Female Loki Build - WIP - Updated 4/29 - Pic Heavy!

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Update Part 3 - Casting and Painting Necklace and Bracers

Three days before the con I begin the casting of my pieces. The necklace and bracers turn out pretty good as they are much simpler pieces than the horned helm. There is minimal air bubbles and a pretty even thickness so they require much less effort, phew. Good way to start out anyways!

Necklace and bracers cast in fiberglass resin with edges sanded down

Primed

Maybe i'm giving away secrets by posting these progression photos, but without reading the processes of other crafters before me i couldn't have gotten this far, so perhaps my pics and descriptions will help others as well :]

Bracers painted with hammered gold spray paint

Bracer on the left hand painted with a bright shiny gold paint using dry brush technique to accentuate both the texture and the metallic feel and colour of the piece. Compare to bracer on right looking much flatter with only the hammered gold and shading in creases.

Both bracers finished

Necklace with hammered gold (before low lights and high lights are hand painted on)

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Update Part 4 - The Helmet

And finally, the most important piece, and the thing that drove me nearly insane and sapped up all my time, the Helm. This was intended to be a 2 part helm where the top with the horns would fit into the bottom part, so that being able to take it apart this way it could be shaped closer to the head and not have to allow for the whole head fitting through the bottom. However I ran out of time to make this work, so I ended up epoxying and bondoing the pieces together. The result is a bit of a squeeze to get on, seeing as i have a huge head, and i sculpted the lower helm to narrow down at the bottom, but once on, it fits wonderfully!

I sanded it for hours, but i think to have it at my satisfaction it would require at least 2 more good days of sanding to have it at the smoothness and texture i want it to be. Again, ran out of time getting it together for last saturday, so i got it to a "good enough" state and seeing as i had only an hour of daylight left at that point, went and painted it from there!

Stopped sanding and brought it outside to paint

Primed

With the hammered gold in the evening light

With a flash

Inside in the shop light

Painting in the low lights

Painting in the high lights

More Close up

 

[drknotter]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Looks totally awesome! Great job! How heavy are the horns though, are they solid?

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Looks totally awesome! Great job! How heavy are the horns though, are they solid?

Hey thanks so much! the horns are actually fairly light! They are hollow, though I did do 2 thick layers of fiberglass resin on them so they'd be nice and sturdy. But the whole helm is surprisingly light - I wore it for 10+ hours straight at ConnectiCon this past weekend! I didn't even have a sore neck afterwards or anything

Though I did show the helm to a friend of mine who works in aviation who told me about a more expensive but awesome kind of fiberglass weave thing that is super strong but extremely light especially for planes, so when i find out more info on that i might try that out for my next casting for a super light weight version :]

 

[drknotter]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Hey thanks so much! the horns are actually fairly light! They are hollow, though I did do 2 thick layers of fiberglass resin on them so they'd be nice and sturdy. But the whole helm is surprisingly light - I wore it for 10+ hours straight at ConnectiCon this past weekend! I didn't even have a sore neck afterwards or anything

Though I did show the helm to a friend of mine who works in aviation who told me about a more expensive but awesome kind of fiberglass weave thing that is super strong but extremely light especially for planes, so when i find out more info on that i might try that out for my next casting for a super light weight version :]

Cool! If I may ask though, how did you get them hollow? Were your molds in two pieces for each horn, and then you stuck the hollow pieces together? It just seems like it'd be difficult to make them hollow when they're so thin and curved. Just curious about your technique. And again, fantastic job!

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Yes, after much trial and error we finally resorted to slicing the rubber horn molds as well as their hard mother-molds in half, and then epoxying and bondoing the cast halves together. This was def not the way i intended to do it and it made a lot more work, since the edges weren't perfect so didn't really just lock into place like we wanted But yeah, last minute, other methods i'd planned weren't working right, so that's how we made it happen.

When i make my next one, i'm going to put the molds back together (if i can) and try it the way i was originally picturing, but was just unable to execute with the materials i had. I'm learning about slush molding which is essentially pouring in a bunch of resin and swishing it around by turning the mold as it's hardening to form a nice outer layer, and then using expanding foam for the inside to give them strength. That's what i had wanted to do, but the resin wasn't really cooperating, and we had an awful kind of foam that not only didn't work at all, but nearly ruined one of my horn molds. ugh! Will be finding good foam specifically for this before i cast the next set :]

And thanks again for your interest and compliments :]

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Update Part 5 - Debut at the Con

With the highlights painted on the horns saturday morning, I was then forced to realize i had no time to make anything new for the clothing part of the costume, so I just threw a couple things together to make it work. I had green and black faux leather bracers I'd made for my ren faire costume, so i threw a strip of velcro on those and put the Loki fiberglass bracers on over those. Worked pretty well except the velcro on the right one kept coming off the leather if i was getting too wild weilding the scepter The shirt is one i plan to use for the costume as a pattern - I'd like to have that style but in green for it. Black worked fine for now though. The skirt i just cut a slit in to give the feel of his long tunic /skirt thing. The boots I had lying around and worked ok. I think I want higher heels for the finished costume, as i still felt pretty short :[ But, they'll have to have some element of platform cuz man were my feet dead after 10 hours of walking around the con in heels D:

I am glad i chose to focus on the helmet and other armour bits first, I think they are essential elements to the Loki character and costume, and if i had done the reverse, making the cloth outfit first and then running out of time for the armour, it would not have had anything like the same effect and hardly anyone would have recognized me. So now, at a much more easy-going pace, I am going to resume work on the costume after resting for a week :]

My husband as Link with me :] Full view of the staff he made!

 

[vcallag]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Fantastic work! Well done, and I cant wait to see more.

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Thanks so much! I am starting on the chest piece now - i'm doing the criss-cross/woven black leather tunic as an underbust corset. Will update with pics once I have a bit more progression :]

 

[NotThePerfume]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Wow I'm really loving your costume! Especially the vambraces!

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Thanks! I'm thinking that once I get more resin I will do another cast of the vambraces, and this time with the painting go for the battleworn look that they more often appear as in the Avengers. Then decide if i like them shinier or not :]

 

[lolow]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

you do nice work . look good

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Great costume and fantastic build thread. Outstanding WIP photos.

 

[darkestknight]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

WOW this looks awesome! you did a great job posting all the different WIP photos with detailed descriptions

 

[spydrwebz]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

NICE JOB!!!

 

[Husvar]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Awesome kudos!

 

[EHyde]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

I think your armor is some of the best I've seen.

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Thank you, Thank you, thank you, for all the kind comments!!! Makes me so happy :] Especially since i've been slack on updates lately. I'm working on the corset now... unfortunately the last underbust corset i made, when i made the paper pattern of it, i forgot to add seam allowances.. so when i made this one it came out way too small. I should be able to make it in the correct proportions in a few days. I'm really excited for it, I think it will add a lot to the overall costume :] Thanks again for the encouragement!

 

[Jaina]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Absolutely love how the vambraces look, without a doubt some of the best I've seen!

Meaning that yes, now I did have to PM you regarding commissions.

 

[Blobfish]

Re: Female Loki Build - In Progress

Wow, very impressive sculpting of the armour. It all looks really neat and the paintjob is lovely Can't wait to see how the rest of the outfit goes