For quite a while I've been debating over doing a new "X3" Nightcrawler outfit and lately I've been this close to doing it.

I came up with a cool design a few months back that actually managed to incorporate elements from the almost all of Nightcrawler's past costumes AND Fabricland just happened to get this kickass looking washed pseudo-lambskin in which would have been perfect for it.

But sadly I think I'm going to have to send it to the cosplay back-burner once again..... :(

The only way I can even come close to affording said kickass lambskin (and the black and red suede I'd want to use for accents) is to buy it during our 50% off sale. Which is going on right now. Problem is I've been working full days during the sale and I spent last week working on my assignment instead. So I didn't get any time to draft a pattern (well I took a few cracks at it but couldn't come up with anything that would work). And this is NOT the type of costume you want to be guessing how much fabric you need.

That and the tail needs to be re-done if it's going to fit properly (any problems before were covered by the coat).

BUT, on the bright side, because that leather is just too cool to pass up I'm going to re-do my Crichton coat instead. It would take a lot less lambskin, would look seriously sweet (since my last one was made in a rush with a crappy vinyl jacket from Value Village) and could actually be worn as a winter coat.

As for what I'll wear to Con*Cept, if I get to go.... well I'll probably fix Abe, or bring my old Nightcrawler outfit. Or perhaps I'll take a crack at Sean.... I'll find something. Cause I AM going to cosplay gosh darn it!

Yay! Wake up little generator, there are new things about.

Kate-AtionsFX: The Website version 1.something-or-other is now officially launched!

It's far from perfect - I left out a lot of stuff for time's sake, since the main point was to get something up so that I could start advertising my services for Anime North.

Over the next week or so I shall be adding things like a Bio, and a Links section. This is only a temporary home anyways, until I get my own domain name and so forth (whenever that happens).

But comments, questions, and critiques are still more than welcome!

In fact I have a couple questions:

1) Well, what do you guys think?

2) Do you think I'm overusing the portfolio pics? I debated getting rid of the mini-gallery on the first page, or the medium sized shots on the main gallery page - what do you think?

Thanks and enjoy everybody!

For the last week/week and a half my major project has been to take the water clay bust I did of my Dad awhile back and cast it in gelatin.

I want to do it up to look as realistic as possible - paint it up with the airbrush, punch hair in it, make some acrylic eyeballs, the whole nine yards.

I've been experiementing etc all week. I attempted to paint what was my second attempt at the head last night, with so-so results.

But I'm contemplating melting the whole thing down and trying again. On the current head I did the ears seperately, so that they would come free of the mold easier. However I spent nearly all day yesterday with heat gun, and old wood burning pen, trying to "glue" the ears back on and hide the seams and I'm really not happy with the results.

I mean, it looks pretty good but it's not perfect. 6 months ago I would have been happy with it. But I'm trying really hard to push myself past what is "good enough" for an amateur to what is acceptable for a professional. Mr Smith is always saying that a portfolio doesn't have to have more than 3 photos in it - but those three photos have to be flawless

So tommorow - I'm chopping it all up and trying again. Third times the charm.

(Like any other con report it's a whole 2 weeks late)

So with a rallying battle cry of "I'm not dead yet!" I managed to finish my Abe Sapien costume Mark 1 in time for Toronto Trek. But 'twas no easy feat that's for sure.

( Cut for lots of LONG technical ramblings and pics )

So although I'm not totally back to square one - I'm pretty close. The clothing and accessories are done (except for buckles on the wetsuit and pouches for the belt) but I'll have to do the sculpting, molds, etc all over again.

I managed to save large hunks of the plasticine that were only slightly damaged by the mold making process so hopefully I can save some time by fitting them all back together on the lifemask and just cleaning up the rough edges.

I also have an idea of what went wrong with my foam. But that will require further experimenting to confirm.

I've been waivering back and forth for the last few weeks trying to decide on 2 more costumes to take to Toronto Trek.

I was hoping to have time to fix Leo (ie make some shell/belt modifications as well as make him new hands and feet) and wear him but I'll be lucky if I get Abe finished at this rate.

My problem is that I actually have very few costumes when you really get down to it. Most of mine are so elaborate and take so long to make, that I only average 1 new one per con (and sometimes not even that). And if you take out my anime costumes I have even less (yes, I know, there's no rule saying I can't wear an anime costume at TT but I'd prefer to wear an SF one if possible)

But like I said - Leo needs to be fixed and ditto with Nightcrawler (well at the very least I wanted new hands and feet for Kurt) and I just don't have the time.
I wore Erik, in all his forms, to death at Ad Astra (and oh god WAAAAAY to hot for Red Death right now). Even my Guyver armour is just broken bits of papier mache at the moment.

But this afternoon I finally settled on 2.

1) Gawl - When I found out Vic was coming to CNA I thought maybe I'd save Gawl for then. But I've decided "well, screw it, I'll wear him to both". Gawl needs no repairs, he's easy to put on, and I LOVE wearing him. And since the whole point is to have fun - well gosh darn it then this way I'll have twice as much fun. And no one recognizes him anyways so it doesn't matter where I wear him.

(and yes, Louise, Gawl will live in the car when I'm not using him so we'll save on floorspace)

2) Ghetto Nazgul - Yeah, basically it's just layers and layers of black stuff out of my closet, plus some old Halloween hoods but again a very fun costume to wear. And it still looks pretty good - especially when I borrow the funky Ring Wraith gloves from the shop. It would also be a perfect costume for Sunday since I can pack up the car, wander around the con, then just strip off a couple layers for the drive home. No trying to take off make-up in a public washroom because we've already booked out of the hotel.

Haven't decided yet whether I'm going to try and be funny or not. At the ROTK premiere I ended up wearing a Santa hat and being a "Festive Nazgul" at it was only a few days till Christmas. If TT had been this weekend I probably would have worn a Canada Day hat of some sort.

But now - back to Abe. I have 8 molds to finish before I go to sleep tonight.

1) To file under More Cool Stuff You Can Do With A Heat Gun

Apparently you can bake Sculpy with it. I was working on my belt buckle for Abe this morning (which is a large metal and resin version of the BPRD logo) and discovered that I had forgotten to include a piece of the logo when I baked the rest of it last night. I remembered seeing a quick comment in Make-Up Artist Magazine about being able to use a heat gun on Sculpy so I gave it a shot.

It works great - and takes less than 3 minutes. The trickiest part is making sure you don't scorch the piece.

Now all the pieces I was heating were very thin (1/8th to 1/4 in). Thicker pieces might take longer/not bake right. Next time I do a figure I think I'll use the heat gun to set the inner layers but still put the finished piece in the oven on very low to sort of "set" the whole piece.

2) I'm happy to report that my airbrush and I have appear to have come to an understanding. I spent several hours last week meticulously cleaning and oiling him till now he works fairly reliably. This reliability appears that it will continue as long as I remember the following:

- He likes to be dunked, nozzle first, into a cup of nice warm water and throughly rinsed, everytime it even looks like I'm not going to be using him for more than a minute.

- That even though the Createx paints say they are made for airbrushes and can be used as is, they are much to thick for my airbrush's taste. As long as they are thinned with water first he likes them just fine. Right now I mix 10 drops paint for every tsp of water. I could probably add a bit more but this gives good colour (at least with something strong like black) and it's easy to remember.

Couldn't do any sculpting on Monday as I was waiting for some new plasticine to arrive. I finally got around to playing with the small hunk of Chavant that Pris gave me and discovered that it is, unsurprisingly, leaps and bounds better than the elementary school type stuff I have been buying (as that is the only type that seems available in the city) so I ordered all nice new stuff.

So I decided if I couldn't sculpt, I'd go to Leading Edge Hobbies and see about buying the stuff to make the gills.

Now I had figured this was going to be fairly straightforward. The two brothers that run the shop do all sorts of RC stuff and I figured that although the application might be a little unusual I was really looking for a fairly simple part. I thought all I needed was a small servo that could move a flap (like the rudder of a boat or the flap of a model airplane). I didn't really need any RC stuff as all the power and the main switch could be hidden in one of Abe's many belt pouches.

And apparently that was where my problem lay. The small size of the servos, and the type of movement could be accomodated fairly easily. What, according to the guys at Leading Edge, was the problem was the fact that I wanted to be able to turn the gills on and then leave them to "do their thing" without any further input from me. They said that the only way they knew of to have a servo move a flap like that was if it was hooked up to a joystick and a person used the stick to "tell" the servo when to flip back and forth.

This boggled my mind - I mean you can buy cheap toys that you can turn on and they will do only one simple movement continously so I couldn't see why it would be so hard to find a tiny servo that did the same thing. But apparently it is.

But all is not lost. I called up an old highschool friend who I know took robotics at St. Lawrence and she thinks she can help me. So I'm not sunk yet ;)

Speaking of sinking (or swimming rather - yes let the bad water/fish puns rain down) what is going very well is my wetsuit. That was my plan C to work on when I couldn't sculpt or work on the electronics.

My idea to make "fake" neoprene by covering fun foam with jersey knit is going extremely well. It's got me all excited and jazzed up (nothing motivates better than making progress after all).

Except I am most definitely going to need help getting in and out of that costume - there are zippers down both sleeves and up both sides/armpits which allow me to get in and out (since the foam has absolutely NO stretch) but I can't do them all up by myself. I just cant reach them.

I got me a heat gun set (heat gun plus a bunch of scrapers I may or may not use) at Canadian Tire for $18 - regular price $49.99!

Yes!

Now I can really play with the Wonderflex

My very first shipment of foam latex arrived today. I still need to read over the relevant instructions and get a few more things before I start but it's going to be fun!

BTW - does anyone know anyplace I might be able to buy a triple beam balance? Sculpture Supplies sells one for $210 but I'd like to do a little more shopping around.

( Phantom Phollies )

( Won over by Wonderflex )