Commission Progress (WIP Wednesday)

Welcome back everyone! I know I’m supper sporadic with posting here but I do have some progress updates on the commissions I’ve been working on that I wanted to share!

Let’s start with the projects you’ve already seen the beginnings of:

Silas’s armor is coming along nicely, though unfortunately I’ve run out of worbla so I can’t make any more sections until that arrives.

Next up, Opal’s bow is done with construction and I’ve started painting. The gradient painting is a huge pain in the ass but it does look pretty cool.

Now, on to new projects which I’ve somehow magically gotten further on than the stuff you’ve already seen! I’ve started working on Yuna’s staff from FFX. It’s the staff you traditionally see her with in all of the official artwork.

For the head, I used 1/4” MDF and thick craft foam to make the little blue details on the gold head. The shaft is a wooden broom handle I got at Home Depot.

The blade on my scroll saw broke in the middle of trying to cut the staff head out, which was slightly terrifying. Thankfully neither me nor the prop was hurt, I just had to finish cutting it out with my jigsaw instead.

Here’s the head all painted! Next step is to paint the shaft blue but I haven’t gotten to that yet.

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The last new item on my list is Atalanta’s bow from Fate/Apocrypha! I’m making this for a friend of mine and we’ll be cosplaying together at Youmacon.

Much like Opal’s bow, the base is wood with a section of broom handle as the grip. Despite the overall shape of the bow being a little more intricate, this actually took way less time to put together than the other bow because it didn’t involve two layers of wood together (which took a LOT of sanding to even out) and the weird round spiral bit that also took a lot of time and work to get fit together and looking right.

The raised details are all made from either craft foam or cereal box… you can probably tell from the photo above which sections are which ;-)
The bits around the grip are covered with worbla scraps that I heated up and mushed together.

With the details done, all there was left to do was paint and add the bowstring. The simple black & gold color scheme is what really made the difference as far as time spent detailing compared to the other bow I’m working on.

And that’s all the commission work I’ve gotten done recently. I was out of town all last week visiting friends and going to my brother-in-law’s wedding so I was not as productive as usual. This week I’m aiming to get Yuna’s staff and Opal’s bow done so keep an eye on my instagram to see more progress photos! I’ve also been working on my new cosplay for Youmacon which is mostly done at this point, so I’ll be posting again later this week or some time next week with all the photos and construction notes on that!

WIP Wednesday

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share some photos of the stuff I've been working on lately.

First up is this bad boy, the Silenced SMG from that game everyone's crazy about right now, Fortnite. I cranked this thing out so fast that apparently I haven't posted any of it on here, so you've only seen this stuff if you follow my Instagram. 

The base materials are wood, MDF, and cardboard. I carved the ammo cartridge/trigger/grip section out of 3 layers of MDF, the large cylinder is a heavy duty mailing tube, and the smaller dowels are from an old wooden broom handle.

Most of the details are craft foam, along with some small dome stickers for the one spot. The sight is a slice of rigid plastic tubing (essentially PVC but transparent... PCV would have worked just as well).

Here's the full build! the details on the side are more MDF, and the part that goes against your shoulder to steady the gun is wood.

Here's the fully painted version! I had fun doing the rust details along the metallic parts. Here's a few extra detailed shots. The paint job was pretty easy since most of it is black. I did do some subtle highlighting with dark grey to make it a bit more interesting though.

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With that done, I started a few new projects. First up is a personal project for myself, that I was hoping to do for Matsuri but I ran out of time. 

If you've ever played Nier: Gestalt/Replicant then you'll recognize this as the saucy magic book, Grimoire Weiss. And, if you haven't played it... you should cause it's a great game.

I've been wanting to make one for a while and I finally found a good book to use for a base last time I was out thrifting. The proportions were perfect for the design (although the book is a bit slimmer than Weiss is in the game) and it was a cookbook which seemed all too appropriate (for those of you unfamiliar with Nier, Weiss hates cookbooks and tells you about it several times in-game).

I found a lovely illustration of Weiss's front cover on the Nier Wiki, so I resized it and printed several copies on cardstock. Then, much like I do with my MtG life counters, I used an exacto knife to cut out different layers and then layered them together to get the 3D details.

Once the layers were attached to the book, I spray-shellaced the whole thing so that the cardstock wouldn't get all wrinkly when I went to paint it. I also did a few layers of mod podge before I started the painting process.

This is the state he's currently in. I have to touch up the mid-tone in a few spots where I got a little overzealous with the black, and then I need to add some highlights (and probably touch up the midtones again afterwards. Then once all that's done I can add the metallic coat and sealers. It'll be a bit before I can start working on the back yet...

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The other project I started is another commission, the bow pictured here from Steve Universe.

The base is all wood, and it's actually two layers glued together to get the thickness I needed. It might not look like much but I've already sunk a LOT of time into this project, most of it spent sanding these thing into the shape they're currently in. The round sections are bits of mailing tube and the bar that will hold them together is going to be part of a broom handle, so that way they can separate for easier transportation. I still have a whole lot left to do for this but at least it's coming along!

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Last up is the most elaborate of anything I'm working on, and you guessed it, it's ANOTHER set of Nohrian armor because FML. I guess the nice thing is that I've not had to make the same set twice? Even though it's all very similar? Maybe that's not actually a good thing? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure after I finish this project I'm going to strike full plate armor sets from my repertoire because they're way too much work.

Here's what we have so far: the torso plates and the bracers. This is all craft foam that will eventually have worbla over it. Hopefully by the end of the day I'll have the pattern figured out fro his shoulder pauldrons because they're a very odd shape that I'm still not entirely sure how to achieve. But I'll get there I'm sure.

That's all for now!

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.