Temporary Slap-Dash Cosplay Post!

I will clean it up later, but someone asked for pics of the helm, and I haven't go time to write a nice how-to at the moment. Here are the wings and missiles how-tos. Basically because Starscream's head, like the rest of him, is so small and compact, I had to do it in 2 parts to get it closely fitted enough. A helm I could just lift off and on over my head would be way too big. His proportions were troublesome.

This is mainly an image dump for now, unfortunately, but it will give some insight.

Tracing the parts and where they go. This a cheap kid's policeman costume helmet that I trimmed down a bit.

Seeing how the parts fit. The shape of the "ears" was really hard to get...

Several modifications later, since I redid the mask and added a neck.

The smirk is very important.

From the inside this mask is so creepy looking...

I ironed the foam into the shape as usual, and created thinker foam cheekbones as well as a plastic mesh panel over my nose. That way it stays in that flat, noseless, Prime shape. There's cloth over the mesh for comfort. I made his teeth inside the mouth, in order to be able to drink through a straw. You can get really dehydrated in costumes.

The inside. Simply a hat.

Top of the helm. Protip: make extra red crests because they will get damaged.

How the face goes on. A ribbon goes over the top of my head, and ribbons in the cheek vents tie tightly behind my head.

Not just for the face: here are some materials. The mesh and foam are the main ones. The floor polish is a tricky finish that I will explain later.

Starscream Wings!

So over on my tumblr and deviantart, I got a lot of questions on my Starscream cosplay. Later on I will get around to posting better step-by-step pictures for the whole thing, and how to shape the armor, but the first specific question someone asked was about the wings. That, I can do now.

Prep:
I recommend sketching a lot before beginning, since you notice anatomy more when you sketch. The sketches don't have to be works of art, but they will let you see every piece and not forget them. I used Netflix on my iPad, so I could pause it and take screen grabs, enabling me to see every angle. Starscream has a lot of layers in his armor, and they overlap in a very interesting way. It gives him some elegant, flowing lines, even his his silhouette is quite angular. It's a nice design choice, but there are a ton a little pieces. The screen grabs of importance for his wings are these:

Once I figured out the proportions (his wings are a little longer than his torso) I measured myself. My torso is about 24 inches long, so that is how long I made the tops of his wings. I sketched the right shape and measured the angles, then drew a 24 inch straight line on some butcher's paper. I measured my drawing and divided 24" by the length of the same wing part in my drawing, then multiplied all the sketch measurements by that number, giving me the lengths of all the edges in full scale. I used a protractor to match the angles on each corner and get the shape right. Here is how all that looked on my sketch and scratch paper.

I also sketched out the back plate armor, the side armor slats, the jet engine, the small wings, and the rib armor, since they all have to fit with the wings.

Construction:
I made each part in poster board and/or paper first, to get the sizing right. I made myself a dress form out of duct tape (tutorial here) and taped all the mockup parts to it to check the fit.

poster board mockup

poster board mockup with the wrong brackets for the big wings.
Ignore those brackets.

 Once they all fit right, I traced and cut out all the respective parts from foam and foam core, shaped them on my iron, and sealed them with glue.

parts with glue drying. the Xed out parts are for the shoulders

While those coats dried (at least 7 coats, with a mix of 3 parts water to 1 part glue) I traced and cut out the big wings. Make four pieces, since each one is a sandwich of 2 layers with some important structures in between.

I trimmed out a curve on the base so they fit snug against my shoulders and the other armor.
That was one of the final adjustments.

Then I taped my mockup back together and gradually replaced each part with foam. I painted the peices before assembly.

replacing the mockup parts with finished foam

mostly painted but not all glued

I assembled the back armor and jet engine, glueing the wire that supports the small wings into the curve of the engine housing. The winglets remain slightly adjustable. I cut slots in the top of the back base plating around where my shoulder blades are. These will be about 2/3 of the way up the base of the big wings. After several failed attempts to support the wings, I found a metal bar from at Home Depot. They are near the lumber and drywall usually. I placed it on my steps outside and stood on it to make it bend how I wanted. I gave the middle a curve so it fits comfortably on my back. I still need to secure the bar into the slot with washers, bolts (pointed away from me) and some layers of reinforcing material, such as plastic, duct tape, and cardboard. But that all has to happen after I measure where it goes compared to the side armor.

the metal bar, shaped to angle I want

getting the angle right

Once I had this set up, I held the big wing against the metal bar to see the angle I liked, and traced it onto the foam core. I cut some lengths of yard sticks or wood rulers and laid them just touching the lines I drew, with a slot in between. I glued the heck out of it. Don't get any glue in between the two rulers. I did, and I had to cut the excess off with an exacto knife...The metal bar needs to slide in easily. I neglected to take pictures of that, but here is a sketch:

Then I sandwiched the other foam core on to complete the wing. I cut out the shape of the control surfaces from the leading and trailing edges of the wings, and put just one layer of what I cut out back, to give a little dimension. I put paper clay around all the edges, and sanded them down so it doesn't look like two layers.

paperclay. the greatest craft supply of them all

Then I coated the whole thing in tons of white glue mix, and painted it. I used a black plastic primer (I usually start all my painting with plastic primer) and them I used a matte spray, since the foam core is a totally different texture from the foam on the rest of the outfit - it's too smooth. Then I followed up with my usual gray and silver, two different washes (one dark, one light) and future floor polish.

matte spray

the control surfaces are different washes of gray

When they are put together, it looks like this:

More to come, including the other armor and how to iron craft foam!

Thoughts on Art.

I'm reposting a comment I left on my brother's blog about the types of stories literary critics like, versus good stories, and why there is that difference. I will probably write more on this, especially since I'm trying to stop being lazy and actually make some art this year. (New Year's resolution? Not going so well) But here's what I thought of. It relates to my thoughts on the Eisenhower Memorial too.... He asked why a bunch of spiritual bulemics are running our art world:

It's because they think the purpose of art is to challenge. I used to think they had it wrong, but since my is still blown from watching the last three DVDs of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood in one go, I'm actually ready to concede that point. But challenge what?

Critics steeped in critical theory who (surprise surprise) find themselves and their lives lacking something, think art ought to raise its fist and scream a challenge to God for making things so crappy. Or they would, if they weren't also wussy. And Marxists. So instead they raise their middle fingers and sneer an insult at the past, or the public, or anything that someone else might earnestly enjoy, for being, well, better than them. They tell us that stories about pathetic people being pathetic are realistic, because it's all they know, and they've settled for it.

But the purpose of art is to challenge. Us. To be heroic, not to give in when the odds are against us, to depend on our friends, to find and hold something or someone that makes us able to face down whatever life throws our way, to pick ourselves up when we fail. And not sneer at normal life and people, because that is what we are protecting, and what we will return to or start again when the story is over, until the next adventure.

We should accept art's challenge, not use it as an excuse to settle, and eventually decay and collapse, because the challenge is too much.

Lavos Pie!

Happy Thanksgiving! And spoiler alert. Highlight to read the whole thing.

So my sister and I decided to make an apple pie, for Thanksgiving. Our recipe called for 4 pounds of apples, which seemed excessive, but I figured they would cook down. We had some adventures with the crust, which was the refrigerated rolled-up kind. I forgot to take it out to soften until I was already cutting up the apples, so I placed it on top of the pre-heating oven. Let's just say it was softened a tad too enthusiastically.....

I fixed it. Pizza style.

And we went about assembling and decorating our pie. I have some hedgehog shaped cookie cutters from Ikea, and we thought it would be cute to put hedgehogs on the pie. Unfortunately, the mound of apples was huge (the recipe said to pile them high in the middle, but it didn't specify how high) and the overly soft top crust stretched out quite a bit. I placed the cut out hedgehogs inside the hedgehog-shaped holes, but it ended up looking like Lavoses instead of hedgehogs.



After much hilarity, we decided that Lavos pie was awesome, and I even drew some fanart of it while it baked. It did cook down, but retained its Lavos-like appearance. We summoned Lavos just eat him. And by summoned, I mean baked. We used a scythe to cut up the apples.



Here is a picture of Magus eating Lavos pie. He is very thankful for it. And for cats.