The Road to Comic-Con part 4!

Well, everyone, here we are again! Now that things are really ramping up, let's have a look at the progress made since our last post together! As usual, image-heavy post ahead.



Axe

Things have been coming along really well with this prop. When we last left off I had just put it in paint. After a second coat of paint (that got rid of a lot of those spots left from the other can), the next step was to start the details.

Skull- The goat skull on the top of the axe was my first order of business. The skull itself is plastic, a detachable part of the belt of a Warcraft movie Durotan costume I bought for the bodysuit. Getting the skull as well (and a mask I can paint later) was a bonus. I started by making two small holes in either side and threading some wire through. It's not heavy wire, and I will definitely use something thicker when doing the horns for my helmet, but for this it worked quite nicely.

hopefully you can see the wire

After the armature was in the proper position I dropped a little hot glue on the holes I'd made and on the wire that crossed the back of the piece to keep it stable. Then I started wrapping the foil. It's just regular aluminum foil, nothing fancy.

Once you are satisfied with the foil, then start wrapping the tape. I used the Handyman's Secret Weapon, duct tape.  I also popped a little bit of hot glue underneath the seams where the horns join the skull just for extra security.

Now to mount the skull to the axe itself, it was a bit of a quick and dirty thing, to be honest. I glued a piece of foam inside the skull and then wrapped it around the top of the axe handle and duct taped and hot glued the whole works in place. All that will be covered later but it seems to be holding well so far. Fingers crossed.

Lights- Now this is a fun part. And frustrating. First up, the lights themselves. A set of red string lights, battery operated.

so shiny....

 We (the elder spawn gave me a hand with this), counted the lights and came up with an arrangement: 3 per spike and two in between, on both sides. I've only got the one side done right now because I actually ran out of glue while I was doing this.

The lights and wires are held down with electrical tape. The foam spikes are hot glued over top and to the handle. There will be a set of lights and spikes on both sides, and the spikes will be glued together at the tops. But it's really starting to look like the in-game weapon and I'm pretty stoked to see it finished. It's gained some weight with all the additions, including the battery pack stashed on the underside of the skull, but I've so far kept it from getting too heavy. Thankfully.

Wheee!

Thrift Store Haul

We went into the city over the weekend to get some things. While there, we hit some thrift shops looking for costume supplies. It's was very fruitful, and I don't just mean all the books I bought.

Treasure Goblin bag- I saw this, actually sitting on the floor in the purse/bag area, and it was perfect. It's a good size for the elder spawn and looks pretty much perfect. It doesn't even really need any work other than maybe a bit of weathering. An awesome find.

Leah clothes- I've been wanting to get my hands on some stuff for the younger spawn's costume, as her's is mostly clothing. Again, got lucky. The next time we go in I'll be getting some dye for the shirt (I found one with the rather interesting name of 'burlesque red' that I think is about right) and the vest will get a rather large overhaul, but this really is the main part of her costume. I have a necklace ordered as well, and I hope it arrives in time.

Day 2 stuff- The con is two days. I'll be wearing the full armor the first day, but for the second one I wanted something a little more relaxed. While I'm not announcing what the costume is yet, here are a couple of the pieces. I also have a wig on the way for this one, too. The only thing I'll say is that me and the other half are doing a bit of a 'couple' costume on this one, and it's from a movie I really loved and he was more ambivalent about.

Day 2 is going to be more low-key

Speaking of the other half, he got a few pieces to pretty much round out his gender-bent The Lost World: Jurassic Park costume. He's also been working like mad on his prop, and I cannot wait for the reveal on that one. It's gonna knock your socks off.


As we wrap this up, I just have to put it out there. Did anyone watch the new trailer for Bohemian Rhapsody? Because I was interested in it before, but I am legitimately excited for it now. I also love Queen, so that might help. And Rami Malek looks so much like Freddie Mercury it's quite eerie.

Speaking of movies, I'm hoping to sneak out a review for Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle sometime this week or early next week. It just dropped, so I'm hoping to get a watch in soon. But that's it for now, see you next time!

The Road to Comic-Con: Part 3!

Welcome to Part 3! There’s lots to go over this time so let’s get right to it! As usual, this will be a pretty image-heavy post. We’ll start with updates on the last post and then get into some new stuff!

Pauldrons

In the last segment, I went over my process for my shoulders. Well, after last time we were left with all the pieces primed and ready for paint. So that was my next step. The main pieces were painted with a red metallic Rustoleum (which I hate because it has the worst coverage) and the accent pieces were done with a silver/chrome Rustoleum (which I love because it’s the opposite of the red). 

After the pieces were painted I glued them together. I used a LePage heavy-duty contact cement, which worked great except it eats paint so just be aware of that if you use it. So, lesson learned there. It didn’t affect the pauldrons themselves and they will need to be weathered anyway, so it’s not a problem. So, here they are, all glued and painted. They just need weathering, spikes and faux fur added, and that’s about it!

Black Soulstone

Well, our experiment didn’t really pan out. I don’t even think I have a picture of it. The crystal just didn’t grow beyond a small, rounded thing that we can’t really use. So, I guess that one’s a failure. I’ve been looking into other options, including more kid-friendly ones. I found this video, and I think I want to give it a try and see if I can make it work. A candy/sugar based crystal would probably be better for a five year-old to carry around anyway.

Wig

You may not be able to tell from the picture I posted, but the Diablo III female Barbarian has long, red hair. I have a dark brown Mohawk. You see where this is going. So I bought a wig off Amazon. 

This is the first wig I’ve bought that’s not a cheapy and super-fake looking one from a Halloween store. And it’s actually quite nice. It has a good fit, looks good, and it’s pretty comfortable to wear. I might look into some options to bring down the brightness a little bit, but it’s otherwise good to go.   

 

Sword

My son painted one of the swords for his treasure goblin pack one night while I was working on my axe (which I’ll talk about below). I just ordered some supplies so we can really get going on his costume, but he really wanted to paint this one and he was really happy with the results. I am too. 

Axe

So this has been my ‘main’ project for the last couple of nights. I started on my Butcher’s Carver axe. As it is a two-hander, I bought a broom handle to make the handle for it. It bent it into shape just using my knee and the outside porch stairs. 

Once that was ready I took some material I had and cut it into strips. I don’t remember what I bought this stuff for, but I’ve used it a few times, including last Halloween’s Wonder Woman hand wraps. 

The strips were wound and glued to the broom handle. 

With that done I moved on to the blade, which I cut from a foam mat. 

Then some rough and gnarly beveling was done to make the blade edge. I’m so glad this axe is supposed to have a pretty nasty edge.

The next part was the tricky one: attaching blade to handle. Because of course it doesn’t attach flush onto the handle, it’s held on by those bone spikes. So, after some fiddling, I used some u-shaped metal tent peg-things, bent in to wrap around the handle and then hold the blade in place. This was all then glued in place. I started with the contact cement but eventually just went to hot glue, which seems to be working better. I love my hot glue gun, and my results with the contact cement have honestly been mixed.

Now attached, I primed and painted. Same black primer, same silver paint. I’m now waiting on some lights before I go any further, but it’s really coming along. 

Well, that’s how things are going so far. I have lots of stuff on the way and some other pieces already cut out, but haven’t really done too much with them yet. So I’ll be saving them for another post. But we’re chugging along. I know the con isn’t until early September, but I’m already feeling the time crunch. So, there’ll probably a lot more of these in the coming weeks as production really ramps up. So, until next time!