I suck at cosplay

Just a quick update . . . MY BOOTS ARE ALMOST FUCKING DONE!

I am almost done with these damn things!  Just need to weather the yellow armor patch on the left shin guard and I'm gonna call it done!  The boot album is below and you can see it for yourself, if you want.  I am not wearing the leggings that will complete the illusion of one continuous boot instead of separate boot and shin pieces.  I'll post the whole thing when I've got it all squared away and have some time.

Okay, I am definitely the worst at posting updates.  Hell, I'm terrible at just taking in progress shots.  But, I AM trying.  I'm just not trying too hard.  :)


Anyway . . . post!

A little about my partner . . . She is a geek, a huge one.  But she is also extremely shy and reserved and anxiety ridden.  So, when she said she said she wanted me to make her something to cosplay at Nebraskon along with her friends and I, how could I say no.  You know by now that I haven't been doing this stuff for long.  In fact, I'm pretty much so terribly green that I have no idea what I am doing half the time.  But, I did manage to swing two so far.

I was sick today.  It sucked.  Headache, hard time breathing, sinuses acting like assholes.  Well, not literally, but it was pretty gross.  I won't go into too much detail but there was a lot of . . . ummm . . . drainage.

Anyway . . .

As I was home, I decided I would try to be productive.  Whether I was sick or not.  Since I was in bed, I knew it couldn't be the boots, so I went with progressing on the drones.  Worked out well because I could stay in bed and watch Parks and Rec all day while detailing and assembling.  Was a good time!

So, it has been a bit with the posting. I really need to get better at that. Anyway, I have the main parts of the boots done! This is kind of a big deal for me because the boots were a total pain in the ass. I dunno why I had such a problem with these. It seemed every time I did some patterns, when I put them to foam, they didn't work. I built things up again and again only to have to start from the bottom after just a few pieces. It finally got to the point that I did rough patterns and mostly improvised around that for one foot and then mirroring that on the other. But, at least it is done.

As always, I have been terrible at in progress shots, so I can only really describe what I did and post the pictures of the final bits, sans detailing and paint. More info and pictures below.

Title says it all. I've been trying to make Wilhelm's boots for too long now and I keep getting more and more frustrated. I thought I had it sussed out and started cutting and using worbla. But 1/2 way through I realized it wasn't working and, once I put the pieces together how they would sit, they weren't shaped the way I had intended. So, starting from scratch again. Ugh . . .

Well, guise . . . it is done!

 

Some things I wish I could go back and change but mostly, I love it!

Time to look at the next prop I 3d printed - Moxxi's Maliwan Bad Touch.  The Bad Touch is my favorite Borderlands weapon.  While it isn't really a gun Wilhelm would probably choose, I don't care . . . I love it too much.  So, when I decided to do a Borderlands cosplay, I knew instantly what gun I would use.

For my Wilhelmina costume, there are a few things I decided to 3d print.  One being a Maliwan SMG (gonna paint it like Moxxi's Bad Touch) that I felt was too complex to try modelling or fabricating myself.  The other items I was sure I was printing is the Saint support drone and Wolf attack drone. I will go into Bad Touch and Wolf in other posts, but I thought I'd tackle Saint in this one.

Part two of my posts about 3d printing for cosplay.  I am going to go into some things you will need to know before you start planning to print.  There are some misconceptions about 3d printing.  That it is a super easy thing to do.  Just a push of the button and you have a finished product.  While that can be true to a certain extent, the reality is a little more complicated.  I try to explain some of that after the jump.

Alright, I've had some people ask me about 3d printing for cosplay.  I am not what I would consider an expert on the topic, but I do know a decent amount about 3d printers and printing in the home or on a small scale.  So, I'm going to do my best to cover it.  This will not be an all encompassing thing, but I'll tell you what I can and the post will also serve as a decent segue into my 3d printed props for Wilhelmina.

     Okay, so I haven't been great about going through the stuff I learned or even posting pictures of the Eiger costume.  But now I am working on my next project for Nebraskon - genderswapped Wilhelm I'm calling Wilhelmina!  I have only started the process a bit, so I figure this is a good time for me to actually document what I am currently doing.  So, with that in mind, let's start with my game plan!

The leg and boot armor was fairly simple to do, yet I messed it up and was forced to remake them a few times.  The resultant product was not ideal and I definitely wish I had been able to redo it one more time.  These are one more element of the costume I will be redoing for any future use.  So, here's what I used and how I messed up.