Edward Kenway WIP (Pic Heavy)

[SMP Designs]

There's a brand new project underway!

I began this project by developing a sloper for the torso pieces. This basic pattern was used to create both the 'jacket' and the leather vest. Once I had the fit the way I wanted it, I used one side of the muslin for the 'jacket' and the other side for the vest. Here are pictures of the muslin being fitted and the resulting paper patterns that came from it.

With the patterns for these two foundation pieces done, I was able to begin construction. I started with the jacket.

I first made the shell in a French blue suiting with a slight rib woven in and a twill with a nice natural tone to it. I decided to go with a natural tone in the twill because it already has a nice depth of color, will reduce the amount of work needed to bring it down in the distressing stage and I'll never have to worry about it blowing out in front of a camera.

At the same time, I also started on the shirt. The shirt is being made of an ivory lightweight linen.

The next step on the jacket was the braid trim on the front. This was zig-zagged to the front sections before the linings and facings were added. There is also a small white piping that will edge the seams between all of the blue and twill sections.

Once the braid was done, the jacket could be faced and lined and the collar added. Here is the complete (to this point) jacket with the shirt (still in progress).

The vest was next. Using the pattern, I built the base vest in brown leather.

I then began adding details. The first to go on were the front edges and the shoulder pieces.

I found some very cool jeans buttons in a gunmetal finish with skulls embossed on them - a perfect choice for the tabs on the front of the vest. These will also be used on the leather sections for the arms.

The front tabs with the buttons were added and the back straps with the rings were riveted on. Here are a few pictures of the finished vest with the jacket.

The next steps will be to finish the shirt and build the lower 'tabs' that will go under and create the bottom of the jacket.

Stay tuned!

 

[Cameron1138]

That all looks so good! I seriously think this might be my favorite Edward cosplay I've seen so far. I especially love your leather vest, and the white and blue tunic thing looks great too! The fabric you chose looks really good. I had been thinking of using denim when I got around to cosplaying Edward since it'll be thicker and have a rougher texture, but the blue fabric you used looks excellent. The piping and trim look awesome too.

 

[SMP Designs]

That all looks so good! I seriously think this might be my favorite Edward cosplay I've seen so far. I especially love your leather vest, and the white and blue tunic thing looks great too! The fabric you chose looks really good. I had been thinking of using denim when I got around to cosplaying Edward since it'll be thicker and have a rougher texture, but the blue fabric you used looks excellent. The piping and trim look awesome too.

Thanks! I lucked out on both the leather and the blue.

Someone in my building was, I guess, recovering some furniture and left two huge bags of leather remnants by the trash. I snatched them up and there were some really big pieces of both brown and black. So I have enough high-grade leather for the whole costume.

The blue was also a great find - I really didn't want to have to do a whole lot of color correction on this one, so I was very happy to find the perfect French blue in a fabric that already has some unevenness in its color. Now we don't have to mess around with a bunch of dye and bleach, we can just add the 'dirt' and spot distressing once all the pieces are together.

 

[SMP Designs]

Eddie K update time!

The next component to assemble was the 'tab skirt' that goes under the jacket. This piece makes up the iconic 'Assassins' hemline that appears in all the games. We decided to do this as a separate piece that would be on its own waistband and simply be worn over the breeches and under the jacket.

Here are pics of the front and back sections before they were attached to the waistband.

With those sections complete, I moved on to the cowl. The cowl is probably the most iconic element of any Assassins Creed costume, so I wanted to be sure to give it the attention it deserves. I began with all my reference, my 'Ed Head' and nice big chunk of muslin.

I first made a very basic collar and two-piece hood to match it.

I adjusted the shape of the hood until I was happy with the shape of the back, the overall drape around the collar and the shape of the front. I then drew on the seam lines that I needed for the back 'v', the slits in the back of the collar, the center back piece of the hood and I also decided to include the seams on the front of the hood that appear in many of the AC cowls.

Once the muslin was marked up, the patterns were transferred to paper.

The cowl was then built in the same distressed grey as the rest of the costume and the blue details were added to the back.

Next, I started on the bracers. These are being made in black leather, the edges bound and the same skull buttons from the vest added for the ties.

The upper arm bracers are the same black leather shaped slightly to fit the curve of the bicep/shoulder and the elbows are a third piece that will be tied into the other two.

These upper arm segments will be finished with bindings and the upper arms will get the same skull button details to finish the pieces.Here are some pictures of the costume so far - layer by layer:

Next up: the bracers are finished and all the belts, buckles and decorations get underway.

Stay tuned!

 

[WereDrelf]

Wow, this is looking awesome!! I am currently playing "Black Flag" and LOVE your choice of materials and beautiful detailing! Working on Ezio myself and am definitely following your progress. Thanks for sharing!

 

[SMP Designs]

Wow, this is looking awesome!! I am currently playing "Black Flag" and LOVE your choice of materials and beautiful detailing! Working on Ezio myself and am definitely following your progress. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! This is for my friend in the pictures. He originally brought up Ezio and I was like, "um, how about Kenway?" Haha!

 

[SMP Designs]

Here's the wrap up on this one.

Picking up from where I left off, the next thing on the list was finishing up the bracers. These actually consist of 3 pieces each: a base piece, the upper bracer and the blades.

The base piece is simply a piece of black leather with elastic straps on it. This piece fills in the space under the upper bracer and prides a base for the blades. The upper bracer is the piece with the buttons outlined above. The blades we used were the mass-market ones (due to time constraints) with some modifications.

We stripped the blades to their base components, took them apart and cleaned up the paint and added leather straps with silver buckles instead of the straps they came with.

Here are the finished bracers as they appear on the costume.

Next came the belts. There are 4 main belt components to this version of the costume: the gun bandolier, the black cross bandolier, the black belt with the rings over the sash and the middle belt section that connects the vest.

First, we did the vest belt section. After much deliberation, we decided that this belt was not a full belt, but actually was just the front section attached to the vest and holding it closed in the front. We created a buckle with Sculpey and cast it in resin. We then made faux belt straps in matching leather and used heavy weight snaps to attach the ends to the sides of the vest.

For the gun bandolier, we created the main strap, measured the gun straps and riveted them on. The hardware was all sculpted, cast in resin and epoxied on. The bandolier closes with a snap just under the skull on the shoulder. The other belts were created by measuring and cutting strips of leather and riveting them to the various pieces of hardware.

The last step was to put it all together. Here are a couple of images of the final costume and a video of the whole thing layer by layer.