Hello it’s been a while here’s a progress post After a far-too-long hiatus, I’ve finally gotten decent sword work done! This project is Advent Cirno’s six swords that all combine into one big sword. Honestly part of the reason for such a lengthy hiatus is that I was a little intimidated by the scale of the project, it’s been way more work than I anticipated. But it’s getting somewhere now! This comprises one large watermelon sword made of pink insulation foam covered in Worbla with aluminum handles, which slots onto the front of the combined sword. Two straightforward long chocolate swords that slot in behind the watermelon, these are mostly just sharpened boards with a handle. Two waffle short swords that fit in on the sides, with a rotating handle and rotating handguard - CNC milled from MDF, with bearings for the articulation. And one big popsicle stick sword and a CNC milled hilt which holds all of the smaller swords. Many layers of MDF and wood glue went into that one. Proof of concept stage is complete, since everything all fits into the right places more or less as expected. Finishing stages to come!

And now for something completely different. Touhou cocktails! There’s this really neato thing called Bar Eastern that has character drinks for all of the 2hus from EoSD up to PoFV (not including Aya for some reason). A while ago, I decided that I was gonna make a few, and then I decided I was gonna make all of them. So here’s (in order) Sakuya, Mokou, Reimu, Chen, Ran, and Yukari, Reisen, Eirin, Cirno, and Letty! Links are to more full build descriptions and such. Aww yeah

sPlatoon. Just a silly quick thing I did a couple nights before con

And now I’m back! From outer space! Sorry about the year-ish hiatus, I was a bit busy between graduating and finding a job and moving into a new city and getting situated and all that. But now I’m all set, and kinda fired up for making things after ACen this weekend. Next on the agenda: Reisen for Colossalcon (hopefully; it’s only a couple weeks away!), then either dio-Sakuya or power-drill Iku, and things of that nature. Woo!

I’m not dead yet. There are still things to come. But not right now.

Making swords and sword accessories is awesome and all, but sometimes you just gotta borrow a Cirno cosplay and be the strongest.

Here’s the story of how I made the gems for Kyoko’s worn soulgem thing. Problem: I need something to cast the gems out of. Solution: Oh hey, there’s a plastic spoon! Problem: Can’t get the dang resin cast out of the spoon. Solution: Make an actual mold of the spoon like you should’ve done in the first place, nimrod. (The smaller one was a cast of a bolt on a teapot, heh.) Problem: The spoon is a little egg-shaped, while the gem is supposed to be symmetrical. Solution: Plumbing wrench to save the day with a slight bit of pressure on the wider end. I’m surprised this worked so well. Then after the casts were made, is the standard sanding and polishing and so on. Good stuff, it turned out pretty well. Now I just gotta figure out how to make the gold thing they’re inset onto… I’ve got clay, and I’ve got craft foam, maybe one of those? Also, finished off the skirt, got the armwarmers done, and I’m working on the cuffs now too. I scrapped the one in the pic in favor of longer cuffs, though.

More progress, woo! The vest-undershirt thing is done except for the appliqué (which I have no idea how to do but oh well), so that’s good. The first picture is the template for it. I wish my phone had a better dynamic range (it’s hard to get black and white in good tones on the same picture), ‘cause then I could show the interfacing at the bottom more clearly - oh man the inside corner turned out crazy well despite the fact that it was the first time I’d tried such a thing. Seriously, dang… actually, the bias tape in general turned out super well, I kinda want to go back and redo the bias tape on the dress’s shoulders now. Probably not enough time for that though. Now that I look at it, wearing those shorts and the vest-undershirt kinda reminds me of Polnareff. Hmm. And now, the pleated skirt. Oh god, pleats. I had no idea. I was all “Eh, I’ll knock this out in an hour or so,” but no, it takes soo long, and it’s kinda mind-numbing too. I’m titling that last picture “the exact moment at which I begin to despair.” Ergh… Almost done with the ironing now though, probably 75% done. Then the rest of the skirt should be pretty easy, nothing I haven’t done 5 times before. (Which, besides swords, is probably the one thing I’ve done the most. Skirts and swords, how 'bout that.)

Finally put together the chain-staff configuration of the spear. Seems to work pretty well, though I can’t stress test the links until the eopxy finishes drying. dang 24 hour curing time

crimsonhappinesshour: There’s never that many Touhou cosplays in North American Cons, but when there is I must take all the pictures. Except that one Sakuya Cosplayer I wanted to get a picture but she disappeared the second I looked away. Ahh, wish I could’ve gone this year! The big Touhouvania ensemble last year was awesome. (Source: thatguystarsky, via amyonymous)