German Cosplay Championship and more

Woah, the last weeks were really exhausting! Two months ago I got notice that we really made it to the finals of the German Cosplay Championship. But the only costumes we could use were our Asmodian plate set from Aion (our Druid Tier 8 costumes just weren't "perfect" and were full of mistakes). If you saw our first performance on youtube (video), then you know that we had to improve something. Especially my armor was very huge, heavy and so I could hardly move while wearing it. And it was very, very painfull and a huge part of the fixing was just wrong. I had to improve a lot.

A main problem was that I just glued the fixing, a lot of velcro tape, at my wonderflex armor. So I lost my armor a lot when I walked or just moved. 

Now I reworked the whole fixing which was just glued. You see, I used D ring buckles, which were mounted inside of wonderflex. Here you can see it better:

I guess, if you have a really huge and heavy armor the fixing is one of the most important points to make your costume comfortable... or just wearable. It sucks, if you lost some of your costume parts, to don't be sloppy like me (but I also had only one night for the first version of my fixing). And better work redundant! 

This was the first version of my pauldron fixing:

I used only one D ring buckle and a bit of velco tape.

Now I added larger velcro tapes (the larger the surface of your vecro tape is, the better is your fixing!), redundant D ring buckles and fixed buckles and tape with wonderflex on my armor. The most parts were also fixed with super magnets. They weren't strong enough for the fixing itself, but they helped to held a special position on my body so my armor couln't slip away.

And don't be scared to be brutal to your armor. I had a lot of problems to walk, because I always stumpled over my wings, which just hanged around. Then I mounted them on a small wooden board and I could run, jump and walk!

And why so much effort which nobody would see???

Because of this!

Photo by Cornelia Papiorek

Photo by Cornelia Papiorek

I wanted to show, that we were able to do more than just to stand around and talk about weird stuff. I wanted a great, dramatic and epic performance and so we had to learn to move in our costumes. He he, and I guess we made it! Despite of us haven't won something at this contest, it was just a great weekend and we are really proud of our achievment and I hope to repeat it someday.

Now I should repair my old perfomance sword, which was only built to get broken and finish my real weapon for this costume.

And by the way... maybe you can also need this technique for one of your costumes: (Sorry for the bad quality of the photos!)

I saw these eyes of the team of brazialian World Cosplay Summit team this year and just HAD to build them, too. The guy with the glowing eyes had some LEDs inside of his mask, I guess. But I hadn't no mask and so I used just a bit of silicone.

Here you see my curcuit. I glued the silcone part at the sides of my face, painted them and hid the battery inside of my wig. It was very easy to build, but I love the final effect!

And now... I'm relaxing a bit. The cosplay year is almost over for me (LondonExpo will be my last convention this year and I will wear my old Tier 8 costume), and I enjoy my new free time. He he, but I have to admit that I got a fabric order today and cannot wait to start with my new projects. But it's just awesome to play a bit World of Warcraft, watch a bit TV and fell asleep with our sorrows death lines and expanding foam exploadings. So, I hope you'll also enjoy the patience in the next few month's and wish you a great time! :)

About my love to expanding foam

In the last time there were a lot of people who asked me how I create my expanding form figures and and it is just amazing that these people came from all over the world! It's great to hear that you guys like my technique so much and want to try it by yourself. So I want to make it easy for you and try to explain something about my work with this awesome material.

At first: I use expanding foam from cans and I always choose the cheapest ones. My home depot is "Obi", but expanding foam is a base material for home building so you'll find it in every other home depot.

Better buy too much than too less cans. I mostly buy something between 5 and 10 cans and hope that it will be enough for the next days, he he. Shake it well before you start to work with and cover your ground with a sheeting or something else. You will be not happy when you get this stuff on your clothes, your carpet or your floor.
Then, you have to know that it can be difficult to find the right form in the carving progress. It's easier if you have a help. I draw my form on card board, cut it out and then I cover it with expanding foam.

You have to wait some hours until the foam gets dry and you are able to carve it. If you spray a bit water at the foam then this process will be accelerate.
When it's finally dry you can go to work. For carving I use normal cutter like this:

It's better to buy cheap ones and a lot of them. Sometimes I need about 10 or 20 cutter for a project, because I cut in foam when is still not dry inside and the cutter gets dirty and sticky. I clean them after half an hour or change them because they are not sharp anymore after too much carving.

When you start with carving try to carve a clean surface at first. Try to find your final form and search for the grey board inside. I cut some time as deap as I can inside of the foam and then I cut everything I not need away. It's better to split a complicated form in more work steps. As you can see I also carved at first only the head of my staff.

Then I added further foam to carve the horns and the spikes on it's back. Here my fault was, that I was just too lazy to add some card board inside of the new foam. So it was a bit hard to find the right way to carve it. Later I noticed, that I also need card board for stabilisation. The foam itself is very breakable and for smaller parts a finishing layer of newspaper and paper mache wouldn't be enough to save it from damage.

Here you see the finished carved foam. I guess I needed about 10 cans for this result. Mostly only 30 % of your sprayed foam is for your prop itself. The rest is dirt. A lot of dirt!

He he, I don't like trash bags so much. :)

Here is a other example for the right use of card board inside:

You'll find card board inside of the eagle head and the spikes. By carving such little details it's almost impossible to disclaim for help.

If you're done with the carving step we have to speak about the 3 final layers to save the foam inside: Masking (or painters) tape, pieces of newspaper and paper mache.

Here you see all 3 layers. But why do you need them?
Masking tape (or crepe tape or painters tape... oh, I hope I finally found the right english meaning!) covers the holes in the expanding foam and gives you a surface to work with. Layers of news paper parts give it a strong, solid and protecting coat. And paper mache makes your surface smooth or give you the chance to carve details or to model something. But try to find your final form while the carving process of the exanding foam. The better your base is, the less you need to model with paper mache and the less is the weight of your prop!

Don't save time for the news paper layer and be sure that it's the most important one!

And be sure, that the paper mache layer will need also a lot of time. I use a hot air gun to accelerate the dry process, but you have to take care if you use it, too. Too much heat and you'll get ulgy air holes inside of your paper mache. So blow-dry a bit until the paper mache gets white (it's grey when it's still wet), then wait until the water inside make it's grey again and keep on drying again. When your prop is finally covered complete with paper mache you can sand it and search for mistakes you have to correct. I use for sanding sand paper and a Delta sander. Then sand and sand and sand and add some details if you want to:

And after some time and patience you can finally paint your prop! Have fun! :)




I hope you understood everthing and if you still have questions feel free to ask!

Future projects

This cosplay year is almost over and now I'm thinking about my next projects. But at first I have to finish some things:

In the last days I began with my second sword for my Aion plate set. This one have to be finisehd soon, because it's for my performance at the Germany Cosplay Championship in some weeks.

As you can see there were less steps to build it: I clayed two parts of pink (in Germany it's purple ^^) insulation foam on a balsa wood staff, carved the insulation foam (I always carve with a cutter from the home depot by the way), modeled a bit with expanding foam and covered it with crepe tape and newspaper. The result is a very lightweight sword built out of very cheap materials. I still have to cover it with paper mache and add some lights, but it's done very quick.


I also had to redo my Asmodian wig:

Now I just have to cut some hair and add little details. But I'm happy, that I managed it to style it a second time.

This year I finished my 4th Druid costume (I already did T1, T3, T6 and T8) and after so much of this similar project it would be boring, to create a further one. Especially, because I don't learn anything new and it's not exciting anymore. So, I really wanted to stop with these costumes, but one month ago I decided to visit Dragoncon next year. And I guess, the most of you know me as a Nightelf, so I just HAVE to meet you in a further Druid Tier set. My last one. Really! Believe me!

So, I waited for the new Druid Tier 11 sets and they turned out... as shit.

I already hated the design of the Tier 10 set, but this set is really not better. I'm really disappointed and hope, the next sets will be better again. The sets of the good old WoW times were so much nicer...

So, now there are not many sets I still can build. The most are already done, too ulgy or too easy. My only alternative is Druid Tier 9:

Despite of this boring and weird pauldron design I really like this set. It has a nice cut and colors, it glows and has a cool head piece. So... I couldn't wait and started with the first steps:

Here you see just a styrofoam ball, a bit grey board and at the end a lot of expanding foam. The first steps seems always quite simple, but it takes time to find the right form for the ball and the grey board and to cut and to clay it right. This step sets the form and size for the pauldron, so it is... very important.

And as you noticed, there are 4 pauldrons. I will build a second T9 for my boyfriend, so I have to build 4 of them. This means, I need a lot of expanding foam!

 ... and that I have to make a lof of dirt. Oh, I love to make dirt! :D

The final result is this one. I need two carving steps for it: One step for the base form and one step for the spikes, the borders and the eagle head. Do you see this grey stuff inside of the head and the spikes? It's grey board and always helps me to find the right shape inside of the expanding foam.

Now... only 3 of these things left... o.O

A further project for next year will be Beleth from Lineage II



He he, this project will be interresting...

And if you cannot wait for futher progress: Follow me on my progress site!

Kamui Cosplay | 


Ah, by the way...
I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want to go Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want to go Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon. I want go to Blizzcon.....

See ya soon!

Intensity making of

This summer I got an awesome email from Blizzard Entertainment:
Hallo Svetlana!
Congratulation! Your costume was choosed as winner of the costume contest "Win a Trip to Blizzcon"! The first prize is a flight to the USA to Blizzcon.

Yeah.. I was a bit stunned... Just a bit, he he. I remember that I went crazy the hole day! I screamed, and jumpend and it was just amazing. I never, NEVER expect the first prize and could not believe that I would really fly to Blizzcon. Only for 4 days, but these had to be awesome!
But now I had a problem: Journey's End and all of my other staffs were too big for my case suit. So I decided to build a new one.

I searched a bit in the World of Warcraft modelviewer and chosed Itensity.



I searched for a good looking staff which was as flat as possible and matched to my Druid Tier 6. It was also not a staff, which I really really wanted or I loved it's design, but I only needed a staff which would fit in my suit case.

Cause of this it composed of 4 parts, which I could screw together. I planed the building of the model only a few days. Then my boyfriend would paint it.
In the first picture you only see my materials: Some greyboard, wooden staff parts, foam, expanding foam, modeling clay, crepe tape and newspaper. The second one shows the technique I used for the core itself. I just cut the right form out of grey board and built a sandwich of 2 grey board parts and some foam for filling it. After this I put one wooden staff inside and clayed everthing with hot glue together. Now I closed the border with crepe tape and covered the hole head with newspaper and paper maché. For those round things I used modeling clay.

For the button I used the same technique. I just put a plexiglass pipe inside for the pending ball in the middle.
For forming the middle parts I used expanding foam and carved them to the right form.Yeah, it was really simple to build this staff and I was very satisfied with the base model.
My boyfriend got the finished parts and made the paint for me. And I think, he did a great job!

 

And after 3 weeks of work for me and my boyfriend staff Nr. 4 was done!

So Blizzcon, I'm coming!

To discribe, how awesome this weekend in Anaheim was is beyond my english skills! But know that it was just amazing and some of the best days in my life. AND: I will come back! You will also find me at next Blizzcon, he he!

Druid Tier 6 pauldron and headpiece making of

Next part of my Druid Tier 6 story from World of Warcraft:

Most of my work with fabrics was done, so I started with my weapons and my props.
The sample had 2 very complicated pauldrons and one helmet.

At first I tried to model both forms with expanding foam. I used rabbit wire as a base and covered it. My plan was to carve it now, but unfortunately my skills were at the time not good enough for such a hard sample. The pauldrons were too big, too long and just looked wrong...

I was frustrated and discarded both pauldrons. It was time for a other technique so I tried the one I learned 2 years ago, while making my Druid Tier 1 project.

At first I took a polystyrene half hollow and clayed some board on it. I carved the bird skull out of expanding foam and covered everything with crepe tape, newspaper and paper maché. The wings are made of board and foam (as core) and covered them with newspaper. My boyfriend had to do the paint job and I clayed everything together and added details with fur and feathers. Yeah... and what I have to say? This time I was very satisfied!

Okay... but the though that I still had to build a second one, was just horrible...
Someday both parts were done and I started with the building of the headpiece. I made the first steps at the same time I build the first version of my pauldrons, and fortunately I was satiesfied with the first version.

Here I took some rabbit wire, cut out the right form and clayed (with hot clay) the cut lines together. I covered this base completely with expanding foam, waited a while and carved the right model with a carpet cutter. After this I covered everything with crepe tape, news paper and paper maché. Paper maché gave it the last details and i got a really flat surface after I sanded it with some sandpaper. I added some details with wooden half spheres within the paper machè like this round things on the topside. The pattern on this ear muffs were just some greyboard parts I glued on the head piece. The next step were acrylic paint and acrylic finish. I took some feathers, painted their ends with acrylic paint, clayed them (with hot clay) and... Finished!

Puh... I wrote enough for today. In the next part I will tell you something about my staff Journey's End.