For my Alphonse armor. Still some painting left to do, as well as the cloth bits. I did manage to paint in the blood seal...



I'm not sure if the size and placement are correct, (since I couldn't find a screencap or reference pic which showed it in situ,) but at least I made the effort (and no, I didn't use real blood to paint it, but after all the sweat and tears I shed over this project, it would have been apropos to do so.)

One more thing I made for the costume:



Al's kitty (sitting atop my kitty, who looks positively evil in comparison.)

I wish I had another week to work on this project, but *sigh* we'll just have to see how it goes...

I learned that...

...blue metal flake is the dodgiest of all testor's enamel colors, and that trying to apply it to a surface in a way that doesn't look streaky is about as frustrating a task as trying to thread a rope through a needle while sitting on a chair made out of angry animals.

...no matter how much costuming experience you may have, it is still possible to grossly underestimate the amount of time and paint you need to finish a project by a factor of ten. (Or more.)

...it is possible to buy up all the silver enamel within a ten mile radius and STILL not have enough to finish a project.)

...the amount of snow predicted to fall in the immediate forecast is directly proportional to the amount of outdoor painting you have left to do on your project.

...I HATE PAINTING! GAH!!!

I had hoped I would have been able to make more fanart to sell at AnimeDetour, but it's going to be a major time-sucking struggle just to finish up my Alphonse armor. (Speaking of which, I have the first coat of spray paint finished...)



When all is said and done, the surface of the armor will be a bluish-silver (but they don't sell bluish spray paint so the first spraycoat had to be silver. -_- ) I'm hoping I can pull this costume off, because if I do, it'll be the first costume I've worn where my bulkiness is more of an asset than a liability. (Not that I think size is a major detriment to cosplay--a large person in a well-made costume will beat out a petite person in a wrinkled, slap-dash costume any day--but still, there's something to be said for putting on a costume and knowing that you look exactly like the figure you're trying to portray...

I did manage to finish up another project I've been working on. (Just to show you, you don't have to rely solely on painted plastic to create convincing looking armor-- The project below is Storm's collar and gauntlets (minus the part of the glove that covers the hands) as seen inthis picture.



I used craft foam to make the structure of the items, and covered them with gold metallic vinyl. It's a good way to create a finish that's smooth and uniform. (I did use plastic and paint to create the "X" medallion in the center of the collar, but the rest of the surface is all vinyl.)

Busy, busy me....*Sigh*

Namely, my Alphonse armor. I had hoped to be finished with the construction today, but it's 4-farking-am and I'm STILL not finished with those damn shoulder spikes. So those will have to wait until tomorrow. I can post an in-progress picture of an earlier stage of the armormaking process (namely, the making of one of the prosthetic arms.)



These took forever for me to work out. At first, I wanted to wire each individual finger for movement, but the fingers kept getting tangled with each other . Since time was running out, I worked out a simple system with two pulling rings (with half the fingers connected to one ring, half to the other.) This makes the fingers much less likely to conflict with each other AND makes it much easier for the fingers of my REAL hand to grasp the rings.

Feel free to ask about how I put the arm together, but don't expect an answer for awhile. I am sooooooo busy this week.....

Anime Detour is drawing close, so I'm in a rush to get my Alphonse armor finished. I've spent an ungodly amount of time on the legs, and while I think the thighs are pretty much finished, I regret I can't say the same for those hair-pullingly godawful, goat-buggering shins (The problem being that they're tapered into a weird shape that's hard to recreate with just flat plastic sheets. That, and the fact that I've poured so much work into them already, I'm utterly sick at the sight of them, so I'm moving onto the rest of the armor.)

I'm working on making a pair of prosthetic hand extensions (which will extend my hand by a good 10" or so so my wrist winds up being at Al's elbow and my elbow at his shoulder. Boy, that's going to be fun to move around in.) I've made the fingers out of plastic strips and corset steels and attached wires to the fingertips so I can move the fingers (although in practice, the best I'll be able to do is wiggle them a little--they're not strong enough to grab anything, but they should be able to fool most bystanders into thinking there's a real-life actual hand inside of them.)

I've started work on the shoulders as well. Here's what I've got of the upper body so far (being guarded by my two cats, Sunny and Moonie (a.k.a Shadow a.k.a. Demonspawn.)



If you've sent me an e-mail in the recent past, I WILL get around to answering it soon, barring any near future disasters or lapses of productivity. Sorry for the delay...

...when I don't feel like doing much of anything. (It's probably because I have so MUCH to do that I don't really want to think about it.) And yet I managed to forge ahead with a few of my projects . ( Like my Alphonse armor. I managed to nail down most of the design for the lower half of the leg. I've got the general shape worked out:)



Armor (especially armor which doesn't have any obvious closures or buckles) can really be a pain in the ass to recreate because you have to guess how the character wearing it managed to get into it. (Al is lucky in that his body IS the armor and as such, he doesn't have to worry about such things. But I'm not so fortunate.) To create the necessary length for the lower leg (and to insure that the legs were in proper proportion to the torso) I had to build the footplates around a boot with a massive heel. (About 4" in height.) I see too many armor Al costumes where he has a massive torso like a gorilla and tiny bulldog legs. Clearly, to get the heroic, tank-like proportions of the character, some prosthetics are needed. (I'll of course, have to practice walking in them so I don't topple over. Will I be able to have everything finished in time for Anime Detour this year? I've got my fingers crossed....)

Ugh. I had a new harddrive added to my computer and some drivers updated yesterday. Now my monitor settings look all weird. (The Curse of the Sony Trinitron Horizontal Lines of Doom seem a little darker and more noticable than they did before the change, and they're making my stress-addled eyes all buggy. Feh.)

Starting a new long-term project (which will run concurrently with all my other long-term projects. ) I'm working on a set of Griffith armor (Character reference here.) This is the Berserk manga's version of the armor (which means, of course, that it's overdetailed and insanely complicated in comparison to the anime version. Which means this project is going to be really really painful for yours truly.) Here's all I managed to finish today.



I know. Don't seem like much, does it? The plates are made from thin craft foam covered with styrene. I like the surface of the chrome spray paint I used, but it's not as durable as Testors so I will have to paint over it. (It makes a nice base coat, though...)

I managed to save enough time to get a little more work in on my Alphonse armor:



I had to use high-density bedfoam to create the thickness necessary to make the collar. (I glued several layers of plastic onto the inside and outside of the collar to make it stable.) I next want to work on the shoulder pauldrons (which I plan on making out of plastic bowls--providing I can find any of the right shape and size at the local thrift store.)

I've got MOST of the painting finished on the sword (enough to give you a good idea of the finished appearance, anyway...)








I dabbed varying degrees of silver and black paint to create an antiqued look on the skull/hilt.

I also managed to get some more work done on my Alphonse armor. In this picture you can see me taping tagboard shapes together (which I then taped to the finished part of the armor:)



Tagboard is a good material to use for making armor patterns, as it behaves in much the same way as styrene (and is much cheaper of course). I used the tagboard template to cut the craft foam and styrene I used to make that section of the armor...



It's starting to look a little more like Al. (I need to do the rest of the collar, but will have to scour the local hardware stores for some foam thick and solid enough to make it. ) I'll keep you posted...

I've finally bitten the bullet (er, bited the bullet...er...bit the bullet) and started my Alphonse Elric armor (which I hope to finish in time for Anime Detour.) I'm making the chest first, as I figure that will be the most difficult part (well, that and the movable extensions I plan on putting into the gauntlets to make my hands look ginormous.) I'm planning the chest to be about 65 inches around and the armor, when I'm finished, to stand about 6'8" feet tall (which is going to be quite a feat considering I'm only 5' 7") I suspect heels and possibly a periscope may have to get involved at some point here...

Anyway, here's a pic of my progress so far.



Whew. Thank God I'm not crazy enough to try and make this out of metal...