Bits and Bobs

The little fiddly bits on costumes can be a pain to find when you don't know the correct term for them.

Plastic Cabochons, for example, are the foil-backed acrylic gems found on 90% of anime characters. I've never seen anything but the faceted variety in my local craft stores while most designs call for the smooth ones.

Acrylic Half Spheres pretty much the same as above except colorless and no backing. These would be good if you needed a custom color or a massive size (up to 2", anyway).

First Leg Cast Done

Left Leg Cast

We started out doing the right leg with plastic wrap to protect my skin, but the bandages didn't seem to be setting up properly. We worked with it for several minutes then I decided to try it on the other leg but with vaseline instead of the plastic wrap thinking it might be impeding the process somehow. The bandages were quickly removed from the plastic wrap leg and transferred to the vaseline leg. We did several more strips but it still wouldn't harden so we tried to speed it up with the hair dryer. Nothing was working so after about 20 minutes or so of failed attempts I had my husband use the unopened roll of bandages. I had no idea that plaster bandages could go bad when left in the open air but apparently that's what happened because the sealed bandages worked as they should. I hobbled around the house for a couple hours waiting for it to dry completely (which it never really seemed to), then I cut it down the inside of my leg with a combination of scissors and a razor blade so that I could wiggle my leg out. I matched the sides back up and put rubber bands down the length of the cast to help keep the cut edges from distorting. I also stuffed it with plastic bags for the same purpose.

Now I'll have to purchase fiberglass materials so I can reinforce my cast enough to be able to sculpt on it. I took a trip to Lowes today to see what the local prices were but I plan to comparison shop on the web before making my purchase. Supplies at Lowes will run me around $60 but they only had fiberglass cloth, no mat. May as well say $70 once I get the mat online. There's a Home Depot in the next town so I may check out their prices as well before deciding.

Lowes Prices:
Cloth $6.98 for 8sq ft
Resin $35.98 for 128 oz
Mask $6.97 for 2
Bondo $10.98 for 1qt
Bondo $20.97 for 1 gal

New Blog!

In my continuing efforts to get back into cosplay, I've decided to keep a project journal of sorts. I'll be posting progress pictures, links, ideas and anything else related to whatever project I happen to be working on or thinking about working on at the time.

The costume I have picked for my wicked huge cosplay comeback will involve some armor making. To that end, I submit these two sites...

digitalEMERALD- instructions for fiberglass armor construction

Armour Archive-patterns for various historical armor pieces

In all likelihood I'll be using a combination of these two methods. For the parts that aren't very detailed or oddly shaped I'll probably use the patterns to make a base out of Wonderflex. From there I could do one of two things. I could try to smooth out the Wonderflex with Friendly Plastic or I could fiberglass the Wonderflex instead. Fiberglass may be the better option since it will lend some rigidity to the piece while also keeping my surface textures consistent throughout the suit. For the parts that cannot be satisfactorily achieved within the limits of Wonderflex I will resort to sculpting and casting as seen in Emerald's instructions.