Midlands MCM Expo 2012

So I suppose I should probably do a write up! XD

Didn't have the best start to the day. Rain, mostly >.o So me and my sis had to rush inside to finish sorting our cosplays out indoors. Soon as we'd done that tho', this man and woman with pretty pro looking cameras asked us for pics! :D Trouble is, I can't remember the man's name so I dunno if I'll be able to find them on FB ._.

It was crazy busy this year. Like, usually, it's pretty deserted in the morning compared to the afternoon, but this year it was as crowded as it would be in the afternoon, and only got more crowded after that!

Met up with CowgirlEm and she gave me an Allen Walker figure she bought a couple of years ago <3 It's so awesome ^___^

The dance meet was pretty fun. Didn't get as many dances as we'd hoped done 'cause the only speakers we had kept cutting out and the people who were also bringing speakers didn't show up 'til nearly half and hour late X_x But we got Happy Synthesizer done as a practise ready for the bit stage performance. During that time I was approached by 3 uni students who asked me for an interview for a mini cosplay documentary they were doing! I think I rambled on way too much, but they seemed happy enough :3 Also got to 'teach' the presenter some moves to the Caramelldansen para para. It was really funny X3

Before the dance meet, I recorded a very teeny sketch with my friend xMooWithMehx. Too bad the audio didn't come out well at all, I can't even make out what I said in most of it! XD Still hoping I can do something with it, it was a fun idea :3

After that was probably the downer of the day. The Nintendo staff that were sorting out the Hironobu Sakaguchi signings. We lined up (the queue had 10 people max at the time) and got told we were past the cut off point. We were annoyed, but left anyway. Then a load of people people (at least 20) joined the line and got autographs! And we were STILL told we were past the cutoff point when we tried to join the line again! Long story short, if we had ignored that staff and hung around close, we would've got in the line easy. That reeeeaaally bugged me. They could've handled that a hell of a lot better.

 I managed to get a pic tho'. Proof I was there to bask in his glory! X3

But anyways, I pushed my annoyance at that aside (wasn't Sakaguchi's fault, afterall) and went to find a seat with my sis for the Merlin panel to sit down for the first time since I got there. They only allowed photos during the first 5 mins. Granny Gertrude figured it was to do with the BBC when I asked if we were still good to record the masquerade (gotta make sure, afterall). But I got a quick pic in that time :3

The mics were a bit low in sound so it was a bit hard to make out everything they said, especially since the Robots Live thing was on. My sis heard enough of it to enjoy it tho' :3

Then there was the MCM Buzz podcast, which my sis recorded, and I headed off just before it finished to meet up with xMoo and oElectronic so we could chill a bit before the performance. Thanks to the HCLA Brigade, we were gonna dance Happu Synthesizer while the judges were deciding winners. We all got so nervous, and we didn't know if we'd be able to do it because of the huge amount of entries this year, but the HCLA Brigade got on stage and we joined, got in position and did it. Which is probably one of my biggest achievements, to be honest. I'm very shy at performing infront of anyone, but hearing the crowd cheer at the end made it beyond worth it! :D Cosplay always gives me the confidence I never have anywhere else, I'm even getting the idea in my head of entering the masquerade sometime!

After that, I was buzzing with energy, so while the winners were being announced, me and xMoo played some DDR after we parted ways with oElectronic. The results sadly won't be televised (since my sis was recording the masquerade still), but long story short, I won again XD

So the day ended and we headed off to grab some dinner and go home. I ended up buying Sonic and Tails figures, each with one badnik, a mini Len plushie to go with my Rin and a whole lot of Hello Panda <3

And now to go out on a couple of photos of my cosplay ^^ Other cosplay photos I have are here~

 

Here's hoping my cosplay next year is even better! ...And that I have a job to pay for it! XD

Cosplay progress #7

Dagger's all done!

The paint job's a lot better in person, photos make it all weird and blotchy x.x

Made the hilt a speckled brown and glazed it to make it nice and shiny. Was kinda rough to hold onto beforehand too.

The blade's all shiny too =D Had some trouble with weird bubbling, but an hour or so under some books and other junk and it's okay now ^^

And with the dagger finished, I can most awesomely say that my cosplay is now done! A week and a half early too, yay! Will hopefully post a pic or two with everything together. Gotta work on my dances some more and posing next, hehe X3

Cosplay progress #6

I went for it with the sheath today. Did a few stitch tests in the morning to see what working out neatest, then in the afternoon I cut the pieces out and off I went :D

I'm proud to say it went well! It's not perfect, but it's my first time experienting with leatherette, so I'm very pleased with the results.

 It's a dark brown, but the camera keeps making it show up nearly black ^^;  It's a little...angular around the bottom, but that doesn't fuss me much. Along with the bands to attach it to the belt, I added some cord. If I tie it around the hild twice, it's reeeeaaaally hard to draw it, you gotta yank it so hard and you'd probably break it before it got loose. But it's so easy to untie so it hopefully should be sage to take around the expo with me and still use it for photos ^^

My waistcoat was also finished today, thanks to my most awesome mum =D Lining will forever be beyond me....as will shorts XD I'm hoping tomorrow I can put the whole thing together for a full idea what it'll look like ^.^ It'll be sometime this week, that's for sure >:3

All I've got left to do now is finish painting my dagger! Found my PVA glue for glazing, now it's just borrowing the brown acrylic, using the ink wash and neatening some parts before glazing the blade.

It's so close now I can't wait! For anyone reading who's going, I'll see you there! <3

Cosplay progress #5

I realised I never posted a pic on here of my dagger yet, and since I finally managed to make a little addition to it, I thought now was a good time ^^

So it's not totally done yet, still gotta make the part of the hilt I'll be holding onto brown, add some depth with ink wash, neaten up the paining on the guard/hit and blade and glaze the blade after all that. Not that much really, just gotta find out my good old PVA glue bottle. I know it's around here somewhere.... *looks at styrofoam glue* Not quite. Poo T_T

So anyway! I finally added a metal ring and beads onto my dagger today! As you can see from the above pic X3 Was really 'um'ing and 'ah'ing how to go about it. Do I buy a big d-ring? A split ring and cut away the excess to attach it? In the end I got my thickest jewellery wire and shaped it with my fingers. It's a breeze to bend and my tools keep massively denting the wire X_x

It's finally done tho' =D I love pearl beads, they're so pretty ^^ And thank you bargain bins at HobbyCraft!

Don't care much for the precision repaints I'm gonna have to do around the holes the wire went into tho'...

Ah well. Two weeks today!

Cosplay progress #4

So I posted pics of the glove I was working on a couple of posts ago. Things with it...really didn't work out well ^^; So I decided to try the left glove with a new technique and hoped it'd work :D

Here's all the messy bits from the glove you didn't see before.

Emphasis on messy. Here's a close look.

Yikes. The type of material I'm using is perfect in that it stays cool so I can wear these gloves for longer, but boy does it fray! I tried reinforcing the stitching with my sewing machine, but it wouldn't track it along properly and made horrible thread clumps and loose stitches. I think it's safe to say this one's a right off. Until I figure what I can do with it, anyway.

So! Glove #2's turn, and I came armed with new ideas to stop the icky fraying and weird wrinkling on the previous glove. PVA glue! XD Well, not really. I mean, I tried it on the edges and it works, but it's rough too. Not the best solution for something on your hands all day.

So my next idea was the good old blanket stitch. And you know what? I works pretty well. Only problem here is that it bulks up the seams and makes the fit tighter, something I never had a problem with in the previous one. Sacrifice one to gain another, huh?

I've only sewn the fingers and thumb on, not the sides, but here's the fit. A lot neater looking overall.

But of course, there's the problem of having it a smaller fit. My poor index finger D: Good grief is it tight on the poor thing!

Practically stuck to it, there's no space to bend it or let it breath X_x

Naturally, I can cut the seam a bit, but that brings back my problem of resewing the blanket stitching to avoid fraying again. With 3 weeks to go, I should be able to do it, but I'll have to tweak the right one to fix this, that's for sure.

That's it for my random glove ramblings. Here's hoping soon I have some good results to share with you all :D