Guitar progress?

Lesson learned, guitars are relatively easy to make, but the pay of will be so worth it. Weight reduction is going to be a real butt fungus to deal with, but eventually I will succeed. The really nightmarish part is to actually paint on the Union Jack flag. So far I’ve tried with painters tape, that idea has failed me hard, there is always something bleeding in under the tape, or wobbly lines. I considered painting it on transparent plastic. First thing that happened was that my minion spilled water over my many layers of paint. Which meant that I had to redo it again. Using foam was a at one point suggested. But small foam sheets are expensive as heck around here, or micro sized. So that is a no go. Paper on the other hand crumple up and becomes wonky when moisture is absorbed. Which leaves me to my final experiment this time around. Craft cardboard, primed with the right color. Cut into shape and attracted to a white sheet of paper. Which I will then glue on to the surface and apply a shiny finish, which might just makes it water retardant. It’s usually used for wood. 

#zaceron #unionjack #lordraptor #woodwoork #guitar #paintjob #darkstalkers

Necronomicon

The grimnoir of mystical tomes, filled to the brim with knowledge men were not meant to know. Its supposedly made from human skin and can bring the dead back to life. So naturally I had to make myself a couple of book covers. It totally does not have anything to do with an upcoming convention called Regncon and the impartial cosplay competition I will hold there. Its a pun on the state of the weather in west Norway during autumn, essentially a lot of rain. Not that the bad weather is anything out of the usual for us up here. The only difference is the blistering wind that bites into the bones. That being said, wearing a cape and posing against the wind is very fun, especially when its so strong that you can lean against the wind. Anyhow I decided to make a couple of note book covers. Since I  had to put the guitar on hold. The current progress includes a lot of paint strokes. basically the solution for my white lines is to glue on a white painted plastic sheet cut to size. I have a brand to build and I will succeed, feel free to help me with that.

The theme of Regncon this year is Cute and Scary, which makes tomes the perfect price. They're kinda low cost, but with the work that goes into them makes the quality and the cost increases. For the face I mixed up a batter of troll dough and brought a wooden tool, in order to mold the face into shape. Once I heat treated it for a bit, with a heat gun I added a layer of liquid latex.  (I should really just put them in the oven or something.)Works wonderful, but smells horrible and adds a bit of skin like quality to the surface. Plus it protects somewhat against humidity. Followed by a coat of brown paint. Now I just need a lot of time for the dough to dry and new brushes.

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Zaceron

Lord Raptor will be proud

Later than the last one I suppose. However I’m back here yet again to to write about my project progress. To regale you about stories never told and several thoughts to behold. A fellow Goonie streamer came to me and requested a prop. The very guitar Lord raptor is holding when posing for pictures. Apparently he killed himself and all of his fans, in order to rise into the after life as an undead sensation.

The guitar is simple and very plain. The head is a copy of Lord Raptors noggin. Complete with his hair and everything. This pasty blue abomination can give Widowmaker a run for her money, at least he has the excuse of being dead and all. Anyhow, the neck is plain and red, while the body seems to be black on the back side, with a Union Jack flag in front. Decorated with two blue pieces. One at the neck and one where the strings will be attached. If I had the skills and was paid for it. I would have considered installing electronics and a microphone, which would then be able to pick up the sound and project it through a speaker.

I’ve also started to play Final fantasy 15 lately, since my immigrant worker brought an xbox 360. There are some perks to having a legal alien at hand.

Zaceron

Keeping Priorities Straight

I’m not very good at updating this blog at all. Something I clearly should do a lot more often. 

Especially when I have no real topic aside from rambling and anecdotes. Lately I have been making even more Nords in the Fjord videos and great many hours of streaming. Which led me to become affiliated. Which means I can have cheers and that silly little triangles hitting the cup animation. Too bad I cant make a custom one just yet, now that would be awesome. On the other hand I’ve uploaded some snazzy sound effects and experimenter with custom emotes. They work great. Naturally I have not been completely idle on the cosplay front. I made a prototype model of Mercys wings. Not perfect, but a fitting scale to go by. Foam will in all likelihood be used for the wings. Worbla coated craft foam is not a bad solution either. A bit on the expensive side though. After all cardboard has very few positive attributes aside from protecting cargo and prototyping.

Which brings me to my current plan, I’m going to use a lot of cardboard and a bit of creativity to make a prototype larp armor. More specifically a Chinese mountain armor. Its essentially a sort of lamellar/ scale mail. I’m hoping I can somehow coat them in plastic and assemble them properly. Since water will waste the result and making paper look metallic is tricky business. Same holds true for plastic. I can probably at some point cut out a whole bucket load of metal pieces from plate steel. However I have no laser cutter or a way to stamp them out, but hey what is life without a challenge and metal working is fun.

Aside from that I have spent a lot of time playing Star Craft 2 coop, The campaign and Sonic Mania Oh well back to it then.

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#Zaceron 

Black Monday 28.08.2017

Black Monday 28.08.2017

On the wings of mercy. Mercy is cool, chill sexy and all around nice looking. If you look away for her unnatural posture on the in-game models. Where her butt is pused outwards along with her chest. Causing some odd and painful spine bending. None the less I intend to make her outfit work on a lovely little lady friend of mine...somehow. I all likely hood I’ll have to shrink the wings to make them less shoulder pain inducing and less of an annoying door stopper. It is very likely that you’ll never be able to sit on anything besides an ottoman non the less. Naturally the wings also needs to be removable.

All things have to start somewhere. As you can see here I started to cut into a chest plate, from this odd white plastic figurine. Which incidentally is also a very nice thing to attach to the wall and cover in concrete. I’m sure new tenants and unknowing guest will like the addition to the wall and totally not call the police. Then again, people are weird enough as it is. Yes, I am not entirely sure I can be considered normal no more, not that I have ever been in the first place. Since I grew up with a serious lack of self esteem and spent a lot of time avoiding female company. Mostly because I tried to avoid giving people picking on me fuel and most girls only have love, marriage and kids on their mind. Unlike me who is way too fond of games. When and where I grew up,. No one girls cared for games, costumes. Quite frankly I have no idea what they did for fun, but it was not through electronic devices. But hey, that’s just me rambling

So let’s crack on then shall we? I came to the conclusion that the top piece is a solid chest plate, going over the breasts, which then is tied into some sort of white cloth or such that is clearly flexible. That is held in place by strops, much like a corset. With the wings working as a backpack, which is connected to the chest plate, where the strops to distribute the weight are hidden under the surface and over the black cloth.

My first attempt at the wings will be in cardboard, since its cheap and I have a metric ton of it laying about, after ordering a new kitchen bench from Ikea.

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Many Plans

Lately I’ve been streaming a lot and the goal at the moment is to become Twitch affiliated and make streaming much more like a full time job. At the moment I switch between several games and new releases, cosplay related projects and a lot of drawing. There is a surprisingly big amount of people who want my artistic services. Which I’m happy about and if anyone throw a good idea my way, I might just do it. Adult or otherwise. That being said, I will stream a lot of safe for work stuff. Such as my quite lovely and growing collection of Poros, those cute fuzzballs from the game League of Legends. It is a ball of fur, with two round black eyes and a huge red tongue. The perfect recipe for a mascot and a fluffy plushie. A fellow streamer sometime around Christmas last year put up a challenge, draw me Sailormoon Poros. Everyone said it was too hard! Let me tell you this, it’s the most easy thing in the world to do. Because I’m a professional. Behold the very cute Neptune juggling a jar full of sweet loot. 

I also felt like it was time to make myself some emoticons. Therefor I decided to make a quite fantastic poro animation, that still require some work. Stay tuned for that. It is a work in progress.

For the cosplay section I have a freind that is also a quite beautiful girl, whom love Overwatch. Which wants to dress up as Mercy, naturally I will help with this edavor. There are several challanges involved. Such as the backback with the wings. The overly long staff and her pea shooter. Yet that’s the easy part. Her chest plate that covers her breasts is clearly flexible, yet it is not fabric. Now that is the hard part and her halo like headgear.

Some time in October I will participate in an event called Regncon in Bergen, where I plan to hold a cosplay workshop. I’m not entierly sure about what I will have the participants make. Since I have to provide the materials myself. I suppose the whole «cult» theme is something to capitalize on and the fact that the convention is built around tabletop gaming. I can and I will in all likelyhood teach the folk whom attend, how to make larp sacrifice daggers. Since those are cheap to produce and require almost no resources.

Eventually I will also complete my game design document so I can start making my vision come to life. 

Write a book that takes place in the game universe and do a very valid effort at updating my comics. I'm lagging behind on those. Trust me they are harder to make than you'd think. 

In other words, stay awesome and stay tuned for more.

Zaceron

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Nords in the Fjord Road Trip

Norway is a big and magnificent country. Long and hilly is more like it really. Though that does not take away from the natural beauty of the land itself. Despite the miserable west-coast weather. Which for the most part is composed of rain, hail and slush. For the lack of a better word. The reason I have not been updating this blog was due to me going on a fabulous road trip into eastern Norway. A decidedly much more flat and fertile farmland, with the biggest lake in the land. If one make good speed the trip is only about six hours long, but that is a very hard thing for a tourist to pull off and hardly recommended. The scenic route is totally worth it, especially the road that goes through the Hardanger fjord. A place surrounded by steep mountains and dramatic peaks, with a breath taking view that goes on for miles. At some point I plan to paint a picture of the scenery, like many famous artist in times past. There is a reason why it is a very sought after place for cruise ships to stop by. Which they do by the way. Some argue that this is a bad thing, then again people are very good at complaining. A tourist trap is a tourist trap for a good reason. The road itself crawls along the mountain side, next to the mountain. After crossing an expensive toll bridge built to alleviate the ferry traffic. Later we drove across several fertile farms. Which is the reason Hardanger is also well known for apples, plums and other fresh produce.  

One of the most fantastic stops on the way was a farmers market, selling foodstuff straight from the field, some tasty candy and other products that makes for a perfect gift. Especially the cherries sold there was very delicious. Eventually the road starts to curl up the hillside like a snake. Where a massive waterfall resides. Once you reach the mountain crossing, sparse vegetation and patches of snow dominate the landscape. Which is soon followed by many cottages and a quite nice bathing place. A bit on the cold side but, when the sun is burning hot and the journey drags on it’s a welcome relief. That is only first half of the journey.

Zaceron

#NordsInTheFjord #RoadTrip

My Fate Is Twisted with Worbla

My Fate is Twisted!

Worbla is a very interesting thermoplastic material, which has become very popular and with good reason. However it does come at a price point not everyone can afford. Also as far as internal structure goes, it’s very hard to make it stand on its own, not to mention molding it. Yet it works wonder with a foundation underneath. Most people usually stick with craft foam, since Kamui cosplay made a brilliant tutorial about it and gained a lot of fame at the same time. I will use it in several planned projects and then some more. For now you’ll just have to make do with my first attempt at using the material some years ago. Worbla is very fascinating as it will easily stick to itself, melts with heat and becomes solid but flexible when cool. I did consider some point at tracking down the factory and buy a container load of the stuff.

Introducing the hat of the one and only Twisted Fate from League of Legends, a card hustler, magician and over all fancy pants. Due to the nature of 3d models and video game design, it is a hat that is virtually impossible to make with felt or leather. It’s black on top and red underneath. With an almost Robin Hood like style to it. He is a handsome rogue after all.

I did manage to make the hat work with worbla without any support under. This came at a cost, when it comes to the not so neat and clean top part, where the hat is wobbly. Inside the dome, I glued red felt, for conformist and due to sweat. Worbla is plastic and the texture repels water and is quite unpleasant on the skin. At a later point I added a chin strap, since the darn thing blew off my head during bad weather. The hat is pretty much a sheet of plastic easily carried by any gust.

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Zaceron

DIY Uka Uka

Hoga-boga! Anyone remember the spiritual mask that followed the oddly shaped bandicoot, that vanished when damage was taken? I certainly do, and someone gave me the idea, after saying one of my masks reminded him of Uka Uka. Such ideas I consider too good to pass up on. Apparently he was a spiritual shaman of sorts, then he died. Which turned him into a floating mask. A mask that gives advice and invulnerability when three are collected, without taking damage. Uka Uka can be translated into spiritual guidance, which is what he does. For all intensive purposes it's a piece of wood, with a wacky face on it, adorned by several colorful feathers. However I'm not a woodchuck, nor a wood worker. Instead I opted for foam instead. Which I tailored to mostly fit my face. Cut out holes for the eyes and the nose. Then trace lines downwards with a soldering iron, melting groves into the foam. Which gives it a very much wooden look, further enhanced by a decent paint job. Where several gradients of brown was used, the nose is just a red triangle. All in all a very quick build. that I also used on a larp. Basically playing a wonky voodoo priest, with to noisy bells in his belt.

Zaceron

Wonder Woman Shield

Wonder Woman’s Shield

Due to the recent and decent wonder woman film, recently released. I decided to make her shield. It was surprisingly easy and took around five hours in total. This is the definition of a DIY (do it your self). Despite how good it looks, I did mess up the runes at the bottom. They’re a bit crooked and nonsensical.

All it took was a wookpan , a sheet of EVA foam, soldering iron and a heatgun. That being said, it is a bit on the small side. However that is just a minor complication. Basically i traced a circle around the biggest pot lid I found. After struggling for quite some time, I did manage to cut a decent circle, Far from perfect. I’m not sure why I removed the pot lid and tried to do it freehand. Some of the liens got a bit wobbly. The hardest part was still to find the mid point of the circle. In the end I just used a ruler to draw up a square around the circle. Then traced a line from corner to corner, this also gave me a decent guide. Now the sane thing is to draw all the lines and do all of the scribbling on the surface before curving it.

The pattern I drew on plastic sheets I put on top of my pc screen, after hoisting the screen onto my lap. We truly live in fantastic times. The old crt monitors made this virtually impossible to do. Basically i found out I can use the flat screen as a make shift light table.

All of the decorations where carved out with a soldering iron, which incidentally releases some dank fumes. A breathing mask is recommended I suppose. After carving out several wonky trenches and gibberish Greek inspired runes, I heated the circle up. Then stuffed it into the wookpan and squeezed it into shape. Heated it some more and pull it out after it got cold. On the backside I attached another smaller circle of foam to attach the shield straps and to make it more sturdy. The straps it self are glued and bolted onto the foam, just to be on the safe side. Some paranoia is always recommended, plus durability is a must. Incidentally this also hides the straps on the backside. Making the whole product much more tidy.

Meanwhile the symbol and the colors was a deliberate pick. The original one from the comics always looked like a plastic toy. Hardly fitting a Greek amazon warrior. The new one looks a lot more fitting, but it lacked the logo. Which game me the idea combining the two designs. On the edges I carved in several crocked and wobbly runes as well, which in all likely hood is garbage and gibberish. But when you consider that people in the ancient world did not have powertools, some imperfections is to be expected. This is also the first time I’ve made a round buckler like this.

There are two plans for this shield, one is to have someone dress u and use it at launch day and then to give it to a lovely little lady, whom is a huge fan of Wonder Woman.

Zaceron

#wonderwoman #shield #diy #foam #protection #superhero

The man behind the mask

At long last I have come up with a stage act, an act worthy of a cosplay competition. Not to mention the fact hat I have made reapers mask as well. It is probably one of the fastest cosplay props I’ve made. The prop is made from EVA foam as usual and the result is quite stunning indeed. I have a very interesting and a bit silly way to approach this. By simply pressing a paper against the face, while marking out the eyes, the nose and the mouth with a marker pen. It can also be done with the help of a fried or family member with measuring tape, though that is hardly considered good fun. Ones the placement has been found, I proceed to use a transparent overhead sheet to draw out the pattern. It’s very easy to find reference material online, or just use the Overwatch in game gallery. Ones the lines are in place, it is simply a matter of cutting out the various parts. A scissor will usually do the trick. Take the template onto foam and trace it. Cut out the main skull piece, then the beak like nose, followed by the ridge on top. Naturally it is important to refer to the pesky reference picture as much as possible. The mind is terrible at remembering details and I have at several points done silly mistakes, because I got too overconfident. Glue the pieces in place after removing the studded backside with a knife, sand paper or a rotary tool. Which is also my favorite. It’s important to let the adhesive to properly dry and carve out the space for the nose under the beak. While this is well and all, the two pieces on the side has to be cut out as well, but those should be attached after the main portion has been bended with heat. It’s also recommended to cut out a small triangle on top of the skull, to make it curved a the top. When the piece got properly assembled I attached and adjustable strap, allowing me to wear it and other people as well. For the color I mostly went with white mixed with a dash of brown at different density, which I smudged with a sponge, to achieve a more smooth transition. Any slot aside from the eyes I also attached black fabric to make the contrast more striking.

One of these days I will build a Gundam for no apparent reason.

Sighing out

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Zaceron

Cop Stopped?

17th May, the Norwegian independence day. It comes around every year and is wildly celebrated by people form all over the country. Mostly by walking as a huge group waving flags. It’s also the perfect opportunity to advertise clubs and everything in-between, from bikes, old mobiles, Vikings and kilts. There are very few limits. Naturally I went in my Reaper cosplay, minus the guns. I don’t trust people and their ideas of what is considered a terrorist threat. I have spent way too much time and effort on them to let them be confiscated by a man in blue. It was bad enough that a constable was concerned about my spice bottle grenades. Yes I got stopped. Right after that I was stopped by some reporters as well. Some fellow with the worst hand writing I’ve ever seen. Which is saying something, I have worked with children.

I came across a couple of annoying things I might just have solved by now. First of all the grenades kept falling out and was very hard to glue in place. The second issue I had was the ammo belt, which was made with screws and ductape. That was not very smart. However the solution came to me today. I just used a more stretchy black fabric to make the loop and instead of short screws I used bolts, with a nut on the end.

The other thing I spent a lot of time on, while streaming was to assemble new hoops and fixing the paint job on my guns, which looks fantastic by the way, if I do say so myself.

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#independenceday

I need more Blanco

I have to paint most of the shotgun white, I guess that is why it is called El Blanco. Apparently it is a pun based on correction fluid and the Mexican prefix El. The clay rouses turned out fantastic, way beyond my expectations. My original plan was to go with thermo doll clay. It’s a simple clay that one pop into the over and let it dry. But I needed it to stay in shape until dry, so I went with troll dough instead. Also because it is very simple to make and very inexpensive. It can also be over treated. I also used the same substance on the handle grip. If this works or not, time will tell. However one thing is sure, this gun is not one to throw around as the paint job will go awry and clay will probably break. To rectify this I plan to use some ski card devices. The one you can pull out a thread from, that retract when letting go of the thread. I’m not sure what this device is actually called and can’t be bothered to look it up just yet. I added a lot of minor details and isolated a lot of the colors. It made me wonder if I should use a more ivory color palette. Other that I did stream a lot of Sleeping dogs. Which is why this blog has been a bit slow to update.  

Troll Dough 03.05.2017

Greetings and salutations, it is time for another stream update report. Lately I’ve been spending considerable time on various games. Such as unlocking stuff in Overwatch. I just had to get the officer Dv.a skin. For some insufferable reason America got it first. Naturally I just switched over to those servers instead. By definition it is cancer mode, everyone and their mother was shouting add me in the chat. Not only that people are carp, especially since everyone is lov level as well. Progress does not carry over. Slow loading time and people disconnecting is to be expected and they will be replaced with a retarded AI, which is likely to be better then the AFK player. The poor little sod has a habit of sauntering of minding it’s own business. Failing to use any meaningful abilities and recall when at full health. SO to say business as usual.

As for my El Blanco Reaper shotgun virtually all of the important elements are in place. I had to look up the actual model within the hero gallery, in order to get the details right. The bottom of the gun now resemble the actual model. The smart thing is to paint all the parts separately and then assemble them. But that does not work all the time and will make the process of painting painfully annoying. Colors bleeding over is a real annoying and real problem when I crave pixel perfect precision. Aside from that though, everything is good. Meanwhile I have some reservation about how well my flour, salt, water and glue dough will act when dry. If it drys that is. Essentially I molded the roses with air dried clay, that I coated with glue. Since without it the mixture started to crack, crackle and dry up. That being said though, this troll dough is excellent to entertain children with and can be baked in the over and then coated in paint. It’s not recommended to eat it, sice the salt makes it rather unpleasant.

1 cup water

1 cup salt

2 cup flour

Zaceron

Update 24.04.2017

Games, games and more gaming and photshop. Because I have a game in the works. Plus I’ve made more game videos uploaded to Gamers-Haven.org. The other reason I’ve been doing less cosplay the last week is also due to painting the living room white. Also why I have not been using the greenscreen effect while streaming.

Other things I’ve been doing is to clean up some plastic in nature, by carrying around a plastic bag, when going for a stroll. It’s the small things after all. I’ve come to the conclusion that if the political climate can change, so can the environment. Besides that I hate living with thrash and pollution regardless. After spending time in Beijing’s horrid air pollution I can say one thing. I don’t miss it one bit.

As I was saying, I’ve started to work on a game project, where I’m in the process of writing the design document and making a collection of weekly waifus on my Patreon account. Drawing lovely monster ladies is a fun past time and will also build the foundation for my in game characters. Stau tuned for more.

Greenscreens is a relatively simple thing to set up. Especially in obs, as there is a chroma kye filter. Hand up a bright canvas behind the gaming chair. Like a bright green piece of cloth, have some good lighting and wear a color that is not the same as the fabric. You can also probably go to the local paint factory/ store and have them mix up a green or blue concoction to paint on a surface.

I also spent money on upgrading my PC, but to tax returns I will probably eat a little bit less this month and the next one. Oh well, time to bake bread. 

Zaceron

Cold Steel

This is a boomstick, there are many like it and more will come. Great progress is achieved on the cosplay props front. Not only did I hammer out ball and chain cuffs for the foot. I also managed to upload a new video and updated my waifu collection on Patreon. Happy fun times all around. The cuff was created from an iron plate I cut into appropriate pieces and went to town with a mallet. The ultimate solution for any problem. A hammer is a fantastic stalemate breaker when some deluded fool only think there exist two choices. Unexpected results will occur, but results non the less. Some precaution is recommended. 

One thing is for sure though, working with iron and a hammer is quite fun and satisfying. It comes highly recommended. After all learning a craft is a nifty life skill. Especially when dealing with IKEA furniture and other things that has to stay attached to a surface. The next step is clear to me. I just have to complete my forge and get myself an anvil. A nifty tool of iron, that would have made my cuff a lot more refined. It’s a seriously tricky process to hammer a sheet of metal into a desirable shape with only logs to help and no heat. According to my father there is an old saying. Blacksmiths working without heat goes to Heaven, while those that have a forge goes to hell. Essentially I put the metal sheet on top of a log and start bending it with pliers and hitting it hard with a hammer. Surprisingly effective all things considered. About the only thing not made by me is the bolts, the plastic chain and the bauble. Making rudimentary hinges is not that hard it seems. Nor creating loops to pass the chain through.

Meanwhile I also did some more on the Reaper shotgun. It’s a fascinating thing, with a lot of details. Which I figured I could make with clay and melting the pattern with a soldering iron. It releases dank fumes and I’m probably better of with a sharp knife. The trigger guard is mostly made by assemnbling cardboard parts cut to the right size.

Twitch.tv/zaceron #reaper #cospaly #ballnchain #cuffs #shotgun #bdsm

Zaceron

Video editing 404 07.14.2017

Today was spent on editing a synopsis video of my lovely and slightly off putting Easter eggs. That video went from eight hours of stream, into a less than ten minutes long clip show, with voice over explain some of the process and choices. Much like my blog updates. I have not edited much if any video before and it shows. Especially in my get ripped with Dark Souls video. Where I though everything was to scale. Guess what, it was not. Apparently selecting the whole track and selecting scale to frame, failed me. Leaving half the video in the wrong scale. I have fixed it now though. But you tube is not capable of replacing a video. Only to re-upload it, onto a new url. Which is a bit annoying, but understandable and his been that since the beginning. After all we can’t have people replacing one video with another one. Yet cutting parts and basic editing is totally acceptable. I swear that I did check the content before I clicked publish. It did not occur to me to check a second time. However a more correct version is up. It is a first time for everything. Friday will be a problem indeed, since I will have little or no time to stream. I have to deal with a sim card delivery and a feedback meeting about the Nordic academy of sorcery larp. Where I will present my lovely and totally not bdsm useable cuffs. In all likelihood I will also get a system upgrade this weekend and stream some gameplay. I have also made a deal with a musician and this is the logo we agreed on. Look forward to his music. Enok Groven is apparently quite well known.

What’s your kink love? 04.04.2017

What’s your kink love?

My fantastic plan was to work on the El Blanco reaper shotgun. However I did not expect the chain linked cuss to take so much time. I’m still not done and I need to collect some more material. But for some insufferable reasons the nuts and bolts comes in packages of ten. I clearly need to buy in bulk. Never the less I did make some cuffs from parts found at Jula.

In recent years the rather terrible written and executed Fifty shades became quite popular. Despite being mediocre at best. In that regard one could consider this part on of making a bondage dungeon or to spice up the bedroom play time. Though the real reason for making them, was a discussion about what to do with future installments of the Nordic Source Academy larp. We have had way too many demon and monster attacks. Which led to a distinct lack of friendly monsters. Not to mention the accusations at the end of the game, when someone has committed an alleged crime. In other words, it looks a lot more awesome to bring the guilty one into the min hall, wearing chains. Preferably with a big padlock. I had to settle for plastic ones as they are easier to work with and that I had several metes at hand.

The contraption is easy to construct, but it can take a bit of time. It’s composed of items bought from a hardware store here in Bergen. It is very much the same as Wallmart, only Swedish and with a heavy focus on hardware.

The cuffs themselves are made from plastic pipes cut haphazardly in half. Punctured with several holes. Where a hing has been screwed on with nuts and bolts. The piece holding the chain in place I made from a metal plate I cut to size and punctured. Just to get a bolt size hole. Then I polished the metal and painted it gold and sanded down the pipe and went for a black primer.

I have yet to actually create the lock mechanism, but I have some ideas. Keep in mind though. The cuffs themselves are very easy to escape and break. It’s purely intended as visual fluff and fun.

#larp #harrypotter #prisioner #cuffs #king #fiftyshades #handcuffs

Zaceron

Eggs for Easter? 30.03.2017

I should update this blog a lot more and write longer texts, but I’m easily distracted because games are awesome. Despite my obvious pains in the right arm. Which is nothing new to say the least. I can only my blame my lack of proper arm training earlier in life and aimless gaming. However now that that is said and done, on to the topic of costume props.

I have a lovely friend and aprentist whom is also a girl. She decided to craft Caliburn from the Nasuverse. The sword of Saber, a really complicated project with a lot of odds and ends. But in the end it will look fantastic. For the most part it will be constructed with plywood, foam and worbla. Despite my expertise in making objects and welding tools, cutting straight lines with a jug saw is tricky. The idea is to emulate the way blacksmiths assemble their blades, only with less forging and more cutting.

My second project is trying to get access to a more permanent blacksmith forge and a solid iron anvil. Luckily my old man left a half finished structure behind. Hopefully the big compressor can be used to fuel the fire with air. Raising the temperature high enough. Working in metal is awesome and quite fun indeed. 

Aside from that, my third project which I’m done with for now, is the magical beast eggs. By now there is no secret that I am a larper and as such, I like to build my own special effects. In this case I got an order of several eggs, intended for on of the sorcery classes. One egg is intended to be open, like something has escaped. So naturally I had to build myself a quite squishy and organic looking egg pod. Roughly based on the fantastic Alien franchise. All of these eggs are made from balloons. My intention was to buy Easter eggs and pimp the hell out of them. However none was on sale. Therefor I made a papermache mixture instead. Nabbed some newspaper from my neighbours overflowing mailbox. Which got shredded into a box of water and wallpaper glue. This wet mix will for the most part stay on the surface of the balloon when it dries up. Though I went a bit overboard with the water. Prolonging the drying process. That did however not deter me from smother it in latex sealant and beach sand, mixed with paint. The side pods are made from foam coated in liquid latex, which gives it a very rubbery texture. 

The same process holds true for the other ones as well. However the redish one is covered in seashells as well and some moss.

Green, brown and covered is one of them as well. That is simply pants glued onto the surface to give it a forest fairly feel. Whilst the blue one is simply coated in sand.

Eventually I will make a full sized Alien egg in clay

Stay tuned and be awesome!

Zaceron

#Aleins #easteregg #eggpod #magicalbeast #zaceron

Blacksmith!

The last few days I’ve been quite busy, expanding my repertoire. First of I’ve been playing a lot of Conan exiles, with a brutal twist. Every time I die, I do five push ups on my cheap webcam. It’s a good burn and a terrific exorcise. That being said, I have the most brutal spawn point in the game. It’s in front of a cave of infinite spawning spiders. On the right hand side, there is a camp of humans. Under my floorboards spawns mangy mutt hyenas, that now can attack through walls. They spawn in waves of five. I also started to build a mighty castle of sorts, which will be the foundation for a fantastic town and a social justice rhino zoo. Did I mention that rock noses and rhinos also spawn next to my camp? For a while I had one stuck in a pillar, I called him Francis. The vicious wildlife really tear into me and can truly make my life a living hell. On the flip side it works fantastic when streaming. The next day was spent on learning the basics of blacksmithing, at a lovely crafted forge, situated in a fantastic neighborhood. After a lot of experimentation, I ended up making a hook to have in my belt. Made from a long thing iron bar. After all it was my first piece ever. Had my fantastic friend take a lot of pictures as well.

 http://www.photo.yngvehegreberg.com/Archive/Misc-Events/Peders-Smie

Shell Shocked! 09.03.2017

It’s time time pick up some stream, my ever so dainty costume of death, decay and an infinite stream of shotguns. Is coming along quite nicely. Among other things the greaves is starting to look, work and feel like they have a purpose and solidity to them. Instead of being of being spongy plastic. I’ve also picked up some gloves at the local every thing and their mother store. They are simple black and has some green on them. Most of that I just peeled off, in order to make it less intrusive. After clearing the space I took a piece of masking tape on top, which I drew out the pattern, which became the basis for my foam cut outs. Which I naturally trimmed, pruned and glued on to the fabric. Naturally I also prepared some screws as well. In many ways I’m employing much of the same techniques as armor smiths does. The belt straps and the ordinance has been redesigned as well. In stead of using a chromed dome of two stacked foam, I used some Christmas baubles instead. With the help of a glue gun I could actually prevent my balls from falling into the hole. Which did occur at several occasions. Though that leaves me with a puzzling conundrum. What can I do with the 2 mm thick edge surrounding the mantle. If nothing else it looks splendid from afar.

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Reaper rant 01.03.217

Reaper rant 01.03.217

I’m a bit biased and rightly so, the same holds true for anyone judging a competition. The other day I was participating, in order to entertain, win and spread the word. Be yourself try cosplay, however that idea was shot down rather rudely by the most cringe worthy statement I’ve heard. “If anime was a real characters, she is that person”. Apparently she looked enough like an anime doll to win. Which is fair enough if not for the overly focus on body type and being a look alike. To me, hair color, body shape and skin tone should have no bearing on a fair judgment.

“Judge not a person by the color of his skin, but the content of his character” Martin Luther King.

That being said I’m quite certain I had the best performance on stage, copying the animations and the mannerism of Reaper. Despite my very hammy and successful effort, the girl with the giant scythe won. Yes using a giant implement like that is impressive and I know for a fact it is heavy. Since I’m the one whom made most of the thing. While the Lovely participant did the paint job.

However I have a sneaking suspicion that the judges liked her the most due to being an anime character, they had some familiarity with. Unlike my perfectly sensible Reaper performance.

Other than this little rant of mine. I had a great time and have been having two good consecutive days of streaming, where I have been spending a lot of time screwing straps and working out more sensible ways to attach armor pieces. On top of that I made three grenades, I converted from cinnamon bottles. Which I added a handle to, at a later point I will consider painting it as well. The bandolier on the left side is quite tricky indeed. Since I now have to add another belt to the side, which the graphics artist decided to add several studs to, amongst other details. To keep the ordinance in place, I employed several layers of plastic, covered in duct tape and held in place with glue and screws.

A rather rude and nasty troll did drop by. But as usual I made a mockery of him and reported the fool.

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Zaceron

I see a red door 23.02.2017

I’m totally not an arms dealer, it’s cosplay I swear. Never mind the fact that I’ve been crafting seven grenade rounds. It’s a really powerful weapons against living things. That being said, they are a bit of a toss to make. The base is a cardboard cylinder wrapped in a transparent sheet with chrome dome on top. But I already went over that last entry. However this time around I added several layers of red paint and more layers of silver chrome as well. For the most part it turned out fantastic, just fabulous. Another thing I did a lot of was to paint everything with glue. Adhesive priming is key to a better texture result after all. Other than that I used up every last drop of black paint in the tube, to fix the shotguns. The hardest part I had to deal with was the belt buckle. Which is a this point held in place with a nut and a bolt. That one will cause some real trouble later, I’m quite sure of it. Should be it for now, I’ll make a video of the shells at a later point.

Zaceron

#cosplay #foam #reaper #overwatch #blackwatch

Maka Scythe- Black Monday 21.02.2017

Makas scythe from Soul Eater

The club I’m running is still here and it is a fantastic club indeed, with many lovely and dedicated members whom are brimming with energy. Unraveled skill and fantastic ideas that’s being created on our cozy loft and at home. This weekend a lan party takes place, one that also holds a cosplay competition, That I Zaceron plan to attend. In order to take pictures of gamers-haven.org

Anyhow back to the business at hand. The scythe is almost to meter tall and one meter wide, with a quite big arching blade. Painted in shiny silver, glossy red and a dull black color. The blade itself is made from a piece of plywood sealed with layres, upon layers of glue. I guess a good polishing tool would be useful for removing the wood pattern. Unfortunately we have no such thing.

The pole is made of wood, with a slot cut into it to insert the blade. Held in place with several screws, hidden by a cylinder. Which was a real nightmare to make. Warping foam around a round shape and gluing it in place is not an easy task. But I eventually succeeded. My every so lovely student did most of the job. I just helped her to assemble it.

Dumpster diving and a hardware store was key do accomplish this project. As the nearby theater was thrwing out materials used for set pieces. Such as many pieces of plywood. I took several pieces under my arm and dragged them all they way up to the clubhouse. It was well worth it. I do realize that I could probably have asked for helt to carry more loot.

The eyes on the side is just a piece of foam curved and glued on, with the illusion of an eye painted on top. Meanwhile the screw at the top is just foam.

Zaceron

#zaceron #black #cosplay #witchking #astrid

14.02.2017

 I've been a bit under the weather lately. However I feel much better now. Even if my hand is screwed up. Along with a decades old soccer damage to my foot. Regardless of this though I carry on.
Lately I've made more videos, streamed some Darkest Dungeon and will do so much more and a couple of other games as well on a weekly basis.
Aside from some minor setbacks I'm back and I've made a lot of progress when it comes to the grenade launcher rounds Reaper carry in his bandoleer. He carry seven of these shells with a chrome dome on top. These I've decided to make from cardboard tubes, I got from those large toilet paper rolls. The kind that is usually used in schools and university. My attempt thus far is to cover them in shiny plastic film. Add a ribbon on top, followed by two layers of foam glued together. Which I pruned with a knife, until I achieved a round shape. After that I gave the rotary tool a spin to even it out. Applied some heath to remove a couple of imperfections. Glue was then applied to the surface to seal the deal. A good surface treatment causes the paint on top to have a much smoother finish.

A bit later I tried to paint them with some chrome gray and metallic red. The red spray suck donkey balls, not to mention that they both smell awful. In all likely hood they are probably toxic as heck for the body. Some fire was used to manipulate the drying and getting rid of the smell. It was mostly successful, mostly. It was great fun to ignite the spray though.


As for my schedule for the rest of the week.

Wednesday will be business as usual.

Thursday will be spent in a project meeting and getting an x-ray taken

Friday is dinner with my father. Will in all likely hood stream a game later.

The weekend will be spent in town, working on a larp event, called the nordic sorcerer academy. It's
great fun and totally not inspired by Harry Potter.

twitch.tv/zaceron
Zaceroun Out!

07.02.2017

07.02.2017

Going from boots to belts is a daunting task indeed. I’ve been a tad out of the game lately due to game reviewing. However now I’m back in the saddle again. It feels great, I even made a new follow today, despite a wonky start with missing frames on the stream.

Belts and buckles are very complicated to recreate based on the in game 3d model of Reaper. One set seems to be intended as way to keep the grenades on the side and his trousers in place. The other one is a bandoleer with seven grenade shells I presume. They are going to be quite tricky to make and makes absolutely no sense. They does not fit hos weapons, which makes them useless. Not to mention that Reaper never reloads. The third one is purely studded and edgy decoration. On the side he also carries three grenades. The chrome dome shells with be made with cardboard tubes. For the warhead mantle I’m not entirely sure. I’ve been toying with the idea of using two layers of foam and give the rotary tool a spin. Slowly molding it into shape.

Clip on buckles glued on the foam and hidden by a buckle shaped box, seems to do the trick, when it came to the first belt. The Buckle is just a long piece of foam bent into shape with a pattern cut into it. On the back I joined the two edges with glue and some more fabric. The concept is quite simple. Clip the two pieces together and slide the buckle over. 

For the second belt I had to cut out two strips of foam which I united on the middle, with a plastic to stiffen the gap and reinforce with fabric to keep it secure. The belt itself goes through a gap in a triangular shape, placed over the butt area. A nifty trick to keep the grenade belt in place. On one side there is another buckle of sorts which sandwiches the two belts. The buckle is slightly differently made, due to being much more ornate and smaller. With I secured with plastic and pieces of wood. On the back I plan on placing a strap buckle to keep it in place. Since I can’t just slide two pieces of foam into a gap and expect them to stay there.  

#reaper #blackwatch #overwatch #cosplay #foam #costume #belt 

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Zaceron

Status Update 2

'

Yes I took a shower with an intelligent yellow dragon!

The fellow I work with at Gamers Haven had some minor set backs. Which mean I have to play catch up on the review side. Combine that with a screwed up sleep schedule and I fall behind on my cosplay. Just to give you an idea what I have actually done.

Angels with scaly wings. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to complete a visual novels with dragon dating. Not my forte, nor my preferred genre. However someone had to do it. So do visit our lovely page and see my video and read the review.

Then there is the very generic, low resolution and boring visual novel Seinarukana. It’s more padded than a bra, with the usual stereo types. Several endings, some poorly tacked on RPG combat and dating.

I’ve also had to play the early access survival game, Conan Exiles. It is surprisingly fun and can only get better from here. It also comes with full frontal nudity, which is rare and a nice take that to social justice warriors.

Kite, a top down shooter with eighties esthetics, the way only the nineties can pull off. Complete with insane amount of enemies, explosions and a smashing score.

Castle Torgeath, which take lace in a big feature less labyrinth, filled wit annoying enemies and esthetics from the last decade. Full on first person murder of time, sanity and sensible level design. Got some nice narrative voices though. Such games I usually just leave as a video review.

Magical Brickout. Fay people got turned into bricks by evil wizard. Break them out by bouncing a ball around the screen, while keeping it from falling off. Slightly addictive, a decent challenge and a lot of silly jokes.

I’ve yet to properly start on Stellar Tactics, which will be a low and grueling thing, due to how visually atrocious it is atm.

Then there is Mustache in hell, it keeps locking up on me, leaving me with a series of crash logs littering my computer. I should probably send them to the developer.

I also have to play three visual novels about boy love, made by a Japanese company. I’m quite annoyed at that one. These types of stories usually takes twenty plus hours to complete and harbor more stereotypes than most shonen anime.

On the flip side Hello Neigbour is shaping up nicely. Which only leaves me with Potato Thriller

My ever increasing playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3YXNWeSxNj4rRia-t1Xgut9T-M5sxFK0

My awesome twitch

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Zaceron

18.01.2017

Stitching Velcro is not very fun, but it is a very important part of securing straps. It's a well known fact by now, that stitching and needle work is not my strongest suit. Stitch by Stitch, piece by piece, I slowly secure the Velcro. That was until I gave the sewing machine a go. Which somehow ended up with me spending the rest of the steam trying to get things working. Despite setting up the thread the right way, it kept snarling. Naturally this means that I have to go back and keep doing it manually with a needle. It is a pain, however the result will be worth it. On a very interesting side note, some lovely people showed up in the chat such as Evil Ted. The man I've copied a lot of foam techniques from. He is apparently a seasoned professional from the entertainment industry. A true inspiration. The biggest difference between the work he does and what I do. I mostly make the costume for my self, so that I can use them. Some will be sold and many will be commissions. All in all quite an awesome stream, where things was done. I have also acquired a working airbrush now.
Twitch.tv/zaceron
Njål Sand

17.01.2017

17.01.2017

Fun and eventful stream, where munch progress was made indeed. The greaves is starting to take shape. Slowly but surely the straps and the Velcro will make the multitude of straps hold the armor plates in place. The trick to using such material is to combine glue and thread. Since the stress will eventually rip the Velcro of the surface. I could not for the life of me did up the black thread I had intended to use. Which means I ended up using dental floss instead. Too bad it is colored white. However good luck snapping it. There is a trick to sewing the Velcro onto the black straps and that is to use pliers and a hard surface to penetrate the plastic. Most of the stream was dedicated to make the pieces come together as one. For the most part it works wonders and will look really fantastic when it is done. All of the straps are cheaply bought from various hardware stores. They are intended to secure cargo. Which makes them essentially impossible for a mere mortal like myself to pull rip in half. The fabric is just very sturdy. Therefore it is excellent for securing joints as well. Theoretically I could make it one whole piece, but that would cause problems with taking it on and off. Instead I opted for a modular approach that can be attached onto most footwear 

One strap goes around the foot, this piece have Velcro on the top and on each side. Thereby making it possible to attach the greave on top, then attaching the piece that goes onto the back. Without having the pieces move around too much. There are still a lot of straps and doodads to attach.

Njål H Sand

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

#zaceron #overwatch #reaper #cosplay #diy #stream  

12.01.2017

12.01.2017

Today I started very, very early. Since I had to get up and travel far to restock my supply of EVA foam. And to pick up some materials and some small straps. I had to wake myself up super early and head for the store to restock my food supplies anyhow. Which entails a very long journey of several hours by commute. Unlike Biltema, which is a store chain. Jula had a full stock. Naturally I had to get at least two packs to strap onto my backpack. They are not meant to be carried and are in fact quite unrevealdy. I also squired some battles of latex sealant, that can be used in cracks and crevices. It also has a habit of betting everywhere. Luckily the terrible weather let up somewhat. It’s still windy as heck and we’ve had rain almost every day.

I actually achieved a lot this day. After a lot of tinkering and a messy prototype. I did manage to produce a proper greave. Not only is there the long piece in-front. There is also the short piece attached to the upper calves. As seen on the pictures, the inside have been covered with fabric, a strap and several blue hoops.

The fabric helps holding it all together and prevent some chafing. It will also prevent the pieces from moving on their own accord. Because physics! On one side I attached the blue strap pieces as a hinge. That way I can open and close the greave. While keeping the gap mostly closed. The blue hoops are meant to keep the strap with the buckle in place. It’s a rather simple one. Hold down the leaver and push the strap through. Tightening it will still cause some complications though. Somewhat rectified by keeping the buckle in place with glue. Only good things will come from this.

It will look real nice when it is done!

Twitch.tv/zaceron

#cosplay #overwatch #reaper #greaves

Njål Sand