Blizzcon 2016!!

This past weekend I attended my first Blizzcon! I have only been to two other conventions so far so this was an entirely new experience for me. It was also the first time traveling to a convention with a huge costume. The costume that I have been working on with Adam was made just for this convention. It was so large it had to be shipped in two boxes and 3 checked bags. Needless to say it will not be going to anymore conventions other than local to where I live. 

I had so much fun at this convention! I really appreciated having badge pickup and store purchase pick up the day prior to the event. The line was an hour wait for store pickup but at least it wasn't wasting the time I wanted to spend at the actual convention. We decided to check out the Hilton that night and met  Frank Ippolito from Tested! We also met up with a few people from the Blizzcon 2016 Facebook group. Overall good first night. 

Meeting Frank Ippolito! Check out his work here!

Day 1: Dress up in the medic

Where does it hurt?

The plan on day 1 was just to walk around as the Medic. I had entered the costume contest but was about number 50 on the wait list. I checked in first thing and was told to come back. We walked around the convention floor for about 2 hours just to check everything out. It was incredibly overwhelming and I had no idea where to go. Being in such a large costume also made it very difficult to do much. I did meet Evil Ted though!! I couldn't get over how nice he was and complimented our costume build. He even put us up on his Facebook page! We did an interview together on Major League Gaming but I haven't found it yet. 

From Evil Ted's Facebook page. Click here!

So after a while we went back to see if I could get into the contest. We happened to get there at the right time because we somehow got in... I couldn't believe it. The only part that was a bit disappointing was that my judging time was right when the cosplay photo was at the fountain :(. I spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon in the cospitality suite because the costume was just so uncomfortable on my shoulders. I added padding underneath but apparently not enough. My shoulders are still bruised almost a week later. When it was finally time for the contest we sat backstage and I was almost last to go on. But it was just so worth it... 

Davann Srey Photography See his work here! from Gizmodo

From Wowhead.com

I could here everyone cheering and screaming MEDIC!!! I didn't care that I didn't win or place. I had so much fun making this costume and showing it off. It made the whole trip worth it. We were so tired that we had dinner and went straight to bed. 

Day 2:

Cosplay for the day Striker Li - Ming from HOTS

So day two was about actually seeing the convention and going to panels. We were able to see most of the convention but didn't want to wait in line for the freebies. I didn't get to play any of the exclusive content but we did watch some HOTS finals and Starcraft II finals. Much better to watch live than at home. We left for a few and came back just because we were both so tired. I also missed the memo where everyone comes back in the afternoon to cosplay out front. Note to self for next year. We saw Weird Al's closing concert and I actually really like Weird Al so I enjoyed it. We left before the end so we could get dinner and not be waiting 8 years. Over all I really enjoyed the convention and can't wait to come back next year. I just need to start planning the next build!

Basic B out!!

The Rachet Peacock: How I made a feathered headdress from a golf visor

This is a post I updated and moved from an old blog I had. It had a decent amount of views so I updated it with more details as well as photos from when I actually wore it plus some new cosplay photos I took in it.  The headdress is really hard to store and some of the feathers got damaged. Otherwise this was really hardy. Super glue really does the job. I made this for the electric run not a con but I still liked the end result. It was actually comfortable to jog in.

I wanted to share how I made my awesome peacock feather headdress out of a visor. It was actually really easy and only took me about 30 minutes to put together. It cost me about $100 all together. Which sounds like a lot but it has 100 feathers on it, lights, and some gems. I could have probably gotten the gems cheaper on line but I was in a crunch so got them from the craft store. Here is what I used.

white golf visor
40 10-12" peacock feathers
10 6-8" white Ostrich Feathers
50 20" peacock feathers (pointy kind)
hot glue
30 ct mini lights battery powered
blue ribbon
blue rhinestones
5 pre-made headband feather attachments (to cover the front)

So I started by laying out all my feathers to see what it could look like. Here is what I got.

Don't mind the dirty table haha. 

So I started with the ostrich feathers and glued them on the bottom of the visor. 

I used hot glue in a line and pressed the stems of the feathers onto the hat. I burned myself many times. 

The next step was to glue the shorter peacock feathers on. I started in the middle and worked my way out. I had 50 feathers to use but only used 40. 

Next I added the long peacock feathers. I had to cut them down a few inches each because they were just too long. I started on one end and actually put a few too many on the ends and not as many on the top but I think it still looked ok. 

So the back looks horrific ....

Next I glued the premade feather things on the front. 2 pink, 2 blue, and 1 white with a little gem. 

I thought it looked plain with the white band so I went back to the craft store to get blue ombre ribbon and some blue rhinestones. I had to glue 2 strips of ribbon and about 20 gems. 

Next I just laced the lights inbetween the feathers gently. The battery back is duct taped to the back of the hat by the base of the feathers. 

And it's all done!!

Good luck and don't burn yourself on the glue!! The best place to get supplies is ebay or online. I got all the feathers for about 20 to 30 dollars where at the craft store they want a dollar a feather or even more. It's ridiculous. 

Harley's Hammer: How to make a huge hammer in less than half a day

Here is a how to guide on how I made this pretty awesome hammer. What it lacks in novice build work it makes up for in sheer size. It was incredibly light and easy to carry around the whole day at a con. I build this over 2 days but combined only took about 8 hours of actual build time to make. You could easily make this in a day if you had the whole day to do it. I finished it at 2:00am the day before I wanted to use it. Luckily the paint dried.

Materials:
The biggest wooden dowel rod I could find at Home Depot
The biggest concrete tube I could find at Home Depot
Floor Mat foam (L200) from amazon
Hot Glue (No like a whole bag of it)
Contact Adhesive DAP brand
A weird little plumbing piece to hold the dowel rod and concrete tube together
hole saw
drywall saw
wood burning kit
wood pattern printed from online
exact o knife
spray paint primer
brown spray paint in 2 shades
brown and black acrylic paint in 4 shades
paint brushes
foam brushes
craft foam
googly eyes
heat gun
zip ties
some belts to hold things together because I ran out of everything else

I don't have step by step pictures but some in progress pics.

I started by deciding how big I wanted the hammer to be. I cut the cement tube exactly in half with a drywall saw. This stuff was surprisingly hard to cut and needed a serrated blade. I then used a hole saw the same size as my dowel rod and cut 2 holes directly in the middle of the cement tube. I made sure the one on top was larger to accommodate the plumbing part I used to hold the dowel rod to the cement tube. The fit wasn't perfect so I used a shit ton of hot glue to make up the difference. I also hot glued the plumbing part to the tube, and the wood dowel rod to the bottom portion. This makes my hammer one piece that won't be able to disassemble. That is as far as I got on day 1. Here is the picture of it at this point. This only took about an hour and a half.

The next part was to attach the L200 floor mat foam to the cement tube. I had to use a bunch of sheets because I bought floor tiles because they were cheap. They are 1/2" thickness. I measured out what I needed and glued them all together in one big sheet. I also cut circles for the ends I made sure to cut my holes for the dowel rod to fit through. Next step I used a wood burner to burn a wood grain pattern into the foam. I thought my pattern turned out awesome for never having done it before. This is one aspect of the hammer I was really happy with. 

Now I needed to glue these sheets to the actual hammer. I used a ton of contact cement. I ended up buying it in a pint sized can and using a disposable paint brush to apply it. It just took way too long to use the little bottles they sell at most hardware stores. I did get overzealous and apply it way too thick because it took forever to dry and because I was in a rush I applied it to the cement tube too soon. I used stretchy belts and zip ties to hold it all together for about 2 hours to dry. I did all this in my garage and make sure you have adequate ventilation. Contact cement stinks. This is an aspect of the project I feel could have gone better. I wasn't happy with my seams. If I do this again, I will buy a large sheet of foam to minimize the seam lines. 


After it dried I had to use some hot glue to keep it from moving. I made a hot glue ring around the outsides of the circles to make sure they were adequately attached. The whole hammer is hollow so I was afraid of it being delicate. I added craft foam to make the bands around the hammer. The googly eyes are the rivets on the bands. After you paint you would never know what they are. 

Now was time to prime and paint! I painted every 20 - 30 minutes to keep the process moving. I started painting by about 9 pm. I applied 1 coat of primer, 2 coats of brown, and a 3rd coat of a different brown in a splotchy pattern. I wanted it to look like real wood so I switched to acrylic paint after this and applied 4 different browns and black in alternating patterns mimicking the organic lines of the woodgrain. I just kind of had at it. I threw paint all over the thing. I am surprised how good it looks and accurate to real wood. I am not a painter by any means so I have no techniques to give you advice on this part. I then used black to paint the bands and dry brushed black along the bands to make the wood look worn in those areas. This took until about 2 am. I let it dry over night and it was dry by 9 am the next day. It still stunk like paint but otherwise looked great. 

Here is the finished piece with my costume!

For my first prop I made with foam I am pretty happy with it. Again, always room for improvement but not bad for a first attempt. The things I liked the most were the wood grain and paint. The things I like the least are how bad my seams are in areas. This was a really light prop and really stood out at the con because of it's size. Overall I give myself an 8/10. Let me know your thoughts! I will answer any questions you have relating to this build to the best of my abilities. 

- Basic B