Well folks today you're in for a doozy! We have got updates, and lots of them. It is 9 days til Con, and this is where we're at.
Leah
Leah is now finished!
Costume- the last thing I had to do was the vest. We bought a fuzzy vest (it was part of a shirt set) that was the base and I dyed it brown from it's original pink. Rit DyeMore is, and has been, a good friend.
After that, we had to add shoulder bits and the front part with the lacing. I was originally going to use foam painted to replicate a leather-type material but digging through my materials box, I found an old suede-type jacket that I'd originally intended for the Barbarian costume but ended up not using. So we took some strips from that and voila! I did have to rivet the suede to the vest, though. I bent a rather large needle into uselessness trying to sew it. But costume is ready, aside from a little weathering on the vest!
and needs a new lace.
Soulstone- Okay, we did some really neat stuff here and got a FANTASTIC result. After growing a crystal came to naught, I looked at a lot of different options, none of them really giving me what I was going for. UNTIL I found this tutorial and the light bulb went off! Hot glue, something I'm already super familiar with and safe for my kid to carry around? Hell yes! For this, I bought the regular sized ones I use in my glue gun, as well as the thicker ones (0.4 mm)
For the main crystal I glued three of the bigger sticks together. The other pieces are from both sizes of glue stick cut into varying sizes and shapes. Like everything, this was all eyeballed and made-as-we-go, no pattern here.
For paint, I used black nail polish.
Afterwards, I bored out the bottom with a combination of heating up the glue (and burning my hand) and digging it out with my knife. Sticking the LED light in was easy and it glued itself in nicely, and we still have access to the battery.
Ta da! Where the nail polish isn't as thick, it lets the light shine through MAGNIFICENTLY. I am beyond happy with this prop. It worked out great.
Treasure Goblin
Lots of work done on the Treasure Goblin, and we are essentially done here, too.
Suit- The suit, as I may have mentioned before, is a Durotan suit from the Warcraft movie. First we tried to dye it green (as Elder Spawn is doing the Odious Collector version) with the Rit DyeMore. I don't know if we didn't leave it long enough, or if we didn't have enough dye, or what it was, but it did not come out nearly green enough. Can't win 'em all. Enter fabric paint.
We went over the whole suit minus the loincloth and thigh area, so it looks like he's wearing short pants. I used a sponge brush for this as it was nice and big and you could really work it into the fabric, even if I wrecked the brush in the process. There really wasn't much else to do with the suit.
Mask- The mask started out as an Indoraptor mask from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. We started by removing the teeth. They were glued in but I was able to just pull them out. Then it got a nice shot of beige primer. Elder Spawn painted it with a few layers of green.
Eyeballs are the halves of a plastic, fill-able ornament hot glued on and painted with a few layers of watered down yellow paint. Visibility come from the spaces between the eyes and the nose bridge.
Horns, teeth, and brow ridge are foam and glued on. Everything was given a layer of fabric paint to match up with the suit (minus the teeth, obviously).
The hood-headscarf-thing is a t-shirt. Literally just a t-shirt.
Now we just need to pack his bag and we're good! He doesn't need weathering or anything!
Barbarian 2.0
Under-the-armor- a couple of things. Firstly, a vest to wear under the armor. It's super soft and comfy. A little big on me, but that's not a big deal.
Second, new boots! They fit my feet better, but I can't zip them up (the opposite problem of my other boots). Enter a pair of martial arts handwraps! I don't know that you can see that my boots are half-unzipped, but it does make them feel more secure. And it looks snazzy.
Chest plate- We cut that down significantly and got rid of the back completely for mobility. Now the back is a series of straps connecting to a central leather bit that originally was part of a belt.
Mobility! But now where to attach the shoulders? Enter:
Gorget- I was going to make one of these anyway, but now it's a whole rig for the shoulders as well. It's all foam, minus the 'gems', those are plastic and I bought them locally.
Once you tuck the fur in, they look badass!
Details- new details and fancies were added to the bracers, knees, and greaves. Everything was repainted. The silver and gold were sprayed, the red by hand (except the gold on the bracers, that was by hand as well).
One Final Prop
Because isn't that what we need this close to con? Not much done on this one yet, but it'll be a quick build. This is all I've really got to show.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this massive update. Things have been nuts lately trying to get things done around work and other after-school activities, but we're getting there!
Also, I'm not sure when we're seeing Avengers:Endgame, if you're wondering where my review is after this weekend. This weekend is tied up in dance, next is con, the one after is dance again. We'll see where it gets squeezed in. Until then, everyone!
