So here’s a long list of places I want to go for next con season; Katsucon, Emerald City Comic Con, Awesome Con, All Star Comic Con, Blerd Con, Otakon, Baltimore Comic Con, New York Comic Con, and Boston Comic Con. So some of these I already know I’m going to. Some are cons that I’m heavily leaning towards. And one is just because I want to post a goofy picture.
And here’s a list of costumes that I need to work on; Update Western Wonder, embellish and repair Yang, rework DARPA Poison Oak, water walking Leonardo Da Vinci from Ever After, Old Man Logan/Yang mashup (with working claws), All American Boy, John Crichton (Farscape/Crackers Don’t Matter), and YoRHa No.2 Type B from Nier: Automata (which I’ve never played). No problem, right?
The repair work for Western Wonder and Yang are pretty straight forward. The cowboy boots are cracked and need to be repainted. This is only noticeable up close. I am thinking of making boot covers instead. Since I need to learn how anyways. If I cannibalize the shirt I have now I think it will provide enough fabric for both boots. The bonus to this is that the boot colors will match the new shirt (I bought 2 of the same shirt when I made the costume).
The next step would be making a new shirt for Western Wonder. Again, the defects are really only noticeable up close. Small bits of fraying and fabric glue. A LOT of wrinkling. I am hoping the new fabric will hold up a little better than what I originally used. Sure it held up extremely well, but the new fabric may be more “wrinkle free” than the thin stuff.
Yang repairs will be a little trickier. The gauntlets sustained pretty significant damage for only 2 days wear. Of course, it was 2 days at NYCC. I’m experimenting with sprays to cover the paint for protection but without sacrificing shine. The rattle cans I purchased have been problematic so far, with one being a flat out failure. I want to try one more before looking into purchasing airbrushing equipment.
The embellishments that I have in mind for Yang sounds pretty easy. Extra detailing on the vest and some edges around the panels. However, the more I think about it the less simple the detailing becomes. Mostly because I’ve already finished the vest and the detailing is being added last. (And I just thought of adding Yang’s emblem to the back of the vest in the same color fabric.)
For my DARPA Poison Oak I want to take the streamers of leaves apart and sew them directly onto the BDU’s. I think this will make it look more like the original character and add additional durability to everything.
At least I’m half way through growing my beard for Da Vinci. I’m REALLY not a fan of having it this long. I get up in the morning and have to brush the hair out of my eyes. Go ahead and read that again, I’ll wait. The costume itself looks pretty simple. A brown robe, some long johns, a white cap, and water walking boots. See, simple. I can draw from BHCosplay’s experience with building the boots for his Red Legion costume here. He also recommended making them removable so that they can be carried if there’s a long distance to travel.
John Crichton and All American Boy are exactly what they sound like. Some prop building for Crichton and a lot of sewing for All American Boy. YoRHa No.2 Type B (2B for short) should be a quick build. Gender swapping it will be easy but may require some rethinking to keep it from looking like other characters in the game. Bonus, I now have an excuse to play the game.
Old Man Yang is the costume that I am, currently, most motivated to work on. Just thinking about the mechanism for getting the claws to extend and retract has taken up a lot of time. I’ve been looking into Arduino controllers and motors as well. I even picked up some straws and kabob skewers to start prototyping. Most of the rail systems I’ve seen online are, either, entirely too large or crazy expensive. I only need it to do 2 things. Move forward, then move back. I don’t even want it to move quickly. I like the idea that the claws move slowly, you know, as if they’re old. I figured I could build a rail system just using pieces of straw on wooden dowels. Three claws are attacked to pieces of straw, they are stabilized at the back end, and moved forward as a single unit. I’ll make the claws out of foam to keep them light so it should not require a very powerful motor. The trick, however, is that the motor has to move in both directions, several inches. At work I deal with motors from time to time but they’ve already been engineered into the products. I just change them and make sure they work. In this case, I have to figure out the entire system from start to finish.
I could add notes about my Steam Punk Poison Oak but I’ve stalled on that one pretty solidly. I am also toying with a gender swap Winter Schnee, also from RWBY. Then there’s Shego and any number of other characters to swap. But the fun one that I really want to cosplay isn’t even a character. I want to go to Boston Comic Con so I can cosplay this building!
