McKilligan posted:

I'm going for the Abyss Greatsword, so the flat of the blade will be black and blue, and the blade's edges and highlights on the pommel will be silver, but then I'm going to hit everything with an ink or paint wash to darken all the recessed areas. When it's done it's going to look awesome and corrupted, hopefully. I'm also going to add ugly splotches of black, blue and a little purple acrylic paint, dried in clumps, along sections of the blade when all else is finished, sort of like black and blue-ish rust or corrosion.

Bitchkrieg posted:

Norse mythology and legends are a passion for me, and I don't know much - if anything - about Thor (the Marvel character, not the god). My objective is to avoid (well, as much as possible) the assertion that I'm a genderbent Thor. The traditional iterations of the costuming would entail a red cape, brass/bronze metallurgy, etc. (inspiration from Romantic artwork). I'm considering a colorshift and using a gunmetal chainmaille and dark red/black leather, and a deep red cape, but haven't made any definite decisions yet.

Miss Kalle posted:

So I'm hoping this is the right place to ask this, since it's relevant to the topic at hand.

I'm going to be cosplaying Ryuko from Kill la Kill at Otakon, and I need a way to transport the scissor blade. I'm going to be flying in from (most likely) Albany to Baltimore, but all the bags I own are too small for the one I'm planning on getting -- the blade is going to be 41 inches long and 8 inches at its widest point. Plus I don't really trust shipping it down to the hotel since I'm afraid it might get lost in transit.

Since I'm flying Southwest and they let you check in the first two bags for free, I was thinking of something along the lines of packing it in a separate tote akin to a ski bag (with proper identification for TSA purposes and such), but the vast majority of ski bags run afoul of the '62 inches and under' rule, and I don't want to wind up with any extra charges

Any suggestions?

McKilligan posted:

Hell yeah! That's lookin' much better, can't wait to see more progress.

Speaking of progress - though most of the progress is a bit hard to see



I've spent probably over 20 hours this past week winding, cutting, and bending iron wire to make chain-mail, and I've still got a lot more to make - I want it to be just long enough to peek out from under the waist/thigh guard things, extending almost to the knees. I'll be making the finished edges look much more ragged and uneven, rather than the straight lines you see now. A conservative guess is at least another 10 hours of work. Wheeeeee. Also, drat that poo poo is heavy. I might need to rig a new belt-thingy that can handle the weight.

I've also made the shin guards , but of course they're obscured by the waist cloth - they aren't entirely finished yet anyway, I still have to extend them a bit and attach them to the knee, which I've yet to make.

I haven't even begun to really touch the fabric yet - The cloth over the waist/legs won't be as long as it is now, showing off more of the legs. My basic plan for how to handle the fabric is to cut it into roughly the right ragged shape with scissors, and then to weather the gently caress out of the edges by fraying it with sandpaper. Next will be to fade out sections with a spray-bottle and a 1-1 water/bleach solution. I want the fabric to look very weathered, frayed, and old. One problem I've noticed with alot of artorias costumes (not that there are many) is that they haven't done much with the cloth - it looks brand new. I want mine to look drat near ancient.
Once the fraying/bleaching is done, I'll stain the lower edges with a water/ink solution, possibly from a spray bottle, or maybe just spashed around a bit. Probably both! The lower sections of the cloth around the legs will be much darker than the cloak, almost black entirely.

The Repo Man posted:

Even without weathering, that's still the best Artorias I've seen.

hhhat posted:

Thanks! After about a pound of celluclay I was able to get the bony ridges built up to make it look more like a skull and cover over the spots that the paper just didn't quite do right... but the celluclay seemed to get rougher as it got drier overnight. I'm sure that's on me, maybe I needed to put it on wetter or something. Learning experience. Here's hoping the sand-ability of the stuff isn't oversold, It's going to take me some time to wear it back down to a smooth surface. Won't be able to find out until maybe next weekend, anywho.

McPantserton posted:

I'll often do the celluclay for a big area and cover it with a very thin skin of apoxiesclupt, which sands smooth way easier but is hideously expensive.

SusiePhone posted:

Yeah, I agree, the contacts are like pissholes in the snow! These ones are just stand-ins until I get the custom ones made. Not sure about eyeliner, I'm trying to avoid looking too feminine, what with the long hair and all.

McKilligan posted:

Yeeesssss, We'll have to pull some strings and organize a photo shoot at some point! (Probably the far distant future, sadly)

LadyRavenWaves posted:

So I am doing the hunt stuff down and buy it all so I can make stuff phase for Lapras. You would be really surprised by how hard it is to find basic teardrop shaped ornaments in the summer... :/

McKilligan posted:

LadyRavenWaves posted:

So I have begun the Lapras project.

Bag of Hamsters posted:

Linen or linen-look definitely. It also looks highly variable in colour. Get a lighter teal and dye the hell out of it with a sponge or random tie-dye bath. A bit more work, but very worth it.

hhhat posted:

I don't know fabric at all so my strategy there is going to be to go to a crafts store and rub up against things until an associate asks if I need help.

McPantserton posted:

On that topic, do you have plans for that model if you end up redoing it? Because my husbo has definitely developed a sudden interest in doing a Court of Owls cosplay from Batman that is not unrelated to this mask...

McKilligan posted:

One thing I might recommend is that you consider that most of the forehead will be covered by the pleated portion of the helmet, and take that into consideration when you build those areas - you might wind up wanting to omit them entirely for weight/comfort's sake. What material are you planning to use for the pleated section? Also, don't forget the weird sideways forehead eyehole thingy!

Bag of Hamsters posted:

Neraren posted:

Work continues on my Sanageyama costume, but I'm currently looking for someone who might help me with the Japanese lettering. I know changing the angle of a single line can completely change a word, but I can't find a consistent image for the letters on my character's back.

Sometimes it's this: http://i.imgur.com/V39hwVU.png
But sometimes it's this: http://i.imgur.com/6Q775UU.png

Minor differences, but I'm sure one misplaced line could change it from badass detail to unreadable nonsense. Can anyone here help me pin down exactly what characters I need?