Modesty Studios

How I feel that my costumes are going to turn out sometimes... Well...because I've had some...major fails. Usually in an effort to remain on budget I cut out a lot of quality.  But we learn from mistakes so here's my little walk of shame of costumes and cosplay that really didn't come out as planned.  Princess Kraehe  My first "real" honest attempt at a cosplay was this character: Kraehe from Princess Tutu . At the time I was planning on going to AnimeFest in Dallas almost last minute with some friends. My game company was called Corvidology or "Study of Crows"...so I thought Kraehe would be super appropriate. Plus I knew I could pull it off. Well...here are the results. Well...I DID try. And for a budget costume it wasn't super bad...but most pictures of me were ummm unflattering. Some things I learned:  Black Ballet shoes do NOT exist. I had to dye them. I used Rit Dye and they're still black. (yeah I still have them.) Bu...

Wooooty wooo! The armor be as done as I think I can handle. It's all pink, glittered and unicorned. :) I even spray painted a nerf gun. :D  Because I live alone and was too excited to set my laptop right, I was not able to get a good full body. I will soon. For now some pictures. At AnimeFest in Dallas! Cosplay Fashion show!

A hotter pink for the armor. :D 2nd coat plus glitter. Couldn't get a good picture of it. Now I will paint the details with acrylic and a brush. I tried spraying a decal but it was too runny. :P Darn my impatience. Okay and then it sorta started to rain so I had to haul everything back in. We'll see if things need yet another coat or not.

So I painted the first coat and I ran out of pink paint. I also did a dumb thing. I left my armor outside to dry...in Texas...in the summer...it's over 100 degrees. The hot glue started to melt so some pieces  Some things may need to be reglued. :P So I need to get another can of pink...and possibly more hot glue sticks. :P It's PANK! 1 Coat of paint. I've also fixed the foam parts that fell off or came apart.

Many days pass and I've finished "detailing" as much as I think I can for this set of armor. I've also finished sealing the foam with PVC glue. I'll do a test paint on Monday to see if the pieces need more glue or not. *sigh* The helmet still looks uneven. Waiting for everything to dry.

I have pictures on my camera that I'll post up here later. I haven't abandoned this project yet. Just having to deal with unemployment. :P In any case, I've been patching up and cleaning up my work on some pieces with foamies. Currently the chest piece and belt are "ready" for sealing and paint prep. So close! I'm not looking forward to the helmet or forearms. They currently look the worst and need the most work.

No pics this time unfortunately but I've finally started the long grueling process of "correcting" my mistakes on armor pieces. I've started on the helmet which has been a process of un-gluing, re-gluing, adding thinner foam to places. It doesn't help that I've been very distracted by video games, but it will get done once I finish the game series. But the next 3 weekends I have weddings to go to. :P ARGH. In any case, I'll probably work on the belt, forearms and shin pieces details. Helmet and chest piece will be last. I want to seal and paint it SO BAD!

The armor pieces are "done" for now. I still need to do some of the detail work and smooth out a LOT of edges, but man it's so satisfying to have it on. I'm sad I no longer have a full length mirror...or a good place to take photos of it on me. (Somehow I will.) But for now...I have to seriously clean my apartment. It's a bit...chaotic. And my parents come visit me next week sooooo...yeah.

Ugh, this is definitely my least favorite piece. I really hope I can clean it up better. They fit well but it'll need some fixes to make them look nicer. Last pieces are the boot covers. :D I think I'll have all the basic pieces by the weekend. Just in time for my parents to come visit and stuff.

I'm definitely starting to slow down and probably cut some corners with this project. I "finished" the shin guards last night. The forearms will be next. I'll start them tonight. And last are the boot covers. Maybe by the weekend I'll have my basic suit that I can show off before getting into detail work with the 5 mm foam.

Bah, I forgot to upload some pictures the other day. Been distracted by video games and weddings. I've made good progress on the shins. I also got the gold mirror visor for my helmet. It looks awesome! Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture yet. ._. Today I can finish up the shins. Soon, only forarms and boot covers. :)

The shoulders are done. I got some more 5mm foam for detail work. Everything is coming together! Now I just need to finish the forearms, shins and boots. :) With the pace I'm going that might be withing the next three weeks. :D I will be going back to do detail work on other pieces and of course put visors on things. Then it's time to seal and paint.

Finally got the last bits of detail on the helmet. Looks pretty good in these pictures. I definitely see some warping on the actual helmet but I've learned/saw some neat tricks people have done with halo armor and foam so I'm hoping that will help a lot with making it look less like a glue pile. Next up are the shoulders.

Now I'm working on arguably the most difficult piece of the costume, the helmet.  Not only does it have to fit, but it has to look proportional. Following the pep file this is what I got. As you can see, it look like a small dinosaur is trying to eat my head. Which means, danger, TOO BIG. :P  Instead of scrapping everything to start over, I decided to see if I could still salvage this build. Making something a little smaller is not that tough. ;)   A few hours later This is my result. I shorted the top brim and the jawline a little bit. The helmet IS meant to be a little roomy so I can pull my head through and put in some cushioning. As you can see, I don't yet have my visor so for now I have to hold off on adjusting this too much.  There are still pieces that need to be added like the mouth piece, the back of the neck and finishing up the jaw line. (It's not suppose to hang off like that really. ;) I'll finish thos...

I finished the Thigh pieces. :D Mirroring the file confused me at first and I did end up almost making 2 left thighs. :B And here's how I extended the pattern. it'll all be painted so no worries.  I found some real good examples of halo in foam so I have a better idea on how to move forward with many of my pieces. 

Last night I put together one of the thigh pieces and ran into my first problem. The thigh piece while the perfect height did NOT fit around my thigh which is in my physique quite supple. ;) Front of Left Thigh Inside of left thigh. For now I've added some extra craft foam "buffer". But I'll have some things to consider before starting on the Right Thigh piece.

Front Back. So the chest piece is in a finished state. There's still a lot of "clean up" needed but that'll be before I prime for painting. Next I think I'll do the legs.

Progress is good on the armor. Over the weekend I finished the belt (save for adding velcro to keep it closed). I've also made a good deal of progress on the chest piece.  Still learning how to do this. There's more gaps than I'd like in the chest piece