Concept picture time!

Because I've had little else to do, I knocked some color concepts out. None of the base forms are mine, but I've unfortunately lost the links. If you know what site the bases are from, PLEASE send me the link. I don't like not being able to give credit where credit is due.

Also, as these are just what I call my color concepts, they don't have all the details the actual kits will. And final colors are always open to change.

First, the second color concept for my steampunk mando. Originally I had ivory plates on ivory fabric, tried ivory plates with a gold or brown vest (hated that look), so I switched to gold plates on ivory fabric. The ivory color came out a lot more cream than I meant for it to, but you get the general idea.

Then my winter kit. Same design pattern as Kora's purple kit, only with pearlized white and metallic blue swirls. I'm leaning towards a damaged/dirtied kit, the color concept obviously doesn't show that. The kama and girth belt are uncolored because I'm not sure what color I'm going to make them yet.

And finally my brother's kit. He's had one "finished" version before, but it was honestly subpar work for me since I was working on a short budget and little time. His original colors were hunter green, gold, black and some brown. New colors are being based off poison arrow frogs. Intense blue and black with some grey accents on the clothing. Not shown in the color concept is the "splatter" that will possibly be added on.

Alright, so not quite finally. Also did a concept sketch for my sexy sith, just so I'd have something to work from. No colors on it yet as it's going to be a pretty straightforward, standard sith color scheme.

Early post today

I really can't sleep, and I'm not entirely sure that I want to start Morrowind up because that will probably keep me awake for far longer than I should be. (I should actually at least get up and turn off the over head light so Pere can sleep, but then again that does require moving. *chuckle*)

Alright, so I was a nice person and not only got up and turned off the light but also moved the light table off the bed so it wasn't in his way anymore.

Anyway, just a couple of small updates for this week (though today is very young yet).

My costumes: not much really. Did FINALLY manage to find a replacement belt for Kora's V1.2 kit at Goodwill yesterday night. Originally it used a police belt, but I switched to a thinner belt when I added the girth. However, that belt broke the week before the NWC clan picnic, so the belt I'm wearing in those pictures is a POS I made just so I'd have something to have my pouches on. Nothing else physically created other than a re-do of my Steampunk mando's color concept, and I started to sketch out the armor design for the winter kit when I decided that the form I have just doesn't work for that type of armor. So I need to find another more neutral pose to work on the color concept for that kit.

Misc. costumes: got two different color concepts done for my brother to look at and pick one of. His old armor is still back out in TN, but I should be getting his helmet at least in the next month or so. At the very least I can get one thing painted for him. Whenever Pere can afford to get the fabric for his vest, we're using some of the extra from that to make my brother's so really a lot of his stuff is in limbo until summer I think.

 Also, while we were over in Seattle on Wednesday, Pere found another Clone Trooper helmet at a Goodwill we were checking out. Sooo guess who needs to get some more nail polish remover and cotton balls? *chuckle* Seriously though, there's probably enough of them by now that we can sell a couple after they've been modded to, well, beyond 501st standards really. Pere's a little obsessive like that, but at least it means the end product is so very worth it.

I'm not entirely sure what will really get done this coming week. I have some real life items I need to buy, and with gas prices I can only afford to go out once more with the whole quarter of a tank I have left (yeah, and that's after putting $20 in this morning which didn't even get me half a tank). Ergo, I have very little money to do anything with this month unless some of the stuff I'm trying to sell moves on to new owners. And because there is very little money, I don't know that there will be any updates for a while. I'm sure I may end up rambling at you again next weekend, but I can't promise it will have much of consequence in it. Kind of like this post really. lol

A mostly uneventful week

Plans for ECCC have pretty much been scrapped. I just don't have the funds right now on top of other personal issues. Which is not really helping with that whole depression thing. It also makes it pretty imperative that I manage to make it out to D*Con so I can retain my active member status with the Mercs since I can't think of any other events anytime soon that I can do (especially given that all my costumes are still packed up down in Oregon at my brother's apartment, and when they come up here it will be only into a storage unit as I have zero room where I'm currently living).

Pere and I may go to Sakuracon, but we're not really sure on that either. Money is just suck right now, and I'm horribly depressed and in a miserable funk. 

Aside from that I have accomplished virtually nothing this week, beyond picking up Morrowind again and being talked into learning Magic: The Gathering once more (I tried back in high school but for various reasons never got hardcore into it).

But, onto the costuming front, which is really what anybody who is here is probably here for. *chuckle*

Nothing of my own stuff got done. The Steampunk Mando items are sitting quite forlornly near the bookshelf waiting for it to be warmer out so I can sit outside and do some of the work that needs to be done. Also need to get Pere to do my measurements to make the corset pattern so I can get to work figuring out the corset vest for that outfit and from there decide how much the right kind of fabric will set me back.

Spent a good chunk of last night stripping paint from yet another of Pere's helmets. This time it was the Stormtrooper Master Replicas one. We thought that all I had to strip off was the black on the front grill and around the indents. . . .oh god were we wrong. I realized while working on the indents that all that white was in fact paint. Yes, Master Replicas apparently decided to paint the white plastic white rather than just polishing the WHITE plastic. *sigh* So my arm is killing my today. Stripping an entire painted helmet with half a bottle of nail polish remover and cotton balls is not good for carpal tunnel. But at least it's done, and Pere can move on to other aspects of the helmets that need work.

Costume Archives: Tiika Ruslin (modern era beast master) RETIRED

Yes, I know it's misspelled. Shush. :P Made for me by the awesome Samantha: http://partnaznkrime.deviantart.com/

This kit was probably one of the more fun kits I've done so far. I estimate it probably took me about a week or two of collecting materials and work time to get it finished since I was aiming for a Halloween debut. Tiika was never worn to any conventions, I really did just make it all only to wear it to hand out candy.

Helmet was Kora's old V1 helmet. I lopped off the lower back to install the suede cloth and added the horns. Undersuit was another two piece set up. No vest, just the cheapo corset I added leather to. Cape and kama pieces were made from leather skirts I found at Goodwill (bearing in mind that at the Goodwills back home I could find leather skirts for $3-$5 rather than the $15-$20 I see on this coast). Rabbit hide was purchased at D*Con 2009. Belts and the wedge heeled suede boots were also Goodwill finds. Staff was PVC with some spare studs and leather glued on (this is the Staff of Doom, FYI ;) ).

Costume Archives: Kora Solusar, V2 (Red kit) RETIRED

This was pretty much a one time kit that I had intended to use more. The truth is simply that I have so many other mando kits I want to make that I opted to retire this kit after its first use. Currently all the plates are dismantled, and the helmet is possible going to be used for one of my brother's kits.

This kit was made and worn in 2009, debuting at AdventureCon. It was my first scratchbuilt kit, and I'm still quite proud of a lot of it. Between the test shots at my house and the actual convention, I changed the gauntlets, and if I had kept it, I was going to construct new shins and knees for it. This kit was also my first time using a two piece undersuit, and it pretty much convinced me that I can't go back to a one piece. ^-^ Helmet is still a Rubies 2 piece Jango with an airsoft mask front added as a rebreather with a rangefinder top and phone antenna as a long range comm unit on the back.

Kama and loincloth were made from a leather skirt I found at Goodwill (these became the kama and loincloth you can see on my V1.3 kit). Girthbelt was two men's Merona brand belts shortened, whipstitched together, and dyed. Cape was some micro-suede material from Joann's.

Costume Archives: Kora Solusar, V1 (Purple kit)

My very first costume, not counting the mishmash of stuff I would throw together for ren fairs. Started it sometime around June or July 2008, finished about a week before D*Con. This kit has had several upgrades through the years, and there are still some changes I plan to make for it eventually.

V1 – 2008, D*Con

This version is very much a rush job, I admit. The chest plates are a Cyanide kit, and I didn't realize that I really needed to trim them down. I am proud of the insane amount of shaping my dad did on the backplate though to make it fit me better. This was at the time that unmodded sports gear was still allowed for the Mercs, but I had always intended for those to be temporary anyway.

V1.2 – 2009

By now I'd done some touch ups and modifications to move it closer to what I had originally envisioned. As you can see, I've switched the tattered loin cloth out for a purple loin cloth and kama (I decided to add a kama as I don't really like how my butt looked XD). The shins are new, made from scratch, and I made a new segmented collar plate. All the Cyanide plates have been trimmed down and formed slightly closer to my body. My old gun was switched out for a slightly modded Nerf Recon.

Not instantly noticable, I'd also switched to a two piece undersuit (black collar shirt and black “dress” pants) and switched out my old boots for the ones I have here. I added the scarf and a cape in place of my backplate (which was in the process of being phased out for a segmented idea so I hadn't wanted to put any velcro on for it).

V1.3 – 2010

Disaster struck during this time. As I'd moved out to the West Coast, my mom had shipped me my armor. In transit, one of the chest plates snapped completely in half. So I had to set about remaking the entire set of armor as I also didn't have an airbrush to re-do any painting. There is so much with this particular version that I'm actually not happy with (for one thing, I didn't have the money to make or get a new vest so I had to make all the new armor fit onto the spacing for my old armor). As much as I'd waited for that Commando helmet, too, I'm thinking I'm going to go back to a standard helmet for it. Still not happy with the cape (though I now have the lower back plate on, it's just not visible in any of these pictures).

In addition to completely new and from scratch chest plates, I also added new gauntlets, hand armor, throat armor and a set of Galactic Marine knees from redkraytdragon (which I quite purposely am wearing upside down).

In which there is some rambling about the blog and fangasming

First, I realize that I really do need to get on putting all the finishing touches on the blog. The problem is I keep looking at my bookmark menu and having my brain go into fits at the thought of trying to figure out which things might most come in useful to people and what to organize them under. Really, I am trying though. I know I don't even have an "About Me" section up, but I really have a hell of a time trying to write those silly things.

Anyway, onto the fangasming. Yesterday Peregrinus and I went over to Seattle to FINALLY see Tron in 3D Imax at the Pacific Science Center. I splurged and used some of my Christmas money to buy us both science center memberships so we can get discounts on special events/Imax films. I admit, I wasn't really thinking about it, but Pere went ahead and got tickets for the Harry Potter Exhibition while we were there. And Oh. My. God. am I glad he did.

The costumes. Oh they were marvelous.  I'm only annoyed that Warner Brothers won't allow anybody to take pictures. *sad face* Having worked on costumes for my college theater, and having seen costumes from other movies, I know that a lot of short cuts are usually taken. Sometimes for monetary reasons, sometimes to save time. But these. . .oh they were beautifully finished and detailed. I so badly wish I could have taken some pictures, just to share. The detailing of the props was also astounding (I never knew how much was on Snape's wand until I was standing there staring at it). I am disappointed that the gift shop didn't really have anything specific to the exhibit beyond the exhibit guide book (I mean, look guys, I just went through the exhibit, I'm not going to pay you $17 for a book telling me only partially what I looked at).

Tron was also astounding, though I have no idea how I'm going to be able to deal with watching it in 2D now that I've seen it in Imax with the 3D. I'm also taking bets on how many Tron costumes are going to be at D*Con this year. (Don't get me wrong, if I had the body for one I would do it in a heartbeat. . .assuming I also had the funds to do one.) I'm pretty sure the club scene was probably my favorite though, if only because of Daft Punk.

For now, however, I am off to try to organize my costuming stuff as best I can in the space I have at the moment. I've spent the last couple days getting the paint apps off of some Hasbro Clone Trooper helmets, a Boba helmet, and the face shield portion of an Iron Man helmet and now I need to figure out what else I have around that I can work on without needing warmer temperatures.

First post and already out of creative titles

Though I may simply be exhausted from the day and mostly unable to do anything thinking beyond "Kora type. Kora type good.". *heh* Anyway, onto the introduction.

Well, I guess the best place to begin is explaining this blog. A lot of people I know are doing them, so I suppose some of it is the sort of "hey, be one of the cool kids!" type thing. But after some careful consideration (ie - an hour or so talking via Facebook status updates and comments) I've decided to try a blog to catalog my costume stuff rather than a freewebs site. Don't get me wrong, I did so love my little free website, but I think I can more effectively achieve my goals via blog format.

Now, don't get me wrong. I make no claims to be some sort of awesome costumer. In fact, there are tons FAR better than I am or could probably ever be. It is, however, a hobby I really love, and I do like trying to help people as best as I can. So to that end my plan for this blog is for it to not only have my own costume related stuff (tutorials, rambles, etc), but I've also got those little nifty links on the side of my blog. Those I'm dumping my collection of cosplay related links into for anybody who may need them. Some collections of links may be posted as blog posts instead, but I'll probably make one of the side links a page with (yet more) links to those blog posts.

And that's all I have time for tonight, folks. Within the next day or so I'll probably have a post up fangasming over the Harry Potter Exhibition here in Seattle. Until then, stay tuned.