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Similar to the armor question above: A few months ago, I made some accessories out of Foamies craft foam sheets and gold spray paint. I soon discovered that I should have added a clear coat over the top. What product do the experienced crafters recommend?
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Jul 18, 2015 10:29
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CantDecideOnAName posted:I have a fake armor question. I decided to make a couple armor pieces out of craft foam--the thin kind you would find at Michael's or a similar craft store. I'm sealing the bigger piece with regular Elmer's school glue and then I'm going to paint it and try to make it look like metal; the smaller piece I'm going to try and make look like leather. I was looking at spraypaint at Home Depot and was wondering if Rustoleum would work or if there's a better paint. I've never done this before and I don't want it to look horribly fake but I feel a little directionless at the moment. Personally, I take the expensive route and make foam armor, then cover it in worbla - though I do this for conventions, not halloween. Foam should do just fine for that. I've found that the most common sealer is wood glue, as opposed to school glue. Why? I do not know. You can also use a plasticizing spraypaint from home depot, I've heard that it's pretty flexible and works to seal things fairly well. You can use a metallic spraypaint from home depot or lowes or wherever, to distress it and make it look real I suggest dry brushing some detail on. You can get some cheap acrylic paint and paintbrushes to do so. There's a lot of dry brushing tutorials online, as well. For the insignia, I suggest using a bit of glue (superglue?) to put it on the foam, then sealing and painting over it - that will probably keep it in place. As for attaching it, that's where I'm not sure either. That's why I use worbla, so I can securely and reliably anchor things anywhere. are you going to be wearing a shirt or not? If so, maybe velcro is something to look into? PurpleButterfly posted:Similar to the armor question above: A few months ago, I made some accessories out of Foamies craft foam sheets and gold spray paint. I soon discovered that I should have added a clear coat over the top. What product do the experienced crafters recommend? You can use a spray clearcoat, that's what I do with my props (that I mostly spraypaint). For my armor that I painted with acrylics, I got some clear brush-on sealer from micheals.
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Jul 18, 2015 19:59
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Rodenthar Drothman posted:common sealer is wood glue, as opposed to school glue They're usually roughly the same thing (PVA) but school glue tends to be a lot more dilute and a bit more expensive than bulk-buying wood glue. You probably want to dilute it a bit for sealing with though.
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Jul 18, 2015 21:38
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thespaceinvader posted:They're usually roughly the same thing (PVA) but school glue tends to be a lot more dilute and a bit more expensive than bulk-buying wood glue. Ah, I'd never looked into it that far. Good to know! Also, yeah, adding warm water to the wood glue before sealing -- I tried it to seal one piece, and just couldn't get good enough results (though I'm a super-stickler for having perfectly smooth things) so I went with gesso. Which took forever but was worth it for the smoothness I got.
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Jul 18, 2015 21:55
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Also worth noting that if you intend to spraypaint foam, you should test it first to make sure the accelerants won't dissolve the foam. Many foams are vulnerable that way, especially expanded polystyrene ones. The glue should seal it, but obviously (unless you like the acid-damaged look, it might be appropriate!) you need to make sure it's REALLY well-sealed.
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Jul 18, 2015 22:03
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Does anyone have any good sources for inexpensive cloth? I'm at the stage in my project where I need to begin thinking about skinning it with fabric. I'm looking for any black fabric that has a smooth, mate finish, and isn't see-through when stretched slightly. It wouldn't need to stretch too much, just where my elbows, knees, etc. are. I also need a ton of cheesecloth or similar fabric that I can dye various shades of gray-brown and hot glue onto the black fabric skin I'm going to have.
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Jul 19, 2015 01:34
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neogeo0823 posted:Does anyone have any good sources for inexpensive cloth? I'm at the stage in my project where I need to begin thinking about skinning it with fabric. I'm looking for any black fabric that has a smooth, mate finish, and isn't see-through when stretched slightly. It wouldn't need to stretch too much, just where my elbows, knees, etc. are. I also need a ton of cheesecloth or similar fabric that I can dye various shades of gray-brown and hot glue onto the black fabric skin I'm going to have. If you have a local thrift store I would start there. Joann's fabric chain offers coupons galore if you sign up for them. Email/app/regular mail and text options are all available and you can combine. I've had great luck with https://www.fabric.com as well
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Jul 19, 2015 15:21
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When I make foam armor, first I lightly iron all the foam sheets to help close the pores on the surface (do so in a well-ventilated area, the fumes are very minor but I'm not taking chances). Then I cut them out with my paper patterns, heat and shape them, add on layers for details, etc., then for painting I add a couple layers of white latex primer paint like you use for walls. It bends with the foam and doesn't flake. After the primer is dry I add a solid coat of matte black acrylic and top that with my metallic acrylic, but spraypaint might work as well. I don't know how important it is to use a dark base coat under metallic spraypaint, but it's crucial with acrylic otherwise you'll waste time and paint adding multiple layers because it's not completely opaque. For sealing it after that, I like to use Triple Thick Gloss Glaze which is water-resistant but not waterproof. I find It holds up well to sweating at a convention, though.
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Jul 19, 2015 22:38
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My cosplays are going to be so simple compared to the amazing stuff you guys are all doing, but I've been following this thread long enough that I want to get more involved and learn more about it all. I've done Six in the red dress before ( <- go figure), but bought a custom made dress which didn't require much effort on my part My fiancé and I just finished vending at our first con ever, and have already been invited to vend in the gaming section of next years Anime North. While most of our display will be game-themed hand etched beer steins, the thing people really loved this weekend was our handmade replica Game of Thrones dragon eggs, so I really want to have a fantastic Daenerys cosplay to wear at our booth at any cons we get into. Since it's eggs, I really want it to be a season 1 look, but I haven't decided between the wedding dress or her Dothraki outfit. The wedding dress is beautiful and I absolutely love it but it looks like it would be much more difficult to make, and I'm a little concerned about being able to hide a strapless bra in it because there is no way that I can go without/stick on bras are absolutely not an option. The Dothraki top has a pretty wide band at the back that looks like it would cover a wide strap pretty well. Also taking into account, my fiancé wants to match, and has the dark look perfect for Drogo, but doesn't feel comfortable shirtless so we will likely make a Jorah cosplay for him as well. We could then use a lot of the same stuff as the Dothraki outfit for me. I'm really just starting looking into this stuff since we have quite a while to do it, though if we get them done in time for Halloween that would certainly be a bonus. Any advice at all would be very helpful, thanks!
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Jul 20, 2015 21:27
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It looks like the wedding dress could easily cover a bra with halter style straps. You could even go for transparent straps if you're that worried about anything being spotted. Another option may be a bustier with a low cut between the cups. Either way, your ladies have options for good support! You might find the Dothraki look easier to bring together, all that said. I've restarted work on my long-overdue Dark Souls cosplay. I'm also working on something utterly stupid for DragonCon. Details/pictures to come. my cat is norris fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 21, 2015 18:44
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For Daenerys particularly I would probably search out other people's progress, she's such a popular character that I imagine there must be a lot of people who have posted their process. I was also going to say the same thing about the halter straps for the wedding dress, if you started with the bra strap and made the halter specifically to cover them it seems like it wouldn't be too hard! Here's my victory of the week, Arthas's giant skull shoulder. I covered the base pauldron in saran wrap and tape, sculpted the skull roughly in paper clay, refined it with apoxie sculpt, and sanded until I was happy with it. Then I greased that fucker up with vaseline, shaped the worbla onto the clay until it was as accurate as I could get it, and popped it off. Shoulder is going to be light as hell despite being enormous, yay! I backfilled the worbla part with paper clay a bit, gotta stick it on and blend my edges and then it's just a few details and skull shoulder is done.  e.  
McPantserton fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Jul 24, 2015 |
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Jul 24, 2015 15:48
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I'm working on a cardboard and bondo helmet following a pattern I got. I'm going to need to bend the cardboard and chipboard and I'm wondering if lightly misting it and shaping it around the side of a stock pot is the best method. Forgoing the misting I was going to try using a heatgun on it to see if that would help it bend to shape.
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Jul 25, 2015 22:36
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I'm helping my friend build a Thor costume since he's going to some con in Chicago soon. Things have been progressing really well thanks to online guides and what not, but we're unsure how to pursue the cape.  Any recommendations on the red cape? We want the right kind of fabric, is all.
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Jul 27, 2015 02:32
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crime fighting hog posted:Any recommendations on the red cape? We want the right kind of fabric, is all. This thread has some discussion on proper fabric for the cape. I know the costumer experimented with English wool during their dye tests.
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Jul 27, 2015 05:24
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So close to being done with Arthas  The to-do list for tonight:-finish weathering the final 3 pieces of armor -glue on the front medallions -glue in the blacklight LEDs at the right angle We finally figured out properly gravity-defying attachments for the stupid huge shoulders that work really well, so that's awesome!  And I painted the gemstone with a bunch of super glittery nail polish so it is very colorful and pretty, yay!   Sadly I will not have Frostmourne ready for the debut this upcoming weekend but I like sleep too much and I really want to make the sword super nice, oh well. e. The giant pictures of the gem have forced me to add "dremel the edges around the gemstone a little to even them up" to my to-do list, oops. McPantserton fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jul 27, 2015 |
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Jul 27, 2015 17:05
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McPantserton posted:So close to being done with Arthas This is looking awesome! Too bad it won't be ready for gencon, it would be the easiest way for me to find you and awkwardly geek out!
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Jul 27, 2015 18:20
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Shiny Penny posted:This is looking awesome! Too bad it won't be ready for gencon, it would be the easiest way for me to find you and awkwardly geek out! poo poo yeah it will, that's the whole reason I'm making it. Just no sword but everything else is definitely a go! It's going to be me in this getup, and we also have a Val'kyr with giant-rear end wings and a 9ish-foot tall Patchwerk so I feel like we should be fairly easy to spot, haha. McPantserton fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Jul 27, 2015 |
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Jul 27, 2015 18:54
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neogeo0823 posted:In fact, that very video is my inspiration for the thing I'm making. From a bit back, but would a mask that looks like the underside of a spider look creepy? Like, the bit where the legs join up under the cephalothorax.
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Jul 27, 2015 21:37
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Does anyone have a good matte finish that they use? I used the Rustoleum spray can and it turned my Boba Fett armor gray. I tried sanding it off but I think I will have to repaint the five pieces. I probably put too much on, but I couldn't tell while I was spraying since it goes on clear. Any suggestions?
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Jul 28, 2015 15:40
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Pants, you're looking incredible.
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Jul 28, 2015 20:34
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McPantserton posted:We finally figured out properly gravity-defying attachments for the stupid huge shoulders that work really well, so that's awesome! Tell me your secrets!
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Jul 28, 2015 23:49
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Reformed Tomboy posted:Tell me your secrets! Resources. Have them.
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Jul 29, 2015 00:10
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my cat is norris posted:Pants, you're looking incredible.  Feels super good to be sitting on the couch the night before the con, not gonna lie. I swear I'll post full costume pics as soon as I can!Reformed Tomboy posted:Tell me your secrets! Generally speaking: -I follow a zillion other cosplayers and steal their smart techniques. Like I thought to burn the tatters into my tattery cloak and skirt thing with a soldering iron so it won't fray more because I saw Yaya Han do that to a ballgown cosplay with synthetic fabric, it worked really well and was very fast to do -I am a total ultraplanner, I start all my crap super early and I save a bunch of money for it all in advance so I'm ready with funds and time -I am lame and don't do anything for like months at a time besides work on costumes I left the house a little more than usual this summer but mostly because my husband agreed to be my helper monkey for the whole costumeSpecifically speaking: For giant stuff like Arthas's shoulder/breastplate setup you absolutely just can't use glue to hold everything in place, it has to be mechanical connectors. And ideally not just screws, it would probably be more secure to just bolt the whole fucker together but it's such a pain for transporting if the armor can't come apart. So we get a bit creative! For this rig I knew the breastplate would be too rigid to get on with that tiny front opening and how thick it is so I made it in 2 pieces, but it also has to be super secure and fitted to support those giant-rear end shoulderpads.  So here you can see, the breastplate center back has a pair of sintra tabs on one side and slots on the other to hold the 2 halves flush. The 2 halves are then buckled together using cotton webbing strap, which I like despite its non-fantasy armor look because it doesn't stretch (important for the sideways tension the huge shoulders will put on this breastplate), is very durable, and is easy to work the buckle tongue through. (I also used this webbing on the thigh piece buckles since I figured the aesthetic of my inner thighs was my own business and it's an armor piece prone to slipping down, side note.) The front of the breastplate is a total non-issue for the sideways tension because it's really rigid and fitted to my chest, which holds it in place just fine on its own, it has a front buckle that's 100% decorative. Once the breastplate was fixed securely, we started with the smaller shoulder, this attachment was very simple! We basically mounted a PVC pipe to the center underside of the shoulder, then an appropriately sized PVC fitting to the top of the breastplate. Once I am in the breastplate, you basically just plug the shoulder right on top and it just hovers there like magic. We did a similar system for our space marine shoulders except the shoulders sat higher up so they mounted horizontally instead of vertically on a whole PVC backpack harness deal.  The larger skull shoulder was a lot harder because the center is super high up off the shoulder of the breastplate. So instead of a vertical PVC fitting, these have these square bracket things that we think were intended for drawer pulls or something mounted into the breastplate and then square dowels inside the shoulderpad so once again you just plug them in front and back. Hopefully you can kinda see what I mean despite the fact that it's all painted in now to keep it as invisible as I can!  
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Jul 29, 2015 02:47
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Thank you! You never really get to see the underside of other people's costumes that much, and it really helps me see things I didn't think of before. My problem is I have no breast plate to attach the shoulders to. Right now I'm leaning toward balancing them against each other and put them on over my head, but I have yet to mess around with it. Working on the staff right now.
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Jul 29, 2015 03:00
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I have done that too! I did a costume with mystery floating pauldrons that had thin hidden elastic underarm straps and then a central back strap that buckled together to make sure they didn't just go flying, it worked pretty well. I made my elastic too tight though so it hurt my armpits and also was perversely inclined to roll down my arms a lot, leading my husband to have to reach up into my pits every 20 minutes or so to adjust. Fun!
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Jul 29, 2015 03:10
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 I'm working on my first legitimate cosplay using this pattern (purple dress on the left) and I could use some fabric advice. I only have a lovely Joann's Fabrics nearby and I will probably have to order my fabric online. The suggested fabrics are expensive though. Dupioni, brocade, jacquard and those are all above my price range. I'm just looking for a solid white and a solid red fabric that isn't horribly shiny. I'd like to stick to around $10/yard but I'm not even sure what to look for. If I could at least get pointed in the right direction I can keep working from there. Goldirocks fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jul 30, 2015 |
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Jul 30, 2015 00:39
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Maybe sateen? It'll have a bit of sheen to it, but it's also not going to be the horrifying shiny that costume satin is. This site has white, and since it's cotton, it should dye pretty easily for red. And at the amounts you'll need, it's only $8.42 per yard.
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Jul 30, 2015 18:12
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So for NYCC this year, I've got a goal of being Immortan Joe. This all started because someone posted a really neat rendition of Joe's mask on Thingiverse that I absolutely had to print out. It came out pretty good, I think! Here's a reference for the screen-used one:   Problem was that I can never leave well enough alone and kept looking at it, comparing it to the movie one, spotting details that weren't quite right... and deciding, ultimately, that it was  (That's a lie, it's a great model, but I had to). With the help of  MY GIRLFRIEND we set about doing some resculpting work. I drilled out the flat nose piece and started filling it back in deeper with clay so I had a space in which to add the filtration/venting vertical lines. We also sculpted new jawbones in, redid the nose shape a bit, and sculpted all sorts of chunky detail on the teeth to make it look a bit more authentic.    Then I sat back, looked at it, and whined a bunch about how it was inaccurate because of X, Y, and Z, as I often do, and we decided to rework a couple spots. The jawline needed to be extended and the lower jaw wasn't the right shape, nor was the metal bar that sits over the bone element. I dremelled a bunch of it off, and used some sheet styrene to expand the edges of the mask out so we had something to sculpt on.    It was at this point that I made the terrible mistake of priming the thing black, which made it virtually impossible to work on for lack of contrast. We kept going anyway, but gently caress me, I should have at least done a medium gray or something. Extended jawline:   I 3d-modelled up an adapter piece for the gas mask hose which ended up working out pretty well once we resized things:   And now HERE WE ARE. I'm adding some of the screws/hardware/other gubbins to the thing right now. I plan on molding the thing up and casting it in resin so it's a solid piece, so I'm 3d-printing socket pieces for the gas mask hose fittings to snug down onto.    I'll have other stuff to post for this, but so far I am super pleased with how this mask is turning out.
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Jul 31, 2015 20:10
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This is kind of an electronics question, but the wiring thread said people here have worked with EL wire before so here goes: I am building an EL wire costume, and my switches only seem to work with the 12v inverters I have rather than the 9v inverters I have, I think because the 12v don't have on/off switches. The problem is that I'm running the wires off of 9v batteries, and the 12v inverters are noticeably dimmer compared to the 9v. These are the 9v inverters I have: https://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=202&SubCategoryID=142&GroupID=&SKU=IPSF5-9V If anyone is familiar with these, is there a way to disable the dimmer and on/off switch? I know almost nothing about electronics or circuit boards. Here are two videos I made of the 9v vs. the 12v inverter, and the problems I'm having with the 9v. https://youtu.be/cny6Fkv7pes https://youtu.be/BoKbxUAn4x4
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Jul 31, 2015 20:39
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Deadite posted:This is kind of an electronics question, but the wiring thread said people here have worked with EL wire before so here goes: Wwweeelll...whenever I have an electronics question, I ask The Geek Group on their IRC. Someone, somewhere, should have an answer. http://thegeekgroup.org/live/irc-information/ I've worked with EL before, but not sure what you are trying to do. I take it you need to be able to dim/select which wire is on /off at a given time? If you only need your EL to turn on and off, use a 12V inverter (http://www.adafruit.com/product/448) and solder on your own on/off switch (one of the few cheap things you can get at Radio Shack). I don't know of any EL that works well off of 9v, but then I'm working with 2 EL panels, and not EL Wire, so maybe the power requirements are different. Be warned though, the inverters make one hell of a high pitch squeal. The eyes on this were made with 2 red EL panels, running off of a 12v power source and an inverter from Ada Fruit. 
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Aug 1, 2015 09:04
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The Repo Man posted:Wwweeelll...whenever I have an electronics question, I ask The Geek Group on their IRC. Someone, somewhere, should have an answer. http://thegeekgroup.org/live/irc-information/ The plan is to use this existing costume: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdd4SMVRKu4 and layer a new design over it and switch between the two. There are 4 separate strands of wire in this costume, so instead of switching to the new design one by one I thought I could add RF relays to each inverter and then use a remote to switch all of the wires at once. It works, but when I use the 9v inverters that can be turned on/off and dimmed sometimes the inverter will short out and turn off. The 12v inverters work to switch between the two, but don't light the wire as bright as the 9v when run off of a 9v power source. So my options are: 1. Use a 12v DC battery pack 2. Use the dimmable 9v inverters and figure out a way to stop them from shorting when switched 3. Buy new 9v inverters without on/off switches I'm trying to figure out option 2 because I have a bunch of these inverters already, and option 1 would require me to carry more weight than four 9v batteries. In the end option 3 is probably what is going to happen though.
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Aug 1, 2015 15:35
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Finally making progress on my Doctor Doom outfit. I have a buddy making the the tunic and hooded cape. Me and MY GIRLFRIEND have been experimenting with different styles of foam armour (don't feel like we're ready for worbla yet) and have learning a lot. This weekend after much prep work and cleaning, I finally painted the mask  Primed and wet sanded  Metallic coat down  Drybrushed in some shadowing and painted some highlights for the bolts and eye holes  Overall I'm pretty happy with the paint job, I might try blending the shadows a bit more. I got the mould from Solo Roboto Industries if anyone is curious. One area we've been having some difficulties with is gauntlets, specifically the fingers. I have a buddy with a 3D printer and was wondering if there was any sort of cosplay repository of files for stuff like this?
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Aug 2, 2015 03:33
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If you find good 3d printable gauntlet fingers, please share with the rest of the class. I have been wanting to make the infinity gauntlet for a while now.
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Aug 2, 2015 04:24
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Deadite I would suggest calling the cool neon folks with some of your questions. They are really nice and into helping in my experience,
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Aug 2, 2015 07:44
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I want to cosplay this lady, described in canon as being "8 feet tall": I don't think I want to try to stilt up to that height, but I do have some goth boots that have a 4 and a half inch platform, which would bring me up to 5'8.5". I've pretty much got a year to get things together because god knows I won't have it ready for con in 2 months, especially not with classes starting up in three weeks. Also, how do you get over the whole "I just spent $fuckload on this wig, if I gently caress it up trying to style it, I'm gonna have to spend more to get another one" fears? I have never actually styled a wig because I have been terrified of loving it up.
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Aug 2, 2015 17:16
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A good tutorial for getting some Rose Quartz wig volume: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08mY1yFHLFY
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Aug 2, 2015 20:19
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How I got over the wig thing was: just up and buy a series of cheap lovely wigs off of ebay/amazon. If you go through auctions and don't have too many specifics it's really easy to find a bunch for under 10-15$ including shipping. And then you practice and hack and follow tutorials and try your best but it doesn't matter too much because instead of being out that $50+ wig in the perfect colour, you're out something you don't have a lot invested in.
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Aug 3, 2015 03:37
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I have a quick wig question. I'm working on a display bust for a mannequin, and I'd like him to have natural hair (well, not natural but like, hair and not sculpted hair). Are there any keywords or anything that will specify a full head wig for a dude? I'm not looking for a toupee or anything, I'm looking for the whole shebang. Plastic hair, cheap hair, etc is just fine. I just don't know the specifics of wigdom to know what I'm supposed to be looking for.
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Aug 3, 2015 04:27
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Just doing a Google search for "male wig" brought up plenty of results. Not sure what you're looking for here.
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Aug 3, 2015 05:35
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Just wanna make sure whatever wig I buy is going to fit the head. I hit ebay and there's a shitload of different options. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting money on the wrong type. I don't know squat about wigs, so I dunno what to look for.
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Aug 3, 2015 11:42
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