Destiny Warlock. Let's get this party started!

[mallu]

Hi everyone,

My name is Melvin. A buddy of mine and i have been planning to go to the 2015 Dallas Comic Con in May since the beginning of 2014 but we had been going back and forth on ideas of what characters to cosplay as. It took us about 2 months to finally decide and then we ended up changing it a few days latter. So this continued on for a few months and it didn't help that we were both in two different states with school, work and had other responsibilities.

After throwing ideas back and forth i played Destiny and instantly liked the game. i really liked the warlock and began trying to figure out how to make everything.
Since this was my first foray into something so big i researched for quite a long time. I ended up putting aside the Star Lord mask i was half done with, reached for the 110lb paper and spent some considerable time sniffing superglue as i made helmets. Thanks to the generosity and efforts of a lot of modelers and others who took time to make the helmets and put them online i had a lot of material to work with. I started working on Tengu Operant III.



Then like the fickle cosplayer and costumer that I am, I decided to change my wardrobe around January 2015. At this point even my friend was telling me to pick something and stick with it. So that's when i decided that i was going to go big or go home. So i decided to go with the Skull of Dire Ahamkara some other armor pieces and a weapon, the Hard Light.



Bear in mind that this is my first attempt at pepakura so I knew i was in for an interesting time.

Started the SOA and the Hardlight around February



Then i resined the inside and out using Bondo Fiberglass Resin.

 

[mallu]

Work on the Hard Light continued. There was a lot of individual parts that id have to figure out how to place in its respective locations and for that i'd be cutting sections and drilling large holes so parts can fit right.

After dealing with the cold back in January and February i fiberglassed the inside and applied what i thought at the time was a thin layer of bondo. It wasn't very thin and i ended up loosing a lot of detail and had to spend hours sanding. It was the the end of March and i was still sanding.


I got fed up of the sanding so i decided to work on the weapon. I resined and coated a few of the pieces with body filler.


I also used the Rondo or the mud method to coat the inside of some of the weapon pieces. I used equal parts of body filler and fiberglass resin and their hardeners. It was ridiculously messy and i used a Styrofoam cup to mix them and it ended up being eaten from the inside out. Learned that lesson the hard way. :facepalm:$

 

[Buckethead]

Good work, keep at it. You SODA looks like a better size than mine. I pepped it so my head would fit through the bottom and its quite huge. Yours looks like you can do an iron man-esque cut for a rear opening.

I ended up losing a fair bit of the pep detail as well. Sometimes it's best to just go with it and modify. My supports around the visor area lost the most detail and are now basically smooth. Also what I learned is that if parts of the helmet are straight and smooth after you harden, you don't have to add filler on the outside (or maybe just a skimmed very thin layer, as you only have to sand it back down again).

Also a piece of metal, or a spare bathroom wall tile in my case, can be used as a palette to mix the filler on, the excess can then just be scraped off into the bin

 

[mallu]

Thank you sketcherdan. SODA buddies!!!
Lol.

I pepped it so my head would fit through the bottom and its quite huge. Yours looks like you can do an iron man-esque cut for a rear opening.

That's not a bad idea. Now i'm gonna have to go see how to do that. I can get my head through the bottom and then once inside there's some wiggle room. I made 2 different sizes of this helmet before i found the right one and even then, i ended up leaving out some parts for the bottom rim so my head and nose can fit through. I'll end up just putting in black foam around the rim or something. For the most part, the sides and back of the bottom portion of the helmet will be covered by the collar thingy that is on the Deathsinger's Mantle so no one will see my butchery.

Also what I learned is that if parts of the helmet are straight and smooth after you harden, you don't have to add filler on the outside (or maybe just a skimmed very thin layer, as you only have to sand it back down again).

See, therein lies my problem, i don't think I've yet learned what a thin layer of body filler is. Lol, I get too excited and just goop it on. I'm also working on a chest armor too so I think i'll follow this advice for that piece and a few others in the works. Right now i'm just adding in small small amounts of body filler to areas that don't have any and just doing filler work as i smooth the pieces down. There are still areas that need filler.

Also a piece of metal, or a spare bathroom wall tile in my case, can be used as a palette to mix the filler on, the excess can then just be scraped off into the bin

Right now I just tape down a 4x4 section at the corner of my worktable with packing tape or whatever cheap tape i have lying around but I may move on to a piece of tile.

Thanks again Sketcherdan! SODA buddies!!!! Okay, i'll stop now.

 

[mallu]

Started working on the Claw of Ahamkara and the Deathsinger's Mantle around the beginning of April and applied resin on the outside of it about a week ago. I may redo the Collar thingy because it's a bit on the small side at the moment.
33 days left until the con and i have quite a ways to go.