[cosplay] Red Lantern Guy Gardner: the rest of the construction story and thoughts for the future
Since you've had a chance to see the finished product (last post), let me finish up the story of the Red Lantern Guy Gardner cosplay.
When we last left off, I had six days left and a lot of work to do. I posted a schedule of what I was going to try for before the con. I ended up revising that schedule, because I just wasn't comfortable with finishing Wednesday night, given that I was being picked up after work on Thursday to drive down to the con. I wanted one contingency night, in case something didn't work out properly. So I left work two hours early on Friday and went to buy the materials I still needed.
Most of the buying went smoothly, but there were two hitches. The first was in getting the paint I wanted to use for the shirt. I had previously deduced online that Home Hardware covers the weird automotive paint that had been strongly recommended by a couple of cosplay forums for use with stretchy fabrics. Sadly, the only Home Hardware within reasonable bus distance that night didn't even have an automotive section. It wasn't a small store, either. There was a Lordco across the street, so I tried there, but they hadn't even heard of the kind of paint I was describing (I unfortunately couldn't, and still can't, remember the name of the brand).
In the end, I decided that fabric paint that cracked was better than nothing, so I went to the craft store (after work on Monday, but let's keep the thread of story rather than time here *g*) and had a good chat with them. I was unable to find a fabric paint that wasn't glittery, pearly, or puffy, nevermind matching in color, but the staff explained the concept of fabric medium and I bought a bottle of that instead.
I drew the design onto the shirt with a white pencil, mixed the fabric medium with the acrylic I used for the cauldrons, and painted the design on freehand with a brand new brush. It took literally about two dozen coats to get the brightness of red I wanted, but it worked out really, really well. It helps that the shirt only needed to stretch a bit, but still, the fact that it only cracked a bit and that so finely you couldn't see it despite being put on and taken off about two dozen times (for pauldron harness fitting) was impressive.
Back to Friday night. The other purchase I had an adventure with was the Red Lantern ring. I tried the comic shop near the Home Hardware I went to and they didn't have it. I called Metropolis comics on my way out of there and the guy I spoke explained on the phone that the regular, non-light up, plastic rings were special promotion held a year ago. They were never made again and they weren't intended to be sold. That surprised the heck out of me, because I had only ever seen them for sale, but apparently they were supposed to be given out with certain sizes of purchases.
I expressed my disappointment and had just said, "Well, I have some sculpey left over. I guess I'll have to sculpt one." when he said, "Wait. Did you say you needed the red one?"
Me: "Yeah."
Him: "I just found one in the back of this drawer. This is amazing, that we'd have one and it would just happen to be the one you needed. It was fate. If you come pick it up, you can have it for free."
Me: "Thank you so much! I'll jump on the skytrain now and come out tonight."
So I got my Red Lantern ring, even though it totally should have been impossible. \o/
The pants took longer than expected to finish, but came out great. The second pauldron didn't fit as well as the first when baked, but that became a non-issue later. I'll get there. I was so tired after working all day Saturday so I didn't get anything done that day, but it didn't hurt too much in the end. The piping went on smoothly this time, finally. I did the belt during my lunch hour Monday and Tuesday at work and it is gorgeous. Seriously, you should see it in person. There was one hiccup with it, but it was an easy solution. More on that in a bit.
On Tuesday night I put on the complete shirt and stuck the pauldrons on the shoulders so that I could work on attaching the harness.
And promptly discovered that the black edges of the pauldrons cut into the red design on the shirt. ARGH!
I could blame myself for not checking where the cauldrons would be before painting the shirt (I didn't), except that when I really looked at it, it wouldn't have mattered. I'm narrow enough across the chest/shoulders in this tight fitting shirt that if I put the pauldrons on in their proper places and painted the design to avoid them, the design would have been cramped and not look right. The only way I could have avoided this would have been to paint the shirt before I even sculpted the pauldrons, and I very intentionally did the pauldrons first specifically because they were the thing I was most likely to screw up and I wanted to know that ASAP.
Anyway, the only solution I could work out was to lower the pauldrons on the curve of the shoulder. This didn't look too bad--it made me look bigger across the shoulders, but that's good for a superhero costume. The problem is, the pauldrons were sculpted to my shoulders. They weren't designed to fit lower. The pauldron harness held them in place with no problems, but the edges of them cut into my arms and I was extremely conscious of their positioning. Although I couldn't point to any specific part of the construction that did it, after four hours they became very painful to wear, and loosening the harness didn't help. I attribute the pain to the fact that I was so conscious of the cauldrons I was holding my shoulders very stiffly, even though they certainly wouldn't have fallen off if I'd relaxed more.
I'm really proud of the harness, by the way. I mean, granted, it's only a belt that I cut up, but still. I cut slits in the shirt so that the harness could be underneath, fed the back piece (the middle of the belt) through the slits, and glued (Amazing Goo!) it to the pauldrons. Then I glued the belt tongue and buckle pieces to the other side of the pauldrons. There was much measuring and marking with the white pencil, but it all went on beautifully.
To put the shirt/pauldrons on, I have to put my head into the shirt, drape the back piece that stretches between the pauldrons over my neck, get my head and arms through into their spots, hang onto the buckle/tongue pieces, and straighten up and settle the pauldrons in place as I do so. Then I buckle the harness over my chest to keep it on. I was careful to buy a belt with a flat buckle, so it doesn't show through the shirt even though the shirt is tight.
At this point, everything was done…except that I realized abruptly late on Tuesday that I'd missed two little designs on the arms. Whoops! Happily, all that was required was some more painting. So I was able to do that on Wednesday, during the contingency time I'd built in. :-)
However, I never put everything on all together until Saturday morning, when I was to wear the costume. This is when I discovered the belt issue. God knows where my brain was when I was measuring, but I made the damn thing about six inches too long. It was super, super loose. Fortunately, this was an easy fix with a black hair elastic. I put it on and fed the tongue through the loop behind the buckle until it was snug, then elasticed the overlapping bits together. Since the belt is the same in appearance all the way around, I turned it so that the bit of the buckle that showed was in back, and it looked great.
The thing is, I love how the costume looks, but it was really uncomfortable to wear due to the changing of the pauldron placement. So I've been thinking about what to do for the future, and I think I have three options:
Option #1
Accept that the cosplay is uncomfortable and plan to only ever wear it for about four hours. I realized, upon thought, that I was actually wearing the RL costume for more like six hours, because I wore it to breakfast. So I should be fine for four hours. Especially if I can learn to relax more.
Option #2
Re-sculpt the pauldrons. Probably out of something lighter than sculpey, although I genuinely think that the weight wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't had to mess with the fit. They weren't that heavy.
Option #3
Re-do the top. I've been looking around, and I've realized that if you turn up the collar on a leather motorcycle jacket, it actually is the right shape. I didn't think it would be, but I tried it with the green one, and it is.
If I did this, I'd probably buy a leather jacket cheap off eBay and modify the sleeves to make them tighter (this is why I didn't do a leather jacket in the first place). A leather jacket would be wider across the chest, which means that I'm pretty sure I could use the existing pauldrons, velcro them to the jacket (I couldn't do this to the shirt because the shirt was too thin and stretchy), and still have enough space to paint the symbol on without it looking cramped.
Decisions, Decisions
But which option to go with?
#1 is the least work, but it limits how much I can wear it, and it frankly erodes my enthusiasm for doing so. Plus the pauldrons move around a bit, due to not being in the place they're meant to fit to, and that bugs me when I'm wearing it.
#2 is probably objectively the least work, but I like the pauldrons. Given the space available, the new ones would be much smaller. And if I use Wonderflex or Fun Foam, I fear that I will think that they look too…flimsy. I've never worked with either of those before, so maybe it's a non-issue, but still.
#3 is the most work, and also the most expensive since I'd have to buy the jacket. I'd have to mod the sleeves, remove the belt on the jacket, probably remove the shoulder loops on the jacket, and repaint the symbol and arms. The thing about this option is, I'd almost certainly end up with a much better looking top. I like the top I have, I do, but there are things about it I'm dissatisfied with even aside from the discomfort: (a) because the shirt is thin, it doesn't look as strong as I'd like, and (b) the symbol doesn't show entirely clearly in pics because of its location relative to my bust, and because it's on the curve of my stomach. As an extra bonus, if I did this, I'd have pockets. I adore the pockets in the green one.
Informing all of this is the fact that no one recognized the costume. Okay, one person did. But seriously, do I want to do extra work for a costume no one recognizes?
On the other hand, there's an action figure of Red Lantern Guy coming out soon (whoo hoo!) and it looks like we might get another appearance of him in Emerald Warriors sometime in the next three or four months. So the recognition factor might go up. Also, to be fair, I spent about four of the six hours I wore it on Saturday at breakfast or in line, so I didn't give folks that much opportunity to know it (still, quite a few people recognized maiea's Guardian costume in that same time).
I keep going back and forth on what to do. Honestly, I think I'd be happiest with the costume if I just jumped in with both feet and took Option #3. But the idea of doing all that work and knowing that likely no one will "get it" makes me hesitate.
Thoughts?
[This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth (http://crimsonquills.dreamwidth.org/703899.html). Please comment there using OpenID or anonymous commenting. (
comments at DreamWidth.)]
When we last left off, I had six days left and a lot of work to do. I posted a schedule of what I was going to try for before the con. I ended up revising that schedule, because I just wasn't comfortable with finishing Wednesday night, given that I was being picked up after work on Thursday to drive down to the con. I wanted one contingency night, in case something didn't work out properly. So I left work two hours early on Friday and went to buy the materials I still needed.
Most of the buying went smoothly, but there were two hitches. The first was in getting the paint I wanted to use for the shirt. I had previously deduced online that Home Hardware covers the weird automotive paint that had been strongly recommended by a couple of cosplay forums for use with stretchy fabrics. Sadly, the only Home Hardware within reasonable bus distance that night didn't even have an automotive section. It wasn't a small store, either. There was a Lordco across the street, so I tried there, but they hadn't even heard of the kind of paint I was describing (I unfortunately couldn't, and still can't, remember the name of the brand).
In the end, I decided that fabric paint that cracked was better than nothing, so I went to the craft store (after work on Monday, but let's keep the thread of story rather than time here *g*) and had a good chat with them. I was unable to find a fabric paint that wasn't glittery, pearly, or puffy, nevermind matching in color, but the staff explained the concept of fabric medium and I bought a bottle of that instead.
I drew the design onto the shirt with a white pencil, mixed the fabric medium with the acrylic I used for the cauldrons, and painted the design on freehand with a brand new brush. It took literally about two dozen coats to get the brightness of red I wanted, but it worked out really, really well. It helps that the shirt only needed to stretch a bit, but still, the fact that it only cracked a bit and that so finely you couldn't see it despite being put on and taken off about two dozen times (for pauldron harness fitting) was impressive.
Back to Friday night. The other purchase I had an adventure with was the Red Lantern ring. I tried the comic shop near the Home Hardware I went to and they didn't have it. I called Metropolis comics on my way out of there and the guy I spoke explained on the phone that the regular, non-light up, plastic rings were special promotion held a year ago. They were never made again and they weren't intended to be sold. That surprised the heck out of me, because I had only ever seen them for sale, but apparently they were supposed to be given out with certain sizes of purchases.
I expressed my disappointment and had just said, "Well, I have some sculpey left over. I guess I'll have to sculpt one." when he said, "Wait. Did you say you needed the red one?"
Me: "Yeah."
Him: "I just found one in the back of this drawer. This is amazing, that we'd have one and it would just happen to be the one you needed. It was fate. If you come pick it up, you can have it for free."
Me: "Thank you so much! I'll jump on the skytrain now and come out tonight."
So I got my Red Lantern ring, even though it totally should have been impossible. \o/
The pants took longer than expected to finish, but came out great. The second pauldron didn't fit as well as the first when baked, but that became a non-issue later. I'll get there. I was so tired after working all day Saturday so I didn't get anything done that day, but it didn't hurt too much in the end. The piping went on smoothly this time, finally. I did the belt during my lunch hour Monday and Tuesday at work and it is gorgeous. Seriously, you should see it in person. There was one hiccup with it, but it was an easy solution. More on that in a bit.
On Tuesday night I put on the complete shirt and stuck the pauldrons on the shoulders so that I could work on attaching the harness.
And promptly discovered that the black edges of the pauldrons cut into the red design on the shirt. ARGH!
I could blame myself for not checking where the cauldrons would be before painting the shirt (I didn't), except that when I really looked at it, it wouldn't have mattered. I'm narrow enough across the chest/shoulders in this tight fitting shirt that if I put the pauldrons on in their proper places and painted the design to avoid them, the design would have been cramped and not look right. The only way I could have avoided this would have been to paint the shirt before I even sculpted the pauldrons, and I very intentionally did the pauldrons first specifically because they were the thing I was most likely to screw up and I wanted to know that ASAP.
Anyway, the only solution I could work out was to lower the pauldrons on the curve of the shoulder. This didn't look too bad--it made me look bigger across the shoulders, but that's good for a superhero costume. The problem is, the pauldrons were sculpted to my shoulders. They weren't designed to fit lower. The pauldron harness held them in place with no problems, but the edges of them cut into my arms and I was extremely conscious of their positioning. Although I couldn't point to any specific part of the construction that did it, after four hours they became very painful to wear, and loosening the harness didn't help. I attribute the pain to the fact that I was so conscious of the cauldrons I was holding my shoulders very stiffly, even though they certainly wouldn't have fallen off if I'd relaxed more.
I'm really proud of the harness, by the way. I mean, granted, it's only a belt that I cut up, but still. I cut slits in the shirt so that the harness could be underneath, fed the back piece (the middle of the belt) through the slits, and glued (Amazing Goo!) it to the pauldrons. Then I glued the belt tongue and buckle pieces to the other side of the pauldrons. There was much measuring and marking with the white pencil, but it all went on beautifully.
To put the shirt/pauldrons on, I have to put my head into the shirt, drape the back piece that stretches between the pauldrons over my neck, get my head and arms through into their spots, hang onto the buckle/tongue pieces, and straighten up and settle the pauldrons in place as I do so. Then I buckle the harness over my chest to keep it on. I was careful to buy a belt with a flat buckle, so it doesn't show through the shirt even though the shirt is tight.
At this point, everything was done…except that I realized abruptly late on Tuesday that I'd missed two little designs on the arms. Whoops! Happily, all that was required was some more painting. So I was able to do that on Wednesday, during the contingency time I'd built in. :-)
However, I never put everything on all together until Saturday morning, when I was to wear the costume. This is when I discovered the belt issue. God knows where my brain was when I was measuring, but I made the damn thing about six inches too long. It was super, super loose. Fortunately, this was an easy fix with a black hair elastic. I put it on and fed the tongue through the loop behind the buckle until it was snug, then elasticed the overlapping bits together. Since the belt is the same in appearance all the way around, I turned it so that the bit of the buckle that showed was in back, and it looked great.
The thing is, I love how the costume looks, but it was really uncomfortable to wear due to the changing of the pauldron placement. So I've been thinking about what to do for the future, and I think I have three options:
Option #1
Accept that the cosplay is uncomfortable and plan to only ever wear it for about four hours. I realized, upon thought, that I was actually wearing the RL costume for more like six hours, because I wore it to breakfast. So I should be fine for four hours. Especially if I can learn to relax more.
Option #2
Re-sculpt the pauldrons. Probably out of something lighter than sculpey, although I genuinely think that the weight wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't had to mess with the fit. They weren't that heavy.
Option #3
Re-do the top. I've been looking around, and I've realized that if you turn up the collar on a leather motorcycle jacket, it actually is the right shape. I didn't think it would be, but I tried it with the green one, and it is.
If I did this, I'd probably buy a leather jacket cheap off eBay and modify the sleeves to make them tighter (this is why I didn't do a leather jacket in the first place). A leather jacket would be wider across the chest, which means that I'm pretty sure I could use the existing pauldrons, velcro them to the jacket (I couldn't do this to the shirt because the shirt was too thin and stretchy), and still have enough space to paint the symbol on without it looking cramped.
Decisions, Decisions
But which option to go with?
#1 is the least work, but it limits how much I can wear it, and it frankly erodes my enthusiasm for doing so. Plus the pauldrons move around a bit, due to not being in the place they're meant to fit to, and that bugs me when I'm wearing it.
#2 is probably objectively the least work, but I like the pauldrons. Given the space available, the new ones would be much smaller. And if I use Wonderflex or Fun Foam, I fear that I will think that they look too…flimsy. I've never worked with either of those before, so maybe it's a non-issue, but still.
#3 is the most work, and also the most expensive since I'd have to buy the jacket. I'd have to mod the sleeves, remove the belt on the jacket, probably remove the shoulder loops on the jacket, and repaint the symbol and arms. The thing about this option is, I'd almost certainly end up with a much better looking top. I like the top I have, I do, but there are things about it I'm dissatisfied with even aside from the discomfort: (a) because the shirt is thin, it doesn't look as strong as I'd like, and (b) the symbol doesn't show entirely clearly in pics because of its location relative to my bust, and because it's on the curve of my stomach. As an extra bonus, if I did this, I'd have pockets. I adore the pockets in the green one.
Informing all of this is the fact that no one recognized the costume. Okay, one person did. But seriously, do I want to do extra work for a costume no one recognizes?
On the other hand, there's an action figure of Red Lantern Guy coming out soon (whoo hoo!) and it looks like we might get another appearance of him in Emerald Warriors sometime in the next three or four months. So the recognition factor might go up. Also, to be fair, I spent about four of the six hours I wore it on Saturday at breakfast or in line, so I didn't give folks that much opportunity to know it (still, quite a few people recognized maiea's Guardian costume in that same time).
I keep going back and forth on what to do. Honestly, I think I'd be happiest with the costume if I just jumped in with both feet and took Option #3. But the idea of doing all that work and knowing that likely no one will "get it" makes me hesitate.
Thoughts?
[This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth (http://crimsonquills.dreamwidth.org/703899.html). Please comment there using OpenID or anonymous commenting. (
comments at DreamWidth.)]