Cosplay, anyone?

[Master_Craig]

Does anyone here cosplay, or has done it before?

I know Longo_2_guns and his missus dive into the world of cosplay. It's something I've always wanted to do at a convention, but I never end up doing it due to laziness and nerves. The closest I've ever done to "cosplay" is Halloween dress up parties.

I really want to try and cosplay this year at PAX AUS 2017, and I've signed up to an Australian cosplay group on Facebook to try and motivate myself to do it.

For those who have, or still do cosplay, any advice?

 

[Longo_2_guns]

My best advice is to just do it and have fun. My first two cosplays were absolute garbage. But it's just all about having fun.

 

[Master_Craig]

I'm not quite sure what to cosplay as. On one hand, I have a simple idea of Rick from Rick and Morty, but on the other hand I'd like to try myself at something more complex, like Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

[COMaestro]

I have cosplayed before, mostly thanks to the skills of my lovely wife. She has helped me with two for anime conventions, and then I cobbled together one for a Make-A-Wish event where we performed a skit.

I can't find a picture of my first one, but it was Urahara Kisuke from Bleach, and it was probably my best one, so it's sad that I can't find something online. Many people came up and told me I was the best looking Urahara at the con in all three years I used that cosplay. I even made the geta sandals by hand.

My second was rather rushed Vampire Hunter D, so it didn't turn out so good, though I managed to find this picture:

The Make-A-Wish event was as a young, but post Episode 1, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not a good picture, but I can be seen here next to Captain America.

 

[used44]

I don't know that character, but that's awesome!

Craig, I think you would be quite good at cosplay. Get on it! Maybe coming up with a couples costume theme would be motivating.

 

[StudioTan]

He's obviously Sabrina, the teenage witch. Duh!

 

[Master_Craig]

I don't know that character, but that's awesome!

Craig, I think you would be quite good at cosplay. Get on it! Maybe coming up with a couples costume theme would be motivating.

Thanks, used!

I've joined an Australian Facebook group that's based in Melbourne, has over ten thousand members... I've also been in touch with a business that specializes in cosplay materials, and they're going to be sending me some free samples of material to play with.

I'm writing down ideas as to what I think I could try and cosplay as... either by buying a costume (or pieces of a costume), or making one myself (or making some pieces, at least). Unfortunately, if I'm going to cosplay at PAX, I need to be careful what I cosplay as, as bringing cosplay items in my luggage could be difficult, e.g. they might get damaged during the flight or something.

I've got a few ideas of what I could possibly do.

-Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty: big fan, plus I don't think it would be very hard to sort this out as a costume, with the exception of a portal gun prop.

-Darth Vader: this might be the hardest and most expensive option, I'd probably have to buy the suit or most of it, but at the very least I have a Vader helmet.

-Star-Lord (Peter Quill): this will probably be hard too, but the appeal is I get to wear a mask (would honestly make me less nervous), so no one can claim I don't look like Star-Lord, unless the costume is absolutely shit.

 

[Master_Craig]

I've finally made a decision on what I'm going to cosplay as at PAX AUS 2017, and I've made a commitment to it. I'm gonna roll as Darth Vader.

The helmet is the old school voice changing helmet, so since I already had that, I figured it would be a good place to start.

The gloves were purchased from CostumeBox.com.au for a decently cheap price. It's just Star Wars merchandise gloves, to be honest.

The under suit I just received yesterday in the mail. This was an under suit made to fit my size, which I got off eBay. It's a separate top/bottoms, so the top is essentially a jacket (with a zip down the middle) while the bottoms are pretty much trousers, with a zipper, a button and loops for a belt. The under suit cost me about $130 AUD, so around $100ish USD.

The under suit is bigger than I expected... I did a proper test wear (not shown, but I can try and sort a photo out for it sometime), where I actually wore a belt around my trousers, and the jacket was properly tucked into the pants. The suit allows good mobility, so I can move and walk easy, however... it's really, really warm.

Where I live, it's quite humid and tropical... so the moment I wore this suit when not in air conditioning, I was sweating. Hopefully, the weather will be better down south for PAX AUS, as well as the general air conditioning of the convention centre. It's going to be worse once I have the armor, robes and cape on, but luckily the hotel room we booked is essentially the same building where PAX is.

My mum, the poor woman, offered to make me a cape and the under robes. I can't believe she did that, because I was honestly going to go to a seamstress to get it done... but my mum is super talented at sewing, so I'm pretty psyched that rather than think "You're an idiot for spending so much money", she was all "I'll make you a cape!" - bloody hell, I love my mum. She's also offered to help me out with the under robes.

I've picked up some tools recently to help try and make Darth Vader's armor, including a heat gun, some knives, EVA foam and a rotary tool, as well as some goggles. At some stage, I'll need to pick up some extra stuff like black elastic bands, double sided tape, glue gun and a cutting mat. I won't be attempting to make any armor at this stage... I have three university assignments due in two weeks, so once they're done, I will finally be able to spend some free time attempting to learn and make EVA foam armor.

I'm considering to buy worbla for the armor, but we'll see how I go with the foam, first.

My partner helped me do a testing mold of my left calf. This was achieved by wrapping layers of glad wrap around my leg, then following up with layers of duct tape. After that, we used scissors to cut the mold off my leg, re-sealed the cut with the same duct tape, then stuffed it with old newspaper so that it'll help retain shape.

If anyone has any advice on EVA foam, e.g. what paints to use, what other materials I may need, please let me know.

 

[Master_Craig]

PAX AUS is just over a month away. I don't have much time and I hope I don't run out of said time, but I've made a start on my EVA foam Darth Vader armor. This is my first ever attempt at working with EVA foam.

So far, I've made the upper chest piece as well as the groin piece.

The chest piece... I'm fairly happy with. I took measurements on myself using tape measure, then applied said measurements onto cardboard, free hand drawing the overall shape. Cutting out the cardboard template, I put the cardboard template over EVA foam and essentially trace cut the chest piece. I then used a heat gun to shape the armor onto myself, as well as using an empty keg of beer, due to how round it is.

I used contact adhesive spray to seal it but unfortunately, I didn't shake the can properly and it came out pretty gunky to begin with... I did my best to clean it up using sand paper and a knife, but unfortunately, it doesn't look as good as it should be. I'm still happy with it, but I am a bit disappointed.

The groin piece was quite easy to make. Again, I took measurements, made a cardboard template, then used that template to cut the EVA foam shape. I used a rotary tool to draw the rectangle thingo. It's not perfect, but I'm hoping once it's completely painted, that people won't stare at my crotch and notice.

Here's a cheesy selfie of myself wearing the chest piece. On the back of the chest piece, once completed, I'm going to add three elastic straps. Two straps will hook around my shoulders (worn similar to a backpack, if that makes sense) and one strap will be worn around my neck. This will hopefully insure that the chest plate stays on.

This is the chest and groin pieces so far. I've applied three layers of black primer to both pieces, spraying one layer on, leaving to dry for half an hour, and then doing it again. I've gone over both pieces with one layer of black, semi-gloss "satin" spray paint, but since it was late last night when I did it, I left it alone... tonight, I plan on doing one or two more layers of spray paint.

My plan is to buy a thin layer of EVA foam (similar to yoga mats) and cutting it into several strips. I'll then use paint to paint it silver (priming it first, of course) and then applying these strips of silver to the chest piece, to give it that final look similar to Vader's while also making the silver parts kinda 3D and protruding, if that makes sense.

It's not perfect and the mistakes are clear... but it's my first go and I'm doing my best with the time I have available.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

That's looking pretty good! EVA foam seems pretty easy to work with (again, I mostly serve as an assistant in making this stuff), and it came out pretty good for your first time.

You can also look into getting some floor polish (we just use a bottle of this stuff) and put a few layers of it over the foam. You may want to look into that a bit more, but it does give it a bit of shine.
Or alternatively, you can do a layer of spandex fabric over the foam, but that'll be harder to do with the silver strips.

 

[Master_Craig]

That's looking pretty good! EVA foam seems pretty easy to work with (again, I mostly serve as an assistant in making this stuff), and it came out pretty good for your first time.

You can also look into getting some floor polish (we just use a bottle of this stuff) and put a few layers of it over the foam. You may want to look into that a bit more, but it does give it a bit of shine.
Or alternatively, you can do a layer of spandex fabric over the foam, but that'll be harder to do with the silver strips.

Thanks, man! I'm happy with it for the most part, but I'm also a little disappointed... because when I went to use my adhesive contact spray, I didn't shake the gun properly, so upon using it on the chest piece, it got covered in gunky stuff. I did my best to try and scrape it off using a combination of my knife and sandpaper, but it still shows in the final paint job. Hopefully the strips I'm thinking about putting over it will cover most of it up.

The floor polish sounds like an awesome idea. How do you apply it? Paint brush and brush it on?

I'm going to be making the silver strips soon, I hope. I've bought some more 2mm EVA foam, so I'll be using tracing paper to draw the shapes, then I'll put it over the EVA foam, make the cuts, do the priming/painting, then try and carefully glue it onto the chest piece, bit by bit. I think the chest piece is the most difficult piece of this cosplay puzzle.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

The floor polish sounds like an awesome idea. How do you apply it? Paint brush and brush it on?

Yeah, basically. Just pour some on or into a tin and spread it all around.
And don't worry about the little bumps. They add character.

 

[Master_Craig]

Thanks, man. That sounds awesome.

I am worried about the final product... but I'm kinda hoping that when it all finally comes together, that it'll look cool. I hope.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

I hand painted the shirt and cut the leaves from felt. This is the closest to cosplay I get. My daughter's going to be Moana so it all works out.

 

[used44]

That's so great!

 

[Master_Craig]

Hahaha, that's so awesome, Bret!

 

[Master_Craig]

We recently attended "Geecon", Darwin, Northern Territory's first ever video game, anime and pop culture convention. It was okay... the Darwin convention centre is quite small, but I think if Geecon is to survive in the future, it will certainly need more content. This year was a good start, so hopefully the only direction it can go is up.

The convention ran over two days, a Saturday and Sunday, but we only attended Saturday. We arrived at around 10ish AM, it was quite busy, but at around 3:30ish PM, the crowd was very quiet, almost dead, which is a shame because Geecon was open until 10 PM. We noticed that on Sunday, the at the door prices dropped quite a bit, from $45 AUD ($35.19 USD) to $30 AUD ($23.46 USD).

My partner cosplayed as Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She loves cosplaying, and even though she generally buys her costumes last minute from online costume stores, everyone loved her outfit, she had heaps of fun and made a couple of friends. I think she does cosplay right.

 

[Master_Craig]

I did some work on my Darth Vader chest piece. This was a huge pain in the arse. It's not perfect nor is it entirely accurate but I am happy with the outcome.

Basically, I cut strips of 2mm EVA foam, primed them and painted them silver, before using contact adhesive spray and gluing them onto the chest piece. Unfortunately, the chest piece got smears of glue on it, as well as finger prints on the silver... so using an artist's painting pallet, I sprayed my colours onto the pallet, then used a paint brush to cover up as many of the imperfections that I could. I then used super glue in an attempt to try and force down all the strips. Some of them are still coming up, so I'll need to return to it tomorrow or so with more glue.

I still need to add more details to the vest, including elastic bands at the neck and shoulders/arms areas, so I can essentially wear it like a reverse-backpack, if that makes sense. Once the cape has been sorted, I'll be adding double sided tape/velcro to the chest piece (around the back and shoulders), so that way the cape should easily sit over my shoulders and go down my back.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

Looks cool! It’s coming along.

 

[Master_Craig]

Thanks, Bret!

I made some shin guards the other night but I'm not happy with 'em... so I'm gonna make them again and try something better. Hopefully they will be done over the weekend!