2016 Cosplay Plan

After being tagged on Facebook to share my 2016 Cosplay plans, so I thought I would share them here as well.

First off is Gabranth from Final Fantasy XII. I have started working on this one awhile ago, but so far I have only started on the swords and some leg armour. I'm hoping to have it finished in time for AVcon so I can wear it in the Cosplay Competition.

Next up is Mega Evolution X Charizard from Pokemon. I am hoping to have it done in time to wear it on the Saturday of AVcon along with my cousin Megan from Biased Raincloud Cosplay

Maltheal from Diablo is a maybe for Supanova as it depends on whether I want to make yet more armour after Gabranth and Charizard. I love Maltheal's weapons and I think they would be fun to yield. 

This is more of 2017 cosplay plan, but I want to do a Warhammer 40k Space Marine cosplay. Due to the size of them I will probably need all the extra time I can get. This is also one of the reasons that Maltheal is a maybe. 

Last of all is Nurse Joy from Pokemon. I have no actually plans to finish this in 2016 so I won't be stressing about. This is more of a I'm going to do some sewing to make myself hate making armour a little less project.

How I made Chaos Blade and Highway Star

Today I will be talking about how I made Chaos Blade, one of two swords belonging to Gabranth from Final Fantasy XII, the other being Highway Star. I will mention Highway Star, but won't go into great detail as they were both made the same way. If you want to watch a time lapse of it you can find it over on YouTube.

First I did some research. I looked up photos of Gabranth and his swords and saved the ones I liked the most. I also brought a Play Arts model of Gabranth off eBay which really came in handy.

I printed off a photo of the swords I found and traced them on to some paper. Once that was done I changed the shape of them to match the two swords that came with my Play Arts Model as I was only using the photo to get a rough size and shape. I than scan it and using my height, and some measurements I took off the Play Arts Model, I made it larger until I was happy with it a painted it off. I stuck it together using masking tape and cut out the two swords. Using the paper patterns I cut a wooden broom handle to the size needed.

From here on when I talk about sticking or glueing something, I used a hot glue gun to do so unless other wise mentioned.

I decided to start with Choas Blade. I traced the pattern on to some EVA foam twice to get the thickness I wanted. Cut it out and stuck it together. I than cut out a slot for the broom handle and glued it in.

From here I used my model to cut out details and glued them on. Once down I marked out the golden bit that goes down the centre and started to cut a edge to the blade using a knife.

I than went on to sanding the edge down, sanding out the golden bit, and shape the detailing I had already glued on. At one point I came up with the idea of glueing craft foam over the broom handle slot to hide it a bit.

Before I started on Highway Star I made the solid ring that goes around the bottom of the swords and attached them together. To do this I cut out two ractangle bits of EVA foam, heated them out and glued the short ends together. I than traced the shape it made on to craft foam, along with a hole in the  middle for the broom handle four times, cut them out and stuck three on four of the ends. Before glueing the last one one I glued some EVA foam into it. I than glued both things on to the already made Chaos Blade and the yet to be made Highway Star.

I finished off Chaos Blade, by glueing some craft form around the broom handle.

Highway Star was made in the same way.