Kero & Suppi - Bows, Gems, Giant Candy - Cardcaptor Sakura

This is the fourth post for Kero and Suppi! This is just a quick look at all the props and accessories for these costumes. :) I always feel that props and accessories just make a costume that much more interesting!

For the rest of these fabulous costumes see the Shirts & Shorts, Ears & Wigs, and Aprons & Wings. For more pictures of Kero and Suppi see Eleventh Photograph's Otakon gallery!

First let's talk about those delicious candies! They were actually made by my sister. It was really nice to have a super light prop to carry around for the day.

My mint is made of 2 layers of insulation foam hot glued together. The edges were sanded down to be round. She then painted it white, then added the red swirls using acrylic paint. Alex's gumballs were simply coloured balls she got at the dollar store. Both candies were wrapped in cellophane.

Alex also made our cool gems. For the gems we used a gedeo clear resin we bought at Curry's. Following the instructions she mixed the 2 parts accordingly and used a new paint tray as a circular mold. Then they were left to cure. We only needed 2, but she made 6. This was lucky because for whatever reason 50% of the gems didn't cure.

Then she painted them using nail polish. She backed them with a polish of each chosen colour (red and teal), then in order to bring out the shine she coated the top of the gem in a clear coat of nail polish. Trust me when I say that the clear coat is what turns them from looking "meh" into looking gorgeous.

The next accessory was a set of 3 bows for each of us. Each bowtie was made of 4 pieces plus a neck band. All the rectangular pieces excluding the center were given stripes to match the aprons. The bows were hand stitched together, then the gems were hot glued onto the center. Finally to the neck bows I added a neck band, with a velcro closure. My sister's I made longer because she wanted to have her collar unbuttoned.

The shoe bows were simply attached to our own shoe laces with safety pins!

Asuna Kagurazaka (Knight) - Armour (Cast) - Negima

The last post from my Asuna set, then I am officially done Anime North 2013 stuff! Hahaha

Go here for my Heat Molded Armour, Wig, Bodice, Skirt, and Sword. And you can find the rest of my photoshoot with EleventhPhotograph here! The armour looks particularly stunning in these photos, the paint job on the shoulder piece really reflected light well.

So here we go with the second part of my armour tutorials, except this time we get to talk about casting. Probably one of the more finicky aspects of the whole project, and in spite of all its faults it turned out really well (particularly since this is my first time casting anything myself!) Before I get into the technical talk of this post, I would like to thank my friend Ian (aka Elephutan) for taking the time to walk me through the whole process! It would not have been possible without him!

The shoulder piece I am the most proud of, of the entire costume, while the elbow piece I am the least proud of (in terms of shape, size, rigging, etc. it just didn't fulfill my expectations.)

First I would like to say that it was an executive decision to change the design of the elbow armour to be something more physically possible. On real armour there are no metal bits on the inside of your joints so that you can actually bend your limbs. On the original design however the elbow piece encircles the entire elbow (see picture on the left). This would have made it a) more difficult to cast, b) more expensive to cast, and c) physically impossible to bend my arm. That being said I was so mobility impaired anyway that I doubt it would have mattered, but I didn't want to hamper myself from the get go. So I modified it to go only halfway around the arm.

While the heat molded armour is quite economical, the cast pieces are quite pricey. However, with the styrene plastic it would not have been physically possible to achieve the shapes I wanted. I could have carved it out of foam also, but I would have had my constant dilemma of foam being easily dinged, and carving the inside cleanly would have been nigh impossible. The hollow cast shell was what I was looking for in this project.

...And now for something completely different: The first thing I cast for this project was actually my legs to use as a base for heat molding. This was done with a plaster bandage mold.

First we covered the front half of my leg in plaster bandage, then after that set we covered the area of overlap in a generous layer of vaseline. Then Ian covered the back half in the plaster bandage. Obviously I could not do this by myself as it had to be done while I was standing, and I had to stand still so it didn't set in the wrong position.

These were then peeled away. We coated the inside in vaseline and then sealed the side seams and bottom. Using elastic bands to hold everything in place.

Following the instructions on the package we mixed the correct proportions of plaster and water. This was then poured into the molds. It wasn't a perfect replica, as the side seams were rough, and one leg didn't turn out as well as the other, but it made an excellent base to heat mold my calf and knee pieces around. 

Now on to the real reason we are here! I actually started this process by taking detailed measurements analysing my proportions and those of the reference pictures, mocking up my plans in autocad. This ensured I was on the right track before I started carving.

Using contact cement I glued 5 semicircle layers of foam together to create my starting shape. I drew on the semi circle cut outs on the top and bottom as reference points. The radius of the semicircles here were the same as the widest point of the piece. 

I carved down to the rough shape before switching to sandpaper.

I drew up my imagined elbow piece to scale. Unfortunately I was working under the assumption that the cast would be thicker than it was and as a result the piece wound up being very loose fitting.

I traced out pieces of my top view and cut out the layers.

I glued these together and began carving.

I then fine tuned these pieces. I filled in any divots or dents and sanded it smooth. This was repeated multiple times, keeping in mind that any mistakes on the master would be duplicated in all the replicas.

Then it was time to begin the casting process. I went out to Sculpture Supply Canada and they set me up with everything I needed! I brought both pieces with me so that they could ensure I had the right materials for the job in the right quantities.

We started by making the silicone mold. This is a brush on mold, that would be open on one side. The open side was tacked down to a scrap piece of foam so that it wouldn't make a mess and was easily moveable. In several layers we made a silicone shell that was about 1/8" thick. (Tip: always have like a million disposable paint brushes on hand for this, every time you use one it becomes garbage.)

We took extra care to ensure there was a thick layer of silicone on the tip and the ridge so it wouldn't tear.

Then we made a plaster bandage mother shell. Again this was done in a few layers. Like the leg molds I did earlier we first did one half, then put a coating of vaseline on the area of overlap, then did the other half. This ensured that we could take it apart and line it up easily when putting it back together.

Then we de-molded the pieces, meaning we took the foam originals out of the silicone casings.
The mold and mother shell were then put back together, ready for casting.

Following the instructions on the package we mixed the proportions of part A and B accordingly.

The cast was brushed in so it would be a hollow shell. This means I needed a resin with a short work time so it would stay on the vertical walls and not slosh back down before it was done curing. (Lots more disposable brushes were used.) I should have done more thin layers on this part, instead of fewer thicker layers as this resulted in a buildup of resin in the bottom of the mold, making the tip a lot heavier than I had anticipated.

Using my dremel I cleaned up the edges and cut out the two semicircles on the shoulder piece.

Then I heat molded two strips of styrene to nest into the curved sections. These were hot glued in place.

The last thing I did before paints was to drill some screw into the thick buildup of solid resin in the bottom. These were used as anchoring points for my rigging, which was much more secure than trying to adhere anything as the pieces are quite heavy. Unfortunately on the last screw we managed to crack the elbow piece. With no time to recast it, I filled the fracture with duradex.

All the pieces were then sanded to be even smoother than the foam originals. Then I painted them the same as the heat molded pieces.

The rigging for these was very complicated and resulted in me needing a squire to dress me for battle. I made the straps out of leather so they wouldn't chafe my skin (like pleather/vinyl would have) and they hooked around my anchor points on the inside. I used buckles to cinch everything in place. Unfortunately the straps stretched over the course of the day, meaning that things started to shift, hanging in the wrong place and slowly strangling me. This was remedied by boring more holes in the straps, although they continued to stretch and be a problem.

Final notes for casting: Unless you have someone to help you along every step of the way like I did, start small! Don't cast anything crazy large or complicated as your first project! Also, always read the instructions like 8 times before starting and ensure you have everything you need laid out before you start.

Overall I was super happy with the costume as a whole, and it was very well received at the convention. I hope to pull it out again next year, perhaps I can fix some of the rigging issues in the mean time!

Hope you enjoyed the Asuna tutorials, I had a lot of fun making it! We will be taking a short break from cosplay things before looking at Otakon costumes!

Cousin Miso - Soup Bowl

Wow I'm behind! I meant to post this as soon as I got back, but it's over a week later and I've been too busy to do anything! XD

So once again, I have no pictures of the beginning of this project! D: Although in this case, it's because this is not my work! This is about 0.3% my work! Hahaha! No, I was involved in the sewing of the outfit, but for the head, I was merely a helping hand for tools that were out of reach and a second opinion! And I would take pictures. So here they are!

Like me, she started with a bike helmet, only she built the base frame out of cardboard. She figured out the curve she wanted for the bowl, and cut 2 pieces of cardboard in this shape. Then she measured the shape of the helmet and cut that out of the pieces. And cut a slit into each so they would interlock to make a cross shape. And she also cut a circle to make the flat top.

The fallout, the wire measuring the shape of the helmet and the failed piece.

She then glued the whole base frame to the helmet. She added a shelf and made braces to make it more stable, and also to support the layer of foam. (Which is added later)

 

Then she added in ribs along the bottom, and connected them together with a wire.

She extended the bowl to be taller.

She cut out large rectangles of foam and put slits up the bottom so it would curve easily.

Cutting out the excess and gluing the bottom in place.

Looking good~! :D Just a bit of a squeeze getting her head in and out, and not with her glasses on. Next I (yeah, something I actually did!) drew an estimate guideline of the size and placement of the face.

So smooth over the joins, she covered the entire thing with cotton batting. then measured and cut the hole for the eyehole.

She constructed the rectangle for the face, using bias tape on the edge to save herself some trouble. She had to find a fabric that she could see out of.

She spraypainted the inside of the bowl, and cut chunks of upholstery foam to be the tofu. Gessoed and then painted white.

We got the antenna parts of of a friend in the katamari group who had bought a whole bunch so the antennas on all the characters would be identical. So many people dropped out of the group that we were able to obtain some extra parts, for my costume later.

She filled the cardboard bowl she made with more foam, as we realized that that much resin would be too expensive! DX Painted brown to save her the trouble of tinting it.

Mum was enlisted to help her make the cover, as I was busy working on my beak (and crying....).  They made a ring and then sewed a rectangle to it.

A fair amount of photos missing here, but mum tacked the excess together and basted the seams together so it would be easier to machine stitch when she took it off than if she pinned it.

Pouring the resin on the front lawn. It smelt dreadful! DX

The white was put there so the see-through-ish face wouldn't look pink! XD

Finally cutting the hole in the cover and securing it inside with hot glue. Newspaper was used to protect the face. It looks like they are performing dental surgery.

OM NOM NOM. Delicious.

Face was hand stitched into place.

We waited for the resin to cure properly with our fingers crossed... and presto! Fini! :D