Project Synopsis 3

Project Synopsis 3

Why so Serious?

According to old theater tradition and compelling story telling, the Harlequin costume was made from many pieces of cloth. Hence the quilt pattern it’s made from. In may ways it resemble a Jester. They do stem from the same idea of on stage entertainment. However a Harlequin is also a bit of a tragic hero of sorts as well. Whom have to deal with a lot of hardship and romantic complications. Though this one is meant to fit into the Warhammer universe.

Eldar is a race of space elfs that murder boned a god into existence, A god of sex, seduction and pleasure. Be it good, bad or just sadistic. The Harlequin is a sub set of these Eldars, that serve one known as the laughing god, These lanky murderous fellows are essentially themed after a quite British theater play. These actors in the troupe, sees every battlefield as a stage and have developed a sadistic streak. Where every weapon they sport, is designed to kill people in an artful display of blood, pain and excruciating agony. Eldar only comes in two flavors. Murderous psychopath or condescending bastard. Both are skills they have mastered.

I have done several attempts at making a mask. I even tried to make a rough model of my face in clay. It did not turn out okay. The first one was made with paper and was crooked and flawed. The second mask was ill fitting and became quite moist inside. Meanwhile the third, was made from a retrofitted Guy Fawkes mask. Something that is rather hard to see at this point. Since I sanded away the original texture. After a lot of back and forth I eventually settled for the black and white color scheme. By alternating between black and white, the final effect becomes rather snazzy. On the side an edge has been added, as an attempt at emulating the original mask design. Eldar lore has it that the mask are meant to change depending on the users will and whom the onlooker is. Though that would be virtually impossible to pull of.

The suit itself is bought from a costume shop at Ebay, that world wide garage sale. The quality is not that fantastic. However it was the most wholesome jester costume I dug up. For some pesky reason the most common costume being sold, is either female or in tatters. I’m not donning tights anytime soon. Naturally the project is far from finished and I’ve yet to find a good scene performance.

Alternately I could just pretend it is a custom Shaco skin and add some pointy knives.

That Being said, I will be very sporadic this holiday season.

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

16.12.2016

 had a terrible start today, but I pulled through. I’ve made great progress and have become a lot more proficient at making models. Te most negative thing today was some minor cuts due to being clumsy. Kinda like what happened yesterday as well. But those wounds will heal quite quickly. That being said there is a lesson to be learned. Never be afraid of redoing or reworking any part of the project. No matter how precious your baby is. I do it all the time, out of necessity and because I can be a bit of a perfectionist. As I’ve been working on this gun project, I’ve looked over the model several times and there are still things and details I’ve missed. There is also a lot of impressions, which is a real pain, when doing beveled edges. However I found a nifty trick. The dull blades work as a barrier the rotary tool can pass. Sure there will be a lot of sparks, but those just looks nifty on camera so it is a win, win. See you on the flip side!

12.12.2016

“Die, die, DIE!”

Reaper needs to work on some his catch phrases, he’s way too gloomy and serious. Though that is much of his charm. Despite being a murderous shadow wraith. That being said, the last time I was online I did not report it, due to playing a fun game called Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and baking gingerbread cookies for Christmas. I did that for a couple of days, so I make uyp for it with this report instead. Instead of working on my already existing shotgun, I decided to make a second shotgun. It’s going to be one of many more to out on the pile. My plan is to make at least six. Maybe eight, which I can throw around me on stage. I usually start with a thick and proper core, that is incidentally the same size as the cardboard tubes I use to make the barrels. I keep finding these pipes at grocery stores all the time. They are virtually free, minus the time it takes to carry them home. Round shapes is the bane of my cosplay existence. Anything chromed, beveled or circular is tricky. Fortunately there is very little of that on shotguns. However the project makes up for that with odd angles and quirky details. At least the details on Mei’s blaster made sense.

A shotgun of this kind, is just two barrels, a breaching mechanism and a firing mechanism. Break it open and insert two shells, close it and squeeze the trigger. Then open and remove the empty shells. Rinse and repeat. Use a saw to cut off the barrel and you’ve got a saw-off shotgun. Maybe the thing on the side is a thumbprint scanner, maybe it is the safety. I have no idea what so ever. The annoying thing is that the second gun is a lot better looking and thought out than the first one. Which will make for some visual dissonance, though that is a cool feature for a stage show, keep dropping better and better looking loot. Somehow I found a very decent way to add the heatsinks to the slide on top. It is far from perfect. But I had the tool to give it a spin. It’s is very flawed and such issues can be disguised as wear and tear. I’ve also discovered a better way to fix the top part. It just require some dirty tricks and masking tape to hide the terrible transitions. Eventually I will make the other shotguns he has as well.

#reaper #zaceron #shotgun #overwatch

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Njål Sand

07.12.2016

I have a shot, I have a gun. I have a shotgun! Now I just have to refine it a bit and make at least 5 more of varying quality. Because I have a cosplay plan. To dress up as the reaper and dropping guns around me. Theoretically I need about six of them. The version I’m currently fiddling with is Blackwater. I will also try to make the other type as well after wards. After looking at pictures and the posing in-game, my friend felt that they where visually too small. Yet they are all at the right size. I even based it on the model. So far the project is going quite well and it’s attracting people. That being said, the gun itself is surprisingly tricky to get right. My mind have a hard time agreeing with some of the details and the model is tilted at a very unfortunate angle. From the general look of it though, his weapon is a very fancy big caliber hunting shotgun, with two barrels, that can be broken open to reload. I’ve tested and 7 /12 shells are defiantly not the right shell size. Time to hop to it. To hid bad transitions I keep using paper and liberal amounts of glue and sacrifice cardboard to replicate the details. AS not all of them can, or should be done with foam.

The world is a stage and cosplay is a lot a bout theatrics. It’s an act, especially when competing on stage. Which brings me to my ingenious plan. Reaper is a very man specter thing, with anger management issues. With the uncanny ability to turn into mist and an infinite amount of shotguns. While that is god and all, his ult is a fancy twirl of death and repeating the word die, die, die. Whilst this is going down, smoke billows out. Now that is very, very hard to replicate, without triggering fire alarms, plus I would have to find a way to add sound effects as well. In other words I have to find a way to make it fun and entertaining while staying in character.

#zaceron #cosplay #overwatch #diy #reaper

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Njål Sand

Status Update 1

Most Mondays I run the workshop at a local cosplay club in Bergen. Where anyone can become a member for dirt cheap and get a helping hand in making their dream cosplay come true. Such as this one. 

The giant friggin’ scythe of Maka and how to assemble it. Within the world of Soul Eater, some persons can transform into a weapon. Which is exactly what Soul is, a giant farm tool, meant to harvest the souls of the dead, various monsters and evil witches. It’s a brutal and very inefficient weapon design-vise and way to big to get into most convention halls. Not to mention air travel. But that is a small price to pay for an awesome photo-shoot. My part in this project is mainly to give advice and to cut out the scythe itself. I walked by the theater, they had a container there. A giant metal box of loot and plywood plates. So I just had to lug a couple with me, a couple of Mondays later, she came and asked about a tall weapon. Talk about timing. The wooden pole just comes from a hardware store. Now the tricky part is to actually cut a hole in the pole, with a wood drill and a jigsaw. It’s noisy, cumbersome, but very efficient. Afterward, it was just a case of sliding the blade into the slot and add some screws to keep it in place. In order to hide the wood texture, several layers of woodglue was used to smooth out the surface. This process can be sped up with a heatgun. However keep it in place for too long and it will boil and blister instead. That being said, we’ve yet to figure out how to make the thing cylinder on top and the screw just yet. Not to mention the eye.

Other than that, I've had to deal with a bad foot and a way to treat it. A freind and business partner of main at Gamers Haven had to go back to back to USA, after  divorce. Naturally this mucked up my stream shcedule even more. However I should be back in business on Tuesday. I have some plans of making it a complete custume, with at least four shotguns if possible. 

Aside from that I've also been at work this weekend. Behold the Nordic academy of Ssourcery, a fantastic larp for children, held several times during the year. Imagine something akin to Harry Potter.

http://www.photo.yngvehegreberg.com/Archive/LARP/Trolldomsakademiet

#maka #soul eater #scythe #zaceron #cosplay #gamershaven #

Njål Sand

30.11.2016

30.11.2016

I have tiny balls. They are such tiny balls. I forgot to set the size to 60 mm. Which is the correct size. A minor setback, which is why I decided to make reapers shotguns instead. This lovely double barrel of fun is a sight to behold. Due to it’s clunky design. Utterly pointless extra pieces. Not to mention the very low ammo count and the attachment rail on top. As usual I will use a lot of foam. Since it is cheap, long and flat. Also cardboard, I can’t go a single project without using paper. I found a very good strategy for sketching these models onto a paper. I just position my flat-screen monitor horizontal, with blank see through paper on top. Mind you, I’m not careful this will backfire badly and scratch up my monitor. I suppose I can at some point just put glass on top and use the back light to draw. Anyhow, Reaper has two shotguns at any give time. These weapons are of the kind, you’ll break open and insert two shells. A very true and tried contraption. Not that he cares one bit about it. Since these guns are expandable. I’m not sure why he just keeps throwing them away, or where the keeps them. One thing is for sure though, he makes it look cool, the way matrix did it back in the day. From a practical perspective, throw away shotguns is a terrible concept, when the guns are so ornate with details. The amount of parts for a box, with two barrels and a trigger mechanism, is simply staggering. It’s usually annoying enough to clean the chamber of a gun as it is. Due to the holiday season and reasons, updates will be sporadic. The same goes for the schedule.

#reaper #overwatch #cosplay

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Njål Sand