Status Update 2

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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

10.01.2017

10.01.2017

I’m very disappointed and a very slightly so annoyed. I got myself a compressor and an airbrush. In theory it is simple to set up and to use. This blue metal box runs on electricity and has an on switch. I plug it into the socket, connect the air hose and flip the switch. Lo and behold everything works. The same can’t be said for the shiny metal dongle known as an air brush. Apparently I can’t get enough air to flow through the nozzle. Unfortunately this meant that most of the podcast was spend tinkering with the device itself. I went as far as dismantling it and putting it back together again. Some of my lovely viewers did offer some very helpful advice. I greatly appreciate this. Not only does it add content. It also makes it more fun and engaging. Otherwise I will be embarking on yet another monologue. I will probably have to return the device to the store.

Another very unfortunate thing. I need to track down a store that sells those mats this time of the year. In order to continue my reaper cosplay. Which I spent some time on today, Removing some excess material around the arm sockets. If not it will bulge in the middle and stop my full range of movement. It is not like it gives any extra protection what so ever. Technically I’ve found a feasible solution for the belt and that is fantastic. All I have to do is to track down the pesky worbla I have lying about. Since my glorious Twisted fate hat has to go. I’m not entirely sure if I can stream any cosplay the next day, due to having an arrangement. See you around and be true to yourself.

#zaceron #cosplay

Njål Sand

06.01.2017

05.01.2017

Great greaves on that Reaper. Today I spent a lot of time figuring out how to make foot armor and she decorations. By using a sneaker as the basis. It is a very common fact that fantasy and science fiction footware, seldom makes any sense what so ever. This holds true for reapers shoe armor as well. If anything they almost reminds me of braces. Maybe they are intended as shock absorbents and anti slip. But that is just meandering and pointless speculations. I'm here to make it work and look good while doing so.

Step one was to place my dainty foot on top of the table, dressed in blue woolly socks and all. It gave the views a good look at my hairy well shaped manly legs. Which I proceeded to cover in white butchers paper and masking tape. Thereby making a guide by drawing lines onto the paper with a permanent marker. After measuring twice, I took a knife and cut once. Folded the paper in the middle and cut it mostly symmetrical. It's one of the more tricky things to pull off on anything related to foam and precision. Some of the first cuts was done with a dull blade, that was a bad move, which is why I resorted to use a wetstone to sharpen the blades. Sharp blades gives nice, smooth and clean cuts. Those are the best as I don't have to remove artifacts with power tools. In order to deal with the transition on top of the knee, I glued on a piece of cloth on the back side. It will also cause the three pieces to stay in place. Unless something unforeseen occurs tomorrow, I will keep working on the armor and buy myself some more foam.
Njål Sand

05.01.2017

Yesterday day I had a good stream, today not so much due to searing pain in my arm. Tough I did play Aurion for about an hour. It's not a bad game long loading times aside. After a lot of hard work and modelling I managed to assemble the body armor and reinforce it as well. To achieve this I uses a lot of cargo straps, its those bright blue ones you see on the pictures. Hopefully I can paint them grey at a later point. I use these to reinforce the underlying structure as well. With a combination of hot glue and contact glue. Due to molten plastic drying faster and to add a second layer of protection. Ideally pulling threads through it would work even better, but patching holes can be quite annoying. AS you can see there on my lovely sculpted Styrofoam bust I've added adjustable straps to both the shoulders and on the sides. Technically I could and should use thicker one. But those where just a tad too expensive. Under neath there are several images illustrating how it looks when assembled correctly. As usual they are made mostly with EvaFoam. Unless something stupid or unintended occurs tomorrow I should be back in business making foot armor and probably the grenade belt as well.

twitch.tv/zaceron

Happy 2017

I'm still here and therefor an update is in order. I'm awaiting certain parts in order to continue with my Reaper cosplay. Among these are a series of couplings for my huge compressor, which I will be connecting to my airbrush. Eventually the stores will open again and I will be able to buy some cargo straps, which I will use to make the armor and grieves of his costume. However here is also the latest update.

I did eventually make a better and cleaner version of  Mei's liquid holding ball and it was a fun and interesting process. Despite my worries, the sphere was just big enough to fit into the slot, By applying glue to each half, I managed to waterproof it. After than I penetrated the surface with a drill and added a funnel. Filling the ball with water and food coloring. The color is not quite right though, but that is a minor complication. To plug the hole I added an adhesive sealant, mostly used for bathroom tiles. Because I knew it was relatively water proof, after all it is intended to be used in bathrooms.

Here is the initial pattern of Reaper's tiny, tight tank-top. It's surprisingly small and provides virtually no cover. But that will suit me just fine. Since I've got a brilliant plan. I will not use a hoodie, nor a tactical turtle neck for this one. Only the waistarmor itself. Turning myself into a sexy Reaper. Yes I'm a bit of a pervert, aren't we all? Anyhow, I will add several straps on the backside of the plates, with a combination of glue and thread, which will make everything a lot more solid and form fitting. I've also noticed that the costume also have several belts and at handful of grenades, which I will make from cardboard tubes. The kind found inside of empty toilet paper rolls. I promise that I will stream a lot more this year.

On a side note, I've strated to design a game and will upload a new monster design weekly to my NSFW patreon account. I'm aiiming to make a very naugty and fun rpg game.

https://www.patreon.com/zaceron

#Zaceron #reaper #overwatch #diy #cosplay

Njål Sand