be crying glitter for a month. Seriously. That poo poo gets all up in your business. Speaking of glitter, my little charity nerd bakery is sponsoring a cosplay float in the Vancouver Pride parade. They've invited my husband and I to ride on board with them, which means I better get back to work fixing the Daft Punk helmets. First job: ordering some of that magic 2mm Pet-G duros suggested and get my rear end in gear redoing the electronics. I can't wait to take apart that Thomas helmet and sandpaper the poo poo out of it. That smudged paint job is mocking me. I've also got to find a more fabulous outfit to go with my Guy Manuel. PezMaster fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Jul 12, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 21:26
|
|
|
Today I dove into the world of Japanese mandatory vehicle liability insurance in order to get all of the (totally impossible to read from screengrabs) kanji right for the insurance sticker. The number on the tag was definitely "1," but I will have to guess as far as the expiration year goes, which is expressed in something called Heisei years, which I also learned about today. I can't find any references clear enough for the year, but it looks like "14" (2002). Probably incredibly boring stuff, but it was really fun to solve this 'puzzle!'  The shape is a little different so it'll fit better in the existing bolt holes, but everything else seems pretty close. The silver will be cut in silver vinyl, I think it will look really cool when it's on display!
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2013 03:36
|
|
|
Looks like a 12 to me. Though, it's really anyone's guess.Ruin Completely posted:Go to a thrift store and get the cheapest xxl leather jacket they've got. They usually have several that are really big and ugly looking that they sell for ~$10. For the bandages, most cheap fabric will fray like a motherfucker as soon as you cut them without hemming them. If you want them especially beat up just put them on the ground and step on them/grind them against concrete with some rocks. Killer_Frost posted:Easiest way to fray up some cheap fabric fast... Wash it. It'll usually fray out a bit on the edges and saves you a butt load of time. Thanks for the ideas.  I have a large warehouse-type distribution center for the salvation army less than 10 minutes away, and I've got tons of rocks and concrete, so I'll try those suggestions first. I also found a big 6 yard thing of cheesecloth for $5 at walmart, which will help add a bit of fine texture to the costume. All the materials are coming together. Just need to save the money to buy them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2013 05:26
|
|
|
uuuuurgh, my sewing machine is on the blink. Anyone here who's good with sewing machines? I mean really REALLY good, because my problem is very specific and I've ruled out the usual suspects (tension, popped springs, misthreaded bobbins). Basically, the feed dogs, the little serrated plates under the foot that move up and down and back and forth to pull fabric through the machine as it's sewn, have decided to start misbehaving. When I set the stitch to 4mm (the max on my machine), they move the fabric maybe 1mm, so my stitches are incredibly close together. But that's only half the problem, the big issue is that I mostly use the triple/stretch stitch, which moves the fabric forward AND backwards in turn using the feed dogs so each stitch is gone over multiple times, so it can stretch without popping a seam. The problem is, the forward stitches are half the length they should be, but the backwards ones are the full proper length, so when it tries to go two stitches forward then one stitch back, the needle just keeps going over and over the same spot I've spent about two hours poking around inside the bloody thing with a screwdriver and I cannot work out what the cause of problem is, nothing seems to have snapped or bent. All I can think is that something within the stitch length setting mechanism has slipped and turning the dial to 4 isn't actually moving the appropriate mechanical parts as far as it should (there's an angled bar/cam mechanism that moves when you turn the dial and when you push it to set the reverse stitch), but I can't even get into that part of the machine, it's hidden really drat well and I'd have to strip it completely, something I'm not confident I could bring it back from. It's an old Janome/New Home 632 if that means anything to anyone, I'm talking OLD, like circa 1970 or something. Until today it was working great  I know it's pretty specific, I'm mostly just venting and I'll take it to be repaired next week. Still and absolute pain, and if it can't be fixed an identical replacement is gonna be a bugger to find given it's age. Fatkraken fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Jul 13, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2013 23:20
|
|
|
Fatkraken posted:uuuuurgh, my sewing machine is on the blink. Check the sewing thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2701891&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=60
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2013 23:43
|
|
|
Red Robin Hood posted:Check the sewing thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2701891&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=60 Ah thanks for the pointer, I'll go crosspost in there
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2013 00:03
|
|
|
Fatkraken posted:Ah thanks for the pointer, I'll go crosspost in there I've only ever hand sewn but I figured if you're going to get a solid answer it'll probably be in that thread!
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2013 00:41
|
|
|
Thanks to everybody who game me tips on tinting my visor! I had to use a tinting spray after the RIT dye did not work. Unfortunately for some reason the treatment baths did nothing. I think it may have been due to the visors anti-fog coating. However after trial and error I managed to get the spray and the crest to work. Here is the final result:
LeviathanGunship fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Jul 15, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2013 22:35
|
|
|
That is so freaking cool! It's soooo clean!
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2013 23:24
|
|
|
Hello people way more talented than me! I am working on a costume for FanExpo Toronto coming in August 2013. I started this back in march but finally felt like doing a build thread about it. Character is Beta Ray Bill from Marvel Comics. http://marvel.wikia.com/Beta_Ray_Bill_(Earth-616) You might notice when you scroll through images of this character that his appearance is somewhat inconsistent from artist to artist. I will be no exception. I will be taking creative licenses in areas that I find difficult to copy or build, or concepts that just would not look good in person. I got two sheets of wonderflex for about $100 because I shipped it to a US address and picked it up in person. I'm using the wonderflex for the mask and most of the armor and such. That poo poo is a miracle, heat it up with a heat gun and it wilts into duct tape, shape it, it cools and your're good to go. Very forgiving and easy to work with. Larger areas are tricky since uneven heating will lead to buckling and warping. Smaller pieces can liquify and become fragile, to well bonded to be corrected later. Here's where I started with the mask. http://i.imgur.com/ZDLHlmdh.jpg Here the scalp is filled in with scrap pieces and I'm holding the lower jaw in the shot. I initially wanted an articulate jaw that moved with me when I spoke, but I have since abandoned this concept for the sake of simplicity. http://i.imgur.com/t4xr53Ah.jpg Those teeth were obviously place holders, I found plastic horse teeth on EBay! http://i.imgur.com/DvhBAHVh.jpg More material added to cheek bones, another layer over the upper jaw to bed in the teeth. http://i.imgur.com/eC29uFMh.jpg I used some sculpting paste to try to dull the straight edges from all the interconnected scraps I used. (When using wonderflex, definitely keep a bag of all your scrap trimmings. This stuff doesnt grow on trees, as you'll see later, entire pieces were fabricated from my trimmings). http://i.imgur.com/eYZPFfuh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/dzTRv7ah.jpg Gauntlets! Here's where you're going to see that creative departure kick in. Also notice the bowl of scrap trimming in the background. Anyway I am going with the three fingered approach because it further re inforces that Bill is not human, and its fun as hell. http://imgur.com/a/6iHGg All of these armor pieces were cut from the scraps I kept from working on other pieces. Also you can see I've written all over them, keeping track of which finger and segment this are. Since it's all going to be painted I figure it doesnt matter. http://i.imgur.com/VCSXQXUh.jpg Paint! I'm using rattle can stuff from home depot and canadian tire. Wonderflex doesn't seem to care what paint I hit it with, it wears it like a champ. In terms of artistic license, I am replacing white with silver and yellow with gold for visual effect. http://i.imgur.com/mITCIJlh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/2fKmBHlh.jpg I made some bracers that attached seperately but give the illusion of a gauntlet look. This was before painting. http://i.imgur.com/6qWLO2lh.jpg Catching up to the present, this is late June at a friends place starting to work on a helmet. At this stage, I was being even more cautious with material usage, finally starting to draw objects on paper and approaching the builds with a more thought out plan. I should have done this from the start. http://i.imgur.com/N1TYo8Bh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Bc5xNhRh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/z5KRbYBh.jpg Here's the complete, unpainted helmet with the mask so far. I found a colour I like for his skin, but I don't like the texture and will probably do another layer of paste to get it nice and smooth. http://i.imgur.com/IFmnt21h.jpg Crappy 'so far' pic http://i.imgur.com/jTwMFbvh.jpg I have since lost ten pounds since this pic was taken, since nobody wants to see Frito Lay Bill. I'm thrilled with how the gauntlets look. The helmet looks ok too. I am playing with a vinyl vest/tunic thing but its coming a huge time vampire and I might dump it in favour of a black spandex compression shirt set up. Up next: the unending trainwreck of fabricating Stormbreaker, Leg armor, belt and buckle. Still building: Thighs, chest orb things, shoulders and cape.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 02:02
|
|
|
Haha, just accidentally posted this in the PYF cosplay thread. It was a LONG weekend.   Looooong weekend of work but there's so much to show for it! First, our vac former is almost done! We were completely blessed by an electrically skilled friend of ours who decided to spend his whole weekend helping us wire up this bad boy out of the goodness of his heart. Look at it!! The usable area on it is 2x3 and it is going to own so hard. Which is good, because we need to vacform.....    Finally looking like what it should look like! That's the lower leg and the torso. I spent my entire weekend balls deep in apoxiesculpt and it's pretty great to have some nice nearly-finished pieces to show for it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 02:11
|
|
|
McPantserton posted:Haha, just accident I followed you over from the PYF thread, that vac former is badass and I'm mad jealous.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 03:58
|
|
|
Whelp, we had a respite from nearly 2 weeks of constant rain, so I figured that I'd head on up to the only open-air space I've got on my building's roof to do some sanding/painting.   I'm really pleased with how the gloves have turned out - the resin is a pain in the rear end to work with, but it leaves a great shell. Given all of the small surfaces, I wasn't able to get in and sand quite as much as I would have liked, but I don't mind the slightly rougher texture - I might add some weathering just to make it feel like something that's seen better days. The arms and head are all resin'd up too, though a few corrective patches are still necessary on the head. I'm also probably going to run out of black spraypaint in the near future - I picked up this dinky little can of black semigloss Tamiya model paint to test out, and it's pretty solid. Sadly it's pretty expensive, it'd probably take another $30 to get enough to finish everything. The alternative is some spraypaint intended for autobody use - it's much cheaper, so I'll grab a can of gloss black and do a test run on some demo pieces, see how that turns out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 11:37
|
|
|
Those look way cool. I almost want to take the fabric and make it look like musculature to give it a seriously cyberpunk biomechanical look. Speaking of hands and biomechanical, I've got another question. It's one of the last design problems I'm trying to work out on the thing I'm building. I'm looking to make a couple of large mechanical hands to go over my own. The problem is that I'd like to have an articulated thumb, but I'm not finding a lot of info on how to do that. The closes thing I've found is this guys video, and his Etsy page for them, but he charges $200 a pair, which is ludicrus, and I only need to know how he gets the thumb to articulate. Anyone got any ideas on how to get that done? EDIT: ...Do you think he essentially took an L bracket and bolted it on with a washer so it could spin? That's the best I can come up with. neogeo0823 fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Jul 16, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2013 05:08
|
|
|
I need to do some trouble shooting with half the ear LEDs (think I might have put on the wrong resistors UGH SCIENCE ) BUTTTTT here is the progress from last weekend (gonna get it all fixed up and sent to chromers by next week!): LOTS of boards (far too many)!  got the corners made up:  cut out plastic to go on them and I am now in the process of painting things hey look screws:  So pretty but I messed up the resistors or something so you only get to see the pretty half (not the really dim green-aqua-blue-violet) side.  Did another layer of primer on the helmet to get it ready for final sanding pass (with bonus unimpressed sleeping pup): 
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2013 07:21
|
|
|
So Ive bought a few brassy bits and pieces for my costume of ebay for cheap. Spend about 30 bucks on the following.    Thank you to who ever said wash the scarf a few times. It looks good now. Colour has faded a bit and the wool is fraying a bit so it looks good. Any ideas to anything else I missing?
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2013 21:45
|
|
|
Throb Robinson posted:So Ive bought a few brassy bits and pieces for my costume of ebay for cheap. Spend about 30 bucks on the following. Nice haul. I love the keys. I'm glad the washing worked.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2013 22:04
|
|
|
How do you all attach horns to things/foam? I've been looking around, and it seems like most people like velcro straps, but I failed to make a 'slot' for the strap to go through at the base of the horns, and I'm not sure how else to attach the velcro. I was going to cut a slot in the foam, jam the base of the horn in and use lots of hot glue, but I'm worried that won't work (be durable enough) and I'll have to remake the horns and the bracer. They're hollow, and they don't need to be removable, I don't know if that makes a difference.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 00:57
|
|
|
Hey guys. I've been working on my shield for Maya from Borderlands 2 and wanted to show some of my progress. This is what its based off of:  I'm making out of wood, craftfoam, some metal, and acrylic plastic. Its going to be pretty simple to light since there is a cheap wall light to use. I'll post more later as I detail it. Front and light attachment  Back belt clip.  Also I love all the Soul Calibur cosplays you guys post. I was Natsu at Katsucon this year and I'm planning SCV Hilde for next year.  Photo taken by TLY Photography NorseDanceParty fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Jul 18, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 01:46
|
|
|
[quote="NorseDanceParty" post=""417567136"] Also I love all the Soul Calibur cosplays you guys post. I was Natsu at Katsucon this year and I'm planning SCV Hilde for next year. [/quote] Your pictures aren't working for me but were you posted in the other cosplay thread for Natsu? If so, killer costume  And props for future Hilde, the only reason I'm not planning SCV Hilde is because the idea of printing a whole new banner after how long my last one took sounded sort of horrible to me. (Plus I think I'm currently booked out through this time next year with other projects, wee!)
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 03:59
|
|
|
McPantserton posted:Your pictures aren't working for me but were you posted in the other cosplay thread for Natsu? Yeah, I posted her in the other cosplay thread just after Katsucon. I'm the handy engineering boyfriend who makes all the props 
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 04:29
|
|
|
So I fitted the visor tonight. Looks really slick, and this is the jacket I found. It's almost perfect, but for the breast pockets. I did get the EL tape, but... it's all got these great big black connectors to clip them together. I'll probably have to cut tiny holes in the jacket to hide the wires.  Next up is finding white gloves. I figure golf gloves will do the trick, since I'm going to be adding stuff to the backs anyways. Also, tiny fans in the helmet.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 08:11
|
|
|
McPantserton posted:I'm not planning SCV Hilde is because the idea of printing a whole new banner after how long my last one took sounded sort of horrible to me. Due to your current Starcraft projects of late my mind read that as S.C.V Hilde and not SoulCalibur Five. Genre mashup maybe?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 11:12
|
|
|
No Pun Intended posted:Due to your current Starcraft projects of late my mind read that as S.C.V Hilde and not SoulCalibur Five. Genre mashup maybe? I have had that same confusion like 100 times. Even after I myself posted about StarCraft somewhere, somebody asked me about my 'SC2' costume and it took me way, way too long to figure out they didn't mean Soul Calibur. I will totally make a space Hilde, haha!
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 13:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 22:01 |
|
|
TwystNeko posted:So I fitted the visor tonight. Looks really slick, and this is the jacket I found. It's almost perfect, but for the breast pockets. You might be able to cover the wires with white tape, if you're careful you can make it look symmetrical and like part of the jacket's design.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 16:16
|
|
