A Tribute to Nobody

It's throwback thursday again and this week I'm showing off my only Kingdom Hearts cosplay to date: Roxas. It'll be a short entry as I really don't have very many photos, since I wore him a total of... twice, maybe? Also I'm not super into KH in the first place, I really just wanted to make some keyblades, and I liked his design more than Sora's.

As you'll probably notice... I don't have a wig. Why, you ask? Because I'm lazy. It's as simple as that. I put all of my effort into my keyblades that I didn;t really care about anything else so I said "to hell with the wig."
Ironically enough, I did eventually get a wig with the intention of "doing this cosplay properly" but I never actually wore it all together. This was pretty early in my cosplay career when I was still so gung-ho about making new costumes that I didn't often wear any of them more than  a couple of times because I was pumping out new ones so fast. Fortunately, the wig didn't go to waste, because I ended up using it for my Spark cosplay.

The spikes might be a bit long, but it still works.

Colossal was one of the two cons I wore Roxas to (the other being Tekko), and I met a pretty fantastic Axel so we decided to take a couple of photos together, particularly given my choice of keyblades.

As I stated before, the biggest reason I wanted to do a KH cosplay was to have an excuse to make some keyblades, which is why more work went into these than any other part of the cosplay. They're not very clean & polished, but considering how early this was in my cosplay career, they actually turned out pretty well. These are made from cardboard, paper mache, and some craft foam (primarily for details).

The specific keyblades i chose to make were very intentional. Roxas is most often seen wielding a black and white duo of keyblades known as "Oathkeeper" and "Oblivion." The designs are super cool, but because this is the standard pair of keyblades associated with Roxas, almost every Roxas cosplayer out there uses them for props. So, in my usual fashion, I decided I wanted to do something different, whicle still being relevant.

The first blade I went with was "Two Become One." This keyblade is styled after Roxas himself, with lots of nods to his design. The four-pointed ninja star-looking keychain mirrors the metal piece on his jacket, the checkerboard pattern mimics his wristband, and the nobody symbol can be seen on the hilt. To me, this combines some facets of both Oathkeeper and Oblivion into a single keyblade, which had a lot of appeal to me.

The second keyblade is the "Bond of Flame," a keyblade which represents Roxas' best friend, Axel. You actually recieve this keyblade in KH2 after Axel sacrifices himself to save Sora. Given their strong bond (yeah, I ship it) I thought it was a fitting second choice for a keyblade.

And that's all there is for this week, since I'm out of photos, and out of anecdotes.

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.

Materials Monday: Adhesives

Welcome back for more materials review here at Mikey Does Cosplay. This month I'm going to outline the different types of adhesives I use, how to use them, and what sorts of things they should be used for.

I know I talked about mod podge last time with the finishing products, but I use mod podge just as much as an adhesive. Mod podge works best when the pieces you're gluing together can be pressed or clamped so that they stay in place. This is because it's a fairly wet glue and takes some time to dry, so things can shift or separate if you're not careful. Also, if you're using paper or cardboard, the mod podge can cause it to curl or wrinkle, so it's best if you can use a flat, heavy object (like an encyclopedia or something similar) to keep things flat. I use mod podge a lot with foamcore board when I'm layering the boards together, as well as when I use compressed paperboard (i.e. cereal boxes) or craft foam for raised details. in all of these cases it's best to be able so clamp the pieces, or flatten them with a book or other heavy object to keep things in place and make sure the bond is secure.

E-6000 is useful when you need a strong bond between different pieces. I usually use this when I'm attaching metal or plastic pieces because mod podge just doesn't stick to those materials. It's also nice because it creates a flexible bond, so if you have something that needs to bend, it'll allow for that without the bond letting go. The major downside is that it takes a long time for it to set, so things need to stay nice and steady or they might shift on you. One good method for preventing that is to put the E-6000 on your piece, mush the piece you're attaching onto it to so that the glue is on both pieces, and then separate them again for about 2-3 minutes. When you press the pieces together again, they should stay put much better while the glue finishes drying.
**E-6000 will melt open-cell foams, so don't use it unless you have a sealant coat. Closed-cell foam (EVA and craft foam) are fine.
**E-6000 has a pretty potent odor so I'd recommend using it in well-ventilated areas

Hot glue is the only real instant gratification of adhesives, but with the downside of it being a much weaker bond than our other choices. If you need a strong bond between your materials, this probably isn't the way to go, however it is very useful for certain materials. I use hot glue a lot with craft foam, because it bonds fairly well to the foam and adheres quickly. It's generally strong enough (especially if you're gluing two pieces of foam together) that you shouldn't have any issues with things falling apart. It's best when you're going to cover the whole piece with worbla, because then the bond is ultimately superfluous anyway, once the worbla cools and hardens. Hot glue is also useful when attaching fabric, because of the porous nature of the fabric. You just have to be careful not to get any hot glue in places you don't want, because it's nearly impossible to get hot glue off of fabric once it's on there.

Along with E-6000, contact cement is one of the strongest adhesives you can use. The way to use contact cement is to paint a layer on each surface you're bonding, and then let it sit for about 20-30 minutes. Once that time is up, you press the pieces firmly together and it creates a strong bond between them. You generally want to leave it for an hour or so after you've pressed the pieces together, before you mess with it too much, but it's not going to go anywhere without a decent bit of force trying to separate the pieces. This is useful when you're bonding pieces that aren't flat or easy to clamp together, because you let the pieces dry separately, and then when you press them together they will stick without shifting. You just have to be careful to place it correctly because it will be difficult to fix once the pieces are pressed together.
**Contact cement will melt open-cell foams, so don't use it unless you have a sealant coat. Closed-cell foam (EVA and craft foam) are fine.
**Contact cement has a very strong odor so you should always make sure you're in a well-ventilated area when you're using it. I've given myself headaches with this stuff before so be smart and be careful.

I use these 4 adhesives pretty exclusively on my projects but there are plenty of other good ones out there that I'm less familiar with. If you have any you like to use that I haven't mentioned, let me know so I can share with my followers!