TwoFiveSeven

If you have just found my Blog you might want to start from the beginning to get the full story, please note I haven't used blogger before so I apologise if things have mucked up or I made a mistake somewhere, please let me know and I will look at correcting it  What a road this cosplay has taken me on. I mentioned a lot of times I have never done anything like this before and I needed a lot of learning to complete it but I am happy with it all. I am completing this blog a week+ after Comic con but I had a blast I would love to go next year also. I have the hard decision now to figure out what to do with Taunya the Tauntaun as she is a big girl and takes up a lot of room in the house which could be used for other things than a space hog. Ai would love to keep her for next year and make a few modifications to her but time will tell. I will admit for a very first cosplay costume build for someone who doesn't paint or do crafts doing a big build like this might have not been the b...

I had mentioned I had entered into the competition and we had went past the judges to discuss our cosplay costume, we then had to go on stage with everyone who had entered to get the results. What a great turnout of such good work from people. Could you believe it we came 3rd place!!! 😯 What a fantastic result. We didn't know if we were in with a chance due to how good everyones cosplay costumes were and for our first ever cosplay costume we got 3rd place what a result. I was just happy to be there no matter the result, I did check that my son was happy as he is a "little" competitive but he was also very happy. We did have a few people coming up to us afterwards saying they thought we were the peoples choice and thought we should have won which was very sweet of them. 1st was scarecrow from Batman Arkham, 2nd place was Cersie Lanister from Game of Thrones, she had sewn the dress herself and the detail of it doesn't show in the picture.

I was a little broken from the first day and how the Tauntaun wasn't sitting right plus the straps hadn't been put on correctly all of which was my fault. I was soar and bruised which did concern me that I couldn't be up for being beaten up again by the Tauntaun for another day... But I had spent soo long making it I knew I couldn't just put it on for one day so I looked at some quick modifications olin the morning. I added a handle to the neck with some string so I could help pull the heavy Tauntaun head towards me so it didn't pull so much on my shoulders and also looked at what I could do to the straps. Today I was bringing my daughter to comic con instead of my son and it was her first ever Comic con so we had no idea what her reaction would be like. She went as Elsa from frozen, someone pointed out later that it was a nice crossover of characters. We arrived and the moment of truth on whether the improvements were going to help. Success, the Tauntaun was so muc...

So my son and I got to the event for 09:30 and started to get ready. I got my son ready first so I could focus on the Tauntaun.  When we parked up we chose a quieter part of the car park so we had space to change without worrying about moving cars in the area. There was one car next to us with people in who were waiting before they could enter the event, they spotted my son as Han Solo and saw I had Luke Skywalker gear and they commented "all you need is the Tauntaun" there faces were a picture when they saw what I pointed at in the boot of the car 😄 It took a wee while to get both of us all suited up, about 35minutes. A thing to note, when I got suited up I made a mistake with some of the straps being on incorrectly plus not tight enough and straight away I noticed that the Tauntaun was going to make it a long day but assumed that this was just what it would be like. Through security and up the elevator due to not being able to use stairs (the big feet made it difficult for...

The night before comic con and I think I just have to accept if it isn't complete I shouldn't worry. On the whole I am happy with it and what I have done, I just hope it makes a few people happy with it and that would make my day. Checklist for the days is simple for what I need to chuck in to the car: food, snacks, drinks, tickets, costumes and maybe my son. Time for some sleep and then we will see how the day goes.

 It's almost the end of the 2nd last day before comic con and I still haven't tried to put all of the costume and accessories on to see how it looks. I have tried things and focused on specific areas but not all together. I know I need to do that before the day in case work needs done altering or something doesn't work and most importantly to see if I can put it all on and manage to take it all off again without damage. I have just sent the email in to request to join the competition with my son, am I crazy? Still things to finish, still things needing painted, not tested, yet I thought "let's join the competition, what's the worst that can happen?" I didn't realise I needed to request sign-up for the competition as soon as possible as I was looking at the wrong site for information. I sent the email with photos of construction to prove I made it and they replied confirming acceptance to the competition with my son. I haven't posted any pictures of...

 With only two weeks until comic con and various items still needing completed I started to get nervous. I have a family so they come first so free time was limited. I spent what time I could painting, glueing, welding etc. It came to about 9 days to the deadline where I took the decision to not carry on with the stilts, the risk was too high. I had no experience with stilts, I hadn't completed the ones I was making so there was chance of failure, crashing and burning, damaging the Tauntaun itself if I fell so I decided to use the time to focus on other items needing completed. I will still try to complete the stilts for after to see if it would have worked or not. Instead of the stilts I needed to find a way to have Tauntaun feet attached to my shoes so using some items leftover from the sofa I used the foam from one of the cushions from the sofa picked up from gumtree to shape the feet around my shoe and I had some spare straps to try and secure them to my shoes. While constructi...

 So I was thinking of things to make the Tauntaun better, bigger, grander. As if it wasn't already big enough for a first time cosplayer.... I came across some people who built some stilts that would help with the Tauntauns appearance that I thought I could do but nearer completion of the Tauntaun so that I didn't waste time on the legs then find I couldn't use them. The legs would raise me up about a foot higher to make the Tauntaun look taller and the angle of the legs would look like the real legs. The concept image is below and I started welding things together from what scraps I had in the garage. I never thought I would ever find myself welding for a costume, gluing and painting but never welding. My attempt is a little heavy and still needs testing after completion.

 Luke's belt consists of a leather belt, various pouches and a DL-44 blaster. Initially I tried making a pouch with leather and fabric glue but gave up after one pouch due to how long it took and I thought the durability was not going to last for the day. I already had a fake leather belt I didn't use so I used it for this project. Various pouches were acquired from AliExpress for cheaply. DL-44 blaster was made from cardboard and toilet roll tubes. I felt this didn't need to be anything amazing as it was going to be staying in the holster most of the time. Holster was made from some remaining leather and super glue which worked. Belt buckle was some foam painted silver and stuck on the from. I dithered for ages on the lightsaber on how to make it but in the end I picked up a toy lightsaber from eBay, it was a little larger than expected but should be fine for the day and my son can play with it afterwards. I also made a small pouch for a small water bottle I had so had som...

 This took some time.... So the military hat I purchased a cheap one from eBay but I had to add the diamond quilted bit around it, a mixture of baaaaad sewing and some material glue to hold it together, hopefully it lasts for the day. The scarf was material used from a cheap teddy fur pillow case. Snow goggles picked up from AliExpress, I slightly modified them as I couldn't get them exactly like the one from the movie. Comms device I made earlier so just need to attach it to the side. Painting still required but I think I got most of this done.

 Every rider needs a saddle so I shaped one with remaining camping mat and then stuck leather on top and tan teddy fur on the bottom. The middle section was left open as I needed to fit through it. Fake legs consisted of some skinny jeans picked up from a charity shop, children's boots from AliExpress on a deal, rope, plumbing pipe, pipe insulation foam, duct tape. Rope was used to keep it all together and so I could clip on to the rope to hold it to my body.

 More research and the list grows for things to make. Riders gloves, gloves Comms device, hat Comms, chest health monitor, electric binoculars. Riders gloves were some welders gauntlets picked up from AliExpress cheaply, slight modification of reducing the gauntlet length. Gloves Comms device was made from cardboard and glued together. I added some velcro to the bottom of it and the glove so it can easily be removed if required. Hat Comms device was various cardboard glued together, plastic lid and a small bit of toilet roll tube. Electronic binoculars was a nessquick box, toilet roll tubes and painted. Various painting will be done later. Something I never expected to do for this project was to pickup a leather sofa from a 2nd hand website, I found it was cheaper to recycle a leather sofa than to buy leather material and foam separately. I will use the leather for various components later. Materials & tools: scissors, glue gun, cardboard, stick, recycled junk.

 The big parts of the Tauntaun are progressing but I need to think about the rider and what Luke Skywalkers appearance was like. Lots of research of Google pictures and of course watching the Star wars movie The Empire Strikes Back. I had a proud dad moment when watching The Empire Strikes Back with my son as he hadn't seen it before and he got super excited and started jumping up and down on the sofa shouting "Dad there's your Tauntaun, they have your Tauntaun" Luke Skywalker on my Tauntaun would be literally split in two, top half would be my chest, arms and head. Bottom half would be fake legs from my body. Top half consists of various items that would take too long to list but a few items are below. Jacket from eBay, I cut off the arms and glued the seems to make it like a gilet. There were easier ways to do this but costed more remember I'm trying to do it cheaply. A cheap Shirt from a charity shop. Belt, hat, gloves covered later. The basic look is in place.

 The body has shape so now I need to get the fur added to make it more realistic. I dithered for ages on what material to use as I struggled to get the colours right and I didn't want to spend a fortune. I finally settled on some teddy fur blanket that I got from eBay. I got some fabric spray glue and started the finikie process of trying to glue the fur to the foam without getting glue on everything like a comedy sketch.... There were a few times it felt like it when the wind blew the glue covered fabric up on to my arms and on my back and I'm having to peel it off. It was split up in to 3 sections, tail, main body and head. Hopefully it all stays on and doesn't shed before or on the day. On the whole I think it turned out ok, not exactly like the movie Tauntauns but good on a budget. Materials & tools: spray on fabric adhesive, teddy bear blanket, scissors.

 To be honest I didn't think I would get this far with it. At this point the body is taking shape and the head was looking good so I continued with making the full thing. The body needed a tail so I used a similar method as before of using the plastic plumber pipe, heated the pipe so that I could bend it in to shape. Once the pipe was the correct shape I made a method to easy'ish attach and detach it.(I found out later this method wasn't that easy to attach when I put the harness on) Now the tail was on I added the camp mat similar to before to give the shape. Tools & materials: camp mat, hot glue gun, sharp knife, scissors, fan heater to heat pipe.

 With the head progressing and getting to a point I am happy with how it looks, I look to the body.  I have the frame that holds the head but you can't make out anything else. I decided to use some camping mats cut up and glued to give the body shape. Originally I was just going to do the body but after looking at it I thought it needed to have shapes of the hind legs also, hopefully it helped make it look better? Before anyone says anything, yes I know Tauntauns are not blue... 😄 This was all trial and error so I didn't know if it would work or not but I think it worked. Tools and materials: hot glue gun, sharp knife, camp mats, string, elastic straps.

 I have been spending more time than I should to paint this thing due to lack of experience, not knowing how to get the colours right and just guessing how to do the effects. I was working with various pictures online to base it off so each picture appeared with different colours for each area so I just had to decide what worked for me. In the pictures you might see some blue foam around the neck, I will cover that later but it was safe to say some time passed since the last time I posted an Update, a reminder I spent a long time painting...