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Ron Paul Atreides
Apr 19, 2012

Uyghurs situation in Xinjiang? Just a police action, do not fret. Not ongoing genocide like in EVIL Canada.

I am definitely not a tankie.


Feeling optimistic about how the headpiece for my Satyr costume is going

e: sorry phone posting img sizing is less noticeable

Ron Paul Atreides fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Sep 25, 2014

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a cock shaped fruit
Aug 23, 2010



The true enemy of humanity is disorder.
Try using [timg] instead of [img], that image is beyond huge.

JossiRossi
Jul 28, 2008

A little EQ, a touch of reverb, slap on some compression and there. That'll get your dickbutt jiggling.

Bag of Hamsters posted:

E6000 is your adhesive of choice. The foam will tear off before the bond breaks.

Which topcoats are you trying? Almost any topcoat works if you're using acrylics, otherwise you need to match the paint type to the sealant type. If you find a satin or gloss that works, you can always lightly sand it to dull the shine.

Remember to seal and prime! You can seal with layers of Elmer's Glue or very very very thin layers of PlastiDip.

As for the actual structure, it looks like there are depressions in the top layer of the tricorder. I'd suggest a thin layer of the EVA on top with those depressions cut into them, and then layer what you've got over it. That way the bits like the on/off switch and the mic have actual dimension. For the three skinny ridged segments, this is an amazing method to have clean lines. Obviously, you won't have to go as deeply.

Don't be afraid to add your own touches: bit more weathering, scratches or dings.

Looking awesome so far. Good luck!

I have some Acrylic matte and gloss topcoats. I will be using the gloss coat on a sample item tomorrow if all goes well. Will likely do some sanding work to dull bits.

I am doing a small test item where I use a bunch of techniques on a small little thing. I grabbed some E6000 and that stuff seems really nice. I did 2 thick layers, with a third small layer on top that I cut a detail into. For my process I hot glued the big pieces together, E6000'd the thin top layer on. Sanded the rough/uneven edges down. Then I used some silicon/acrylic caulking to try and even out the seams. I sealed it with Plastidip, and after waiting probably-not-long-enough spray painted the thing.

I also did a couple of smaller detail items. I tried out that technique you linked to for 2 of the pieces and I really liked how that came out so thanks for that tip! I'll definitely be using it on the final piece.

Tomorrow I'll try to assemble it all, glue the details down and then seal the whole thing.

What Went Well
-The caulking I used seems to have done a good job at masking the seams.
-Scoring/Heating of desired details.
-Paint choices look pretty good.

What Went Awry
-I think I used too much or too little Plastidip, I'm completely unsure. Should it be this super light coating, or juuuuust thick enough to create its own continuous surface smoothing over the normal porousness of the EVA?
-Hiding of seams was not uniform. Some areas seemed good even before painting, others I know will be visible in the final product.
-I did not handle some tight curves well, still unsure how to deal with them, but fortunately not a pressing issue for the time being.

I'll be sure to toss some pictures and final thoughts tomorrow.

The Repo Man
Jul 31, 2013

I Remember...
I just found Brick in the Yard Mold Supply. Seems like a good place to get resin/foam/tools and such.

http://www.brickintheyard.com/

The reason I found them is because I'm trying to find somewhere I can buy brushes in bulk for working with resin. Since the things I'm working on require me to work in small parts with the resin, I will end up going through tons and tons of brushes. The hobby shops around here only sell those variety packs, and they all shot up in price from the last time I bought one. Any ideas where I can buy stupidly large quantities of brushes? I would absolutely love to get my hands on some free-form habitat for making the repo mask pieces I'm working on, but I need to burn through the stuff I have now.

my cat is norris
Mar 11, 2010

#onecallcat

The Repo Man posted:

Any ideas where I can buy stupidly large quantities of brushes?

Check teacher supply retailers such as: http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/30-round-xl-brushes-in-canister/p/702746/

There is also: http://www.orientaltrading.com/api/search?Ntt=paint+brush

Bag of Hamsters
Jul 12, 2006

Gimme yer frickin pancreas

I needs it for reasons.

JossiRossi posted:

I have some Acrylic matte and gloss topcoats. I will be using the gloss coat on a sample item tomorrow if all goes well. Will likely do some sanding work to dull bits.

I am doing a small test item where I use a bunch of techniques on a small little thing. I grabbed some E6000 and that stuff seems really nice. I did 2 thick layers, with a third small layer on top that I cut a detail into. For my process I hot glued the big pieces together, E6000'd the thin top layer on. Sanded the rough/uneven edges down. Then I used some silicon/acrylic caulking to try and even out the seams. I sealed it with Plastidip, and after waiting probably-not-long-enough spray painted the thing.

I also did a couple of smaller detail items. I tried out that technique you linked to for 2 of the pieces and I really liked how that came out so thanks for that tip! I'll definitely be using it on the final piece.

Tomorrow I'll try to assemble it all, glue the details down and then seal the whole thing.

What Went Well
-The caulking I used seems to have done a good job at masking the seams.
-Scoring/Heating of desired details.
-Paint choices look pretty good.

What Went Awry
-I think I used too much or too little Plastidip, I'm completely unsure. Should it be this super light coating, or juuuuust thick enough to create its own continuous surface smoothing over the normal porousness of the EVA?
-Hiding of seams was not uniform. Some areas seemed good even before painting, others I know will be visible in the final product.
-I did not handle some tight curves well, still unsure how to deal with them, but fortunately not a pressing issue for the time being.

I'll be sure to toss some pictures and final thoughts tomorrow.

I get rid of seams by sanding even more, and then some more. Seal and primer should take care of anything on top of that.

Plastidip is used in multiple coats, I should have mentioned. :( You keep the layers thin so they don't fill in your fine details.

JossiRossi
Jul 28, 2008

A little EQ, a touch of reverb, slap on some compression and there. That'll get your dickbutt jiggling.

Bag of Hamsters posted:

I get rid of seams by sanding even more, and then some more. Seal and primer should take care of anything on top of that.

Plastidip is used in multiple coats, I should have mentioned. :( You keep the layers thin so they don't fill in your fine details.

No worries, I used multiple lighter coats instead of just spraying the crap out of it once. Not that that is beyond me, mind you. Not really sure what the end product of those multiple coats should seem like before painting though. I imagine that's something that will just come in time.

Harvey Baldman
Jan 11, 2011

ATTORNEY AT LAW
Justice is bald, like an eagle, or Lady Liberty's docket.

I've had a lot of mixed developments in the last few days that are going to complicate things for NYCC pretty substantially. The first is that I've injured my back - I'm walking with a cane at present, and probably going to need to get MRIs done because I'm in a lot of pain in my lower back and hip when I'm on my feet. This obviously slows me down a lot with how I'm working. Ontop of that, my 3d printer's extruder motor seems to have died on me, so I'm working on getting a replacement... but that's going to probably be, at best, by the end of next week.

In light of the above, I'm not sure I'm even still going to be going to NYCC this year. It breaks my heart, because I've been looking forward to this stupid event for months, but if I can't walk I'm not going to be enjoying myself. I guess I could forego the costume and try gettin' around the place in a wheelchair, but that's... less than ideal for me.

But, let's try and look at some of the positive developments from today. The first is that if I don't end up going to NYCC, I can at least try selling the tickets to recoup some of my cost. I only had Friday tickets anyway. Furthermore, it means I have more than just the next two weeks to actually complete the costume, which means I can take my time with some of the details. I have tickets for the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle next March, so I guess I could always aspire to wear it there instead... who knows.

Better news is that prior to my printer's extruder motor failing, I did manage to get it to produce the chin piece, and got most of the helmet together.





It's a much better fit than the original print. Thanks to the changes I made to the back of the helmet, I'm able to slip in on and off over my head as a single piece without much difficulty.





Here's a comparison between the revised helmet and the original print. It's kind of hard to spot the differences in photos, especially since I haven't primed my version yet, but I promise you it's substantial.





You can see how much more curved the original's faceplate was on the right side here:



I will confess some of my changes made the parts print a little thin in some places, but I've used a bit of JB Weld on the inside surfaces where that was a problem to thicken it up and reinforce those parts of the helmet. JB Weld has also been applied to a lot of the seams inside the helmet to give me a decent, strong attachment between parts.

So yeah, that's where we're at for the moment. I might be going a little slow for the next few days - I'm on pain meds right now that basically knock me right out - but I will try to keep at it as I'm able.

The Repo Man
Jul 31, 2013

I Remember...
Wow, funky, that sucks. You can consider, If necessary, going in a wheelchair with the costume. People do it a lot. If you keep the cane with you, you can try to stand using it, otherwise people do cosplay in wheelchairs and no one thinks less of the costume or the cosplayer. Whatever you do, don't over exert yourself :ohdear:. I have a bad sciatic nerve, so I know to some extent the pain you are in. Not fun.

McPantserton
Jan 19, 2005

IRONICALLY SWEALTERING
Oh man, Funky, that's rough. Don't beat yourself up if NYCC falls through, there are tons of other cons in the year and Halloween is right on the horizon, too. And remember that if you get it wearable but not 100% done for NYCC you can always go back in and do the details later, that's what I'm doing with my 40k stuff this fall. No matter when it's done your costume is going to look fantastic and I guarantee that GotG will still be cool and people will love it even if it has to wait a bit.

a cock shaped fruit
Aug 23, 2010



The true enemy of humanity is disorder.
That's a bummer man, really sorry to hear that. Like Repo said though, people still dig a cool costume, even if it's on wheels!

Mecha Neko
Mar 16, 2011
I feel like I'm SO CLOSE to being done, but there are so many little detail things that it's going slower than I would like. I want to get it all done before we go out of town on Monday, too, which doesn't help. I've officially clocked more than 90 hours on this drat thing, a lot of it practice pieces and trial and error.

Shoulders!

Refresher image reference:




I'm not completely happy with the epaulettes, but it'll have to do.

The upper arm band is done, the elbow bands are halfway done, and I've started on the bracelets.

After that, I want to adjust the neckline of that flesh-colored shirt so it isn't so obvious (I'll probably be glad I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt at the end of October, although I can always ditch it last minute if it's unseasonably warm).

Then I want to add lights to the legs.

I have a tiny chair and a belt so I can make it look like I have a pilot, but I don't know where to find a cheap 18" doll, preferably one that isn't proportioned like a baby, but that may be shooting too high. Hopefully I can find one while we're on our trip to the US, dolls that aren't Barbie are surprisingly hard to find here.

ScottyWired
Jan 30, 2014

Don't believe in yourself. Believe in the Kamina who believes in you. u suk
I've been inspired (and a little intimated) by this thread. Decided to build a proper costume for the first time, as opposed to just getting some second-hand clothes then buying an autistic 3D-printing of myself.

Decided I'd do this nerdy badass, Shiroe from Log Horizon, because the second season will be well underway when Supanova Brisbane comes around


Already done the harness(?) and little black box on his satchel.

The belts are just some $3 polyurethane poo poo from K-Mart.
Got the little box from a hotel and spray-painted it black, I'll probably fill it with sweets when the con comes around.

I know there's some deviations from the reference material. Don't wanna do that top strap because it'd be rubbing under my arms for the full day, it'll hidden by cape anyway. I've also got two buckles leftover so I'll use them on the bag to weight the flap down + buckles look cool.

Easiest part will be the sweater, I can just buy that. If by some tragedy everything gets ruined, I can just take off everything except the pants, glasses and sweater then call myself Steve Jobs.

Cape will be a bitch though, dunno how I'm gonna make it this loose.

The Repo Man
Jul 31, 2013

I Remember...

ScottyWired posted:

Cape will be a bitch though, dunno how I'm gonna make it this loose.

Velcro on the shoulders and a ton of interfacing to keep it on? Maybe even using that wire used in millinery. It's flexible enough that it should keep the form of the poofy cloak, along with interfacing, to keep the whole thing from drooping.

Funhilde
Jun 1, 2011

Cats Love Me.
Looks like a cowl neck. I did something similar for my scarlet witch cape. I would just search Cowl neck tutorial online and you can get the idea of how to make that shape.

Harvey Baldman
Jan 11, 2011

ATTORNEY AT LAW
Justice is bald, like an eagle, or Lady Liberty's docket.

McPantserton posted:

Oh man, Funky, that's rough. Don't beat yourself up if NYCC falls through, there are tons of other cons in the year and Halloween is right on the horizon, too. And remember that if you get it wearable but not 100% done for NYCC you can always go back in and do the details later, that's what I'm doing with my 40k stuff this fall. No matter when it's done your costume is going to look fantastic and I guarantee that GotG will still be cool and people will love it even if it has to wait a bit.

What other cons would you suggest, as an aside? I really want to do more stuff like this, and I'm having a blast making parts. I'd love to try and get more involved in other conventions so I have more excuses to do this kind of thing.

The helmet is officially done printing. It took three tries but I finally got it fitting me like a glove at this point.







I have less than two weeks until NYCC rolls around. It was initially my desire to make a mold of the helmet in silicone, pop out a solid resin copy, and finish and paint that for wearing to the con. Since I only have twelve days, I'm not sure if I'm still going to do that, or if I should just finish and wear the 3d printed version instead. Any thoughts? PLA plastic like this thing is printed in is a little brittle, but I know it'd take me 4-5 days easy just to make a mold of this thing properly and try to get to the first-casting stages and I still have to finish up both of my guns!... and boot rockets!... and belt!... and boots!... and obviously there's some stuff I'm not going to get done in time. :\

McPantserton
Jan 19, 2005

IRONICALLY SWEALTERING

Funky Bunch Wikia posted:

What other cons would you suggest, as an aside? I really want to do more stuff like this, and I'm having a blast making parts. I'd love to try and get more involved in other conventions so I have more excuses to do this kind of thing.


I'm in the midwest and I've never flown to a con before so the ones I've been to are all in a limited area but I bet you'd like C2E2, it's huge and awesome. My favorite con is GenCon, it's not super costume heavy but people (me) definitely do dress up and there is soooo much cool poo poo to do if you like board games/card games/RPGs. DragonCon is widely considered to be the best costume con in the country, I really want to hit that someday. A lot of my friends seem to do KatsuCon, too.

Guardians related, today I'm sewing a backpack for a Rocket Raccoon room party outfit (not doing a fur suit, just the jumpsuit/ears/tail) and holy poo poo you guys I am so crappy at sewing. Thank god this costume is for funsies and not something that will ever be judged critically or anything, augh. I think there's a poltergeist in my sewing machine.

Harvey Baldman
Jan 11, 2011

ATTORNEY AT LAW
Justice is bald, like an eagle, or Lady Liberty's docket.

Star Lord needed some dental work done, and by that, I of course mean braces. :V



There was a gap between the cheek panels and the front of the mask - probably due to me being a little inaccurate with assembling things. I needed to close that gap up and fill the space in, so I put a strip of styrene plastic there to help close things up and tried gluing the gap shut. I very quickly discovered that the PLA is just flexible enough to not play along with that whole routine, so I went for the nuclear option and drilled a bolt through either piece, and then wired them together. I applied JB Weld on the back of the seam and let it dry for about 12 hours, and now I'm pretty sure the mask is one solid piece, with the gap mostly filled in. The bolt holes are in two relatively simple places to patch, so when I take them out tomorrow I'll just epoxy them closed and sand the holes flat again - you'll never even know they were there.

I hope.

I actually doubt I'll have the helmet done in time for NYCC, which is a huge bummer, but I just don't have the ability to work at my usual speed with my back all bodged up.

I also started wiring the blaster components into the blaster proper - or at least the one blaster I have taken further than the other. It's a huge mess at the moment.



Don't worry, I know what I'm doing! I hope. It will be a bit tricky routing all that wiring around the opening mechanisms, but I'm sure I can do it. So far I've got the battery receptacle finalized and I just installed a pair of 3.3v and 5v dc-to-dc converters right by the battery to regulate the 9v down to 5v and 3.3v respectively for the various components that will need it.

Hot glue is both a blessing and a curse with this kind of work. It holds components steady, it insulates wires from shorting, but it also makes a giant bloody mess inside the body of the gun. Still, I think I'd rather not be without it!

JossiRossi
Jul 28, 2008

A little EQ, a touch of reverb, slap on some compression and there. That'll get your dickbutt jiggling.
So I managed to learn some important things. Like trying to glue pieces of foam to spray paint layers causes the spray paint to loosen up and make the piece and paint get all sloppy and sloosh around. I also learned that thinish acrylic coats causes the same thing. What I did not learn is how to attach a pre-painted piece to another pre-painted piece without everything getting goopy and looking like a total mess. Maybe the acrylic gloss spray was simply too thin and I just need to use it a bit more liberally, or perhaps I did not let things set long enough.



I lovingly call it the Bajoran Garage Door Opener. There's still some things I like about the guy, but man it just looks sloppy up close. You can kind of see where paint blended with adhesive and then pulled off and apart. Which if I ever need to make something look like a gooey wound will be super useful.

One of the biggest issues was that these smaller pieces would slide around ruining my symmetry. Which will haunt me.

Bag of Hamsters
Jul 12, 2006

Gimme yer frickin pancreas

I needs it for reasons.

JossiRossi posted:

So I managed to learn some important things. Like trying to glue pieces of foam to spray paint layers causes the spray paint to loosen up and make the piece and paint get all sloppy and sloosh around. I also learned that thinish acrylic coats causes the same thing. What I did not learn is how to attach a pre-painted piece to another pre-painted piece without everything getting goopy and looking like a total mess. Maybe the acrylic gloss spray was simply too thin and I just need to use it a bit more liberally, or perhaps I did not let things set long enough.



I lovingly call it the Bajoran Garage Door Opener. There's still some things I like about the guy, but man it just looks sloppy up close. You can kind of see where paint blended with adhesive and then pulled off and apart. Which if I ever need to make something look like a gooey wound will be super useful.

One of the biggest issues was that these smaller pieces would slide around ruining my symmetry. Which will haunt me.

The answer to attaching pre-painted pieces is: don't. Best case scenario, the paint rips off on one side. Figure out how things will join beforehand [I know you're experimenting, so everyone goes through this] and make sure to leave raw surface space.

JossiRossi
Jul 28, 2008

A little EQ, a touch of reverb, slap on some compression and there. That'll get your dickbutt jiggling.
drat, was really hoping to avoid hand painting things, although I might be able to get away with something like:

1. Assemble foam.
2. Prime/Paint base color.
3. Cut out/place masking layers of buttons and other details to be painted.
4. Spray additional color/s.
5. Touchups.
6. Sealing.

Unless that also seems really folly somewhere, so I don't have to learn the hard way :)

moths
Aug 25, 2004

I would also still appreciate some danger.



You could try using masking tape on contact points. That should open your options a bit.

Bag of Hamsters
Jul 12, 2006

Gimme yer frickin pancreas

I needs it for reasons.

moths posted:

You could try using masking tape on contact points. That should open your options a bit.

This. Any place I have to add fasteners or connect two parts gets a strip of tape. Way easier.

JossiRossi
Jul 28, 2008

A little EQ, a touch of reverb, slap on some compression and there. That'll get your dickbutt jiggling.
That... why did I not do that?

Anyway I did start a quicker project to keep practicing skills before trying one of the bigger goals.





The marks in the middle (where I used foam to keep the face from touching the ground when painting the back) will be obscured by a screen I'll make and slide in (I managed to keep the edges able to be raised to slide in the fake screen when I make it) just have to make a GamePig name stencil for the top there, do a little bit of clean up by the buttons but nothing to extreme, and then seal the sucker.

I needed to spend more time smoothing out the surfaces with finer sand paper, way more of the texture showed through than I expected.

Next time I'll use masking tape to cover contact points where I'll glue things. Which should have been a no brainer, but I never did get that crafts badge in boy scouts.

Remember that the saying goes "Measure twice, cut once" not "Measure never, cut always." Lines are not totally straight, round buttons could have been cut better. Pig head came out pretty good though! He will need a face though. Still time to mess him up. I also lost some of the initial cut shape by the sanding I was doing. So something else to take into account when designing things, might want to allow for a little bit of a larger size which will be lost to sanding.

Thanks for all the suggestions for babbys first foam props. I really appreciate the advice, and hopefully I'll be making improvement over time.

Speleothing
May 6, 2008

Spare batteries are pretty key.
Okay, it seems like the better funnier GBS may not have a Halloween thread this year.

How should I go about lazily making an astronaut costume?

cool kids inc.
May 27, 2005

I swallowed a bug

Speleothing posted:

Okay, it seems like the better funnier GBS may not have a Halloween thread this year.

How should I go about lazily making an astronaut costume?

Does your head fit in a fishbowl?

TunaSpleen
Jan 27, 2007

How do I say, "You're the grossest thing ever" without offending you?
Grimey Drawer

Speleothing posted:

How should I go about lazily making an astronaut costume?

Do you have $40?
http://halloween-costumes.spirithalloween.com/search?view=grid&w=astronaut

Alternatively, orange tracksuit, electrical tape, plus iron-on fabric decals if you have the parts and spare time but not the cash. A helmet would really sell the look but if you're just going out clubbing or drinking it'll get in the way.

http://www.chicagocostume.com/deluxe-nasa-astronaut-helmet/

Harvey Baldman
Jan 11, 2011

ATTORNEY AT LAW
Justice is bald, like an eagle, or Lady Liberty's docket.

So a lot of last week was spent in bed resting and trying to give my back a chance to heal a bit so I didn't end up being wheelchaired around NYCC. I didn't totally waste the time, though!







I will eventually be doing a limited run of the orbs to sell, so I figured I should come up with a suitable display base to match. The electromagnet he uses to first appropriate the orb seemed appropriate! I also modeled up Star Lord's arm badge, just because.



The pants got an update yesterday night. They're surprisingly hard to photograph because the materials are very dark and fairly low-contrast, but the details are shaping up.





The hips are probably going to see the most work from this point, as the pocket details and other final, small pieces are being added. The holster pads are being done up in synthetic leather - real leather was considered, but ultimately rejected because the pants were difficult enough without adding in trying to sew the 2oz leather I have in there. I think the synthetic stuff'll look just fine, though:



When the pants are finished I will make a point of getting out into proper daylight, instead of artificial lighting, and getting some decent pictures of everything.

REVIEW TIME.

So I have a week until the convention. Things didn't pan out quite like I anticipated - for one thing, my employment situation changed pretty substantially, and I've had to spend a lot of time job-hunting. I am a miserable perfectionist, so the thought of rushing a lot of the things I'm working on just to have them done in time for NYCC is a no go - I wouldn't be happy showing off anything less than my best effort. The helmet, for example, is something I really want to nail the details down on - I know I could rush the whole thing and give it a quickie paintjob and it'd probably work from a distance, but I'd never be happy with it until I spent days sanding it and days lighting it and days casting and finishing it. Likewise, I haven't made as much progress with the blasters as I should have largely due to the fact that this is a first time trial for me; I had to learn how to work with electronics and arduinos specifically, and even now I'm waiting for an order from digikey that should give me a switch that I need to make the 'overheating' effect work properly. Ontop of all that, I've been dealing with my back problems and I lost quite a few days to bed rest!

I'm not going to rush these things just for the sake of the convention because I have a longer plan in mind - I have a few other conventions down the road that I'd like to attend, and I'm looking at getting involved with childrens' benefit stuff if possible with this outfit. I will be cutting a bunch of corners to still go to NYCC on Friday as Star Lord, but it'll be heavily abridged and not all that impressive - just for fun. But hey! Stay with me, and we'll make some cool stuff down the line, I promise. Star Lord has a lot of equipment and I want to get through all of it.

In light of not having the helmet, I decided I was going to make myself the earpiece instead. After all, that's where the helmet goes when not being worn, right? :V Not a lot of reference material available for the earpiece, but I think I came up with a reasonable substitute.



It prints in two pieces and I designed it so I can stuff electronics inside! I've carved out room for two stardard sized LR1130 1.5V coin cells which I will wire together in series. I have some small 9mm slide switches that I took measures of with my calipers, which is what that rectangular hole in the side of the body of the earpiece is for - an on-off switch. The hole through the front, by the ear lobe, is sized for a 3mm red LED. The back cover holds the coin cells in place and attaches with small M2x4mm screws.





Tomorrow's work is hopefully going to be finishing this up...

Funhilde
Jun 1, 2011

Cats Love Me.
do they request orange caps on even obvious fake guns like that? I don't know the rules on cons but probably good to know.

Harvey Baldman
Jan 11, 2011

ATTORNEY AT LAW
Justice is bald, like an eagle, or Lady Liberty's docket.

Might need an orange tip. I can probably print something removable so I don't have to ruin the actual gun for it and then if they give me a hard time on the day of the con, I can just pop it in.

foxatee
Feb 27, 2010

That foxatee is always making a Piggles out of herself.
Glob drat, dude! Your work is just loving mind blowing. Can't wait to see this whole thing come together.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Funhilde posted:

do they request orange caps on even obvious fake guns like that? I don't know the rules on cons but probably good to know.

Depends on the con. Metrocon in Tampa required orange tips even on a Yuna's approximately this obviously fake gun props just in case. I had to check in my Harry Dresden staff as a weapon (being carved from solid wood rather than a lightweight prop, it probably really was the most dangerous prop there).

Kazy
Oct 23, 2006

0x38: FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR

It probably won't need an orange cap, but they'll probably put an orange ziptie on it to show it's been through the weapons check in.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

One idea I'm interested in is making a simple orange dowel that can be semi-tightly fit in the barrel. This would allow for a removable orange tip that can simply be installed for cons with stricter weapon rules and then removed when I want to use the gun for something else.

This is especially useful for airsoft guns because their barrels are usually only a few hundredths of a millimeter different in diameter so one rod can service multiple guns.

Bean
Sep 9, 2001
Hey, since we're talking about it, I was thinking about making a costume with an (obviously fake foam) spear for next year's DragonCon. What will they do about that? Can I have that? I emailed security to ask and they acted like they had no idea what I was even talking about.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Bean posted:

Hey, since we're talking about it, I was thinking about making a costume with an (obviously fake foam) spear for next year's DragonCon. What will they do about that? Can I have that? I emailed security to ask and they acted like they had no idea what I was even talking about.

I don't know DragonCon's rules specifically, but most rules on melee weapons emphasize no real steel without restrictions on appearance. So a foam spear, even if it looked identical to metal through really clever painting, would be allowable.

Honestly, the orange tip rules are a bit of a dinosaur. Police officers nowadays rarely pause at the sight of an orange tip (and sometimes even brightly painted but otherwise realistic guns) due to constant lessons on criminals painting their guns to look fake or (more commonly) painting airsoft and BB guns to look real as a bluff. If a cop has any reason to believe that the weapon is real and that you're a threat, an orange tip will do nothing to stop him. There was even a recent incident in Utah where a Samurai Champloo cosplayer was shot and killed by police while fleeing with a prop sword while walking around town in cosplay. Unless they know a con is in town and they recognize you as a cosplayer, they don't give two shits about identifying a weapon as fake. And I'm sad to say, it's worse if you're black.

Terec
Dec 14, 2001
Cybernetic Crumb

Bean posted:

Hey, since we're talking about it, I was thinking about making a costume with an (obviously fake foam) spear for next year's DragonCon. What will they do about that? Can I have that? I emailed security to ask and they acted like they had no idea what I was even talking about.

I took this two years ago to DragonCon, no one said anything. Its about seven feet long and the shaft is solid wood with a acrylic blade.

McPantserton
Jan 19, 2005

IRONICALLY SWEALTERING
On the flip side, I have never been to a con that didn't hassle me about my spear for Hilde. It's made out of wood so maybe that's the difference but I really wish I'd built it to break down or with a soft blade or something because I get so much poo poo for carrying it around. I got stopped like 5 times on the way to Anime Central's masquerade.

McKilligan
May 13, 2007

Acey Deezy

McPantserton posted:

On the flip side, I have never been to a con that didn't hassle me about my spear for Hilde. It's made out of wood so maybe that's the difference but I really wish I'd built it to break down or with a soft blade or something because I get so much poo poo for carrying it around. I got stopped like 5 times on the way to Anime Central's masquerade.


Still haven't taken this to any cons but now I'm expecting to have to do a lot of explaining... almost 6 feet long and all pine. I almost wish I'd used something a little more con-friendly, but gently caress it, wouldn't have looked as cool.

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ScottyWired
Jan 30, 2014

Don't believe in yourself. Believe in the Kamina who believes in you. u suk
The shaft of my staff (heh) will be made of two pvc pipes. I've got two corks with those hoop-screw thingos stuck in them, and they'll be connected with some stretchy cord. Pretty simple way to make it collapsible.

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