Matsuri 2018

Hello everyone, welcome back! Now that Matsuri's over I have a little breathing room again so I actually have time to put together a post-con post! Matsuri was a blast overall and I'm already pumped for my next convention in a couple of months!!

Friday

I went down early on Friday, hoping to avoid as much traffic as possible and snag a good parking spot. With the imminent republican dinner and he-who-shall-not-be-named coming that evening I wanted to avoid as much hassle as possible. It mostly worked out except that the parking garage I wanted to be in was flat out closed, much to my dismay. I still managed to get a decent enough sppot in the outdoor lot and resolved to move my car saturday morning since I knew I'd be awake early cause that's just what I do.

I all of friday in Mordred, mostly in the traditional casual outfit. Likely the coolest thing I did all weekend was meet Erica Lindbeck, Mordred's VA (and 12 other characters I also love). I went with my friend Genki and I had her sign my sword and bought a Mordred print she had at her table too. She was awesome and very sweet. She gave me lots of compliments on the sword, especially after I told her I'd made it myself. I got a couple photos with her and as I was leaving, I heard my name.
"Mike."
I turned back around not at all prepared for what was coming next.
"Are you the one... who is my master?"

I'm dead I'm dead I died I'm dead.

My wig is falling off and I'm not looking at the camera, but at Least Erica Lindbeck looks great and is weilding Clarent Blood Arthur so that's all that actually matters.

After meeting Erica, Genki and I met our other friends to do our usual Wolf Pack dinner at Max & Erma's. It was still pretty early so we immediately got a table.... and were just about the only people in the restaurant at the time. Not gonna complain.

After dinner I went back to the room and changed into Mordred's formal outfit for the formal ball, hosted by Trickssi! As always, the music selection was lovely and the dancing was fun. I met Nekoyasha09 dressed as Semiramis, who I found out was going to be in my big cosplay group the following day... small world.

After the dance was over I hooked back up with my wolf pack and hung out until people were ready to call it a night.

Saturday

Saturday morning, as promised, I woke up too early for my own good, and used the unfortunate consequence of my internal clock to nab a fantastic space in the garage right in between the con center and the hotel. Booyah.

Saturday was primarily reserved for Fire Emblem shenanigans so I put on my fake tits, did some contouring, and finally took my debuting steps in Vaida's stupidly tall stiletto boots.

I am super happy with how this cosplay turned out and even though no one recognized me who wasn't a member of our group, I still had a blast! Since I was up and out early, it was a bit before I found anyone else in my group but eventually we assembled the Fire Emblem: 420 Blaze It Sword crew.

I honestly don't know who our photog was because I'd not met him before, but you can be sure I'll have his info and will bombard you with photos as soon as I have them. The shoot was ridiculous and fun, just as I was hoping.

After walking around in stilletto boots for hours, my feet wanted to die, so I went back to the room to chill out for a while before transitioning into my last cosplay for the weekend.

And that last hurrah was in a cosplay I've not worn in quite some time. Daru Chai and I busted out our Soul Eater pair from... I honestly don't even remember how many years ago now, and we hit the con floor.

Photo courtesy of Daru Chai Cosplay

Magically we ran into some other Soul Eater cosplayers and joined them for a little photoshoot. We were one of 3 pairs of Steins/Medusas and had a Maka and a couple of Souls. We definitely hammed it up as much as possible before I had to take off.

I'll be getting some more of these back too since someone was taking photos for us.
After the shoot (or at least part of the shoot), I ran off and met my sister for dinner, and yes, I was still dressed as Stein.

Photo courtesy of vespamary

We went to this lovely little place called The Table and had some awesome meats, cheeses, fried green tomatoes, and cocktails. Our libations included an Old Fashioned we shared in memory of Grandma B.

As soon as I got back to the convention center I was immediately whisked away by Madster,  Heckin.Sleepy, and a small crew of others who were on a mission to find hot dogs. So we went questing together and I had a drink with everyone while people devouered some delicious-looking dogs. After we were sated, we headed back so I could send Heckin.Sleepy home with his new props (while we discussed some new possibilities for commissions).

He didn't end up wearing Nero at the con, so I don't have any photos of the lot together, but hopefully I'll have those to share some time soon as well. By the time we got back, I was just about dead, but I did manage to find some of my pack and hang out for a bit before trotting off to bed.

Sunday

Sunday was a lazier day than usual since I didn't bring any lounge-y cosplay to wear. I was initially thinking I could wear Mordred again on Sunday if I was motivated enough to do so but needless to say I was not. Thankfully I got to hang with my pack for a while and pick up a few things from the artist alley before I headed home. And we got a pack selfie since we totally forgot to do that on Friday when we were all together.

And that was that. I came home to my boys and got in lots of cuddle time and some Bob's Burgers before I passed out from the exhausting, but fun, weekend.

Now it's back to work, and I have plenty to do with a full armor commission and several other props that need to get done between now and Youmacon. You'll get to see my progress on those here soon, or you can keep up with it as it happens on my Instagram, which I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with.

WIP Wednesday

Welcome back, folks! I've been hard at work putting together my next cosplay: Vaida from Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword. I'm super excited to have a big group of FE7 folks at Matsuri, hopefully we'll have a bunch of awesome photos when all's said and done!

Well, we all know you don't want to hear me yammering on, so here's some photos of what I've been working on!

Thank god the armor is simple, just a breastplate and a pair of shoulder pauldrons. True old school FE flier stuff. It's all EVA foam, heat shaped. The details are craft foam, and yes I did add some fanciness to the shoulders cause I thought it could use them. I initially painted the details light blue to match the fabric I got for her, then I looked at the reference artwork again and realized it was probably supposed to just be silver. So I painted it blue, and did a silvery metallic wash over it and boom, done.

Look, I made a tunic/dress too! The details are appliqued on the way I generally do, and the trim is the same satin that I made bias tape out of. The breastplate velcros on the front, and there's a strap that goes around the back to keep it snug. The shoulder pauldrons and the cape velcro on the shoulders. They're nice and lightweight so they shouldn't fall off like Ashnards always do.

Leeeeeeeeegy
These boot covers were a pain in the ass to make but they turned out rather well. I'm going to be so freaking tall in these heel good god.

Here's the base material for the spear. The tip is MDF at it's core and foamcore extra layers for the design. I sturdied the end with some worbla scraps, and the designs along the shaft are in puff paint. The shaft itself is a curtainrod I've been waiting to use for a while.

Here's a closeup of the head so you can see the painted details. Not too shabby if I do say so myself ;-)

And that's that! I'm debating if I can get away with using my own hair, she's definitely blonde and not ginger, but my hair is pretty light when it's cut short. We'll see about that.

Fire Emblem!Con (aka Tekko 2018)

Just got back from Pittrsburgh and I had a fantastic weekend at Tekko!

We all know at this point how obsessed i am with Fire Emblem, so when I saw an instagram post by CarletteCosplay that they were doing FE7 stuff at Tekko, I immediately hopped on that train.  Little did I know at that point that I also knew almost everyone else in the group. It was several weeks later (and two days before leaving for the con) that I was still trying to figure out what all to take with me, and discussing prospects with Marjolycookie and finally decided to just make this Tekko Fire Emblem!Con.

Friday was Innes, because I am so pleased with how this cosplay turned out that I just want to wear it all the time. And his underneath bits are comfortable enough to travel in. I was super lucky too, because I arrived in just enough time to get a great parking spot in the close cheap lot just before it filled up. Also it was 60* out so I could just put my costume on in the parking lot, without having to wiggle into things in my car.

The friend I was staying with in Pittsburgh was actually staffing the con, so I even got a free badge, which was awesome. And I immediately saw Big O Cosplayers as soon as I got out of the badge line.

After fangirling at them for a bit, I finally made it up to the con, and found a bunch of friends. I was pretty impressed that there were some people who actually recognized Innes. There were definitely a few people who asked for photos who were like "I don't know who this is but it's pretty awesome," which frankly is one of the best compliments as a cosplayer because you know it's sincere. They're not asking for a photo because they appreciate the character so much as they appreciate the cosplay itself.

There was a second, smaller convention going on concurrently in the other part of the convention center, and it was actually a yarn/fiber arts/craft show.... which was perfect to go along with Tekko. The knitters/crafters were definitely entertained by all of the costumes, and a bunch of the con-goers went over to check out all of the yarn and other cool stuff at the crafting expo. My friend and I went over and checked it out, and I got lots of compliments and questions from the folks running the different booths. I also discovered a needle felting booth called GoingGnome which had awesome stuff, including a Smaug and the entire crew of Dwarves (plus Gandalf & Bilbo) from The Hobbit. They were doing needle felting classes where you could make a gnome. Unfortunately they didn't have any openings left for Friday, so I signed up for Saturday instead.

After hanging out at the con for a while, my friend and I decided to head home and order some dinner from an asian noodle place (which was soooooo good) and watch Thor: Ragnarok... which of course we fell asleep halfway through.

Saturday morning I decided it was far too appropriate not to go back to the yarn festival as anyone other than Yarne, so I suited up in my fur loincloth and we headed back downtown.

My friend staffing had to be there at 8.... and literally no one who did not work at the convention center was around. So I hung out and played Heroes for a bit while people started slowly trickling in. Allison was the first to find me, dressed at Kylo, and we hung out and chatted for a while. Another Kylo cosplayer wandered past and recognized me, telling me his girlfriend loved the character and was cosplaying Grima!Robin. So they came back by later and we got this gem together.

I was also amazed to meet an Athena cosplayer, PhantasmagoriaCosplay, while I was hanging out there.

There was an FE photoshoot at noon, so I went to that. It wasn't huge but it was still fun. It was about 90% Awakening, and 80% of that was all Robin (and a Morgan who pretended to be Robin for a couple photos).

After the shoot it was time to change for our FE7 meetup. We had all 3 lords, plus Florina, Ninian, Nils, Guy (obviously), and eventually we even had a Rath! And because we're all ridiculous we had 5 disguises to play with too. If you're unfamiliar.... this actually happens in the game:

I'm stupidly excited to see photos from this. We all froze our asses off (Except Hector and his stupid sweater and armor and stuff), but it was totally worth it.

When it got to be evening again, we went back and ate at a little restaurant that;s close to my friend's house... that I can't remember the name of, but it was delicious and food coma-inducing. Nevertheless we went back and actually managed to finish Thor before passing out for the night.

Sunday was Ranulf, since he's comfy and pretty easy, besides all of the stupid wrappy bits that all of the Laguz (except Naesala because he's too fabulous for that) seem to have. I spent 20 minutes wandering around the outside of the Westin trying to figure out how to get to the Starbucks, but eventually managed to get some breakfast/coffee. When I got back to the convention center I was immediately recognized/photographed, which was pretty cool. And then at last all my friend arrived in their rainbow of FE4 outfits.

I've never played this game, so I don't know any of the characters besides Sigurd and Dierdre in the middle (thank you Heroes), but this still made me so happy. And what was even more miraculous was that while we were all standing around, a Lyon materialized out of the Aether.

Well, I couldn't well pass up the chance to get photos with him since I had Innes in the car, so I went and changed.

It was pretty great, because anyone who had already seen me that morning immediately went "wtf?" when they saw I had changed costumes, because who the hell does multiple cosplays on a Sunday. Clearly only this guy, and only when hypermotivated lol.

Well, that was Tekko, and it'll be a while before I have any more con stuff, which is probably a good thing because I have a bunch of commissions that I need to be working on. But I will definitely share photos from out FE7 shoot once we start getting them back.