And they said Rome couldn't be built in a day.

How do magnets work, anyways?

This weekend was a conglomeration of friends, missing bobbins, slushies, acrylic paint, sore feet, and 11-tiered cravats, otherwise known as Anime Iowa. It was a great time, with tons of friends to hang out with and a crapload of derping around. Our room was a bit confusing, with seven of us jammed into a small four-person room at a Super 8. The contents of the room could be adequately modeled with the use of quantum theory; things may or may not exist at any given time. Take Mafimano's fedora feather, for example. It went missing in the middle of Thursday evening when we arrived, and the room was scoured a couple dozen times a day. Nobody found it until it was mysteriously laying in the center of the room as we started packing up on Sunday morning. Several things hid in my Scandinavia cloak - a bobbin of brown thread, my glasses case, a second blanket. My bright yellow mini Nalgene water bottle went missing at least once every 15 minutes or so, and my computer power cord was on the other side of the room even though I'm pretty sure I never took it out of my bag.
And then there was the cat poop. But that's a story for a later post.

And now, I might finally get to the point...

I've been working on my friend's Rome cosplay for ages. I will admit, there are a few things I wish I had time to fix, like the pauldrons, the sun patterns, and the medallion velcro. They weren't exactly bad, per se, I just felt they were a bit sloppy on my part.
The Hetalia photoshoot was before the Masquerade on Saturday, at 1 PM. We woke up at 10-ish (I had been up until 5 fixing last-minute things on her cape) and then I immediately began getting everyone else ready for the photoshoot.


Everyone else:




From left to right: Prussia, Sweden, Mafimano, Austria, Canada, Denmark, and the Roman Empire is down in front.
Enjoy the B Team's derpy faces. >:Db
Not pictured: Finland and Germania. They were being awesome and manning their AA tables.


I helped Denmark put on his wig cap (he has kind of a big head, lol) and pin it into his unruly brown hair.

This hair.


(Also note the adorable Denmochi made by Cynical Pie.)

Here is Denmark without wig cap.



Not exactly bad, it just looks kinda funny to have brown hair sticking out from under the blond. Not that I'm one to talk, I couldn't procure a wig cap for Anime Detour and had a bit of brown hair sticking out from under my Prussia wig. But hey, I fixed it now.

Then I helped with the wig, which ate about a dozen or so bobby pins. And then I did his makeup.

I got him to wear concealer, 2 kinds of foundation, and guyliner. And he pulled it off scarily well, even if he has the twitchiest eyes I've ever worked with.

The end result:



Nobody say Adam Lambert. I think he's just making a funny face. I couldn't find a better picture. My bad.


Then came Sweden.



This man had 156+ ounces of Slushie at the convention. Mafimano, Denmark, and myself couldn't finish 52 ounces between the three of us. We got 3/4ths of the way through, and then Sweden actually finished the rest. But anyways.

He actually came into the bathroom (AKA the sweatshop) and said "I want to be pretty" in his mock-serious Sweden voice. There was much lol-ing, and then out came the creeper Sweden face.

WARNING: DO NOT LOOK AT THIS PICTURE IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, ARE TAKING MEDICATIONS THAT COULD CAUSE AN UNSAFE DROP IN BLOOD PRESSURE, ARE PREGNANT, NURSING, OR MAY BECOME PREGNANT.




THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU CRY.


He doesn't wear a wig (he does anime-version Sweden with his brown eyes and brown hair) so I just did his makeup. Same as Denmark's. Now, if you've ever put an eyeliner pencil next to the eyeballs of a man nearly a foot taller than you, you'd know that I was very, very nervous. He's very intimidating; if you didn't remember, I'll remind you here that he cosplays Sweden. He makes weapons. He carries around a knife or two. He can pick up Denmark and myself at the same time and haul us around. Like I said, very intimidating. I got through with one undereye, and started on the other. I'm not sure what happened, but suddenly, there is a very manly yelp, and I realized I've just stabbed him in the eye.

Here I will skip to after I stopped apologizing like Colette from Tales of Symphonia. If I didn't know how extraordinarily nice our Sweden is, I would have been groveling. I felt terrible. Also, I wanted to keep my limbs.

He blinked twice, and was fine. It was the biggest non-reaction I've ever participated in. Apparently, Sweden has hardier eyes than Denmark.

So, after another fifteen seconds of "Are you okay?" "Yes." "Are you sure?" "Yes." I finally finished that eye, a lot more careful this time around.

I gave him an encouraging (if a bit sheepish) thumbs up, and then Rome started freaking out about her costume. I had fixed a rivet just that morning, and when the paint finally dried, I helped lace her into her breastplate. Then came the pauldrons. I had about thirty seconds of pure terror when I thought I had made them way too big. I quickly realized I was trying to put them on too far forward, and because I had made them as working pauldrons, they kept sliding open to encase her upper arm.

I didn't want them to do that, and I was running out of time, so I reverted back to my duct tape talents to fix it. Thank goodness Sweden carries around duct tape with those knives. Usually, I am completely against using duct tape in cosplay, but this was an emergency, and I was fixing something that was moving and shouldn't have been.

Then I velcroed on the medallions that held the cape on. I'm so glad it worked, I did a little happy dance. Thank goodness Mafimano and Germania had a roll of extra velcro each, because I ran out.

As soon as Germania had finished Rome's makeup and wig, nobody could tell she was a she. For example, she was going into the women's bathroom when a staff member rushes her, yelling "Stop! You can't go in there!"
She proceeded to squeak until the staff member turned bright red. "Oh, you ARE a girl. Sorry." And then walked away.
She then got in the bathroom, and all of the girls stopped mid-sentence to stare at her. It was the most awkward thing she'd ever done, she told us later.

The finished product:



This is (Derpy-face!)Rome. I put him together in a day. What now, non-believers? >:D

She came running down the ramp to the photoshoot area, cape flapping. People cheered. Doves flew. It was beautiful. One girl told her she looked exactly like in the anime. I cried tears of joy. More doves flew overhead. Angels sang. Atlantis resurfaced and the bottom-dwellers there passed out some sort of Atlantean wine and threw confetti everywhere.
Or something like that.

All in all, Saturday of con was hectic and stressful and awesome. I can't believe I've made it as far as I have.

Now if you'll excuse me, Denmark has a dress I need to get working on. (Thanks, Cynical Pie, for the awesome Paint additions that were made to this photo found on the Anon Meme~)



You'd better believe it. This is what happens when you lose a bet with me.

I Have Been Productive, Otherwise Known as "the Apocalypse"

Long time no see, intertubeland! I haven't updated for at least two weeks, have I? Whoops, my bad.
Well, I have much news for you follower-types. I have been working on my leatherwork like freaking crazy for the past two months, and I'm nearly done with both Teutonic Knight Prussia's suit of armor, and Ancient Rome's breastplate. I really just have three more bracers left to create, as far as I know: two for Ancient Scandinavia, one for Ancient Magyar. Rome's medallions are next on my list, followed by the two belts that rest on the bottom of the breastplate near the piece we affectionately call the "Crotch Protector."

I'll put a tutorial on basic leatherworking here once I can use the camera. Heck, I might make a whole new post just for talking about that breastplate. I remade the entire thing, and it is fantabulous, if I do say so myself.

Now that I know how to work with leather, I started asking around to see if anyone worked with plate metal. As it turns out, a friend or two of mine does work with plate, and is willing to teach me. Soon, I'll be making my own suits of steel armor just for the heck of it.
...That's pretty cool, I think.

I got purple contacts for Austria (and by extension, my planned Norway and Finland cosplays) and they look really cool! For those of you who are interested, I got a pair of quality colored contacts from this site, http://www.youknowit.com/ , for about $25. Their selection is fairly good, but for the random colors you just have to have but can't find, there's also this site: http://www.cosplaylab.com/proshop/cosmeticlens.asp . They sell every natural and slightly unnatural eye color under the sun, every pair for just $35. While the first site doesn't require a prescription, the second site does, even for lenses without a prescription. Beautify your eyes for the cost of a wig! Correctly-colored eyes really brings life to an already good cosplay.

Next up is the Terminator eye I'm slowly assembling. I still need to head to Axman (or is it Axeman? I don't remember) to pick up a switch and a battery case that can hold 2 AA batteries. That's right, after blowing up one LED with a 9v battery, I discovered that LEDs can run off of 2 AA batteries. My next step, after grabbing the switch and case, is to go out and find a skull mask and a ping pong ball.

I will try to put in a tutorial here after I have all the pieces and, once again, have the use of a camera.

Mafimano's cosplay is very nearly done, he just needs his hair curl (a la weft and sewing) and a cigar to wave around like a rich hitman. I also still need to spray paint his Nerf pistol (still, Inanity, still?) and attach a red feather to his black fedora. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do that. He's got his black suit with red shirt and thin black tie, his black leather gloves he's borrowing for me (I'm confused as to how they can fit him, since his hands are twice the size of mine, but hey, I won't ask questions if it works), and I taught him simple cosplay makeup.
Guys, do not be ashamed of wearing light costume makeup to a convention. You actually look more professional, and less blotchy and oily, especially in photographs. It's like being in a theatre production: even the men wear some makeup.

I bought about 60% of my fabric last Monday, and I managed to save almost $40 on polar fleece by picking it up during a 50% off sale at Hancock Fabrics. It's more navy than slate, but it looks very nice against the blue and brown of my tunic fabric. I also picked up a cloak pattern while I was there, and the tissue is now all over my living room floor. Washing the fabric was interesting as well; I was given two old bedsheets to use however I wanted, and I decided to try to make my Teutonic Knight cloak and Rome's under-manskirt out of it. It has a few blotches on it, but I can just cut around those, right? I bleached the crap out of that thing, and still, these little orange stains persist. As soon as the pattern is all cut out, I'll have to pin it down to these sheets and make sure I'm not going to have to buy a million more yards of white fabric for my cloak.
Tip for buying fabric: bring tons of reference pictures to make sure you are getting exactly the color you want.

A friend of mine from Anime Detour 2010 found me on Skype yesterday to tell me he's making me a 4 foot broadsword and several knives for my cosplays. I found it quite comical when he asked "How long do you want these knives? Is two feet long enough?" I nearly died, because seriously, the man cosplays scary Sweden without even needing to try, and he's so freaking nice! But two foot knives? My mouth flapped open and closed a few times, and then I said "...Anywhere between 6 and 8 inches is plenty long, thank you" because I try not to be a jerk. >>;
Anyways, he's letting me paint them, too, so i can put pretty little details onto the hilt all I want! I'll be using Cynical Pie's tutorial here: http://cynicalpie.blogspot.com/2010/07/pen-is-mightier-than-sword.html to try to make my paint job look as professional as hers.

Tomorrow, my amazing friend Paige (whom I commissioned my Austria maid dress from) will be coming to my house to help me pick out some overcoat fabric for Magyar and also help me cut everything out. Then on Wednesday, my wonderful grandmother (who's helped me on every other cosplay, it seems) will be helping me sew everything. I'm going to try to run over to Tandy Leather Factory on Thursday and do all of my leather painting/staining/sheening that day, and then do acrylics on Friday morning. If all goes as planned, I will be done with all of my cosplays by the pool party on Saturday, save for minor painting and a few props.
And really? The only thing I'm worried about is boots. Maybe I'll go diagram those suckers out today. Right after I carve some leather medallions and finish those lower breastplate belts.
And find that darn camera to make some tutorials.

You don't need to be more accurate, you just need to shoot more bullets.

Violence is never the answer. Guns are.

Firstly, I must admit to procrastination. I should have finished spray painting my Nerf guns a while back.
In my defense, it rained a lot recently. I only own one of the three guns I decided to spray paint, so that doesn't help either.
I own a Nerf Vulcan, one of the bad boys that people love to mod for extra firing speed and ammo capacity. I still need to put a few more coats of paint on it and get a strap to hook it over my shoulder with. If I'm really feeling ambitious, I'll paint silver accents onto the gun. Pictures to come~
The gun I'll get the most use out of is the Nerf Scout, which looks like a big 9mm pistol. Not only will I use this for my Terminator Austria costume, but also for Intrigue's Mafia!Romano outfit (Mafimano for short). Then I can also use it for my boyfriend's planned Wesker cosplay. (Boy, am I ever pumped for this. Not only is Wesker my favorite Resident Evil character and one of my all-time favorite video game characters, but this means my boyfriend will finally get to experience the cosplay scene. And I get to go with him as another Resident Evil 5 character, the "plague doctor.")
Long story short, that gun will get a ton of use. I might even repaint it as a Vladof shock repeater pistol for my planned Mordecai cosplay. (Woot woot Borderlands!)
I also plan on buying an off-brand Buzzbee Lever Action Rifle for Terminator Austria. It was in the movie, guys.

Deadlines draw near...

In other news, we have just hit the one month mark before Anime Iowa. You know what this means: finish up those costumes! Start your acne regimens! Make a shopping list with things like "deodorant" and "shampoo"! Do 200 crunches a night for those sexy abs! Drink tons and tons of water, until you pee clear.
No, seriously, this hydration strategy will make you so much more comfortable in the heat of a summer convention. Take it from a girl who was in one of Minnesota's top marching bands for four years of her life: drinking water and eliminating pop from your diet will keep you feeling good during all that running around.
In marching band, we wore full head-to-toe wool uniforms, and were expected to practice in the sun for hours on end. We alternated between rapid marching and returning to an earlier spot to repeat our routine, and standing stock-still with perfect concentration, the sun beating down on us and heat rising from the black asphalt below us. In other words, it was really freaking hot. Drinking water for a convention will have the same effects: fending off the ambient heat and the heat from your costume, and keeping you from getting tired as quickly. It has the added effects of keeping headaches at bay and keeping you pleasant. One of the first signs of dehydration is grumpiness, which just ruins everyone's fun. So pee clear.
I, for one, will drink plenty of water for the rest of the month. However, I'm also an avid pop-drinker, so I'll have to cut that carbonated high-fructose corn syrup out of my diet for at least the last two weeks of the month. That should be plenty of time for my body to cope with the lack of caffeine. Hopefully I don't crack mentally because of the strain.

Who you won't see at AI, or, why anime conventions are like high school

We have a dropout this year at AI. My friend who was going to be France and Ancient Gaul can't come anymore. She's been having some weird mini heart attack things, and the only day she can get her chest checked out is during the weekend of AI. So, while I mourn this loss, I am also glad that she's mature enough to keep her priorities straight. Her health is always more important than an anime convention.

Excuse me while I go make my list of planned cosplays even longer. Le sigh.

Cosplay Lists and Progress~

This summer, I'm frantically working on Hetalia cosplays for Anime Iowa. I have three costumes for myself, and I'm helping with five more (three of them being for my buddy who still needs to get on this blog.)
I'm sure you're wondering how this helps anyone. Well, I'd like to point out that I HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING MORE THAN CLOSET COSPLAY BEFORE. So if I can do it, then you can do it too.
I'll be constantly taking pictures and documenting progress with tutorials whenever I can, because there's nothing I love more than helping everyone else. I'll add links to anything I can to illustrate what I'm talking about. If anyone who owns the things I've linked to isn't okay with this, I will remove them upon request.

THE LIST OF LISTS

My cosplays for AI:
-Ancient Scandinavia
-Teutonic Knight Prussia (with armor)
-Terminator Maid Austria (based on a fanfiction, and also for the lols)

Cosplays I am helping with for AI:
-Ancient Magyar
-Ancient Gaul
-T-1000 America (to compliment Terminator Austria)
-Rome
-Mafimano (South Italy in a devilish suit)

EXPLANATIONS AND PROGRESS

Ancient Scandinavia: One of my friends cosplays Ancient Rome, and she put together an Ancients group for this year. Unfortunately, our Mongolia and Mama Egypt dropped out, but we still have Rome, Germania, Mama Greece, Scandinavia, Magyar, and Gaul. All applicable characters have been heavily drawn on personality-wise from GreenEyedLady's Outcast, which is an extremely well-written SuFin fanfiction. If you haven't read it and can stomach SuFin, you should check it out here: http://greeneyedlady.livejournal.com/104661.html#cutid1
I'm the group's Scandinavia, and the first problem I noticed after frantically calling dibs on this costume was this: I'm 5'5". Scandinavians are hella tall. So today, I have been designing platform high-heeled boots so I can be about 6'0" (putting me at two inches above our next tallest Ancient, four inches taller than our Denmark, and just three inches short of our Sweden.) I already know I'm gonna die, and I've come to terms with this fact.
I found patterns at my grandparents' house that can be modified for many of his costume pieces. One of my good friends did artwork here: http://xyrenoftwilight.deviantart.com/#/d2rmq5e. I have a pattern for his cloak, jerkin, and gauntlets now. I plan to cheat on his undershirt and just sew tan cotton sleeves to the insides of his jerkin sleeves and a second collar at the top to imply another shirt. I'm also cutting another corner and just wearing a pair of brown pants I already own. Our awesome Sweden is going to try to make me a 4 foot broadsword, and hopefully I'll have enough leather left to make a scabbard. The runes say "Skandinavia" on his scabbard, which I think is a nice touch. And the white fur is either fake fur or rabbit fur, depending on which is more affordable and easier to find. Lastly, our mega-friendly Denmark has promised to lend me his battleaxe if he isn't able to go to AI 2010.

Teutonic Knight Prussia: I'm using a fanmade "Armored Teuton" design that I saw in a youtube video, Viva Gilbert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4F0fptjnIc (at 0:38). The Prussia from the Gilblog happened to have the full picture, which I haven't found anywhere else, and he gave it to me. Then, let's just say that I know some people who know some people who know some leatherworkers from the local Ren Fest. After a quick jaunt to Tandy Leather Factory for some raw materials and Target for some tagboard, my epic Rome and I had patterns made for all of our armor and Rome went home with a completed breastplate (more on the breastplate later.) It's full "limb" armor (meaning I don't have a breastplate) and moves the same way metal armor does. I'll be painting the completed leather armor a silver color with a special leather paint (also at Tandy) to try for that metal sheen. The Ren Fest guards are actually using me as a guinea pig for this, because if they can get away with using lightweight, cooler leather armor rather than heavy fully metal armor, they will. Depending on my time constraints, I might go so far as stippling on black "corrosion" to make my armor look older. The only thing I'm worried about is if I'll have "armor" for my hands and feet. I suppose I can fudge some if I have to. Any suggestions, internet?
Then there's the rest of the costume. I have a pattern for the black jerkin and the long white cape, though I'm not sure what materials to make these out of. Then I'll topstitch a white cross onto the black jerkin, and a black "Iron Cross" onto the bottom right side of the cloak. That should be simple enough.
I can use the same belt and sword as the Scandinavia costume above, but without the scabbard.
I'm working on a coif and cheating a chain mail shirt with black, thin rings. I'll be sewing a ring of chain mail to the bottom of the jerkin and at the ends of the sleeves, because a full mail shirt would be terribly hot, tiring, and a crapload of work. I'll post pictures and a chain mail tutorial when my camera is working again.
Lastly, I have the Gilbird I used at Anime Detour 2010. The same awesome friend who drew Ancient Scandinavia up there said she'd sew my little Gilbird a Teutonic cape to match mine if I ever get him mailed to her.

Terminator Maid Austria: Okay, this one is the nerdiest thing I have ever done in my life, I swear. This happened because of my obsession with Terminator 2 combined with my obsession with Hetalia and my obsession with fanfiction. It also requires explanation (and maybe some defending of my sanity).
If you've seen Terminator 2 (and if you haven't, it's my favorite action movie and I fully recommend it, and everything I'm about to say won't make sense unless you've seen it) then you know that Schwarzenegger is the Terminator (T-800 model, for clarity). Well, Schwarzenegger is also Austrian. My mind very quickly linked the two, and fanfiction was born.
Logically, if Austria is the T-800, then teenage Prussia is the annoying pre-pubescent John Connor, and Hungary is the butt-kicking Sarah Connor (even if they aren't related.) And if Austria has to follow all of Prussia's orders, he'd end up in a maid dress, courtesy of the Bad Friends Trio. Think about it. So really, this cosplay makes perfect sense. I'll link to this fanfiction once I finish it.
This costume has also been drawn by that same amazing friend who did Scandinavia. It's here: http://xyrenoftwilight.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2rhsmg. As you can see, she's really awesome. The dress is based off of this: http://kyocs.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1bk4nf. I commissioned a friend who wants to start her own small, independent cosplay business because I knew this was above my skill level and she'd appreciate it as much as I would. I'm going to be wearing my black combat boots to stay with the style of Terminator (and to make it more obvious that I'm trying to be a man) and I might wear stockings or fishnets, I haven't decided. I'll be wearing black leather gloves as well, but I already own those. I'm going to spray paint a Nerf Scout (seen here: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3410787207_cb165d2b68_o.jpg to tuck into my dress-matching thigh holster. I'm also spray painting my Nerf Vulcan http://nerfguns.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nerf-vulcan-blaster.jpg to imitate the T-800's minigun. Depending on how much time I have, I might go crazy with painting on details. I also want to spray paint the lever-action Rapid Fire Rifle http://www.buzzbeetoys.com/USglobal/RSAirBlasters/46300.html and flip-cock it like in the movie. I won't use the clip, because it just sticks out unnecessarily.
Lastly, I'm going to attempt to rig up a glowing Terminator eye for my right eye, complete with exposed silver skull and trauma wounds, like this one: http://actionflickchick.com/superaction/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/term2_2667a.jpg. The makeup will probably be close to just my right eye and cheekbone, however.

Ancient Magyar: My blog-buddy is cosplaying the Uralic grandpa of Hungary, Finland, and Estonia. I'll have the colored lineart (done, once again, by the same awesome friend) up as soon as I've finished coloring it. She did a ton of research for this cosplay, so props and epic points to her.
I guess I'm kinda in charge of putting this together, since it was me who convinced him to do it in the first place. I got modifiable patterns for his overcoat, shirt, and boots today. He's wearing white women's jeans that somehow fit him perfectly for this costume, found at Savers.
He has a ton of weapons: Bow and arrows, short sword, and a spear. I might make him a leather armguard to imply that he keeps raptors for hunting (historically, he'd have a golden eagle). I haven't planned for these just yet.
Lastly, he's getting a long brown wig, because Magyar has a ponytail that hangs about to the middle of his back.

Ancient Gaul: She's also going as casual France to AI, so I figured, why not go as France's mama? This one is still in the making, more information in a later post.

T-1000 America: My blog buddy agreed to compliment my Terminator Austria cosplay with this. We're going the easy and accurate way and ordering him a police uniform. We'll have to dye the shirt black, probably, but I've been told by the girl making my maid dress that this isn't too difficult.
We're also just buying an LAPD badge for him, but we're spicing up the cosplay with silver arm-hooks, aviator sunglasses, and silver shotgun wounds like this cosplayer: http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/spotlights/2008/t1000_500.jpg.
Then he gets an America wig and actually smiles in pictures. Swish!

Rome: She was very very VERY unhappy with her last breastplate, so we made one out of leather. It still needs work, but it's already better than what she had. In her new breastplate, she can sit down, feed herself, and breathe (because she doesn't need to bind her DD cup boobs in it, and you can't tell she isn't flat-chested) all of which were extremely difficult or impossible in the last one. I'll put more information in a later post as we work on it.

Mafimano: My blog-buddy has one last cosplay-Mafia South Italy. This one's pretty easy, he needs a suit anyways, so he's getting one based on this picture: http://alexiel-viii.deviantart.com/art/MAFITALIA-117304009 (and yeah, I know that's North Italy.) He's getting a wig and I'm styling the ahoge, and he might be using my Terminator Austria Nerf pistol.
He'll be using my wrist-length black leather gloves, too. Depending on cost, he might even get a fedora, black with a red band.

I think that's it, internet readers! Any and all comments, suggestions, and criticism will be well-received and much-appreciated!