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Derp de derp....

7/31/2018

Ok....so I really ahven't done much this week. I have been playing around little with photography, though.

I really want to be able to do cosplay photography. I have been working at learning what I can when I can. I have not had a ton of opportunities to practice, though, so I find my skills lacking still.

I took my camera with me to VersusCon. I had some issues, and it was clear I did not have the best equipment. And it was clear I am still struggling to remember all the technical stuffs. I think the more I do it, the easier it will be to remember.

So here are a few of the pictures I took. They are....ok. My lens decided half way through the day that it did not want to focus. I also was having issues getting it to be unmushy. I don't have a light. I need a light. I am aware of this. I look at my pics and can tell where it could use a fill light. Also...going full automatic did not improve the pics any, so I think overall my camera was unhappy and just crapping the bed.

I tried to edit where I could. There are still several I think I may be able to salvage.

So I was talking with a friend of mine, who suggested a speedflash with a triggering system. I found some cheap online and ordered them. A bunch of other people online suggested I invest in a 50mm 1.8/f lens. Found one of those cheap too in a bundle deal with the speedflash.

Turns out the triggering system, though it says it is compatible with Canon, is not actually compatible with Canon. After some frustrating stops and starts, a friend helped me figure this out. The speedflash works, though, if I use the on board flash to trigger it. The issue with that is the onboard flash leaves wierd shadows from the long lens or lens hood, depending. I would rather just be able to use the external flash by itself. but I chose to get a Canon so unless I have the money to invest in a Canon brand triggering system it isn't going to happen.

I tested it out with the puppers. These are with the kit lens (18mm-55mm, 3.5/f).

Still not great, but I think I am moving in the right direction.

So Friday I got the lens and did some testing. I really like the 50mm 1.8/f lens. I need to play with it more.

I think I am starting to get it. I do need to get more people to let me take thier picture though. As I practice and get better, I think it will be apparent.

One thing is certain, though. This is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than a point n shoot. I don't think I can go back to a point n shoot. And I have a Nikon point n shoot.

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Well THAT didn't go as planned.....

7/22/2018

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That should be the epitaph of my life. :(

So.....

Everything was going OK. The mop didn't work. Mostly because the orange bit at the top started crumbling apart, and the more I tried to glue it the more it crumbled until it was more glue than orange bit. Looked really really bad.

I was like oh well. I will just deal with it. I got the rest of it done. I adjusted the gloves so the white stripes were less wrinkly.

Then this happened:

You see, I live with a family who has a 5 month old puppy. I very chewy, rambunctious puppy. She is a love, but she has had a predeliction towards my foam for a while now.

Up until now if I said no and put it up, she would leave it.

But this time...

She has grown enough that she can now just grab things off my desk. I love that puppy, but damn girl. She also chewed up the belt stuff. This made everything I have been working so hard on this week all moot. I no longer had a cosplay. The mop and the accessories is what makes it VCD Janitor, as opposed to a random construction worker or janitor. This happened the NIGHT BEFORE the con. :/

After I was done crying in the corner, I considered what I could do. Because I already paid for this con, I was damn well still going to go.

I still have my Aoifa stuff. Sort of. I have lost 45 pounds since I made her, so her bodice no longer works. You can read about that build by going to October 2017 in the archives. There are several posts about it. I was going to link one, but I can't decide which one as all of them apply. I think I also have them all tagged Cosplay as well.

Anyway...So Aoifa's breastplate is waaaay too big now. The fabric bits are all in tatters. All that works really is the front bit and the horned circlet.

So looking at it, I decided if I had something to cover the back like a cloak, I could just tie the breastplate on directly around the back. It now wraps several inches into the back when tied that way.

So I needed fabric or something. And I would need a skirt and shoes. So I talked to a friend, who generously drove with me to Goodwill. There I found a furry vest with a giant collar, a tweed curtain, huge ass earrings, and a couple of pairs of knee length boots.

Photo vomit:

I first cut the collar off the vest. I included part of the body so I had a foundation. Then I cut the curtain to length. It was already finished on all the edges and was the perfect width.

I....am not proud of the next step, but it was a desperate situation. I then hot glued the curtain to the foundation bit I left on the collar. It worked waaaay better than I thought it would. I like the cloak. I think eventually I will sew it firmly.

These were earrings. Huge ass earrings. I removed the earring part, which was just french hooks held on by a jump ring, and attached 2 safety pins with black chain maille rings.

Then I painted them with some oil based paint pens I had. Obviously they didn't work well, as most of it chipped off quickly. And the safety pins were shite. They were in a $5 sewing kit, and they kept bending and popping open. They did look good though. I think I will try to find some more permanent enamel paint for these and better broach clasps.

Boots!! So I have to wear footwear that supports my ankles. I have joint hypermobility syndrome, and my ankles and hips are the 2 most effected sets of joints. I found this out when I started randomly face planting and spraining shoulders and wrists over and over again. According to the rheumatologist, this is permanent. It is a consequence of this degenerative condition. No more going barefoot, me. :( That means I have to find footwear that 1. fits my short, wide feet and 2. will go around my disproportionatly shaped calves. Up till now the best I could do is ill fitting ankle length construction boots. But these.....ah these...HEAVEN! They are comfortable. They fit my odd shaped feet. They have enough support for my ankles. And they have the two stretch panels in the back so they fit my calves!! And they are SOOOOOO comfortable. And they take 2 seconds to get on and off. I long ago gave up the idea of the quick on/off process of the footware. I wore these all day around the con yesterday, and they were still so confortable I didn't want to take them off. No rubbing spots. No too tight spots. They supported my ankles enough I could still walk without faceplanting after hours of cement walking. If nothing else, this is the best possible outcome of this frustrating situation. I ended up with footwear I CAN WEAR. Sigh. And they were $5. And hardly worn. I AM SO HAPPY I COULD CRY.

Ahem...

So I had a long black skirt with slits up the sides, so I decided that would work with this outfit. And the horns were still serviceable. So VOILA!! New iteration of Aoifa!

By the end of the day, tired cosplayer was tired. We did a photoshoot out in the sun. My chest is soooo sunburned right now. Fortunately I had on sunscreen, so it doesn't hurt. And it will go away soon and be blaringly pale again in no time. (I do not tan. And yes, I burn THROUGH sunscreen.)

So overall I am kind of impressed with how it turned out. For pulling it out of my ass last minute.

Sadly it is not the last iteration ever. The boob parts partially tore away from the base part. The grommets are pretty much toast. So I just need to reinforce the rest of the boob parts, attach them to a different breastplate, and figure out a better way of attaching it to my body.

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Crunch time!

7/16/2018

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So the con is Saturday. I am pretty much done except for the mop. That mop is hard, man. It does not look like a normal mop. Of course it is way complicated.

I have the mop head with the orange bits done. I found a hose. Now I just have to figure out the middle bit. That is the hardest part.

The middle bit is throwing me. And the actual moppy things on the end. Like the parts that actually mop. They are white clumps, which is difficult to figure out. I tried buying a regular cotton mop replacement piece. I was going to try sewing a bunch of them together to make the clumps. That...sort of worked, except it is way too stiff.

So now I have to rethink it. I have no idea how to make it work. :/

I need to get back to work, but here are pics of the bits.

I accidentally cut the pantlegs of the overalls too short. My calves are too big and don't allow room for tucking the legs into the boots. I thought I would cut them down and just tuck them into the top inch. Yeah. So I had this girdle I bought for $5 that is too long for me to wear comfortably, so I just cut it into pieces and removed the stays. Sewed them onto the ends of the legs to keep them together and looking like they are tucked in. Sort of works, but sometimes you see a flash of black.

Not to waste anything, I used the stays to clip the pieces onto the belt.

Note to everyone: You cannot cut woven steel lightweight stays with wire snippers.

I think the belt stuff worked great. I still need to remake some of the stuff, but it will have to be good enough for now.

The bib on the overalls was way too tall, so I cut it off and glued down the top, and then glued the buckle buttons on lower. Then I read an interview with the devs of Viscera Cleanup Detail, and they said the shoulder clippy thingy was not a walkie talkie as I thought, but a bar of soap in a leather case. :/ SO I ended up having to remove the pretty lights I put on the front. You can sort of thell they were there, but it looks alright.

Last thing was the santa hat. I don't celebrate christmas. I just don't care about it. But in the Santa's Rampage map, either the Janitor has a red hard hat or a santa hat on top of thier regular color hard hat. It is July, but for some reason they don't have christmas stuff out in the stores yet. So getting my hands on a santa hat wasn't going to happen before the con. I have some red fabric left over from Talleg's tabard. So I made one. It is really crappy looking, but it is just a placeholder till I can find one to buy.

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Skullls! Eeeeverywhereee......

7/9/2018

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Heido ho blogerinos!

OK...that is just cheesy, but I am in a cheesy mood. Last week I was downed by a pretty painful ear infection. It really feels good to be able to sit and not feel like crawling into a hole to die.

I have gotten a bunch of stuff done. VersusCon is July 21st, and I am going to play the VCD Janitor at that one, so I have been concentrating on that for the moment. I still have a ways to go. I am saving that post for when it is done.

Instead I am going to talk about the skull markers I made for my DnD DM. He wanted some skull markers that he could use during the IRL game to mark where the baddies were that we dropped, and be able to remove the baddies minis. Either to keep them from getting in the way, or if say there were another group of baddies we are going to encounter of the same type and he needs to reuse those minis.

He handed me 20 bases and said "Go for it!" I think he had in mind me just gluing skulls to them. I do nothing half assed. :P

I had these skulls from Citadel I used for another project. There were a ton left (I mean seriously, who needs 340 skulls??) I used the remains for these. I had SOOOOO much fun making these.

I started by making random bones out of Supersculpy. Skulls alone would make them very boring. I made like 150 ribs and random leg bones and stuff. I have no pictures of this part, because I am full of fail. :P

So next I got to break out the air brush and spray them with white primer. I loved this part. I love using my air brush, to be honest. It is a cheap SOB, but it is so fun.

Then I made a wash out of a few colors, some water and a tiny bit of dishsoap and brushed the skull parts and bone parts with it.

So next, as you can clearly see, I used the paint on the far right to paint the bases and the glue parts so just the bones and skulls were showing. Then I glued bits of vegetation ono them.

I always have green spongy fluff used for making trees and bushes for model train sets. Works well in my stop mo sets. I also have green, light greena nd yellow powder used for flowers, grass and dried grass. And actual grass. And reindeer moss (really cheap).

So final pics. Because I like the final result, you are about to be majorly spammed with pics. Enjoy! :)

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Speed Builds Ahoy....

7/1/2018

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So the cert test came and went. I passed, but barely. A big chunk of the test was on cloud computering, and there was nothing in the study materials regarding cloud computing. Whatever. It is done, over, now I have several others to face. :P

Anyway.....

So for the moment Talleg is on hold. I am going to Versus Con in Seaside, OR July 21st, and I am going with my cosplay group so I need something completed. There is no way I will get her done in time, and I have lost enough wieght I can't use Aoifa, so I am going to work hard in the next 3 weeks to try to get the Janitor from Viscera Cleanup Detail completed.

Here is an example of one of the iterations of the Janitor:

There are several different color schemes, and what is clipped to the belt depends on the map and point of view, I guess. I opted for the Santa's Rampage version, so my gloves are red with white stripes, and the boots are red, and the hardhat will have a blood splattered santa's hat if I can get one.

I am still struggling with how to make the bib of the overalls look right. But I have the belt now.

I made a version of the thing clipped to the shoulder strap, which I am assuming is a walkie talkie of some sort. It turned out OK, though I put the lights on the wrong side and there is a gap at the bottom.

I learned that if you just iron 2mm EVA foam it takes on a leathery sheen. Looks kind of cool.

I also glued a magnet on the back to attach it to the strap. We shall see if that works.

Then last Saturday my cosplay group had a crafting day. I was able to get another clippy thing done and part of another.

I made the belt thingy by cutting a block the basic shape, then making a paper pattern to go around it.

Then I glued it together and added smaller buttons that match the bigger one.

Then I cut out pieces for the other clippy thingy. This did not go as well as I hoped.

I suck so hard at cutting.

I took a Dremel to the pieces, and some sandpaper, and got a general shape. I am stsill not happy with it though..

I used Dap to glue the pieces together.

Then I sprayed them with Plasti-dip

I then tried painting them. Disaster. What was labeled Dark Red and Dark Blue, were actually hot pink and periwinkle purple. Damn it.

Fortunately I was able to rescue them with a little red Sharpie and some blue metalic gildeers wax.

They look....ok....

I am not really happy with how they turned out, but I think they are close. I don't like how poorly they are cut out. I don't like how much slop there was with the paint and the gilders wax. If I don't have time to redo them before Versus Con they will do. but I would prefer them looking....better.

Now to figure out the bib.

One of the cosplay members said they have voltimeters that are thrown out all the time and he would grab one for me if I wanted. I hope he really does come through. I will just hut it so it isn't too heavy for the belt.

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Derp de derp....

Well THAT didn't go as planned.....

Crunch time!

Skullls! Eeeeverywhereee......

Speed Builds Ahoy....

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