Keycon custume recap

 Keycon was fun.  It was good to see old friends again, and the guests were good (more on that later).  We were able to play Circus Imperium on Saturday night.

 

 

I wore my Jack Burton shirt on Friday.  I had let my stubble grow out from Wednesday.   I wasn’t able to wear my ninja tabi.  With the extra weight , my feet must have swollen a bit and I wasn’t able to close the tabs on the side.  So I just wore sneakers.

 

 

On Saturday I switched into my Captain Hammer.  The new shirt had arrived that week.  I had also bought a Captain Hammer groupie shirt for Shann, so we were dressed as a couple.  Since Captain Hammer is clean shaven, I cleared away the stubble as well.  A few friends already noticed this change the next day, so I knew the change for Saturday would have a big impact.

 

 My Kurgan proof-of-concept jacket was completed in time.  It did take a few later nights to get all the final sewing done.  The hot fix skulls I had ordered did not arrive in time, so instead I had to use the skull beads that I had picked up from Michael’s.  They were a bit smaller, but they are much cheaper than the actual skull studs. 

Taking off both sleeves, and cutting them into strips to sew together for his arm guard took a while.  I also stitched up a bunch of the parts on the jacket where the vinyl was peeling apart. This actually helped add to the look. 

The chain mail went fine.  I had a spool of fencing wire that I had bought over two decades ago for making mail.  I coiled it around a bar we had in order to adjust the teleposts, and cut the coils with a Dremel cut off wheel.  The sleeve, pocket square, and partial glove took over 500 rings.  If I find a more accurate jacket, I can easily move the mail over.

I wore the same black cargo pants and work boots for both Captain Hammer and the Kurgan.  On the night, I combed my hair back and tied it in the back. 

 

I wore the same costume on Sunday morning.  But I buzzed my hair down that morning to 1/8 inch.  I also had cut a strip of nylons and put a bunch of safety pins in it to simulate the ‘in disguise’ look.  The hair cut definitely caught a few people by surprise.  People who hadn’t seen me Saturday night didn’t recognize me right away.

 

 

I didn’t get around to making the “bullet-proof” vest for Richard Castle.  I really should continue and put it together so that I have it for when I need it next.  This is another one I can make two of to use as a couple costume.

Costume plans for Keycon

 So we are going to Keycon this year.  We used to go fairly regularly but haven’t really gone in the last decade or so.  But they have Jim Butcher of the Dresden Files as the author guest, and Jeremy from Black Magic Craft as a gaming guest, so we are going this year.

 

I plan on doing some costuming for it.  I have My Jack Burton shirt from Big Trouble in Little China.  I still haven’t gotten around to making/buying the mucklucks so I will wear my ninja Tabi instead – they are as comfortable and I can justify them as after the events of BTLC.

 

I picked up new cargo pants and gloves to upgrade my Captain Hammer outfit.  I also ordered an official t-shirt but we will have to see if it makes it here in time.  If not, I still have the one JP made from before – the logo is a bit dark though.

 

I have the supplies to make a “bullet-proof” vest for Richard Castle.  It remains to see if I have time to cut and sew it in time.  I’m hoping to use landscape fabric for the material.  We will see how easy it is to sew.  If it goes well and I have time, I will try to make a second one for Shan.

 

But my big project is my Kurgan jacket.  I don’t have a proper leather biker jacket to use, unless I find one in the next two weeks.  My faux leather jacket that had the sleeves tearing will do as a stand in. I have to remove the sleeves and hood.  I’m hoping to use the sleeves to make the vambrace for the left arm.   I am working on the chain mail for the right sleeve and left pocket.  I finally found and ordered some skulls to add to the collar.  That will mean another rush finish depending on when they get here.  I have to see if I can find some black gloves to use.

I’ve been growing my hair out since November of last year for the pre-disguise look.  This way I can avoid the safety pins-in-the-neck look.

Starship Troopers - want more

 So lately I've come across a few Starship Troopers references in my feed.  First I saw a youtube video about making the armor from foam.  It's been one of the costumes that seemed pretty easy, except for the helmet.  But we haven't really done much in way of costuming lately.

Then I came across this video, where someone shows off their collection of figures.  Since I've been getting back into painting, it made me want to get some more figures.  I have all of the books and a bunch of the figures.  But not all of them.

It does make me want to get more figures,  While ebay is always an option, I can also get some of the non-movies metal figures direct from Rebel Minis. After my next purchases, I will probably try to get some of them.

Why do Cosplayers wait until the last moment?

Because there is always more that can be done to the costume if there is more time.

Because I’ve been able to finish costumes for my daughter with little notice, she feels that I always can. Lucky for her, I’ve mostly had the week off during costume crunch time and can working into the night by stealing sleep during the day.

This didn’t work out for her last time when she wanted to do Princess Mononoke. We got a good start, and still pulled off enough for a costume but, because she was too busy to put effort in to it, did not finish the mask.

This time she came back from Thunder Bay wanting to do three costumes for Aikon, a local anime convention. But she didn’t work on them over the weekend, Monday we went shopping at Michaels for supplies but did no work, and she was away camping with a friend Tuesday to Wednesday. That left yesterday night to work on them.

She wanted a Sudoh-Bucks apron, a Wolf Children dress, and Rin Okumora from Blue Exorcist. She traced an apron on her fabric and we used hem tape to seal the edges. She used ribbon for the straps and glued it on. If we would have had more time, or were making more, I would have done the design with fabric paint but instead we did it out of felt. I was making one with glued felt and one with adhesive-backed felt but only completed the adhesive-backed one due to time. She also printed off the logo and glued it to a coffee cup that she had painted white.

While we were working on that, Shan was cutting out appliques from felt that Gee glued down on a blue dress for Wolf Children. She would also have to tack the sleeves in as it doesn't have doesn’t have sleeves. We didn’t have time for Rin Okumora so she didn’t get to do that one. We worked late into the night. I was the last one up working away on the logo, finishing at 2 am. It still needed to have the backing peeled off and then stuck to the apron but was basically finished.

Costuming

Cosplayers tend to dress up in costume and act as that character. Costumers tend to dress up in costume but still act normally. While I might throw out some quotes from movies, I remain mostly a costumer.
That said, I need to speak out about costume contests at conventions. I’ve been in a few, my children have been in a few, we’ve both won some contests, and been in contests without winning. Granted, we’ve only been at the small-to-middle-sized conventions so they may have vast differences at the big conventions.

Prizes
The prizes for the contests have been mostly improving over the years. The top prize can usually be a membership to next year’s convention but most of the time it is merchandise. Sometimes, if the convention truly values the costume contest, the prizes make sense – like gift certificates to a local fabric place or the convention dealer’s room, or even theme-related prizes but they are usually random items donated by the dealers in the dealer’s room.
Sometimes they will also give certificates, ribbons, or medals. I know the kids like the ribbons and medals. For me, we’re really not in the contests for the prizes. (Especially with most prizes being what they are). The recognition is more what we are after.

Often they will have some categories in mind – workmanship, junior, group, but a lot of times we have found that they decide on winners and then pick a category to assign them. This helps to cover if there are no costumes in a category and allows them to recognize extra costumes that might miss out by being the second or third in a category. This allowed our friend Sean to win as Best Female Hormonal Response.

Time
While some costumes can be pulled together in short time, a lot of costumers will spend a lot of time working on their costumes. This is not to say that we haven’t been working on the final touches of a costume the night before or even final modifications just before the contest. Any extra time allows for extra touches or tweaking up until the last minute. The bad part about some judging is the amount of time it eats up of the convention. A lot of contests will want you to show up for a walkthrough to show you the contest space and where they will often do some prejudging. Even with this, you have to be there before the contest itself, the entire length of the contest, and then wait around while the judges take their time to decide on the winners. At one convention we were at, that ate up over four hours in a row on a Saturday for the kids’ part of the costume contest. Judges
Often the judges will include the guest, who may or may not know anything about costumes. Sometimes you will also have at least one judge who does know about costuming and will look for details like stitching, materials, and techniques. Hopefully this knowledgeable judge will be at the prejudging and can check for all this at that time. The other judges will often be committee members who have been rounded up to judge without haven been given much instruction.
At the smaller conventions the judging may even be done by crowd response – which can allow a store-bought costume of a popular character to beat a fabulous costume of an obscure character. Sometime the MC will be the judge although it often works quicker if they aren’t.

Prejudging
During the walkthrough the judges will sometimes take the time to inspect the costumes up close and ask questions. This allows them to take their time and helps to speed up the actual contest. This should allow them to have those portions already scored and only require them to note presentation and crowd response during the actual contest and then add them to the totals, but it still seems to take an hour for the judging to finish.

MCs
A good MC can help explain a costume or help to bridge those who don’t have a good write-up or music. A bad MC can distract from a good presentation. We’ve seen an MC treat the costume contest as her own personal stand up routine. They can definitely lead an audience if the judging is by audience response.

So, of the three conventions we go to, while some of us will costume (to varying degrees) at all of them, my daughter only really enters the costume contest at Keycon now. Although, if we get a great costume idea done, we might try again at Valleycon.

Link - foam shields

I made the shields out of a pack of four foam floor tiles, silver duct tape, E6000 craft adhesive from Walmart, and velcro packing straps, and craft paint from Dollarama. Like the Link costume itself, the shield has many variations. Once we had a picture of the variation she wanted, I drew a grid on it. Using the grid I transposed the pattern to a large sheet of paper.

Actually, I only transferred half the pattern, and then folded the paper and cut out the other side to match. I then used the larger paper to trace the pattern on to a floor tile and cut out the shape with an exacto knife. I cut out four notches for the arm straps and put the bands through.

Then we glued the cut shape to another floor tile using the E6000, sandwiching the back of the strap between the two tiles. We made sure to leave the ends with velcro on the outside. These were then stacked away overnight under some heavy books to dry.

The next day, I cut through the other tile using the first tile as a guide. I traced the rest of the pattern on the fronts of the shields. We edged the shields with chrome duct tape that we also got at Walmart, and the girls painted the fronts with Dollarama craft paint.

Link / Dark Link

My daughter finally came up with a costume idea about a month in advance of Keycon. She and her friend wanted to be Link and Dark Link. I had played the original Zelda on the Nintendo but I’m not a super huge Zelda fan. I much preferred the gameplay of Dragon Warriors – which is what Dragon Quest was called over here.
Due to my unfamiliarity with the character, and wanting her to be sure about what she wanted, I asked her to provide me with pictures of what she wanted.

With two weeks to go, we asked her again at the beginning of May and finally got her to sit down and print out some pictures to use. Shan found some a good site about making the costume. We picked up some fabric and tights at Walmart, and some boots and turtlenecks at Value Village.

We found large t-shirts to use as a guide and got the girls to lie down on the fabric and traced out the measurements for the tunics, and they cut out the rough pattern pieces for the tunics and hats. We tried using Gee’s sewing machine but ended up hand sewing the outfits. Gee sewed her hat while Shan did most of the sewing on the tunics. The girls also made some Navis and pouches.

We took some brown gardening gloves at Dollarama and cut off the fingers to get close-enough gloves. Gee wanted to get a blonde wig but we told her she didn’t need one. She pushed for it, so we made a trip to The Party Store to get wigs, and I have to admit it really does help to complete the look. We also picked up pointed ear tips that we ended up not using due to the fit.

She had foam swords from Keycon last year that she was going to use so we picked up some poster tubes at Dollarama to use as scabbards. These worked out very well as a quick substitute. I also made up some shields out of foam floor tiles and the kids painted them the day before the convention. I’ll post up a more detailed tutorial on the shields.

They were very well received at the convention. Most people overlooked the rough seams and the navis were a big hit for those who knew the character. For the two weeks of shopping and work I believe they did pretty well. We can revisit the costumes to hem the edges and add a proper collar. The girls ended up winning first place in the junior category.

bubble suits - Zoltan!

For Halloween parties we made costumes again. This year went as followers of Zoltan from Dude, Where’s My Car?  A version of this was available at Spirit of Hallowen but there are a few differences from the movie – the biggest being a top and pants instead of a jumpsuit as well as Velcro closures compared to snaps.
Ours are a bit incorrect as well – we grabbed the small bubbles instead of the more accurate larger bubbles. The other concern was the sizing – making our bubble suits allowed us to make sure the fit our various sizes. There still is a bit of tailoring to make them fit a bit closer, but easy to fix.

We laid out the bubble wrap over a pair of pants to measure them for size.  The seams were joined with medium weight packing tape.  A double layer of packing tape along the middle seam gave enough of a solid material to allow the pop snaps to grab without pulling through the plastic.  We measured the top part against a long sleeve shirt

We wore a black tshirt instead of the muscle shirt as well as the black shorts.  The plastic doesn't really breath so it keeps warm enough for inside wear.  I brought along some extra packing tape for seam repair but didn't need it.

Your daughter can't be The Doctor - boo hoo

This gets into some of what people might consider spoilers  - which is always the case when talking about a series that's been around for 50 years - some people may not have seen several years worth.

While I have watched the series since Tom Baker (and Leela) on late night PBS in the eighties, I don't consider myself an expert.  I have friends who are though.  I didn't follow the rest of the doctors as much but have seen episode from all the incarnations.  I watched the American Doctor Who movie when it was on in 1996, and have followed the new series since they brought it back with "Rose" in 2005.  I believe that, if you're not going to watch the entire series from the beginning, "Rose" is the best place to start.


It's been announced that the current actor, Matt Smith, is retiring as The Doctor on the long-lived British series Doctor Who.  Some of the Internet seems to be upset that the new Doctor will not be played by a female actor.  They want to know how they can tell their daughters that she can't be The Doctor but are relegated to being companions as they are female.


Well, if you have watched the series, they have had female Time Lords (Romana) and even male companions (Rory and Adric). "The Doctor" is not really a position but more of a name. It would be like saying you can have a woman be a Green Lantern but not a Hal Jordan.

People say that this answer is a cop out as, since the Time War, there are no more Time Lords.  There were no more Daleks at one point due to the Time War - but that didn't last either.   The Master, another Time Lord also has made appearances since then. It seems that the Time War wasn't quite as final as we were led to believe.

What to tell your daughter?  How about telling her that she cannot become 'the Doctor' as she is already her own person and could no more become 'the Doctor' than she could be you or even her brother. Since neither she, nor you were (probably) born on Gallifrey, she cannot become a Time Lord as she is not already a Time Lord.

If she's more concerned about how she would like to play the Doctor, then she can, all she wants. That's what imagination is for. She could make her own videos and fanfic and be whatever doctor she wants - male or female.  She can dress up as her favorite Doctor as much and go to conventions and be appreciated. 
My son has dressed up as the Matt Smith Doctor and we have run into at least two other women dressed as the same Doctor, here at ComicCon and at ValleyCon.  Besides Fez's being cool, Matt Smith's hair and features seem to lead itself moreso than Christopher Eccleston's did.  Laurie Smith has also dressed up as a convincing Tom Baker version Doctor back in the pre-internet eighties.
  
If she's petulant enough to want to be The Offical Doctor on The Real TV series then you have more important issues to discuss with her - like how the world is inherently unfair and that it incredibly unlikely her, or even her brother will ever play a character that less than 20 professional actors out of a population of several billion have played.

dog days of summer

It looks like this might be one of the last really nice weekends before the weather starts to turn. I should take advantage of it and enjoy the outside – maybe get some fibreglassing done on D3’s ODST helmet.

Instead, we’ll probably be doing a bunch of yard work like closing out the pool and garden. We should burn down a bit more of the branches and rake up more of the crabapples. Add a bit of driving around getting fabric for Gee’s costume and that should eat up the weekend.

I am hoping to squeeze in a bit of time to get to a few of the comic book store for Heroclix though. Maybe even a bit of time to play one of the new games.

I should get in some good time cleaning up my desk and sorting out if there are any parts to keep from the old computers but those might have to wait until mid-October when I get some days off.

ODST - rain delay

I got outside yesterday and did some more work on the armor. The bondo I had must have been pretty old as it wasn't runny. With the resin added I was able to get it to pour but it was still very thick. I was able to pour it into the chest piece and spread it around most of the back.
I was also able to put a layer of resin aound most of the inside of the helmet except for the top. The weather was cool but with no wind so I left the outside to cure.
I did some work in the basement and when I came up to bring them inside it was raining. I brought the pieces in to dry off and finish curing.

The chestpiece seems to be fine but the a bunch of the seams on the helmet have given way overnight. The resin in the top also seems to still be tacky. I'm hoping it will dry enough to reglue.

ODST - breaking eggs

I was able to finish pepping the top chest armor last week and was able to put a coat of resin on it on the weekend. I was also able to start putting some resin on the inside of the helmet. However, since I did this on Sunday and it was super windy I had to bring in the chest piece and let it cure inside. I was able to leave the helmet to cure outside with some rocks inside it to hold it down. I checked back on it often and it was fine but when I went out to bring it in it had blown off of the table and had cracked the top slightly.

I was able to repair it but I am not sure how much more resin work I can do before the weather breaks. I am hoping to be able to rondo it (a mixture of bondo and fiberglass resin) next week. I am not sure how much more of it I can finish before Halloween, but it is a solid start to the costume.

I also started in on Gee’s sock monkey costume. We cut the bottoms off the legs of the sweats and used the material for ears and the tail. We sewed the tail and ears to the hoodie.

helmet fibreglass coat worked!

The outside coat of fiberglass seems to have worked fine. It partially soaked into the paper and dried a pale blue color. I finished off fibreglassing the bottom half of the helmet outside yesterday and brought it in from the coolness to cure. I wedged a few skewers inside to help round out the bottom part and make it easier to put on.

I still have to put a layer of resin on the inside and lay in some fiberglass matt. That should make for a light, solid layer. I will have to try and mold a visor – either from a soda bottle plastic or even a face shield.

I have also printed out the chest armor to pep. If I can get both pieces and the shoulders done by the weekend I can harden those and then attach them to the straps. I’ll also have to see if I can pep a weapon for him.

Solid helmet or a sticky mess?

I finished pepping the helmet on Saturday. Today we picked up some vinyl gloves, brushes, and plastic cups and I started fibreglassing the top of helmet. The resin I had was a bit old and it was a bit chilly today so I had a few concerns about it not curing.
I has been a few hours and it seems to have mostly dried but it is a bit tacky still. I brought it inside to see if it will cure overnight. I can then harden the rest and lay in some fibreglass mat inside.

It's promising. If this works as it should, then this opens up many options of what else can be done.

Costume status pre-Thanksgiving

Shan’s friend has dyed her hair red and decided to be Jean Grey this year instead of Alice from Resident Evil. This means that the leatherwork for her shotgun holster is off my table for this Halloween.

I do also have to do some work on Gee’s sock monkey and see if I can tape out a pattern for the Human Spider sweatshirt this weekend. Also I have to see about sewing on the red stripes on the sweatpants while we’re watching shows.

Out of the 20 pages that the ODST helmet prints out on, I have put together 12 of them. I have another 3 already cut out and ready to assemble. I should be able to finish assembling the helmet tonight. This will allow me to start with the fibreglassing this weekend.

Otherwise, I can start ‘pepping’ the chest and shoulder armor, as well as working on a foam weapon for him. If all above goes well, and the Thanksgiving meals don’t take too much out of us, I can see about foam legs. Depending on how much gets done this weekend, next weekend is the final crunch time for creation and painting. Then I can assemble belts and straps during the next week. Whatever doesn’t get done by the 22nd can be finished up the following week when I am off.

pre-Halloween costume baseline

On Saturday we popped in to Value Village and got some grey sweats and a grey hooded sweatshirt for Gee’s sock-monkey outfit. Shan also picked up some felt for the details.

I cleaned the desk a bit and tried on the pieces of the Human Spider costume. The sweats will be a bit snug but should be passable – I can sew the red piping on the sides if I have time. The sweatshirt is fine – it just needs the pattern. We were also in Walmart and we picked up some black fabric paint that will work. The balaclava fits fine and while I don’t have the right gloves, the ones I do have should work fine – I will try to shrink them a bit though.

I got off to a good start on the pepakura helmet for D3’s ODST. Even though I am using a highly detailed pattern, I am hoping that the extra time spent in making it will save time in detailing it after hardening. With only a few hours into it, I am quite impressed with the look. It should prove workable.

HALO ODST

I’ve already been peeking around the 405th site and two options have come forward - pepakura and foam matts. Pepakura is a papercraft program that takes 3D files and unfolds them to be made from paper. Then you can use fiberglass resin to harden the paper. You can also use the Pepakura patterns to make the armor from foam matts by cutting the matts and using hot glue to stick them together. You can also carve details in the foam with a dremel or even exactos.

Both methods have merits. I’ll probably end up doing a mix of both styles. I’m leaning towards making the helmet and main chest armor with pep and fiberglass and the legs and arms with foam. I’ve got experience with making buckles from the Hit-Girl costume, foam work from the foamie Stormtroopers, and working with fiberglass from the Tusken Raider ‘teeth’.

Depending on how much trouble it is, I can then make HALO Spartan armor for us or even Star Wars Clone Commandos

Pre-halloween plans

I was able to get a bit of sifting done on the desk over the weekend. Shan wants more done in the pantry so that will need to be completed as well.

Aside from that, I am now transitioning into pre-Halloween mode. Gee’s costume this year should be pretty basic. Presently, she wants to go as a Sock Monkey. Shan found instructions online about making from a sweater and sweats. As long as she doesn’t change he mind in the next three weeks, we should be fine there.

Shan’s thinking about getting together a steampunk look, so that should be fairly easy as well. I might have to work at some bits and bobs for accessories as needed.

With the room-switch, I even found some of the pieces I had been collecting until critical mass was achieved on the Human-Spider costume. Now that I have the red balaclava I can sew the pinstripes on the blue sweats and paint the sweatshirt. This shouldn’t prove to be too difficult either.

I even told one of Shan’s coworkers I could make her a Resident Evil 3 backpack/holster. That shouldn’t take too much time.

D3 is going to be more of an issue though. At the beginning of the year he had wanted to be the Green Hornet which would have been a simple trip to Value Village for a green suit and coat. Then a bit of leatherwork for the mask and some quick building to a gun would have completed a light year of costuming.
However, he has changed his mind and now wants to be a Halo ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). Normally this would be too much to do at too late a date but with everything else being so light, this isn’t impossible – merely very difficult. The other point in his favor is that there is a lot of good help online with this through the 405th – which is the Halo version of the 501st – which does Stormtroopers.

Hit-Girl - finished?

I touched up the tubes on the belt with pink paint. I sewed extra buckles on the tactical vest and made a grenade from a plastic easter egg, a pen bit, some twist ties, and a keyring. I put one of the retractable toy knives in the sheath and taped it down to the tactical vest. I stitched some gun holsters out of the canvas apron and am finishing sewing on the belt loops.


I finished assembling the sonic screwdriver. I added a finger light inside with a switch that allows it to be activated from the body and lights up a marble. I'm not sure how well the epoxy will hold the marble, but we'll see. I haven't got around to painting it however the colors aren't too far off on the bottom pieces. The top pieces definitely will need a splash of silver and brass to look more accurate.


What did the kids wear to school today for their Halloween parties? Gee went as a vampire cheerleader and D3 didn't wear a costume. So why the extra work on Hit-Girl and the Doctor? There is still the comic convention this weekend and trick-or-treating on Sunday.

Hit-Girl - more refinements / Who-driver

I finished up the pink tubes from the Hit-Girl utility belt. I may touch them up with a second coat of paint but, if not, they are done. I finished stitching the tactical vest for her as well. I may still add some rings on it and maybe some small pouches, if I have time tomorrow night. If not, the only thing I need to do is tape on the knife sheath and maybe make a grenade.


We had made two masks - one to tie in the back, and a shorter one to use with elastics. I finished sewing in the elastics in the shorter one today. This should fit better under the wig.

Today, I started on the sonic screwdriver. I had some oversize pens I had bought at Dollarama. I cut various pieces down and epoxied them back together. I used some of the large plastic clothespins for the fins on the top. I even figured out a way to light it using a finger light and a marble. I won't have time to paint it for tomorrow but it should look pretty good anyway. I just hope it holds together through the afternoon party.



So, all-in-all, a bit of fiddly work to do tomorrow, but I'm in a pretty good spot. So far.