celestunacosplay-blog

[celestunacosplay-blog]

This daughter here. Dear heavens please. This is my first cosplay and I get stuck at little things and you mentioned hidden pockets which is always helpful! I want all the knowledge I can find and if you're willing to give it, in going to soak it up so fast!

As I’m finishing up my Adepta Dialogus for OZ CC I’m becoming seriously tempted to pull out my Sister of Battle and start fixing her up. It’s been almost a year since I last wore her. I miss being in that cosplay and I can never have enough photos of me in it because I love every one. It’s the cosplay that makes me feel the best about myself. Anyway rambling. So I was thinking as I remake parts and add/fix her up that I do “Sister of Battle tips” for other cosplayers. Things I have learned and would like to pass on to future cosplayers or even ones who want to modify/make their own ones better. Including, rigging, hidden pockets, placement of armour, detailing, weathering, dressing. Thoughts?

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Time for updates!~ I’ve been hard at work making my gorget (top left) and shoulders (top right). It was fun to use the crayola model magic but there’s some concern that it’ll become brittle and either fall off or crack. After tomorrow, I’m gonna plastidip it and hopefully paint it. Hopefully. But hot damn look at that Aquila. Mm!

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I haven’t updated in a long while, so I decided it was time to now! Mostly because I FINISHED THE BREASTPLATE! (self high five) I wanted to walk you folks how I did mine so that MAYBE it can help you guys. I know watching others’ steps helped me and mine was a bit tricky. I will do a list at the end of what I would change in the future so it come out better, as well as after each step what I did well and poorly.

That said! Let’s begin!

This is where it started. A body cast. It looks bad, and it is probably the weakest link of my whole list of things. I had a close friend help me who had no clue what he was doing. But bless his soul, he helped me anyway. We watched an anime while he wrapped me up in duct tape then cut me out. I drew my basic lines (as seen)

Things done well: *Good form. I got all my curves in it

Things to change/improve on: *Have someone who knows what they’re doing or explain better *Use saran wrap instead of a tshirt. Then it won’t ride up and cause problems *Make sure everything is aligned correctly *Make sure it’s long enough

Next I had cut the pattern apart and made paper patterns. Then I pinned it on my foam for tracing and cutting. It doesn’t look like everything is there because a couple pieces are repeated; mainly the breast pattern in the top left and the bottom left back piece. The pieces came out looking good, though my cuts were sometimes jagged because my knife wasn’t long or sharp enough. This affected my future pieces.

Things done well: *Pinning it left no marks like I feared. *I had enough room for what I needed on my foam, even for strips for future pieces.

Things to improve/change: *Buy the rolls of foam. It’ll make less waste. *Cute where seams could be hidden easier. You’ll see my problem in the future. *GET A LONGER/SHARPER KNIFE!! I’m going to look into the one that Evil Ted has because he’s helped out so much already and having his tools mayyy make this easier.

After I cut my pieces and glued the initial pieces, this is what I ended up with. The breast pieces were interesting, I had to heat them up with a heat gun my family had for embossing and bend it over a bowl we had and I sealed my cuts with a lighter. I also burned a cobweb, that was pretty cool. It looks pretty great! I heated it up after this and bent it in a bit. I also cut 45° angle on the edges then sanded them down to a round edge. Then I heat sealed them with a lighter, just like before. 

Things done well: *Heating it up and bending it was a great idea. *The cuts for the breasts molded into a cup shape easily. *Sanding it came out looking AWESOME.

Things to improve/change: *Matching up those seams better. There are alot of lips, which came out ALOT later. *Let the glue dry completely before putting it together. It takes ~15 minutes to dry before you can put it together and I’m so impatient I couldn’t do it. I gotta get better about that. *You can’t see it but I heated up a piece of the breast plate and pushed down on it, leaving a fingerprint (it was later covered). Don’t do that silly me.

I had to cut my triangle piece out and put the “boning” seen on my reference picures. Sanding the corners apart was difficult and I sanded my thumbnails quite a bit trying to get them to look good. I also put a lip on the edges. I thought it looked right. You can also see where I tried to sand down some of the lips. Also, now you can REALLY see that fingerprint.

Things done well: *Sanding the pieces made them so round and firing them gave them an interesting texture I liked.

Things to improve/change *Cut the triangle piece out right away. I hadn’t because I didn’t know exactly how big to make it. I ended up winging it and it looked fine. *Measuring pieces better. The long pieces are all different lengths. *I need to get some more sandpaper. Wet sanding and 440 (I think it is) for those seams to make them look better.

This was ONE NIGHT’S WORK. This little thing. I hurt myself so much for this. The next night I made the second one. It’s with a slightly thinner foam (that happened to be white)

Things done well: *It looks AMAZING. *Sanding, again, added an interesting texture that was good

Things to improve: *You can see how my knife was giving out. I need better, cleaner cuts. *Make the bar across one piece. I had tried but it didn’t work out. I’ll figure something out. *Again, gluing too fast. They didn’t stay very well.

I plastidipped it! It came out feeling rubbery and looked SOLID. I loved that it looked right.

Things done well: *Doing it at night during the summer keeps the heat down. No bending. *3 coats seemed to be enough.

Things to improve/change: *Finish everything before moving on. Later, I added pieces and had to come back to here.

So there’s a bit of a jump here. I spray painted it all a shiny black (2 coats) then a hammed silver (one coat) then black again (1 coat). It came out looking like I wanted; a shiny black beetle. The rivets are googly eyes (Who’da thought? This kid was a genius.) that are spray painted (1 matte black, 1 gold, then a DUSTING of black to make it look worn). I then hot glued them on. Before you ask, yes, it all rattles like a maraca. It’s kinda goofy, but it’s ok. It’ll be so loud in my venue I’m not too worried about a slight rattle. Then the fleurs are rub-n-buff. I had never used it before, so I looked at a few tutorials. I used a finger and didn’t buff it. I tried filling my gaps from my previous issues with hot glue before the paint. 

Things done well: *Googly eyes. Serious, it was genius. And cheap. *The Rub-n-Buff didn’t reach into the cracks, making it look more worn than I could’ve done otherwise. It also highlights my dents, which also made it look worn. *The spray paint layers looked great. It has a slight texture but it still very shiny, like a forged piece of black metal.

Things to improve/change: *SPRAY PAINT AT NIGHT. This caused so many problems. Glue came undone. The form changed and I had to fix that. *Don’t try filling the holes with hot glue. I have the proper materials now, but it looked trashy.

This is it finished! I added some pieces on the sides of the breasts, mainly to hide some gaps and crappy attempts at fixing it in the middle. I also put the texture I saw on my pictures with hot glue. I made long pieces and cut them into lengths I could use when cooled. Then I had to REPAINT. That was a pain. However, I hid alot of gaps, and it made it look cleaner in the long run. I also mounted velcro to put it on with. I hot glued it to the piece, with long arms to reach around. I have smaller pieces on the back side and a long piece of opposing velcro to hold it to me while the back piece is put on. I however made the mistake of taking the plastic covering the sticky side of the velcro and had a mess to fix with some cloth there, but it shouldn’t be a problem anymore. I will, however, need someone to help me put it on correctly.

Here’s my lines. They aren’t even, and they aren’t all shaped the same, both complaints of mine.

Things done well: *Rolling with the punches. I hid some problems, mainly my really obvious seam in the middle and the ones on the sides of the breasts. *Velcro was a good idea, as buckles would cause problems with the next pieces. *Covering mistakes with old spray paint techniques; like spraying it into a container and using it as a normal paint

Things to improve/change: *The lines should be made of a uniform width and be a uniform distance apart. *The bars on the breasts look...wrong. I don’t know if I can fix it though. *Don’t mess with the sticky side of the velcro. *Don’t hot glue the velcro. What was I thinking? Hopefully it doesn’t fall apart.

OVERALL!~

Things done well: *Working quickly. i did this in about two weeks. *Working around problems. It’s always been a strength of mine, to be honest. *Planning ahead! Yay! You should have seen my emails to myself during work with plans to get things done!

Things to improve: *Better supplies. Will come as I get better and can justify paying for them. *More patience. It’ll be better with more patience, I know it. *Thinking about all variables before acting. Like spray painting outside, in the heat, under the sun, in the middle on July/August. (I’m pretty upset about it.)

I worked hard, and next I want to make the gorget for the armor. I haven’t had the energy to do it (since I’ve been so drained and dealing with personal things) but HOPEFULLY I can start that next week. I also want to make the vestments, but I’m torn on some fabric.

[celestunacosplay-blog]

I had a very close friend help me make a body cast last night. We watched “The Wind Rises” while he tapes me up, then cut me out. It was hot, I was sweaty, and all I had were my older craft scissors so I have scratches up my back that hurt a bit when I lie down, but it’s all in the name of cosplay! This morning I drew a basic design on the cast, hoping to get an idea of what I’m looking at. It’s going to basically be an armored corset that closes on the sides with buckles probably. My mom said she’d help me plan where to put boning and where to put other items I’ll need. I don’t have my foam yet, but this is a great start. And yes, I’m aware it looks like my boobs are crooked. My shirt was actually crooked. No biggie, the top part won’t even be used. I used this tutorial for it, which is a GREAT resource!

I made one of two pouches I’ll be making for the cosplay (it’s a picture stolen from Instagram, sorry. I figured y’all didn’t need the three separate pictures.) It was completely hand done (no premade patterns, I had to draft my own). I made it long enough to hold my phone and wide enough to hold maybe a secondary item (lip balm or something). Right now, I’m wearing it with belts to and from work to try to wear it a bit so that it looks like it’s been through hell and back (since that’s what they would have been through). It’s actually incredibly useful, I may use it day-to-day from now on since I can actually hold onto all my cards and some cash AND my phone, and maybe my can of pepper spray I like to carry! I’ll find out. I do plan on making a belt soon too, but I’m not sure what I’ll use as a buckle yet. A skull probably. My second one, perhaps I can make a tutorial on it. If people are interested of course. ;) 

I did buy a figurine to model after. It’s supposed to arrive next week. I’ll use it as my main reference and then do what I need to to make it more...me? I guess? I also bought “Faith and Fire”, one of two novels based on the sisters, as well as a Space Marine codex and a couple of the omnibuses (Blood Ravens and Grey Knights, since I like them alot and already have the Ultramarines one.) I’m pretty psyched, this site is a wonderful resource, and my first purchase was 15% off, so I got the Faith and Fire free basically! I’m keeping an eye out for the new Index Astartes, because it would be super cool to put a leather cover on it and carry it as a tome on my cosplay. I have the pieces I need to make my Inquisitor’s Rosette and prayer beads ordered, now I’m just waiting for them to come in. Then I have a plan on making those, which I’ll explain when I do them, like i have in the past!

[celestunacosplay-blog]

This was my first cosplay evar. I was Sona, from League of Legends. It was...rough. Still getting used to be in character and moving like her. I had no instrument. My cosplay itself was well made by my mother in these posts and I love her for it. <3 It was alot of fun though. I met up with a couple of other league players and we entered the contest together. Never saw them again.

League of Legends at Nebraskon.

1. My daughter as Sona the Maven of Strings. This is the costume I’ve been  working on. Full critique and notes coming later.

2. Garen, Teemo, and Sona. Both Garen and Teemo won awards in the cosplay contest.

3. Fiddlesticks, Sona, and Lux during the cosplay contest.

[celestunacosplay-blog]

Sorry for potato quality picture of just Coraline. This was our Valentine’s Day ball. My boyfriend at the time was in a different state so he couldn’t come with, but my family was there! Some interesting things to note in here:

My brother and mom wanted to come. This was my brother’s first steampunk event. He seemed to enjoy himself. This was both my mother’s and my first time wearing corsets out and about. I thought they were damn fine, and not uncomfortable either.

Some props of note: The goggles. HOLY COMOLY THE GOGGLES. From between 1850 and 1900, they are called cinder goggles. They were sold on trains without windows to the more wealthy Americans so they could enjoy their train ride. The lenses were tinted green and came in an adorable little tin. Found them at a small place near my old high school. Also, the camera is a 1930′s? box camera that still works, but has no film. It’s fully manual and super adorable! The hat was a new years hat from walmart I took apart and fixed - ribbon around the base and a fleur-de-lis on the side. It was pretty small, but a start. The earrings were left over from my junior prom, one side was a black key and the other a large black gem, both with red details. Surprisingly fitting, eh? And my mug. Ahhhh the mug.

The top was a super lucky find at goodwill, and the skirt was once a prom dress we demolished. The bag (barely seen in picture 1) was the top of the dress, since the beading was amazing, we wanted to keep it. My mother’s outfit was a tshirt from walmart, a crocheted shawl and a skirt made from curtains found at a goodwill.

[celestunacosplay-blog]

Meet Coraline.

Coraline is my steampunk persona. She’s a sharpshooter in the rebel army, fighting for equal liberties to the people of the smoke infested world. She fights her heritage, to have been born in the high life, to help bring the lower classes into the fresh air. She carries two weapons at all times, her rifle and her pistol, both she can shoot with deadly accuracy. She’s bubbly when not behind a gun, and it helps hide her true intentions from her family. Here’s her story into creation!

Just for fair warning, this might be sorta long, but you can see my thought process on my first steampunk costume!

This was the dress that started it all. I saw it online and had to have it. I got the dress and goggles and was off to start a character! The dress didn’t fit right, so I did major fixes here and there, and I always wear it with a petticoat. I had to take apart the shoulders to make it possible to put epaulets in, and an honor braid. I also widened the neck a little (mostly by stretching it) because I have a thick neck.

This was her first outting, the Military Ball. This was the first time I had met the local steampunk group so I was very nervous. You can see her belt and holster, all handmade (posts about those inbound) I had not gotten materials for her second medal yet, or the epaulets.

These are her weapons. She has a small weapon I haven’t carried with her because the garter is too big and I can’t get it to fit right. The paint job was...shoddy at best. Paint peeled off like crazy. I have plans to fix them...someday.

I had these patches special made for me. I designed the patches (sharpshooter emblem I made up + fake rank, though I was called a mini-captain later and it stuck, soooooo...) I didn’t have the materials to make one myself, so I commissioned someone on etsy to help. She was super sweet and shipped it quick. You can also see my medals. I made the blue and gold one, with the two gears. I ordered the ribbon (mostly to see how it was made so I could try to replicate it later) and painted the gears/glued them/mounted them. Not yet seen, I had put a large blue stone in the middle. The other medal was bought as is because it looked so awesome!

This was a few months later. You can see that holster even clearer here. I designed it and put it together with a little help from my grandfather. My mom helped me make the hat. Or, rather, made the hat on her own. It was then pinned to my head. It hurt, but was perfect. The strap for the rifle is a belt I found at walmart. It was stretched and handled poorly and on clearance. And it was perfect. I cut the ends off and made it into a rifle sling of sorts. The shells on the arm garter was bought at the local anime con about a month prior to this event. Above it is a patch I found online. It is an old Canadian cavalry patch with a crown about it. The crown is raised. Also pictured: My mug! My grandparents happened across it at an antique shop and thought of me. It’s old english pewter, heavy, and my favorite thing to make dark chocolate hot cocoa in. It also gets very hot very quick. You can also sorta see the epaulets. Fun story, that night, I won new ones, BIG YELLOW ONES that will turn me into the mini-captain I am! And yes, that is a gun to my head, my mom thought she was so silly!

I am super lucky to have a family that supports this. Seen here is my mother and step-dad (for now) in costumes. My mom made her outfit based on a raven and my dad is a mad scientist. I was told ti get revenge for the threat, so...boom.

Coraline can’t wait to meet you!

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So, this was another thing I did. I made this for my brother for his birthday. We’re all really into steampunk, so I wanted to make something he could use for steampunk, but his other hobbies as well. So, A bracer with tools for said hobbies was born! I made it by myself, made the pattern, dyed it, cut it, everything. The rivets are little shotgun shells and everything on it is a working piece. The inside says “To my little brother, Kenneth - I worked hard you butt. Rachael”

I have been asked for a pattern, but sadly, mine is cut apart. It was based on this tutorial I found, but with my own spin (naturally). I have also been asked if I would sell them. I dunno bout that one yet, I gotta think about it. ;)

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These are my gauntlets. They are pretty. They are special. 

I was trying to show off how each step kind of took place. I didn’t think to take pictures all the way through, so I put up what I had. I more or less followed this tutorial, but this is a more in depth story with detail work. It’s a long one, but, the pictures are pretty and I’m kinda funny.

#0: Gather Materials You will need: ~4-6 sheets of Craft Foam (as close to the color as you want, you’ll be painting over it anyway. I used black foam bought from WalMart for ~60cents a sheet) ~A pair of Black Gloves (Mine had to be resized a bit so it fit right. Feel free to do the same) ~Scissors/Xacto Knives ~Iron + Paper Towel/Heat Gun ~Thick Cylindrical Object & Domed Object ~Mod Podge (I used the yellow label) ~Spray Paints (I used Black and a “hammered” silver) ~Hot Glue Gun and Hot Glue (If I were to redo this, I would used rubber cement, but this is what I used this time.) ~Small amount of elastic

#1: Pattern And Cut I had to freehand the whole pattern. My printer was broken, so the free pattern I planned on using was not available and I’m too impatient to wait to get it fixed. So I just free formed it buy putting my hand on some paper, drawing lines out from my knuckles, then making round edges just past them. I then taped them to my fingers to test the fit. After that, I taped them to my foam, then cut the foam. IMPORTANT: DO NOT MIX UP YOUR PIECES. If you mix them up, you won’t get them to fit correctly. Label them, organized them, name them, whatever you have to do. Fun story, I sneezed and mixed them all up. Luckily I had them organized in a such a way I fixed it.

#2: Iron, Strengthen, And Tape There’s two ways to shape the pieces, ironing and heat gunning. I used the iron, where you put the pieces between a sheet of paper towel and then ironed it until hot, then melded it. You can also achieve this using a heat gun, however, I have no done it. When it’s good and hot, you place the piece over either the cylindrical object (finger pieces) or domed object (knuckle pieces). You also have two other pieces, the back of the hand (Put it directly on you hand, just don’t get burned) and the gauntlet (put it on your arm, again, don’t get burned). After it cools, it should retain it’s shape. Once it’s back to its semi-rigged state, brush a layer of mod podge on the whole piece to help strengthen it. When it’s dry, tape it down in a box or on a sheet to prepare for spray painting.

#3: Spray Paint it!

Here you see my mess. I have my modified glove, bits and pieces, and my hand, taped in it’s box. I have painted one side of it. I did two layers of black then a layer of the hammered silver, waiting 30 minutes between each coat. On this gauntlet, I messed up and had to go over it with one coat of black then one coat of silver and I actually liked the results alot. Be sure you tape the pieces down well, or they’ll fly around in the box. Also, make sure the sides are dry before taping them or the paint will come off when you pull the tape off. It’s easiest to paint the inside (the side to be glued to the glove) first to avoid too much disruptions. And yes, you have to paint both sides so that you’re SURE to get the edges. Make sure you’re safe, obviously, don’t do it indoors, don’t light matches, don’t do it with huge fireworks going off a few steps away… #4: Some Assembly Required

This is the first gauntlet, assembled without details. What I did was hot glue each piece to my knuckle. I have a high pain tolerancy, so I did it without a second pair of gloves, but really, don’t be as dumb as me. Wear a second pair of gloves under it. I lined up the straight edge of the knuckle to the top of each knuckle on my fingers, then glued it down, starting from the tip, all the way to the knuckle.This can be done alone, but you have to be patient. Also, the foam may get a little soft again with the heat from the gun. Use that to your advantage to mold it closer to your fingers. Hot glue the pieces of elastic on the inside around your arm. It holds it in place so it doesn’t flare out funny. I didn’t make mine tight, mine were actually loose and didn’t hold it to my skin. The stretch is to make it easier to put on and take off.

Here’s an interesting side note, I am so impatient so when I had pieces put on, I started moving my fingers before the paint was all the way dry. This rubbed some of the paint on the edges down and made it look worn in all the right places!

If you notice, I have some scarring where the tape pulled some paint off. I left it as is on purpose.

#5: It’s All In The Details

This was by far the hardest part. I had never drawn a fleur-de-lis before, and so I had to hand draw one (printer’s still broken) And not only that, cut it into two pieces. Lemme explain: I wanted to split the fleur in half so I could paint one side brighter than the other in an attempt to force some shading. Cutting it was tough, but it worked out. I then hardened them (no ironing) and then painted them. The lighter sides had one black, two silver, and the darker had two black and one silver. The middle bar was lighter. I glued the two halves of each piece together, forcing a ridge between them to raise up the middle. It added an interesting texture and depth I certainly loved. I laid all three pieces next to each other then glued the bar across the top. I then glued the whole thing to the gauntlet.

I also made the rivets just like the knuckles, using the same spray paint patterns as the gauntlets. 

#6: Further Detailing

I mentioned the natural scarring. This is what I turned it into; battle scarring. I took an xtco knife and scraped out gorges in the foam in a shape I thought looked like claw marks. Remember, any foam you expose needs to be covered in modpodge. It’ll be ok it you get some on the paint job, really, it dries clear. This you can do however you want, just make it your own. I’m a roleplaying cosplayer, so try thinking of a story to go with the scars and such and then roll with it. And as Bob Ross said, “We don’t make mistakes, we make happy accidents.” It’ll be ok if you mess up, see what you can do with it! #7: Die From Awesomeness

For real, How cool do they look? People have asked me if it’s real metal already, and I only just did these. Like I said though, have fun with it. Make it your own. Make a story, and it will be so awesome!

Overall, I think this project took me a total of 10 hours to do both gloves. Just waiting on the paint alone was ~6 hours, then the rest was a breeze. I’d love to see pictures if you use this tutorial, and feel free to leave comments, questions, or concerns! I am writing this at 2am, so there may be errors.