Whoops!

Forgot I had a blog HAHAHA

So here! Have some pics from Dragon*Con 2012! I went as Adelaide, as always. But it's been so long since HiNaBN's updated, and I just... get tired of the same costume with nothing new to go off of. Adelaide will always be my favorite, but she's more of a closet cosplay now.

And human!Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony

...with Doubting Salmon as my Twilight Sparkle

And revamped steampunk medic

And that was D*Con 2012! Shout out to my ducklings who got engaged on their 3-year anniversary of meeting at the Con. You know who you are, lovelies ;)

D*Con updated

Well, so. Four months later, here I am! I don't have an excuse. But I did get a tumblr right before finals last semester. That's... pretty self-explanatory, really. Life, where did you go?

So here's me as Adelaide at D*Con, with the obligatory Connie in Worth's coat:

I've only got one pic of my steampunk outfit, and I'm sitting down with my badge and my cellphone all hanging out in the picture. I'm kind of retarded like that.

I made a gunbelt with spots for test tubes instead of bullets! :D I messed up one part of the actual gun holster, but I was so fucking proud, I can't even. And then I was supposed to have khaki/tan shorts, but they wouldn't stay sewed together, so I borrowed a friend's orange skirt. It worked out rather well, I think.

And then there's the joint cosplay Salmon and I did: a friend's artwork of horoscopes. Salmon chose Gemini, and I chose Scorpio. The original artwork and characters belong to Lyndz, or asiaoddhours on DA.

So much blue.

D*Con Menu

Dragon*Con is a month away. So here's the set list:
There is, of course, going to be Adelaide from HiNABN. I remade my hoodie out of plain cotton (think the material dress shirts are made of), so that I won't die in the heat. I may have accidentally used white thread on the pockets. We'll see if I can cover up that particular boo-boo before it makes its appearance.

Then, there's Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time. I'll be in her outfit from the Nightosphere episode, and guys. I can play the Fries Song. I'd take a functioning guitar, but I'd rather make a prop to match the outfit, so. But there still may be a recording on Youtube in my future. Just for the giggles.

Salmon's going to be the Princess Bubblegum to my Marceline, so look out for us!

Then there's my Steampunk Medic, who's design is getting a re-haul and some pants. Can I vote a hell yes to the pants? Because I am. She's also getting a gun.

And then there's my SUPER SEKKRET cosplay, which coordinates with Salmon's, cos we're dorks like that, that I'm not allowed to post in-progress shots of it or drop hints or ANYTHING, REALLY. It's all very pouty-face, because this is the outfit that's taken the most work, and I am seriously proud of all that work! The only problem I've run into so far is the wig. Lord, don't even get me started. It also appears that I have too much hair. It won't all fit under the wig. I'm going to assume it's just a smaller wig than I normally get, because I do have problems with my other wigs, but not like this. I wish I was kidding. I'm like "OBVIOUSLY the solution is to chop off my hair!" but I have been working really hard to grow it out an be healthy and stuff, so no. I am not giving up on long hair just yet. But I may have to give up on wigs. It's sad, really.

ANYWAY, that's what's on the menu for D*Con. Can't wait to get back to Atlanta and see everybody!

Steampunk Gun

Every steampunk character has a weapon. Or a prop. It's almost like a prerequisite. The most common of these is the Steampunk gun. Now, I am not nearly so talented or filthy rich as to just make or buy one, much less a functioning one. And those are hard to get into conventions anyway. So I googled it, and there is a surprising number of examples where people have taken toy guns and painted and modded them to look like fantastic pieces of art, which are actually sometimes functioning. My favorite so far has been this one. I really liked the blue. So that's what I had in mind when I found this baby on clearance where I work.

That orange button on the hilt? Makes it so that the gun can swivel into a sword. There are sound effects and lights and everything, guys. And I figured, my steampunk character is a medic. That knife bit on it would come in handy, and I could mod it so that the gun looked more like a stun gun, because what kind of doctor would want to kill someone? ...Alright, pretend that was rhetorical.

So I took to the spray paint.

There are lots of tiny pieces. I can't tell you how many pictures I took just so I could try and remember how to put the darn thing back together. And I still can't figure out where this one screw goes. OH WELL. The problem I ran into was that toy guns are made to fit together exactly as they are. Adding paint to them adds space between the moving parts that wasn't there before. So perhaps unsurprisingly, I can't get the gun to swivel between gun and sword modes, which isn't a problem, but there was also a portion on the muzzle that would have been really cool if it could pop open like it's supposed to. Then I could really create the illusion that this is a stun gun, with a bit that pops open before it delivers electrical shocks. But no. Woe is my life.

Also, make sure you seal the paint with a layer of clear acrylic. It makes a huge difference.

So this is what you get. I also decided I wanted to keep the blade (I was thinking of throwing it out entirely), so I painted it with basic acrylic paint. And then I decided I wanted blue. The problem came in that I used too much color.

 

I probably should have stuck with one shade of blue, and maybe done wood paneling for the handle. As it is, it looks a little to futuristic-y for me. But I still like it. So does my brother.

I decided later, that hello? Stun gun = electricity = if this is steampunk, how does it get the electricity stored inside the gun? So I cut out an outlet face, painted it and glued it to the gun. It would have looked better had I done all that at the start, and then painted it all in one go, but unfortunately, based on how the gun is put together and the position of the outlet face, I can't open the handle of the gun anymore. And it certainly doesn't look the best of quality, but it's an interesting touch and I am going to be satisfied with it, because I frankly can't stand thinking about changing it anymore.

But of course I don't have pictures of that. I suppose you'll just have to wait until it makes it's appearance at Dragon*Con this year. :D

The Scarlet Witch

One of my favorite characters of all time is the Scarlet Witch from the Marvel universe. Her real name is Wanda Maximoff, sister to Pietro (or Quicksilver), and daughter of Magneto. At least one of those names should sound familiar to you. She's one of the original Avengers, and she originally had the power to manipulate possibilities, which was later explained as chaos magic, and which now has developed into the ability to warp reality to her every whim, which caused a fine fiasco in the form of House of M.

Wanda's outfit has some variations, and this is Marvel, so you have to deal with alternate reality versions of everything on top of that. Knowing this, I wanted to go with her classical, older look, but without the pink bodysuit (just the tights), because no. And that classical look is what she's shown wearing in Children's Crusade, anyway :3

Old-school Wanda

New-school Wanda

I don't even want to go into how much research I did the cape just to get it to fall right. Suffice to say: pleat, don't ruffle, capes. It looks better that way. I decided on a cowl neck, but no. I know better now. The headpiece was made out of red vinyl fabric (it's just one piece, cut out at once) with black elastic around the back.

This was before the elastic, so I'm just holding to my head, lol

I really liked the shorter gloves better, but I ended up going with opera-length, because they're easier to find. I tried making the ones I wanted SO MANY TIMES, but the universe, it seems, hated me. The boots are standard red superhero boots that I bought off eBay. I didn't have the time to figure out a strapless bustier/leotard thing, so I bought a bathing suit (which I didn't initially realize had an embossed pattern all over it, thanks eBay) and took it in between the breast a bit to get that look (you know that look). And so here it is, in all it's glory:

Pictures were taken Halloween weekend, since I'm an idiot and only wore it for 2 or 3 hours that Monday of Dragon*Con, and didn't get anyone to take a picture of me with my camera. And I am definitely waiting for another costume to come along that can utilize these boots.

Steampunk Medic

Continuing with Dragon*Con costumes, we've finally arrived at steampunk. 

From what I've gathered, steampunk is this: Imagine that we never went past steam- and coal-powered machines like the train, never broke down science into atoms or made nuclear weapons. Inventions like airplanes and defibrillators exist, but they're based on energy sources permanently stuck in the 19th/early 20th century. Now add that Victorian era aesthetic.

My friend decided we have an airship that flies under the company Von Schifferdecker's Exotic Imports. I wanted to be the medic, because every ship needs a doctor. I bought a canvas bag designed to look like a WWII medic pack with a giant red cross on the front, and some antique WWII red cross pins on eBay.

I wanted to wear one of my petticoats, but felt it was missing something. So I made an overskirt in a dark red/wine color, which I later decided was hilarious because it's probably the best color for a medic to wear so that blood stains don't show. I had no pattern, and it took a lot of tries to get this right, but I finally came up with something I liked.

There are ribbons coming out of the waistband area that I used to tie the overskirt up on the hips, and a secret pocket because I felt it needed one. I wanted the bottom back of the skirt to look like coattails, and I later added white crosses to.

All steampunk outfits have to have some sort of prop, and I decided on a stethoscope. I found a really old pair of headphones (maybe dated to WWII?) on eBay, gears/watch parts, and clock hands. I spray painted the clock hands brass to match, and then glued it all together. The cord to the jack was super long, so I used a brass pendulum from a clock to make the knobby-end, and looped the extra cord around it.

 

Aren't they beautiful? The earpieces swiveled, so the clock hands splayed out, and it was AWESOME. The rest of the outfit were things I already had: a tuxedo shirt, black vest, thrifted red tie, and a cut-off glove without it's matching pair:

Black Canary

Continuing with outfits from Dragon*Con, here's Black Canary. She's a super heroine from the DC verse, hangs around in Gotham City, and is featured in Birds of Prey. Technically, this is the daughter who picked up her mother's mantle. Some references:

I ordered a turtleneck, sleeveless leotard off ebay. It zipped down the back and didn't have the princess seams, so I tried to alter it and fudged up the whole thing. So then I used what I had already cut as the basis for a pattern, and made my own leotard.

I already had black boots, and bought black leather gloves, which I unfortunately don't have a picture of. I didn't want to ruin the gloves with those gold plates, so I found the PERFECT trim at Hancock's, cut it down to the sizes I wanted, put each piece on a length of 1/4" elastic, and slipped them on over the boots and gloves.

I didn't have a motorcycle jacket, nor any leather (that stuff's expensive!), so instead I took a green jacket I had that I never wore, cut the sleeves down to 3/4 length, cropped the bottom, and dyed it black. I didn't get any pictures from Dragon*Con, but I did get some from Halloween:

Adelaide Hoodie

I went to Dragon*Con for the first time this past Labor Day weekend, and met so many amazing people. On Friday, I went as Adelaide from the webcomic Hanna is Not A Boy's Name, created by the wonderful Tessa Stone (middle):

Adelaide is alternatively drawn with black and purple hair, so I claim artistic license. Adelaide is a vampire who was stuck looking like a bat and wreaking havoc in someone's apartment. A paranormal investigator named Hanna freed her, and when she returned to her human form she grabbed whatever was in the apartment owner's closet. That turned out to be a hoodie and nothing else, so for modesty's sake I wore a dress underneath as well (since she's also seen in one here).

I took an old hoodie from Old Navy, trimmed it in on the sides (with the seams on the wrong sides of the fabric even), and replaced the sleeves with bright green ones. I'm pretty sure it was some sort of cotton interlock. I also knew nothing about easing sleeves, but I think it came out alright.

The comic panel:

The photoshoot: