Hi everyone!
I have been a member of RPF for some time, but really only lurked. I finally dipped my toes into an armored costume and wanted to share some photos and maybe a bit of progress leading up to those.
I'm not sure how super kosher it is to post a ton of pictures, but I am so proud that it is finished! I am hoping to build her rapier that has LEDs in it, but pretty scared of it, and hoping maybe I could use you guys to my advantage when I muster up the cajones to try to tackle it.
I fell in love when I saw Zelda from Hyrule Warriors - the armor, holy crap! I really loved the more Valkyrie style concept art, but I wanted to make an armor set that people would actually be familiar with.
This costume was a huge amount of firsts. I have "attempted" an armor costume before for a friend's horse show costume contest out of just craft foam about 5 years ago, with zero knowledge about it outside of the fact that I could make it "sort of" look like armor and kind of be wearable. It was a little scary:
I am not a seamstress by any means, but find a little bit more comfort in attempting patterns on my own and can navigate a sewing machine decently, so I started trying to figure out a corset:
View attachment 492941
I also was able to get the tabard out and sewed up pretty quickly. I ended up creating the look of the design in illustrator and then stenciled it out. I painted it, but wonder if it should have just been more fabric with some sort of fusible web - something to remember next time, I guess!
View attachment 492943
One of the super scary things I attempted to do was create a mould. This is something I've never done and I'm pretty sure I screwed up and then got too scared to try again with. There are so many things I wish I could have cast (crown pieces!!), but couldn't get myself to try again. I read a lot of tutorials, watched youtube, but couldn't get myself to try again.
View attachment 492944
I actually ended up getting knee surgery halfway through the process, so I had an interesting time getting back on track, but was able to get some pieces going. I attached the hip plates and tabard holder with a gold chain that is criss-crossed in the back so that it is similar to the actual artwork in the book.
View attachment 492945
I ombre dyed the skirt piece, and then lined it with purple fabric to be as accurate to the book art as possible.
View attachment 492947
I then went into stenciling, gessoing, and then painting the skirt. Again, I think the fusible fabric route may have been a good route to go, but I was attempting to finish before a local convention, and painting seemed to be the best route.
View attachment 492955
This was my first time working with worbla and thick eva foam. It was expensive, extensive, and possibly a little bit more scary than the mould - and it definitely hurt a lot more, but it was a good learning experience. Here's a collection of some of the pieces I was able to get painted up. I don't have a huge process as far as build all pieces, then prime all pieces, then paint everything, because part of that makes me feel stagnant and not achieving anything. Any advice on this? I want to feel like I'm making progress, so seeing some pieces finished made me feel better about it.
View attachment 492948
The leg and arm pieces are currently attached with D rings, elastic and velcro. You don't ever see much of the leg armor because of the tabard and skirt, so here's a shot!
View attachment 492952
The shoulders were the worst. They connect to this strange pseudo necklace thing that also is supposed to tear your boobs apart, and I wanted to make the shoulders movable, since all of the Zelda cosplays I see have static shoulders and people can't move their arms. Problem is, they ended up being a little shallow, and I need to find a way to keep them actually ON my shoulder and not falling forward or backwards when I move. Any tips on this? Please let me know..
I also made her glorious baton very quickly out of wood, worbla, flowers and ribbon, and you can see it sticking out of the corset in this picture here.
Here it is all together at my local con, with my trusty sidekick, the crutch, not too far away! Walking in heels 5 weeks after knee surgery is probably not the best idea, but you know.. there's some dedication to be had even if it requires a tiny bit of suffering (or a lot!)
Hope you enjoyed! Any tips are greatly welcomed. If you happen to be interested in what I'm working on, which is actually just a simple Disney costume, I do have a facebook page so that I don't constantly annoy my friends with pictures of pretty much the same thing every night! Next stop before New York Comic Con will hopefully be to return back to her rapier and attempt to find something I can actually handle while in armor, since this isn't the easiest thing to walk around in - let's not even talk about sitting!
I have been a member of RPF for some time, but really only lurked. I finally dipped my toes into an armored costume and wanted to share some photos and maybe a bit of progress leading up to those.
I'm not sure how super kosher it is to post a ton of pictures, but I am so proud that it is finished! I am hoping to build her rapier that has LEDs in it, but pretty scared of it, and hoping maybe I could use you guys to my advantage when I muster up the cajones to try to tackle it.
I fell in love when I saw Zelda from Hyrule Warriors - the armor, holy crap! I really loved the more Valkyrie style concept art, but I wanted to make an armor set that people would actually be familiar with.
This costume was a huge amount of firsts. I have "attempted" an armor costume before for a friend's horse show costume contest out of just craft foam about 5 years ago, with zero knowledge about it outside of the fact that I could make it "sort of" look like armor and kind of be wearable. It was a little scary:
I am not a seamstress by any means, but find a little bit more comfort in attempting patterns on my own and can navigate a sewing machine decently, so I started trying to figure out a corset:
View attachment 492941
I also was able to get the tabard out and sewed up pretty quickly. I ended up creating the look of the design in illustrator and then stenciled it out. I painted it, but wonder if it should have just been more fabric with some sort of fusible web - something to remember next time, I guess!
View attachment 492943
One of the super scary things I attempted to do was create a mould. This is something I've never done and I'm pretty sure I screwed up and then got too scared to try again with. There are so many things I wish I could have cast (crown pieces!!), but couldn't get myself to try again. I read a lot of tutorials, watched youtube, but couldn't get myself to try again.
View attachment 492944
I actually ended up getting knee surgery halfway through the process, so I had an interesting time getting back on track, but was able to get some pieces going. I attached the hip plates and tabard holder with a gold chain that is criss-crossed in the back so that it is similar to the actual artwork in the book.
View attachment 492945
I ombre dyed the skirt piece, and then lined it with purple fabric to be as accurate to the book art as possible.
View attachment 492947
I then went into stenciling, gessoing, and then painting the skirt. Again, I think the fusible fabric route may have been a good route to go, but I was attempting to finish before a local convention, and painting seemed to be the best route.
View attachment 492955
This was my first time working with worbla and thick eva foam. It was expensive, extensive, and possibly a little bit more scary than the mould - and it definitely hurt a lot more, but it was a good learning experience. Here's a collection of some of the pieces I was able to get painted up. I don't have a huge process as far as build all pieces, then prime all pieces, then paint everything, because part of that makes me feel stagnant and not achieving anything. Any advice on this? I want to feel like I'm making progress, so seeing some pieces finished made me feel better about it.
View attachment 492948
The leg and arm pieces are currently attached with D rings, elastic and velcro. You don't ever see much of the leg armor because of the tabard and skirt, so here's a shot!
View attachment 492952
The shoulders were the worst. They connect to this strange pseudo necklace thing that also is supposed to tear your boobs apart, and I wanted to make the shoulders movable, since all of the Zelda cosplays I see have static shoulders and people can't move their arms. Problem is, they ended up being a little shallow, and I need to find a way to keep them actually ON my shoulder and not falling forward or backwards when I move. Any tips on this? Please let me know..
I also made her glorious baton very quickly out of wood, worbla, flowers and ribbon, and you can see it sticking out of the corset in this picture here.
Here it is all together at my local con, with my trusty sidekick, the crutch, not too far away! Walking in heels 5 weeks after knee surgery is probably not the best idea, but you know.. there's some dedication to be had even if it requires a tiny bit of suffering (or a lot!)
Hope you enjoyed! Any tips are greatly welcomed. If you happen to be interested in what I'm working on, which is actually just a simple Disney costume, I do have a facebook page so that I don't constantly annoy my friends with pictures of pretty much the same thing every night! Next stop before New York Comic Con will hopefully be to return back to her rapier and attempt to find something I can actually handle while in armor, since this isn't the easiest thing to walk around in - let's not even talk about sitting!
