Horns, cheap and simple

For Dystopia Rising, sometimes a list of requested donations goes out. On that list this time was a request for horn that were light and big. You can defintely buy these, but sometimes the directors put things on the list for people to make.


One of the marshals who runs the costume area made a comment I couldn't ignore even though I'm trying not to take on crazy amounts of work right now. :P

Anyway, I sat down and fiddled around a bit. I wanted to make these as simply and cheaply as possible. D.R. already costs a ton to play.

What you'll need:
Toilet rolls tubes or any type or rolled tubes
Tape
Scissors
Modge Podge
Paper Towels


I started but cutting down the rolls into strips or roll. Once I had enough I began building the horns. This is a lot like putting togeather a puzzel but you sometimes have to modify the pieces so they'll fit inside each tube. Use the tape to connect your card board strips into smaller circles as you make the point. Just keep fitting them into eachother at an angle and curling the horn till you get a shape you like. Something like this first picture.

Once you're happy with the shape you can move onto the covering phase. You can't just jump right to painting as the card board will have huge gaps. By covering it with something like paper towel it'll fill in those gaps fairly well and give you a nice texture on the horns. I layed down a layer of modgepodge first. Then applied the torn up paper towels to the wet spot and covered that with more Modge Podge. I didn't repeat the whole layering here, but I'd recommend doing that just to make the horns stronger. Ttap the wet paper towel down into the rings a bit to accentuate the horn spirals a bit as you go. You'll have to let this dry over night before moving on to painting. Don't worry about the messy base yet. We'll get to that later. here they are with the modge podge all done.

Here's a pic of them after they've dried and had their first layer of paint. It's at this point you can get a bit fancy with the painting. Drybrushing, inking, etc. I just did a layer of brown for now. The right pic is them dry. YOu can see a bit of texturing and color splotching already. 

This last part, connecting them to something, is always the hardest. I generally just use elastic. Just make sure you use a color that would disappear into your hair. This part is easy. Make a hole then add elastic. If you don't want them to move around much add knots on each side of the horn. Make sure you have them where you want them on your head.

Other ideas are to attach them to head bands. Or to use screws into wigs. etc.

As always have fun. if you have questions feel free to ask.

Dystopian Guns

Nerf Mods.

Everyone does them after some point of playing with those addicting little guns; either because a gun breaks down, or out of curiosity, or because a friend did it before and showed it off.

This week I'm only focusing on the painting of one, but you can go inside a nerf gun and mod the bejeebus out of their guts to make them fly faster, longer, hit harder, etc.

Painting a nerf gun is....well fairly simple.

Figure out a color theme. Do a base coat of black or white, or whatever you want your base color to be. Most of these are black. I have a plan for a white based one and a blue based one but that's i nthe future.

After that all it takes is fuguring out what colors will go where. I use P3 acrylic paints for painting small figures, but any acrylic works.

This key is a precise hand, and working slowly. Otherwise you get sloppy spots.

You will need:
A nerf gun. Find one from goodwill. Thats where I got most of my bases.
Paints-Acrylic, and a base coat. I just used the cheapest spray paint i could find.
Paint brushes, etc

This was one of two I painted up for Dystopia Rising. (I kinda wish I had kept it. I really liked the design. Now I'm keeping an eye out for another of this type)

This was the second long rifle I painted. It comes in 4 parts. This is the middle secontion with the clip in.

The long rifle is all togethere here. I Think I was still adding touches here and there as I put it together to get the colors to flow better.

This was a bow I did a long time ago. One of the crappy rebel bows. I used a different type of paint, on that cracks and has texture because I wanted it to look old a rusty.

This one is to show that you need to make sure you get your base coat in all the nooks and crannies. I missed the bullet slots a bit and the orange showed through.

The roses and both of these were done by a friend who is an amazing artist.

Another smaller bow that never really got used unfortunately. The little sigils said somethign but I don't recall now. lol.

And finally the rifle I did for my husband. he played a strain called a Murican. As the name suggests they tend to be very...patriotic, annoying, lod, etc. Typical American really. They paint their stuff with the old red, white, and blue so his gun is a little...flamboyant

Overall, these can be very fun if you're just painting. Working on the inner guts can be very aggrivating if you're new to it. I lost a few guns when I firsted started. 

Also to note!! All Nerf Guns Must have an Orange Tip as per the laws so that cops don't mistake them for real guns.

Feel free to always ask questions, comments, etc. I'm always up for a chat.

And never forget. If you don't try you won't find out if you can do something cool. Errors will happen. Don't fear them, just learn from them.

Dystopian Kimono

This week I've been working on a new piece for my Dystopia Rising Gear. My character, Kurai, has been pretty stable for a while and I figured she had enough extra cash to invest in proper Genjian clothing again. That was she could stop looking like a barbarian. :)

That being said I had to now make the Kimono. Kimono's are...either very easy to make, or a pain. Personally, after learning some square cutting methods from a friend, I've been using those techniques a lot to make things. I did it with my friend Haori, and now this kimono. The whole piece is one huge square.

Originally, in Japan bolts are specifically sized for kimonos. It takes a whole bolt for one kimono. It's really fascinating and kind of scary to think about. In this ones case I took my measurements and made some cuts. I cut the neck hole first, then opened the front up. After that I figured out the sides and cut into the main piece for the sleeves. This is all one piece of fabric if you take out my cuts. This is much easier than cutting a ton of pieces out and wasting fabric. Saving fabric would be something someone would try to do in a dystopian era too.

 After the main body was hemmed I focused on designing it. Kimono's actually have meaning when you wear them. Certain seasons require certain colors and images. However, Kurai's colors are also green ad gold so I wanted to stick with that. I decided to go with a sort of winter motif.

I started out wanting to do a bleacing effect. It failed badly and for a bit I was bummed I'd ruined this, but I'm not one to give up easily. So after staring a bit I pulled out my paints and added the branch. What I got was that ghostly green effect. I liked it so I left it.

 The little yellow leaves are my characters family symbol. In Japan families, at least in the past, I don't know about now? had symbols called kamon, or mons in the game. Each clan has one and there's a whole lore based around them, so we've slowly been growing them over time. Mines the old Nakamura mon. The leaf in an octogram. Here I just used the leaf to look like dying leaves falling.

 In this image I decided I wanted a simple design on the front so I extended the branches from the back over the right shoulder. I like it, but it might need more flowers.

Here is the front side. So far I'm happy with it, but I need to carry the image over to the front bottom right a tiny bit. Might do a pile of leaves or something.

I also need to fix the neckline, and possibly sew this shut. It's not fun running around a game and popping out of your clothing. others might like it, I do not.

ALso, if I can there will be a full picture of me in gear someday.

As always, fi you have questions, comments, critiques, etc please leave me a comment.

New Dystopian Armor

Yes its very bright, yes it's odd, and yes I'm late...again. Sorry!

I've been very busy lately getting ready for Tortuga and i took on a quick commission so that when Dystopia Rising starts up again in October it's paid for.

What a friend needed was a Haori that was armored. His color is a bright blue and i happened to have a few yards of it. After much discussing we came up with what i have here.

I've also worked with Japanese designs before. My first ever sewing project was a kimono...if you don't count the millions of pillows and pillow cases I made before that too.

Anyway, my first pattern was kimono, however this was my first foray into making something without a pattern. it's...hard.

My poor commissioner had a ton of questions tossed at him. In the end I got the basic form made. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I'm hoping but the end I will be.

 

This eventually became my stencil. The character has what's called a Mon in game, a symbol that identifies their faction or family. His was a scorpion.

These are cut from a sheet of foam which I later painted silver to look like metal.

The haori ended up a bit long. For now i left it till the commissioner could see it.

This is all done after much measuring and it's all simple straight lines. I have a close friend to thank for even knowing where to begin in this. it literally took me a day and a half to figure out all the proper measurements

 The front with the painted Mons attached.

The back with the painted Mon attached.

 Here I cut down the coat a bit. then I began laying down the ground work for the plating. This is again foam padding. Dystopia Rising doesn't require actual armor. It's cool if you have it, but it only requires that it look like armor. I seem to have built my focus on armor making on the aspect that it is light, flexible, and quite possible to be slept in.This was the back.

This is the front set up. We decided the take one row out in the end.

Armor shoulder pieces. He did not request the mon be added there. I kinda did it as a special bit. :)

Progress so far. it's coming along nicely, but...I'm probably going to have to line it. I hate the inside peeking out. For the record I've been using E6000 to attach all the faux plating. I would have sewn them in but it's very noticeable and we really wanted this to look natural so I opted to glue them. E6000 is a glue god btw. 

Metal plating after it's second layer of paint. These are the foam pieces from above. I did one layer of paint, then used hot glue to make the rivet/grommet/whatever you call them. Turns out glue turns shiny when you spray paint it. It's a nice affect.

This is the back after the plates were painted, grommet-ed, painted again, the scarring added, and painted a third time. I only have the front left.

Feel free to ask questions, leave comments, etc. I"m always up for a chat!