luxlumenexe

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Two doodle comms for @chipontherailroad !!

It's his cosplays of the characters stylized in my doodle style ✨

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oh yeah babey its krupp time

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My piece for @starzine-express !! I had a blast working on this and with everyone on the zine!!! Any opportunity to draw this guy is a good one <3

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extra special kruppmaxxing today. i made this thing

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in times of uncertainty krupp the armaments truck keeps me going

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GAYASSES

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oh yeah babeyyyyy kruppmaxxing

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Starlight Express Costume Ramblings

So I've been talking about various Starlight costumes, looking at details of specific characters, but there's some things that come up over and over and I thought it might be valuable to talk about some techniques they use, not specific to one character. I'm also totally going to miss really obvious things out on this post because... yeah...

Fabrics - most of the Starlight costumes are hand-painted, hand-printed, and custom dyed spandex fabrics. A lot of what I've seen is supershine heavy stretch satin spandex, the fabric that is known by some combination of those words! It's a good stretch, nylon blend - nylon takes dyes beautifully, polyester does not! The majority of body suits in the show are stretch fabrics, and a lot of the detailing is as well - maybe more for convenience that there's offcuts of the right colour to hand, than the details need to be made from stretch fabric.

Padding - "foam" gets mentioned a lot! But there's different types of foam for different uses.

So, Starlight is a sweaty show. Costumes need to be washed after every performance - which is a challenge with the three dimensional padded suits. The solution is filter foam - the pic here of blue fabric being stitched into rows, we can see the filter foam at the edge. This stuff is great because it's a very open structure compared to other foam, water passes right through it. It is literally meant for aquatic filters, it just happens to be very useful for costuming!

We can see the hanging samples here, of Poppa's overalls (the green speckled fabric) that it's been layered with the foam, then quilted - the costume will also have a lining of the sports mesh we can see in the other photo. This stuff is also great for quick drying, low friction so easy to pull on - important for a lining - and a strong liner. I think the white we see here is Dustin's underbody.

Underwear - the performers wear a full body unitard under the costume. Clearly this isn't hugely popular with the cast, but it's got a vital function - that layer catches all the damaging oils and skincare products, deodorant stains go on the unitard not the costume! We also see Dustin has a harness to take the weight of the big costume.

Straps and Snaps - a very common method of connecting pieces which is so simple when you know - straps that pass through D rings, and snap back onto themselves. Caboose has them particularly exposed connecting his jacket to his belt, but they're used in much more subtle places. Generally the straps will be sewn to the body suit with D rings attached to the panel when it's a matter of attaching solid to fabric, but it can go the other way it seems. The straps seem to be elastic - the stitching on them is always a stretch stitch.

Velcro and Other Fastenings - Buffy here has a big patch of soft velcro that holds her chest box central. The trouble with velcro, you can see here around the velcro patch - the rough velcro EATS spandex! Nylon/spandex fabric won't pill and go fuzzy without a lot of damage - but velcro is enough to do that damage. We can also see some damage around the patches on Ashley's knees, but in both cases, the costume piece being attached more than covers the damaged area, and sometimes velcro is just the exact connection you need and nothing else will do the job!

Kneepads - the kneepads start off with a foundation made of EVA foam. This is covered with the decorative fabrics, then a clear vacuum-formed top layer that is stitched on - that's the thread visible on the edges. Those bowls get scratched up quickly and need replacing quite frequently. The kneepads are held on with three straps - the central strap seems to be fixed, the top and bottom are adjustable to tighten properly to stay in place.

Moulded Decorations - there's a lot of wheels and buffers involved in these trains! They seem to be foam latex - although there is a relatively new mouldable eva foam product that they might well be using now, it seems to last as well as latex and no risk of allergies.

EVA Foam - I'm old, ok? I'm still reeling at the materials that used to be so hard to come by are now actively marketed at cosplayers! One of those things is EVA foam. Back in my day you had to search far and wide to get EVA foam, and cut your own bevels!

But here is the secret to the slinkies - the springs, the sharp profile ridged details. EVA foam in a triangular profile sewn into the fabric gives you the structural shapes, that are still washable. The EVA foam isn't quick drying like filter foam, but it's much stronger and holds its shape. If you were making a one-off cosplay and didn't want to make a mould for the buffers, the cones and spheres cut in half would do you well as a base...

EVA foam is also the base for most of the big costume pieces - either covered in vinyl and painted and decorated, or as the solid inside the vacuum-formed pieces.

I've not covered the skates, or wigs and helmets, what else have I missed? hopefully I've covered some useful details that might satisfy curiosity, or help with cosplay planning!

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idk if i should even tag this

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To yearn or whatevarrrrr

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messing around w/ their face paint to make it look more like bandaids

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Happy pride month 2 two bitches who stand on opposite sides of the stage the entire show

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since this is the 2nd day of pride month i would like to remind you all of the electrapurse crotch grab gif

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hi kruppmaxxers here is a krupp in motion for ya. look at him he is traveling

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absolutely losing my mind abt the rap in the new stex 1993, imagine you're fighting with your wife and this horny ass electric nonbinary twink tells you to find someone else and then goes, "all my software is designer~ ;)"... i would rock their shit honestly (no I wouldn't)

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since this is the first day of pride month i'd like to take a moment of silence to remember the old bochum ac/dc choreo with electra grinding on krupp </3 never forget what they've taken from us