Meredith hip armour

Hi!
Randomly I started to make Meredith cosplay :'D
Knight Commander Meredith is  from Dragon Age 2.

And I've been doing some experimenting, but here's the good progres I've done so far:

The first steps were to study her armour. So I downloaded a mod for my Hawke and took a ton of screencaps xD
And then I made patterns based on this study and traced them on some craft foam and camping mattress.

And then some cutting and glueing.. With superglue and hot glue.

Our cat Samus wanted to join his efforts too :'D

After gluing I used heat gun/ paint stripper gun to shape this a little for it was convex a bit wrong way. No pics, sorry :/

Next step was to ad a couple of layers of glue on top of the craft foam and camping mattress. For making it harder and for have a sort of priming for the paint.

I also glued some paper behind the hip armour so it would be a bit more sturdy. It doesn't show in these pictures but it is there.

And the next step was to paint it. For this I chose acrylics for they dty fast and look good.

As a base coat I used black paint with a hint of gesso.

And then I tried to mimic the reference images the best I could.

And here are compared the steps I made:

From left to right:

The final armour

Just the craft foam and camping mattress and the paper patterns I made:

Over all in one piece it took about two hours (because I'm such a lazy ass to do these) and because the glue took some time to dry completely.

But I'm really satisfied with the results :3

These are my first armour parts I've ever made!

These are so elastic so I don't think these will break easily. And the glueing part made it a lot hardr than I've ever thought! Totally worth for trying :)

Mask of a Slicer

From BioShock 1 (and maybe 2, haven't played it yet so I cannot say if there is this kind of masks in the game :'3).

Just a quick cosplay thing I made :3
I was going to cosplay a Splicer at Kitacon V (in Kemi) but I noticen I forgot the skirt I was going to use back at my parents place last time I visited them :/
But I wore the msk anyways :'D
I added some black makeup under it but I ended up wearing the mask as a sort of a hat (because it caused air flow to my eyes and it didn't feel nice because I wore contact lenses :/ Also it started to feel sweaty :'D).

I used this as a tutorial : Worbla's Finest Art mask tutorial

How to make a Custom-made Superhero Mask

And here's the result:

Made from Worbla's Finest Art sheet, some silk ribbon, white acrylic paint and golden spray paint (I sprayed it into a empty jar so I could get it into liquid form so it would be easier to paint).

P.S. BioShock is awesome <3

You should play it ;3

Shoes for Koakuma

I found the right shoes for Koakuma ;3
They are Dinsko's nice heeled shoes with laces. They're made of synthetic leather and the heel is about 8 cm (about 3 inches) high. They're super comfortable to wear <3

I'll add a picture later :'3

Dyeing Real Fur, Test 1 fabric colour in the microwave

So I was checking my Koakuma wings for dressing up as her for the Next Animecon 2012 (in Kuopio). But I noticed that the tape I've used in the wings shows quite ugly when I wear it so I decided to enhance them a bit with adding some dark fur.

I've got two real mink furs from my both grandma's  but I left the not so good fur to my flat in Rovaniemi. But as a savior I had third fur coat which wasn't mink. I didn't want to demolish the other mink coat because it was in much better condition than my other mink coat. So the only option was to dye the other unknown fur. It might be fox fur, but when petting it it felt quite "loose" and not as good as mink so it was chosen to be used as materials.

The first step was to rinse the piece with lukewarm water and vinegar and salt for about 15 minutes. For about a liter of water two teaspoons of each.

Second step was to squeeze the extra salt-vinegar-water from the fur, gently.

Third step was to lay the piece on top of cling film (no other, this is the best) and smudge the fabric colour to the fur thoroughly. After that you wrap the cling film around it quite tightly and place the package into a microwave secure container with a lid only placed on top of it so the fumes can come out. 

How much dye? I didn't have any black so I mixed it from four others. Couple of milliliters each. These are quite strong colours.

Fourth step (like in the title says) was to put the package into microwave. Four minutes with full blast, then flip it and another four minutes does the trick.

Fifth and final step was to rinse the fur with water. I did this several minutes until the colour stopped leaking from the fur.

And let it dry.

And the results (it's a bit darker in the real life).

Don't be afraid if it bubles and pops in the microwave, it did it with me too. And the smell that comes from it is similar to the baking of polymer clay in an oven. Quite plastic like scent.

Pro's and cons

+ easy to do

+ quick

+ doesn't require special equipment

+ the microwave secures that the colour will stay in the fur and you don't have to iron it or anything

- the fur shrank about 2/3 so it was tiny after I dyed it but the fur was more firm now

- the smell isn't pleasant, but not strong

- the fur also comes quite stiff because it shrank

This method was adapted from dyeing yarn.

Later on I noticed I forgot to bring my skirt from Rovaniemi with me home. So no cosplaying this time but this was a good experiment anyways :'3

Someday I'll try to boil the fur. The heat is needed to attach the colour into it.

And I hope the fur will not shrink so much :'D

If I left something unclear, please just comment on here ;3

I'll try to clarify it as much as I can.

Cheers!

Randomness

Random update of randomness

I've been doing some research and sword patterns, just for fun :'3
Feel free to use!
But it would be kind, if you credit be, alittle bit yes? I do not claim the design as my own, but it would be nice if you mention me as you helper in your posts :3

Dark Excalibur (or is it Caliburn?) from Fate/Stay Night

Well well well

'Cause I don't have anything better related to my projects (wich have been on hold for quite a long time) I decited to update some cosplay dreams and plans I'd love to make some day :3
Thou I'll have some work with my body to get into shape and look better, these are my top wishes and dreams <3

First:
Saber Alter from Fate/Unlimited Codes
'Cause she is awesome and her armor looks awesome <3
And her armos looks waaaay better thab the original design :'D
Plus I have her as a figma figure so it'll be easier to look all the details and stuff from different angles than just from pictures. Thou her pointy armor hurts my fingers when I pose her ;___;

Second:
Momohime from Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Thou I'll have to lose some weight for her (but that's a goal anyways x3 To lose some weight and get into better shape I mean ;D)
Her design is cute :3 Also I like her kimono (thou it's pink!) And there is quite large chanse to accidentally moon everyone who is standing behind me :'D

Third:
Princess Nuala from Hellboy II Golden Army
I really loved the contrast between her pale skin and dark dresses <3 (Thou in the pic she has the last dress she wore in the movie and it isn't so dark :'D..)
Also her outfits are glorious (and might be hard to make)...

These are the top three in my wishlist :3
The pics are from the internet (two first from Myfigurecollection and le last.. Google :'D)
So the copyright isn't mine (thou I have some pics of Saber alter, but nothing that goog to show her in her glory :'D)

Someday I'll make these to be true!

Koakuma - The Wig

Edit
The wig turned out to be too dark red (and a bit too short) so I am going to use it with Koakuma :3
This weekend it shall be... shaped xD


Wohoo!
After the long search (an a pause from bloggin) I finally found a nice wig for my Hong meiling cosplay!

At first I thought I would order Keiko red mit Pony (Keiko red wig with forelock) from MyCostumes.org (there's british flag to klick, it turns the text from Germany to English), but it did't look as "natural" (and was too expensive for my taste) than this one, Pitkä burgundy peruukki from Markku Purho Ky (in Finnish text only, sorry!).
So I ordered it and it turned out much, MUCH more affordable than the wig from MyCostumes :3

I'm thinking of adding more red with colouring hairconditioner :3
What do You think?
Also I have to cut her forelocks, but that's not a huge mission to do x)

There were lots and lots of nice wigs on other webstores too, like CosplaySupliers.com,  DHGate.com, Annabelle's Wigs, Wigs US  and some auction sites like eBay and Huutonet.fi (a finnish auction site).
Yup, I made my research ;)

I'll post an image after I get it from the snailmail :3

Edit:

Whee, some soty of trimming done :3
Where we started :

And here is the result:

Maybe still some little trimming to do on the lock, but I like it also this way :3
The wig is really thick xD

Thanks, Tiina, for the trimming <3
And Photographing :3