Spoiler free review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

A year is a long wait. Seriously. Today I saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first show at 10 o'clock in the morning. The story begins with a flashback from Jyn Erso's (Felicity Jones)somewhat traumatic childhood. We are then thrown immediately into the action and it almost hasn't a dead second during the entire duration of the movie.


Gareth Edwards has managed to make a war movie, with emphasis on the war. It's kind of raw, a little dark, sentimental and very exciting even though most fans already can imagine the end of the film. Despite this, there is the feeling of Star Wars there, perhaps even more than in The Force Awakens.
 
Although this film is set just before A New Hope and the characters are such as we had never seen before, so we get our fill of old familiar faces, incorporated very nicely in the story.

Everybody knows Darth Vader does an appearance, not a big part but makes a big impact. K-2SO, the re-programmed imperial droid, played by Alan Tudyk, is really good. The delivery of lines is fun and smart. The CGI is awesome. You don't even think about it as a CGI carachter. There are also a couple of more CGI moments that are breathtaking. You'll see for yourselves.

Disappointments? Hardly. However, I can feel that the character Orson Krennic makes a little pale impression, no shadow over Ben Mendelsohn's performance, but on the other hand, Director Krennic is nothing more than a pencilpushing bureaucrat. In my opinion, this show a little clearer in the book Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno, which story takes place about 10-15 years before the events of the film.

This is a short review, I don't want to go deep and it is more a few of my thoughts around the movie. I'm not even going to score this one. I loved it though and had a lot of fun through the whole movie. Lot's of action, likable carachters, new interesting locations that expands the universe and so on.

Go see it and enjoy the ride!


Later, awesome nerds!

Test of new product Ellimorph

There was a hell of a lot of things to see, and buy at this last weekends ComicCon Stockholm. I sure brought som stuff home as you could see in a previous post I did while at the con.

As a cosplayer...ehrm, can I call myself that? A wannabe anyway. Well, to the point. Many have already seen the Ellimacs SFX Tutorial youtube channel by Ellinor Rosander and Macs Moser. They do amazing make up tutorials and have over 600k subcribers to their channel as of today. I have seen quite a few of their tutorial videos and they use a kind of biodegradable plastic that is non-toxic and softens in hot water which makes it really easy to work with. They sell it by the name Ellimorph.

The facts of Ellimorph

•  Ellimorph comes in white plastic pellets
• It turns soft and transparent in hot water above 62 C/143.6 F
• Pick up the completlely transparent pellets and mold it by hand (at this stage you can add color)
• Allow the Ellimorph to cool until solid
• Re-heat if further moulding is required

Tips 

• Dip in cold water for faster set time
• Re-heating takes longer if the piece is big
• Solid Ellimorph will shrink some over time. When doing teeth moulds you may need to re-heat and bite down again to adjust the fit

Caution

• Be careful when handling hot water
• Do not over-heat the water with pellets in it or they may become sticky and difficult to remove from surfaces. 

Swedishfanboy's Ellimorph test on foam armor


Ellimacs SFX primarily use their product for make up FX and I love that kind of thing, but when I went up to their booth at ComicCon this weekend and spoke to them I thought that this product easily could be transfered to the world of cosplay.

Many times I am lost on what material I can use for different things in cosplaying. Often I know exactly what I want to achieve but the material or product doesn't exist or isn't available in Sweden.

I am making a sort of Grim Reaper costume for a private event next Saturday. Will not reveal it until then, sorry. But this costume has a piece of armor that I have small spikes on. I actually bought som spike type of thing at a local arts and craft store. These thing looks really weak and not intimidating at all. Actually I think they are suppose to be used as a carrot nose for a snowman, LOL.

Anyway, a perfect chance to test Ellimorph. Check out the pictures below to see the progress.

This is the foam armor pieces with the small spikes intended for a snowman.

 Now it's time to make a more horrifying type of spikes with Ellimorph!

Heat the water to above 62 C/143.6 F. This seem to be the meltingpoint of Ellimorph. I found out that 75 C/167 F is the perfect temperature to make the pellets go transparent really quickly.

Pour water in a glass and add the Ellimorph pellets. When they are completely transparent, pick them up with a spoon. They should be cool enough to handle.

I now have moulded a spike and put a match in it to punch through the foam to make it stick better. This piece is stil transparent because it didn't set yet.

Two pieces that turned solid. It really become rock hard after it sets. Perfect to make teeth, bone and such.

Finished! Hot glued to the foam armor and looks incredible already. I thought of painting them black as the original ones but I think I'll just weather them to have the bone/tooth feel.

 Evaluation of Ellimorph

Ellimorph is for sure in my cosplay workshop to stay. There are probably many many more things you can use it for that I haven't even thought about yet. Feel free to come with suggestions when Ellimorph can be used in cosplaying.

Update! 

I finished the new spikes/fangs made out of Ellimorph today by weathering them with some black acrylic paint and the result is way better than the small black ones I first used. To seal the paint I sprayed a thin layer of clearcoat on. See the result below.

If you wonder about the color difference between the two it's because I ran out of silver paint and bought a cheap one that I could get the hold at the time. You get what you pay for so to speak - it is more gray/white than silver. The left piece is the look I want obviously.

Later, awseome nerds!

Day 2 of MCM ComicCon Stockholm

Woke up at 8 this morning and had a great breakfast at the hotel, I sure can get used to these continental breakfasts!

I got something today that I have looked at before and been really interested in. The Tie fighter blue tooth speaker from Disney. One of the vendors had one for more than 50% off retail so I bought it ofcourse. I think it is really hard to decide what to buy at these conventions, there's a universe of options and I have a hard time deciding LOL. I also got me som Jedi slippers and a Black Series Rey & BB-8.

Went to VampyBitMe's second Q&A, a lot of fun as the one yesterday. Lots of laughs and good questions from the crowd. I could've asked a couple myself but I thought I might let the young people shine instead of an old fart like me, haha. Also I had a stroke last year and my ability to build sentences in a second language is hard like that from the top of my head. I am still a little uncomfortable speaking in public. I kind of need to warm up first.

Lucky me when I got to VampyBitMe's booth after and she was really talkative and made me actually talk to her haha. Good training for me. It was really nice of her anyways. Bought a print from her and I could take a selfie with her aswell. I like the nerdy stuff and gadgets ofcourse, but it was really nice to be able to talk about cosplay for a couple of minutes with someone. I don't really have any cosplaying friends to talk cosplay with. Atleast when it comes down to materials and such.

Really tired now after a whole day at the convention. Malin and I are still deciding if we are going to the cinmema close by to see The Accountant or if we're going up to the 34th floor and grab a beer or two. Maybe we just crash in bed =)

Well, perhaps we can make a run-through tomorrow when the conventions opens at 10. We need to check out of the hotel by 11 and we have a soccer game to catch in the afternoon two trainstations away. Then back home again.

Later, awesome nerds!