My journey is almost to an end!
To round out the remaining aspects of my final "look," I decided on the following format since none of these pieces had enough information for individual posts. It was during this time where I pleasantly surprised myself with a craftiness and handiness side, an aspect of myself I do not normally access when I 3D model. It was educational and straight up fun to find solutions in a new way!
All the links to anything I pruchased/discuss will be provided at the end of the post. I hope that this can potentially be a source for you if you ever get stuck in a project!
A
For the undershirt, I wanted to mimic the more pronounced shoulder of the illustration to balance out my shape. I was able to find a shirt that I thought was almost a perfect match to the one in my reference images. The more difficult decision for me was color; I orginally was going with a dark grey, thinking that too much black would not photograph well. However, when I saw all the pieces together I realized the grey was too one tonal, and went in favor of the black because it created contrast that beautifully highlighted the armor. For added volume in the shoulders, I purchased shouldpads and adjusted them accordingly. The leggings I already owned.
B
The brown strings tying all the armor pieces together were cut to size from a spool of leather cord I purchased.
C
The gloves were purchased a bit late in the game for their 3-4 week delivery time, so when I had yet to recieve them several days before Comic Con, I Amazon-Primed a backup pair that I manipulated to create a dupe. To my relief, the original choice arrived in the knick of time!
D
My bag was purchased from Forever 21 on a whim. I just happened to come across it while online shopping, and as fate would have it, it was the perfect size and color! I attached it to the belt by finessing its strap around the side of it.
E
The belt was made by cutting and dying a piece of leather, and adding a snap to the back for easy application. The skull “buckle” was printed on a Mojo Desktop printer and handpainted with the a mixture of two gold acrylic paints.
F
My sword was printed in four parts (made up of the handle and three sections to blade) on the ProJet 7000, the same printer as the armor. A peg and hole mechanism was modeled into the sections so that they would join seamlessly. I then spray-chromed the blade using the same process as the armor, choosing the same color for consistency, and attached the pieces together with expoxy. The skull was painted the same gold color as the boots and other embellishments.
One aspect of the sword's design I would have changed in retrospect was its density; since I printed the blade pieces solid and not hollow, the weight of each piece and flexibility of the material when all attached made the finished sword bendy and droopy. Because of this issue, I find the sword to be the weakest aspect of my costume.
The “sheath” from the sword was purchased and left as is, aside from its metal buttons, which were painted gold.
G
The pair of boots I purchased were significantly warmer and lighter in tone than I was expecting. To resolve this, I used a combination of leather dye and shoe polish to achieve the cool, deep brown of the final product. Fun Fact: dying the boots took me two days! The accents were painted in gold.
The one step I should have done was finish those areas with some sort of topcoat, for by the end of the day, I did notice some chipping on the heels.
Materials List
A
Black Ladies Ruched Shoulder Sleeve Top (Small) via Amazon
The Natural Charcoal Shoulder Pads w/ Flaps in Petite via Amazon
B
3 Yards / 9 feet of 3/16 inch Chocolate Deerskin Lace Leather via The Leather Supply Etsy Shop
ArtMinds Suede Leather Lace in Dark Brown via Michael's
C
Froomer Women Half Finger Gloves Fingerless Mittens in Brown via Amazon
D
Knotted Flat Cross Body Bag in Brown via Forever21
*Limited numbers/colors left
E
Genuine Brown Flat Leather Strap, Raw Cut, Single-sided, Grainy Brown, 25mm (1" inch) 50 inches (1338)
Dritz Heavy Duty Snap Fastener Plier Kit via Amazon
Dritz Heavy Duty Snap Fastener Kit via Amazon
Leather Stain via Michael's
*unfortunately, I do not have record of the specific product I used
Kiwi Shoe Polish in Brown via the drugstore or Kiwi Shoe Shine
Golden Open Slow Drying Acrylics in Iridescent Bronze (Fine) and Gold Deep (Fine) via Blick
F
Leather Medieval Sword Frog Belt Hanger Rapier Renaissance via Amazon
G
Breckelles Outlaw-13 Women's Ankle Strap Tall Riding Boots in Size via Amazon
Leather Stain via Michaels
*unfortunately, I do not have record of the specific product I used
Kiwi Shoe Polish in Brown via the drugstore or Kiwi Shoe Shine
This costume is complete from toe to neck- but what about the rest?
Stay tuned for the Next installment of Sarah's Comic Con Chronicles, where I tackle hair and makeup, and its importance to finishing off a powerful look!