Costume Story: Kora Solusar, V1 (purple kit)

While I have pictures up under the “Costume Archive” title and tag, I often don't feel like doing a lot of typing for those as I'm doing them more to showcase the costume. So I decided to make a separate heading for posts that will probably be TL;DR for most people but just in case . . . .

V1.0

The very first version of this kit was so painfully obviously somebody who hadn't really done this before. It was also back when the Mercs was just starting to crack down on un-modded real world stuff, otherwise I probably would have found some other solution for those parts in the first place.

Anyway, it started out with a basic upper body kit from Cyanide on ebay, a Rubies Jango 2 piece helmet, some coveralls, and some things I already had (essentially the sports armor, boots, that sort of thing). The plates needed some serious reforming to even begin to fit me.

Yeeeaaah. So not made for a female form. lol I did things the harder way that time, forming some of the plates in the oven and tossing them in a cooler chest full of ice water to shock them into place, and I stood for at least 30 minutes or so while my dad used a heat gun to form the backplate to me better (after we trimmed it down).

Cod plates or loin cloths weren't required then, but I wanted one, so I sliced up some scrap fabric I had. I kind of wanted a rugged/worn look to it, though I'm not sure entirely how well I really accomplished that.

I was aiming for a sort of slicer/recon persona to begin with, so I opted for darker colors. Yes, I do realize that in a universe that has stealth field generators it probably doesn't matter, but I'd also been using black and purple with red and silver accents as my field colors at the field I sword fought at, so it was a handy “in universe” reason. My initial idea was a very, very dark purple swirled with the black. I cannot tell you why I had such a hard time finding a deep purple that was also the right shade, but oh it was pretty much impossible in TN. The darkest I found that was close was sparkly, which I didn't want. So I opted for Citadel paint's Liche Purple to airbrush on as swirls. I used cotton balls to mask off the pattern. A nice advantage of using the airbrush was that the paint layers dried fast enough that I could pluck the cotton off as I went to keep it from drying onto the armor.

And because I love capes, especially shoulder capes and capes like Boba's, I added one of those, too.

V1.1 (2009)

That first version was what I got official with, almost literally right before D*Con 2008. After D*Con, I realized just how much I still needed to work on. The chest plates still didn't fit right. I didn't like the way my legs and butt looked in the coveralls. My boots wore blisters onto my ankles (that were bad enough that I had to go change after the parade). So I got to work.

I did some serious trimming and reforming to the chest plates and trimmed the ab and shoulder plates, as well. While I had been working on my V2 kit earlier in 2009, I'd tried out a segmented collar and back plate. I hadn't finished the back plate, but I did like the look of the collar so I made a similar style collar plate for this one. I started the segmented back plate, but it was fast approaching D*Con by the time I got to it so I ended up putting it on hold and stretching out my cape to completely cover my back. New shins were made from scratch, though still had my old gauntlets and knees as the ruling about sports armor still had not been passed.

The reason for that was because, in addition to the new plates, I'd changed up my vest and didn't want to attach new velcro for a full back plate when I fully intended to make a segmented one which would most likely have different attach points. I'd also, by now, gone from coveralls to using two piece suits comprised of dress shirts and pants I found at Goodwill (I was so incredibly lucky to actually get not only matching shades of black but material that looks very similar). A kama and a new loin cloth were added to cover my thighs and butt and hopefully fill in that area some. For lols I added a scarf I got at a military store, mostly at my brother's suggestion since he wanted a scarf on his kit. Oh yeah and new boots in the hopes that I wouldn't once again be in pain after the parade.

For the record, I did end up in pain once again. 0_0 I apparently have the most horrible luck picking ankle boots that don't rub some part of my ankle (of course always the part I didn't have bandages on) raw.

I was actually quite happy with most of the changes to this kit, and I fully planned on continuing with it, just working to get those chest plates shaped some more. Then. . .

V1.2 (2010)

Most people who know me from the Mercs and followed this build know why it happened. I moved out to the west coast in early 2010, and, while my costume was being shipped out to me, one of the chest plates snapped in half. Because I didn't have an airbrush in OR, I couldn't just glue it back together and fill in the seam then repaint.

A huge thanks goes to Praetor for letting me have a sheet of 3mm sintra to scratch build my stuff all over again. I had to make new chest plate patterns (not having the ones from my V2 out there yet), and the unfortunately ended up coming up short once formed (something I am working on correcting with future patterns). Coming up short meant there was too big of a gap between them and the chest plate, so I made the piece I tend to refer to as “that damn fiddly bit.”

By this time the Merc's had added the “No Unmodified Sports Armor” rule, so I set about making some new gauntlets. (I'd already acquired some of Imperial Outpost Armory's Galactic Marine knees that I planned on wearing upside down because I like that look more.) I was thinking about doing armored wraps for my gauntlets and even did a fair amount of planning out for them.

Ultimately though, they were just more hassle than it was worth to me, so I took my V2 kit's gauntlets, popped the studs off, cleaned them up and repainted. (The only picture I have to show this part was when I was debating adding some more armor to them.) I also added some armor to my gloves, which I hold on with an elastic strap with loops at both ends, one to go around my wrist the other around my middle finger.

I also finally finished one of those segmented back plates; the only portion I was ever happy with happened to be the lower back (though it still needs to top curve to be evened out some).

On the soft goods front, I still had the V1.1's two piece under suit and vest. I found some new boots this time, these coming up higher on my ankle so I could tuck my pants in, and they thankfully don't rub anything raw (though I do have to wear certain socks and stuff the toe a bit but it was a fair exchange for no more blisters). I attempted to add a girth belt, which required getting creative as I didn't have a sewing machine at this time, either. Lots of fabric glue and bias tape. XD I also upgraded the kama and loin cloth to the leather ones from my V2 kit and decided I had to give them some trim after I found some perfect trim at Joann's.

I had also by now finally gotten my new helmet that I wanted to try out for the kit (and had actually wanted for the V1.1). This one is one of, well, not many, Commando helmets made by Ick'tan. There aren't anymore being made to the best of anybody's knowledge (as of this post). They're a hybrid between the Republic Commando helmets and Mando helmets and came out about roughly similar to a 2 piece in size. Unfortunately, there were flaws in the casting. Pere put in a lot of time filling in small holes plus sanding down a good blob of epoxy putty to fill in a dent that left the top of the helmet looking lopsided. I also reinforced a couple spots with fiberglass where the resin was thin. Because I like to be different, I also added the funky visor cut out, similar to what I did with my Beast Master helmet.

This version was debuted at the NWC clan picnic in August. I had somehow forgotten one of my over the shoulder collar plates, so my scarf had to be kept arranged to hide it but otherwise it wasn't half bad. (By this time I also trimmed off those bottom mandibles on the helmet as I thought that made it too long on my head.)

V1.2 repaint (2011)

Since virtually nothing has changed from the 2010 version to this one, I'm just calling it a repaint. Those who have been following my blog know that not only did the shoulder bells get their paint messed up by the cape fabric resting on them, but I also thought I lost “that damn fiddly bit” so I remade it. Because I didn't have my spray paints up here and didn't want to hassle with getting the purple and the black and doing all that masking and repainting with bad weather, I just found some more of the red paint I used to redo those plates. I also got rid of the girth belt and got a new leather belt (while the 2010 version is pictured with that weak little fabric one, I had had a leather belt but the buckle broke several weeks before the picnic and I couldn't find a replacement in time). Due to more changes in the Merc's rules (and my refusal to cut slits in pants I wear around as normal clothes sometimes), I made some “scrunchies” out of left over cape fabric to cover the elastic bands on my shin armor. (The scrunchy pics can be found in one of the blog posts detailing that work.)

A new pistol was also whipped together using one of those Cade Bane Hasbro blasters and attaching a barrel extension from some cheapo dart gun.

V1.3 (the future)

Obviously there aren't any images of this kit in this post because it hasn't even been started yet. Because my V1.2 uses the vest of V1.1 the plates don't really sit as well on it as they should. As such I'm constructing a new vest, as well as just going ahead and trying to make some chest plates out of a mannequin form. I'm switching back to a Jango style helmet (the Commando will become a display piece) and trying out a new purple paint for the airbrush that I found at HobbyTown USA. Look for that kit. . .In the Future! *insert dramatic 50s sci-fi music here*

Argh emergency repairs (also, long post is long)

This past week Pere and I went back down to OR to pick up some of my stuff from my brother's apartment. We probably got maybe half, maybe. About a third of that was stuff that got moved into the room, the rest got stuck into storage (a hearty huzzah for the storage place having a deal going on, first two months are 50% off). Only brought one of my costume trunks up, but I put a fair amount of my ren fair stuff into it since I have no idea if we're going to be able to go to the Highland Games or the ren fair this year, but I wanted to have options just in case. There's enough room for my to stick Kora's purple kit in it, but first I need to kit up and take some pics for the CK clan just to show I'm still official quality I guess? (Sorry guys, I really don't completely get it, but I'll do it anyway. lol)

However, a problem had developed. After the NWC clan picnic back in August, I stuck my kit back into the trunk, and it pretty much hadn't moved since. When I pulled it out to place it in separate bags to make sure it got into the room rather than storage, I noticed that the shoulder bells had some funky patterns on them from the cape fabric. I figured, hey, no big deal, it's just a glue or residue from the fabric (it's one of those faux leathers). Oh no. As I discovered when I started trying to remove the "residue" the fabric had actually imprinted onto the paint. Aaand of course the only spray paints I brought back up this time around were my primer, satin black (to paint my rifle), and ivory (to paint the steampunk armor). *sigh* So I resorted to sanding them and running out to find yet another can of the metallic red I used on my helmet visor and hand plates. Thankfully Hobbytown had some, and it wasn't so expensive it made me cringe. So Kora's shoulder and diamond plate/s are now red. I admit I painted the diamond red only because I figured it would help balance out the red since I've tossed the girth belt for now. Short torso and big hips make girth belts a bit of a challenge. I also finally made the covers for the elastic on my shin armor; yay armor scrunchies. XD

Anyway, ultimately, when I switch back to the 2 piece helmet, all the armor is getting repainted to the airbrushed purple rather than that rattle can shade. The helmet will still be the same red/purple combo, and the hand plates will still be red, but all the other swirlies will go back to the correct swirly shade. Hoping to get some armored up pictures soon, but I've got to make a run to the storage unit first as I apparently forgot to take my gloves out of the armor box.

I've gotten some work done on the sniper rifle. Now that I have my dremel again it's a lot easier to move forward on some of this stuff since there is no way Pere's would have lasted (silly dremel with it's dying battery). Going to need some time in the garage to do some of the sanding though as I don't really want epoxy and bondo dust in the room. Need some of the epoxy Pere uses to fill in portions of the barrel. I think the body is mostly filled in given that a lot of the gun is going to be wrapped in fabric so there's not much of it that's ultimately going to be showing. However, because there is no way I will have it finished any time soon, I'm thinking I'm going to splurge a bit and snag one of those $10 Cad Bane blasters for kids. I'm small enough that I can use it well enough with some simple mods, and, luckily, I discovered today while digging through my hard greebly box that I have a barrel that may work as a barrel extension for it.

Aaand, I've even made some progress on the Early Crusader Beast Master helmet for Tiika. I know, it's kind of astounding that anything has been done to it. lol Let me tell you though, that sintra was a pain in the ass to get on there. I've still got to trim the sintra down (a LOT in the case of the back shroud), and after that it will probably sit there again for a time until I have some of that epoxy putty to get to work on smoothing things into the helmet, adding some of the small horns, and over all making it look like bone. Also still debating methods for making the larger horns. So what started out as this:

Has become this:

And on the "costumes that are not mine" front - Thanks to Sidd who sent me some gauntlets insanely cheap, I now have some of Imperial Outpost Armory's gauntlets to mod for my brother's mando kit. (For the record, I love IOA's stuff; it's there GM knees I use for Kora's purple kit and plan on using for the winter kit, as well.) I stripped the paint from two more Hasbro clone helmets for Pere (these two were actually not purchased originally for his purposes entirely. . .the RFs were traded for some other parts he needed). And if you're wondering how many clone helmets that makes now, I think that's about 6? Eh, somewhere around there. Still have a fair amount of the parts to finish sanding before stuff starts getting glued together and epoxied and all that fun stuff. I'm looking forward to that if only because it means there won't be plastic bags of helmet parts sitting around. lol

I think, shockingly enough, that's it for this week. If I manage to get some pictures later today (I almost said tomorrow before I remembered what time it was) I'll make another post to showcase that stuff. Here's hoping by the end of the week I'll also have a suitable pistol and gotten the rest of the clone helmet parts sanded at the very least.

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.

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).