Winter update

No real update to add right now as I'm currently on vacation in Arizona right now until the end of the year. I haven't been doing very much which has allowed my mind to wander when thinking about various things including future plans and what the next year will bring. I'll be traveling to Los Angeles again in the first week of January for ALA to do the usual cosplay filming. Going back to the idea of having a lot of free time to think--prominent cosplay YouTube videographer, AcksonL, has been having a lot of issues with the sound in his videos being muted due to copyright infringement. This is kind of a big deal in that a lot of work goes into producing these videos which are oftentimes created and designed with a very specific song in mind. When the audio at some point later gets muted, that becomes a pretty big motivation killer. Next year I want to branch out and produce some video shorts, still currently thinking about what niche I plan to fill though and how that will impact shooting cosplay.

SC2 Spectre Cosplay: Legs 6

The legs are proving to be a ton of work and it almost feels like nothing is really becoming of all the effort that I've spent on them.  The two legs are currently in different states of finish and in the latest picture it's really apparent how dissimilar they are which is pretty annoying.  I don't think I'll be able to get the leg on the right perfect without having to completely remake it--and there's no time for that with so many other pieces left to make.  I picked up a little trial size of Apoxie Sculpt, and used it to build up some raised edges on the model.  I must say that Apoxie is a pretty amazing material to work with and the kneading process you have to do at the beginning is quite therapeutic and feels great.  The cure time is a bit long (24hrs) but that's the price that must be paid I suppose.

I also started work on the shoes or boots by splitting the pepakura model and integrating the pieces with an old pair of dress shoes I had lying around.  The fitment was surprisingly good.  The only issue or concern is that the bit at the rear sticks out a good inch or so at the top and might make it look like im wearing clown shoes--but it might just be a matter of perspective at this point.  I need to decide how to fill the gap in the center of the two pieces by deciding whether to use something flexible or jointed to allow the toes to bend or just rigidizing the piece to a uniform / fixed model with fiberglass.  I'm pretty excited to see how these will turn out.

SC2 Spectre Cosplay: Legs 5

Sanding and bondo work continued... One of the legs (on the left in the pic) seems to be coming along nicely while the other (the imperfect / warped) one is a major hassle. Because the pepakura model consists of low-polygon count design and the unit in the game isn't perfectly smooth (aside from the portrait) it's hard to determine how smooth to make the legs--that is whether to keep the appearance of sharper edges or to round everything off smoothly. I think I'm going to try and keep the front somewhat sharp and try and smooth out the back. It's taking a lot of body filler though, already went through a small tub of it. Might have to pick up a large gallon size portion for future pieces too.

Still a bit of work left to do on the legs but making slow forward progress I think.

SC2 Spectre Cosplay: Legs 4

Spend a good part of the afternoon sanding down the legs, got most of one leg shaved and a small portion of the other.  While sanding the second leg I noticed more and more the quality discrepancy between the two, the second leg is 10000x inferior it's almost as if the model is warped.  It's a little disappointing but I'm going to try and make the best of it--hoping more bondo and more sanding will help alleviate the problem slightly.

Sanding down the bondo is a pretty time consuming and nasty process, a respirator and other personal protective equipment is definitely mandatory.  After working on the first leg I was covered in dust and swept up 1-2 cupfuls of fine powder.  The first leg isn't perfect and there's a lot of divots and imperfections in the surface.  I think I'll need to pickup some Apoxie sculpt which is like an epoxy clay to fill in areas, reinforce the leg openings, and build up the edges of sharp surfaces.

Hopefully I'll get to spend some more time working on the second leg tomorrow.  Bondo sands somewhat easily but requires a lot of patience when cutting through thick areas.  I found that rough bondo surfaces destroyed my 80 grit sandpaper pretty fast.  Bondo placement should be deliberate and precise to avoid / reduce headaches later.