A little bit of cosplay progress

Hello cosplayers! Thought I would give you a small update on the progress on my latest cosplya which is a genderbend of Sabine Wren from Star Wars Rebels.

As mentioned before in a previous post, I gained some weight lately, so I decided to start with the props before the actual costume because I want to be slightly more fit before I get into tight pant and a shirt like Sabine has. Ofcourse I could just make a suit that fits me as is, but I really want to make my beer belly disappear a bit. The end result will be so much better. Don't get me wrong here, I am not the shallow type and I actually encourages people to cosplay nomatter what they look like. Cosplay is for everyone, and I do not, or will ever not have a perfect body anyway. Just a little better proportions is what I am after here.

Anyway, here comes some pictures of my progress so far with the Sabine outfit and som ideas I have for future parts.

The Mandalorian helmet

This is the top dome of the helmet made out of EVA foam. For this I checked out Evil Ted's awesome Youtube channel for how to make this. You can see the tutorial on how to make a foam helmet here.

I then drew around the base of the dome to cut out at flat round piece. You will see further down why.

I used the flat round piece of EVA foam to tape the cardboard templates of the helmet sides on to it. This way I had the helmet perfectly sized after my measurements.

Then I glued the dome on top of the round piece, and then built polyester resin and glass fibre(the kind you fix and build boats with) layer by layer around the template to form the sides of the helmet.

I also covered the EVA dome with polyester resin to make it more sturdy. The dome itself is still there and actually makes the helmet more comfortable to wear. The surface of the dried polyester resin is pretty gritty so I used just polyester resin and mico glass ballon to make a putty for the finish. It did involve a lot of sanding afterwards. But totally worth it. The surface is now completely smooth and ready for small parts and paint.

Guns and holster

I have seen a few different ways to do the guns and holsters for Sabine costumes, and it has been made in EVA foam aswell as balsawood and plain hard wood. I know EVA foam better than any other material so I went with that, both for the holster and the guns.

I just drew out a template I found online on printer paper and cut out two layers of 12 mm EVA foam. Then I glued them together and stroke som wood glue on cracks and dents to make it smoother. 

The holsters I cut out the frame from 6 mm EVA foam and cut it to fold around the gun. Check out this clip at 3:17 how to do it. It is a little tricky but the result is worth it even if you fail a couple of times like I did.

Here is the result of the glued holsters with the guns. I made the small parts on the guns with 2 mm EVA foam.

My uncle in Finland had a good elk hunt last year so he sent me som left over elk skin a couple of months ago. Lucky me. The skin came in handy for the holsters, and I think it turned out to be a perfect detail to the finished job. 

Well, future work continues. The costume itself will need to be made. The idea is to sew the shirt from scratch. The pants I will buy a pair of cargo type pants and alter them to look more like the pants Sabine use. The belt I will also make from scratch since the style is typical Star Wars and nothing like that really exist in the real world, and attach the holsters on it. The armor I will continue to make from 6 mm EVA foam, the templates are finished after my measurments, they just need to be cut.

I hope you liked the progress I made so far considering this is my first cosplay. Please come with suggestions, tips and comments below.

Later, awesome nerds!

Trends in cosplay

Cosplay is currently one of the fastest growing trends in Japan and the quality of costumes is remarkable. Fans of the crafting hobby goes to great length to create proffessional hair, make up and props. In Japan, a cosplay meet can bring 100 000 visitors without raising an eyebrow.

As a Swede, and a noob cosplayer,  I can also say that the interest for Cosplay over all has increased greatly even here in Sweden. It has always been around since a long time back but only during the last few years it has exploded. In someways, you can even say that it has become a little more mainstream. This has been proved by Swedish public service television in recent years broadcasted the Swedish and Nordic Championships at NärCon live, first online, later live on the main channel. In 2016, NärCon is hosting a third convention for the first time in Gävle, with qualification contest för the championship show on TV in February 2017. Cosplay is growing.

Photo: Shila Forsman Photography

  

The levels of Cosplay in Sweden is wide, from the beginners like myself, to experienced cosplayers holding high international standard. One of a handful is Linn Eriksson from Stockholm. She finished at least top 3 in every Swedish or Nordic Championship she has entered. To the left Linn as The Emperor from Final Fantasy 2, a costume which she won the Swedish championship with in 2015.

Trends

Trends come and go, that's why it's called a trend, duh! Often it is inspired by films, TV-series, games and comic books that have become popular. Last year it was not uncommon to see atleast a handful of Dead Pools at almost every convention. The trend now Among many female cosplayers is Harley Quinn as of the movie Suicide Squad. The comic book version we saw even erlier. During the last six months we also have seen a lot of pokémon cosplays since that darn game showed up...

Some try to be as unconventional as possible deciding their next cosplay. the most obscure costumes can be seen at most conventions, and sometimes you have to ask the character name and from the wheret it belongs. Some odd costumes you might know, but may also surprise you since you couldn't dream someone would pick that particular character. At The San Diego Comiccon 2015 there was a Triceracop costume present from the kickstarter marvel Kung Fury. If you do not know what the hell I am talking about, follow the link. You should though.

Mostly, cosplayers chose a costume based of a character they like. I am a Star Wars fan, and when I think of cosplay my thoughts goes to characters from that universe, and that's a big universe. My two current projekts revolves around Star Wars characters.

What will we see in the future then? Probably the usual stuff from the big productions coming to theatres, the most recent and old computer games and comic books. I would like to see more characters from the background, or characters that probably wouldn't be the first pick of most people. Perhaps someone from the recent movie The Girl with All the Gifts? 

Well, cosplay is here to stay and is coming closer to the homes of average Joes.

Later, awesome nerds!  

A hell of a summer....and good ending of the year 2016

In my last post I promised more to come during the summer, well I hit a wall with my studies this spring and got behind some. Been catching up since and suffered from a minor depression during the same time. So with the lack of strength I have not held up my promise. Sorry about that, but I hope I can make it up to you know when feeling better again.


I have been taking it easy during the summer not doing much but been outside fishing on the lake nearby or working a little on my next cosplay and helping my youngest son with his cosplay.

Sabine Wren helmet in the making

Curious? Well, if you follow me on twitter I revealed my cosplay there not long ago, If you missed it the costume is a Sabine Wren of Star Wars Rebels genderbend. I really like that show since it is part of the new canon and actually Sabine is my favorite character. The idea was to have it ready for Swedish cosplay convent Närcon (more about that further down) in my town last weekend of this October, but I will not be able to finish it in time...and I packed on a few so I really want to lose some weight before I make a tight outfit like that, LOL. I have begun on the helmet, armor and weapons though, and I am pretty far in the progress of that as you can se in the pictures. Hopefully I can lose some weight and be able to finish the costume for The Scandinavian Sci-Fi, Game & Film Convention in early December.

Dinner party Jason 

My 10-year old son, Mattias, has caught up with the liking of cosplay and wanted to join me at the convention in December, where they have a cosplay contest for kids. Because of the small amount of time we decided to make a mash up cosplay we call Dinner part Jason, basically it is a Jason Vorhees costume but instead of the movie G.I. Joe kind of gear we have resown an old black suit of mine, adding a white shirt and a red bow tie. Voilà! Dinner party Jason! LOL. 

Making a cast of Mattias head to build goalie mask and rotten head

I helped him ofcourse but he did do a lot himself on the head part we made from a bald cap bought from a movie make up shop. We then sculpted burnt and distorted skin on it with latex, grease make up and acrylic paint. The picture provided isn't the best but I will upload better ones. The iconic goalie mask we will make from scratch in polyester resin.


Conventions comes in three....? 

This fall and winter is heaven for a convention lover like myself. First up October 28-30, it is Närcon in my town of all! Amazing I´ll say. Närcon is the largest convention in Sweden with around 8000 visitors when they crown the Swedish champion of cosplay every year in February and The Nordic Champion in July every year. These two conventions take place in Linköping, but this year they decided to have yet another convention in another town so the luck fell on my town. Happy me! Fifteen minutes from home to the convention arena. No cosplay ready for this since they dropped the announcement as late  as June, and I was in the making of my Sabine Wren costume. Did not have the energy to start something new.

The weekend after, November 4-6, the MCM Comiccon takes place in Kista Convention Center north of Stockholm, less than 2 hours travel with train from where I live. Nothing to argue  about. Taking girlfriend (am I aloud to use that word at the age of 42?) there and staying att the Kista Victoria Tower Hotel wall to wall with the convention center. Can not be better I think. We also celebrate the first year together that particular weekend.

A little rest then for a about a month before The Scandinavian Sci-Fi, Game & Film Convention, December 10-11. Lots of vendors at this convention, hopefully for my liking a lot more Star Wars vintage than usual. Lots of cool other stuff it will be though, and cosplay competition debut for my son also. My friend Björn and my girlfriend will probably acompany us there.

A couple of days later is premier date for Rogue One - A Star Wars Story. I really usually don´t like fall and winter, hard not to like this one.

Later, awsome nerds!