Props RoxyRoo's Props and Things 2014

[RoxyRoo]

I'm tying to get back into building and consistently posting here on 405th again. I honestly miss this site. So, I'm going to dump a few projects I've worked on but haven't shown here in this thread. I will start by showing off my latest work, an extremely detailed sword. It's probably my best prop ever. In building this sword, I used two materials I was quite unfamiliar with; wood and worbla.

What is worbla? It is a thermo-plastic, meaning it's a type of plastic you heat up and can shape while it's hot. When it cools, it hardens. If you want a more clear explanation, please follow this link. http://www.worbla.com/?gclid=CJWhy_33yb0CFcqUfgodZUQAvw It truly is a great material, but like other artificial materials, wear a respirator when working with it. (I got a migraine the next day) And, don't burn your fingers.

I hand-carved the blade out of Pine wood, which is why there is still a grain visible even through the paint. But considering this is the 2nd sword I've ever made, any negative comments can go burn in a trash can. *cough* Anyways, I may or may not go back and smooth out the texturing in this, but the sword looks awesome in photos, so I don't really care.


** Note that no 2 images of Ashura's sword are the same. The CLAMP artists were never completely consistent in the exact design, so I did my best to adhere to what *was* consistent.


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Materials: pine wood, worbla, matt board, friendly plastic, hot glue, spray paint.
Time: 20 hours.
Ashura's Sword from Tsubasa/RG Veda

Here is what Ashura's sword looks like in RG Veda:

** Note that no 2 images of Ashura's sword are the same. The CLAMP artists were never completely consistent in the exact design, so I did my best to adhere to what *was* consistent.

 

[CLOTHAR]

That is a really nicely made piece!

 

[CasualCosplayer]

Simply beautiful!


Pat-

 

[Redshirt]

Welcome back! That Worbla work looks great. The detailing is really impressive. I looked over the galleries on the link you included. Lots of ideas for here . . . .

Redshirt

 

[Loess]

Very nice! On your next build, you might try sanding sealer to help fill in the grain on the blade. It'll help keep the paint from soaking into the wood uneavenly.

 

[Zero Prime]

Good to see you back on here, and that sword looks truly amazing.

 

[ferret304]

Aaaah, she's back! *Kneels in awe* Sweet sword!

 

[RoxyRoo]

Very nice! On your next build, you might try sanding sealer to help fill in the grain on the blade. It'll help keep the paint from soaking into the wood uneavenly.

Duly noted. I will be making swords in the future, so this is good to know.

Thanks guys! I'll be doing my best to keep up with this site again. It's nice to see some familiar user names.


I also made a simple EVA foam armor for this costume. As I did it, kept track of it all and uploaded it as a tutorial on youtube. here you go!

I did a photoshoot while at Matsuri 2014 with my completed outfit, sword and all. I might enter this costume in the masquerade at Phoenix Comicon this year. I put a rediculous amount of work into it. If you'd like to read about it, look below the next two images.

About the costume:

Make Up: First off.. contacts! I bought and wore contacts for the first time with this cosplay. It took some getting used to, but by the second day, it was just fine. I used eyeliner to make my eyebrows black, masquera, and some nude eyeshadow to enhance the simple anime look. I did not use any lip gloss or lip stick, despite that in some shots Ashura does look like he's wearing some. I really tried to go for that genderless look. (Ashura has no gender. look it up I switch he/she a lot).

Wig: ordered from ebay, cut, styled and ponytailed by yours truly. I looked up no less than 3 tutorials to do that wig. The headdress was simply craft foam and matte board painted and glued together. It was the last detail completed before debuting it Friday at Anime Expo 2013. Tutorials >> Hairline:browse.deviantart.com/art/Wig-… Bangs: browse.deviantart.com/art/Tuto… Ponytail: www.cosplay.com/photo/1856065/

Ears: I hand sculpted the form in Sculpey, since I couldn't find any ears online that were quite right for Ashura. Ashura has very specific ears! I covered the form in mold-release and painted the latex on there. I found out from none other than :iconPikiminlink: herself that it's better to make a mold and just pour the latex into the mold. Since these ears were so flimsy, I'll remake the ears using this method for next time.

Necklace: Found a plastic.. circle. Don't know what it's from, but it was the right size. I cut that on one end and molded some Friendly Plastic to keep a red stone bead in place. There is no clasp; I just hot glue the molded ends onto the bead and it stays on until I pull them apart. Painted gold, obviously.

Armor: made from EVA and Craft Foam, patterned, cut, hot glued and spray painted in 3 days. I won't go into detail describing it here. I have a video on how I made this here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TAThX…

Belts: Made from a patterned.. silk? Not sure, but it looked cool. It's some sort of synthetic, probably. There is a layer of canvas sandwiched in between to give it some more belt-like strength. I appliqued a red silk on top of it and then hand-beaded SO MANY BEADS. The beading took about 12 hours, I kid you not. I watched many, many episodes of Lie to Me during that process.

Tube Top: Simple patterned black silk meant to cover my binded bosom, so I can appear flat like Ashura. There is a beautiful gold rope piping that's sewed into the top. That was quite a challenge to do with my sewing machine since the piping was so thick. There is a zipper on the right side (hidden by the red kimono layer and armor) so I can get in and out easier. Lastly, MORE BEADING! This small golden flame was appliqued as well, and then beading rims the outline just like the belts. This was only about 3-4 hours of beading time.

Red Kimono: This is a beautiful and comphy red suit fabric that has a cute white pinstripe. I copied the pattern from my own karate ghi and lengthened it to reach the floor. It connects with some ties on the left side. The golden flames is a brocade silk. I embroidered the outline with a gold thread. That... took long time.

Sleeves: Both colors are cotton, since I couldn't find any white silk since my local Joanns' closed I had to resort to Hobby Lobby, which has a much smaller selection. I copied the sleeve pattern I used for my elf dress and lengthened it by about a foot. Unlike a lot of Ashura cosplayers, they always do a kimono sleeve pattern, which ends with a squared hem. That is NOT what Ashura has in the manga! Ashura's sleeves are tipped a very similarly to the elven dresses in LotR. Jus' Sayin'. Anyways. The flames are appliqued, but only slightly... how do I describe this? Along the outline of the flames, there is only a 1-inch applique that connects the purple fabric to the white fabric below. There is no top stitch, although I should probably put one. Another detail I noticed was that the sleeves have an outer and inner layer, so instead of removing the white sleeve after the purple flames were on, I just left it there. Problem solved.

Thigh Circlets: minor details that I barely noticed in the manga. >.> I made them out of craft foam and used velcro to attach them. Sweat on my legs kept them from slipping. lol

Shoes: Leggings. Easy enough. Didn't stay up to well though. I need to make some sort of strapping to keep them up. I bought white "Tabi" (japanese toe socks) from an asian store called House of Rice. That was really the only part of the cosplay I didn't make myself besides the contacts. >.> Also, there are black shoe covers that go over them, also appliqued and beaded (add another 4 hours to the beading time frame...). The black shoe covers have an elastic strap in the back to keep them on. The covers also keep some foam on the bottom of my feet for cushioning. Those wore out way too quick. I'll have to replace them with some actual foam sandals or something.

Sakura Feather: A large ostrich feather cut with scissors into the iconic shape. Red nail polished was used to paint the symbol onto the feather.

Sword: roxyroo.deviantart.com/art/Ash…

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Very nicely done Roxy