I was hoping to enter this into the costume contest, but didn't have enough time to write it up. Eh, maybe next time.
Please excuse the lack of of writeups on the other elements of the costume at the moment, as I had a pair of Blue screens of death while typing it up, and tossed in the towel in terms of doing a whole one shot writeup. I'm slowly rebuilding the writeup, and as things are done, I'll update!
Anywhoo, This project is based on Aveline de Grandpre, the protagonist of Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation. Its on the Playstation Vita.
This is my very first outfit where I'm actually costuming *gasp* a female character (OMG!! ), and its been a very interesting experience!
For one, Boooooobsssssss! Never had to deal with em before, because I pretty much crushed them into a tunic or something lol
(female friends have a habit of poking me in the chest, and proclaiming some variation of "those exist!" since I tend to wear baggy tees all the time).
I'm going to be honest though, I've become a lot more self conscious of my looks with this one, in comparison to the male costumes. On the good end, I did manage to drop 10 pounds for this, (and hope to drop 10 more by years' end, yay incentive!).
On the "still working on it" end, there's a few nitpicky bits to do, and still learning how to deal with makeup. Wow. sharp contrast to the usual climbing out of bed & tossing on clothes
Anywhoo, Here are a couple photos of my (mostly) finished outfit!
I found that it was easier and faster to paint by leaving it on the lathe. Cheap acrylics were used, since they are premixed and have good coverage for this.
Once the two halves were assembled, I corded the grip, then stained/sealed it with Polyshades all in one Honey Pine. Further weeathering was done one it was dry.
(Aveline's bracer is the one in the background, this is the only photo I have)
Since these plates were gonig to be wrapped, I punched holes around the edge after laying out the tooling design and transferring it to the leather.
An afternoon of tooling!
After tooling, I shaped it around the form, and cut & shaped the edging. The edging was added, and tacked in place with hot glue.
for the lacing, I used a jacket I bought at goodwill, and cut it apart. I spray tacked the leather onto cardstock to make it easier to cut, then cut it out, and tripped the tagboard off the back. To make it easier to weave, I tipped the end with crazy glue to stiffen it, and threaded them through the holes.
I did some weathering to bring out details even more, and glued it down to the base.
The inner cuffs were laid out, then transferred to headliner foam, which was spray mounted onto the leather.
The edges were tacked, then sewn around the edges.
The sides were then sewn together to make the tubes. Tere were some weird ties, so i rivet them in place.
The outer bracer was made from a thicker leather, which had a smoother texture. Foam was used (again! ) to lay out the straps, and the spacing of rivets
Rivets were set around the edge of the outer bracer...
...and on one of the straps. Cut some slits into the bracer and set some buckles on the strap. Everything was then assembled!
This bracer trned oit nice & snug, so it won't migrate thankfully, but I need to make a superthin hidden blade for it!
Here's the other finished bracer. I added a chicago screw on the inside of the bracer where it won't be seen, to bolt it to the inner cuff to keep it from sliding around
*wrong buzzer*
The lack "bowl" of the hat was done by wet forming leather over an insulation foam form I had made that is a little bigger than my head (to accomodate the extra size added by a wig)
When folding it up, it never really acted right at all, because the sides weren't sloping up at an angle like the reference, so i started cutting slits into the disk and taped them together until it did, then drew the curves on the shape. The final shape was then transferred to a final pattern
I traced the pattern onto thick foam backing, then taped armature wire to the edge.
I also used adhesive spray to glue down some black fabric to the inside, since it would show. Red dyed pigskin was also spray mounted to the edge and folded over, and black leather was tacked down as well. This all was crammed in my sewing machine and sewn (much to my machine's dismay).
the beak halves were sewn to the ends, then they were sewn inside out,
Yay! hat! The armature wire worked well to refine the shape, I'm happy to have used that instead of wetmolding/hardening the brim, because I had to stick it in a suitcase for travel, and it was easy to reshape. Sandpaper was used to weather the hat.
I laid out the buckle in inkscape , and cut out the basic shape using my laser cutter.
I sculpted the buckle on top of it using super sculpey. In the backgrould is my laser cutter dicing out a disk to mount the buckle on for molding.
Once it was baked, I sanded it down using files and sandpaper, then primed it with Rustoleum professional stainless steel (it doen't eat the Sculpey like other spray paints do)
This was molded, and cast in resin. When casting, I imbedded some metal wire to help strengthen it. Sorry I don't have a photo on hand.
Here are a couple mockps of the belt that I had doen in foam. Wanted to make sure that everythign sat right before translating it into leather!
There was a braided cord connecting the buckle to the sword frog to keep it from dangling about
Here's the dyed, and assembled belf, with the buckes and hardware attached. I went back and added snaps to the straps that hold the blowgun in place, because its a big pain in the butt to remove the blowgun.
The sash had a very distinct design on it that I couldn't find, so I designed a stamp for it, and cut out a stamping block using my laser cutter. Here's some testing done
the fabric was bunched and spray mounted onto headliner foam, to make the sash, and I snuck snaps on it to keep the belt from shifting around
The machete was made from Red oak & poplar. Much like kitchen knives, I sandwiched the handle arond the piece was going to use ffor the blade using epoxy resin. It was sanded and filed down to a round shape.
Red Oak is very grainy, so i slciked it with Bondo.
After sanding things smooth, it was ready to paint.
For the blade, I coated it with black satin spray paint, and rubbed silver powder on it. The ring around the base of the handle was sluminum tape, and the handle was stained.
Some weathering was done on the blade to give it a used finish. Drybrushed with acrylics
Please excuse the lack of of writeups on the other elements of the costume at the moment, as I had a pair of Blue screens of death while typing it up, and tossed in the towel in terms of doing a whole one shot writeup. I'm slowly rebuilding the writeup, and as things are done, I'll update!
Anywhoo, This project is based on Aveline de Grandpre, the protagonist of Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation. Its on the Playstation Vita.
This is my very first outfit where I'm actually costuming *gasp* a female character (OMG!! ), and its been a very interesting experience!
For one, Boooooobsssssss! Never had to deal with em before, because I pretty much crushed them into a tunic or something lol
(female friends have a habit of poking me in the chest, and proclaiming some variation of "those exist!" since I tend to wear baggy tees all the time).
I'm going to be honest though, I've become a lot more self conscious of my looks with this one, in comparison to the male costumes. On the good end, I did manage to drop 10 pounds for this, (and hope to drop 10 more by years' end, yay incentive!).
On the "still working on it" end, there's a few nitpicky bits to do, and still learning how to deal with makeup. Wow. sharp contrast to the usual climbing out of bed & tossing on clothes
Anywhoo, Here are a couple photos of my (mostly) finished outfit!
Blowpipe
My lathe is 12", and the blowpipe I was making is 21" so I had to make it two parts. I laid out the silhouette in inkscape, and cut it out using my laser cutter, For the most part, I used it as a guide, though I took some artistic liberties when turning it.
I found that it was easier and faster to paint by leaving it on the lathe. Cheap acrylics were used, since they are premixed and have good coverage for this.
Once the two halves were assembled, I corded the grip, then stained/sealed it with Polyshades all in one Honey Pine. Further weeathering was done one it was dry.
Bracers
I made a form of my forearms using insulation foam sheeting and duck tape, to aid in laying out the bracers. A friend gave me a bunch of foam sheeting that she gets from her job, and I've been abusing the stuff like mad! These were laid out by pinning the sheets down onto the form, then drawing, trimming, and snipping away til I get a shape that I like
(Aveline's bracer is the one in the background, this is the only photo I have)
Since these plates were gonig to be wrapped, I punched holes around the edge after laying out the tooling design and transferring it to the leather.
An afternoon of tooling!
After tooling, I shaped it around the form, and cut & shaped the edging. The edging was added, and tacked in place with hot glue.
for the lacing, I used a jacket I bought at goodwill, and cut it apart. I spray tacked the leather onto cardstock to make it easier to cut, then cut it out, and tripped the tagboard off the back. To make it easier to weave, I tipped the end with crazy glue to stiffen it, and threaded them through the holes.
I did some weathering to bring out details even more, and glued it down to the base.
The inner cuffs were laid out, then transferred to headliner foam, which was spray mounted onto the leather.
The edges were tacked, then sewn around the edges.
The sides were then sewn together to make the tubes. Tere were some weird ties, so i rivet them in place.
The outer bracer was made from a thicker leather, which had a smoother texture. Foam was used (again! ) to lay out the straps, and the spacing of rivets
Rivets were set around the edge of the outer bracer...
...and on one of the straps. Cut some slits into the bracer and set some buckles on the strap. Everything was then assembled!
This bracer trned oit nice & snug, so it won't migrate thankfully, but I need to make a superthin hidden blade for it!
Here's the other finished bracer. I added a chicago screw on the inside of the bracer where it won't be seen, to bolt it to the inner cuff to keep it from sliding around
Hat
I had very little clue as to how to go about making the hat. Sooooo make a bowl, add a big ol circle for the brim, and fold it up on 3 sides (stick pointy thing on the front cuz its Assassin's Creed) = instant tricorn hat?
*wrong buzzer*
The lack "bowl" of the hat was done by wet forming leather over an insulation foam form I had made that is a little bigger than my head (to accomodate the extra size added by a wig)
When folding it up, it never really acted right at all, because the sides weren't sloping up at an angle like the reference, so i started cutting slits into the disk and taped them together until it did, then drew the curves on the shape. The final shape was then transferred to a final pattern
I traced the pattern onto thick foam backing, then taped armature wire to the edge.
I also used adhesive spray to glue down some black fabric to the inside, since it would show. Red dyed pigskin was also spray mounted to the edge and folded over, and black leather was tacked down as well. This all was crammed in my sewing machine and sewn (much to my machine's dismay).
the beak halves were sewn to the ends, then they were sewn inside out,
Yay! hat! The armature wire worked well to refine the shape, I'm happy to have used that instead of wetmolding/hardening the brim, because I had to stick it in a suitcase for travel, and it was easy to reshape. Sandpaper was used to weather the hat.
Belt
I laid out the buckle in inkscape , and cut out the basic shape using my laser cutter.
I sculpted the buckle on top of it using super sculpey. In the backgrould is my laser cutter dicing out a disk to mount the buckle on for molding.
Once it was baked, I sanded it down using files and sandpaper, then primed it with Rustoleum professional stainless steel (it doen't eat the Sculpey like other spray paints do)
This was molded, and cast in resin. When casting, I imbedded some metal wire to help strengthen it. Sorry I don't have a photo on hand.
Here are a couple mockps of the belt that I had doen in foam. Wanted to make sure that everythign sat right before translating it into leather!
There was a braided cord connecting the buckle to the sword frog to keep it from dangling about
Here's the dyed, and assembled belf, with the buckes and hardware attached. I went back and added snaps to the straps that hold the blowgun in place, because its a big pain in the butt to remove the blowgun.
The sash had a very distinct design on it that I couldn't find, so I designed a stamp for it, and cut out a stamping block using my laser cutter. Here's some testing done
the fabric was bunched and spray mounted onto headliner foam, to make the sash, and I snuck snaps on it to keep the belt from shifting around
Machete
The machete was made from Red oak & poplar. Much like kitchen knives, I sandwiched the handle arond the piece was going to use ffor the blade using epoxy resin. It was sanded and filed down to a round shape.
Red Oak is very grainy, so i slciked it with Bondo.
After sanding things smooth, it was ready to paint.
For the blade, I coated it with black satin spray paint, and rubbed silver powder on it. The ring around the base of the handle was sluminum tape, and the handle was stained.
Some weathering was done on the blade to give it a used finish. Drybrushed with acrylics
Compiling.. please stand by!
Tunic
F%^$in' wig
Miscellaneous bits!
Tunic
F%^$in' wig
Miscellaneous bits!
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