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KasumiAngel
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Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2005 5:50 pm

Cosplay Tips & Advice

This is where you can post questions on current cosplays or just general cosplay chat. For those of you with questions, either myself or another guild member will be happy to try and help you out in whatever way we can.

My cosplay qualifications: I've been cosplaying ever since 2000 when I went to my very first Animazement. I know how to sew, both with a machine and without, work with resins, vacuum-form plastic, and a ton of other materials used in making costumes and accessories. For most of last year I ran an online costume shop, which isn't open any more because I'm in graduate school, which just doesn't leave much time for making extra costumes.

Cosplays I've completed:
Child-Vash the Stampede from Trigun
Child-Wolfwood from Trigun
Asram from Lodoss Wars
Karla from Lodoss Wars
Eternal Sailor Venus from Sailor Stars Manga
Child-Red Mage from Final Fantasy I
Infant-Black Mage from FF I
White Mage from FF I
Black Mage from FF I
Sephiroth from Kingdom Hearts
Cloud from FF 7 Advent Children
Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon
Kunzite from Sailor Moon
Child-Artemis from Sailor Moon
Nephlite from Sailor Moon
Child-Chocobo from FF 7
Aeris from FF 7
Vincent from FF 7
Mousse from Ranma 1/2
Shampoo from Ranma 1/2
and I think that's it...

Some pictures of recent costumes of done can be found on my cosplay website:
http://www.anichive.com/lunardragon

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:27 pm

Some advice from your friendly neighborhood Pink Ducky:

Don't wait until the last night to do your costume!!! gonk

I've done it, and it's crazy. I had 3 friends helping me to complete my costume in 3 days. It can be done, but it's difficult!!!!

angel allure

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KasumiAngel
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Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:07 pm

angel_baby_4

Some advice from your friendly neighborhood Pink Ducky:

Don't wait until the last night to do your costume!!! gonk

I've done it, and it's crazy. I had 3 friends helping me to complete my costume in 3 days. It can be done, but it's difficult!!!!

Very good advice. I'll definitely second that one. It takes a lot of the fun out of the costume-making process and especially if it's so last minute that you're in your hotel room during the con doing finishing touches or putting part of it back together because you put it together too quickly can really mess up the weekend.

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 9:17 am

KasumiAngel

angel_baby_4

Some advice from your friendly neighborhood Pink Ducky:

Don't wait until the last night to do your costume!!! gonk

I've done it, and it's crazy. I had 3 friends helping me to complete my costume in 3 days. It can be done, but it's difficult!!!!

Very good advice. I'll definitely second that one. It takes a lot of the fun out of the costume-making process and especially if it's so last minute that you're in your hotel room during the con doing finishing touches or putting part of it back together because you put it together too quickly can really mess up the weekend.

I remember that. (shudder). Yes. Avoid last minute work. Do it early.

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Ruddigger

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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:45 pm

Any thoughts on cutting a sword from wood? As is, that's what I plan on doing for Zelgadis' sword.

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:50 pm

What we did with Ashram's and Sephiroth's swords for AZ last year was take two wooden dowel rods. You can get these at Lowes. One needs to be about an inch in diameter larger than the second. Cut the largest one down to 7+ inches (this is going to be the hilt)... drill a hole in one ind of the cut piece that is the diameter of the smaller dowel rod. Pour a crapload of super glue/ hot glue/ contact cement/ some type of strong glue into the whole and put the smaller dowel rod into the drilled hole. this creates a very light-weight base for almost any kind of sword. Add wrapping or whatever kind of decoration you might need on the hilt. For the sword part itself we used Polystyrene plastic--0.020 awg. size--just cut out the blade and attach it around the smaller dowel rod piece. The wood center provides stability because the plastic is so light weight it won't hold it's own weight and would flop around a lot without the base. We used hot glue and electrical tape to adhere the edges together. Personally I would recommend using something other than hot glue as it tends to get kind of warm at Animazement and heat and hot glue in NC in May just isn't the best idea. Since you're going to be up here this weekend, Ruddigger, you're welcome to take a look at the plastic since we have some left over from last year if you want to get a feel for the material.

KasumiAngel
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Ekoja

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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:31 am

I could probably give you some advice and help you work out a pattern for it. As I recall, zelgadis doesn't have a complex sword.

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:06 am

well, I've been seriously thinking about cutting it from wood insteadof that technique, see if it would hold up better. Zelgadis has been known to spawn fangirls, I don't want my sword snapping like Jason's did.

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KasumiAngel
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:15 am

Ruddigger

well, I've been seriously thinking about cutting it from wood insteadof that technique, see if it would hold up better. Zelgadis has been known to spawn fangirls, I don't want my sword snapping like Jason's did.

some of it I think was the sheer size of Jason's... but that's beside the point. I know nothing of working with wood--the wood base was the part that actually snapped on Jason's too. Shaun's Ashram sword is still holding up quite nicely except for maybe the gems not wanting to stay on, but I have yet to find the perfect adhesive for keeping those on. We've had trouble with that ever since the FF 7 group... we couldn't keep the materia on our weapons; they'd keep popping off... xd ... *shrugs*

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:46 pm

super glue ain't all that super.

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KasumiAngel
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 8:05 pm

I don't like super glue. Contact cement is great, but it doesn't work very well for small details. Contact cement can take an immense amount of pressure and hold up, but it's very very difficult to apply in even moderate quantities because of the consistency of the material; the other downside is that if you spend too much time (like more than 5-10 minutes) trying to do anything with it, the smell can really get to ya. xp

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:55 pm

hey, um..i have a random question o_o;;, but does anybody know where I could get some small metal studs? sweatdrop I'm trying to make a costume of Maria from FFII..so..yeah..

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KasumiAngel
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Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 4:18 am

Celestria-san

hey, um..i have a random question o_o;;, but does anybody know where I could get some small metal studs? sweatdrop I'm trying to make a costume of Maria from FFII..so..yeah..

Do you have a picture of the costume you're trying to make? I've got a couple things that have popped into my head, but I'm not familiar with that character, so I'm not sure which direction I ought to send you.

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:42 pm

yeah, here are a couple:

User Image

So, i need some small metal studs for the glove and the shirt

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angel allure

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Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 1:03 pm

I'll probably just get a friend to help me make this, but does anyone have any advice on making fans? I've got to make a HUGE one for Temari and that's going to take a lot of effort...it's the hardest part of my costume.

Please tell me your thoughts on this.

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