Little Sister Adam Syringe (Bioshock)

When I started work on subject Delta, I really wanted to have someone dress up as a Little Sister to go along with the suit, but I did not find anyone willing or able to take the role before the convention. However for an upcoming photo-shoot with Delta and the RCGB at the sloss furnace a friend of ours has volunteered to make the dress and be the Little Sister, so I finally have an excuse to build the Adam Syringe.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, the syringe is used by the little sisters to remove Adam enriched blood from the corpses in Rapture where the game is set. The girls plunge the needle into a body, and then drink the blood so the sea slug that has been implanted in them can process the Adam into a pure compound. It’s the Adam in the Little Sisters that cause splicers to want to kill them, hence why the Big Daddies were created to guard them. In Bioshock 2 (Delta’s game) this becomes an important game mechanic as you have to protect your little sister while she is gathering Adam.


Little Sister Gathering Adam

The syringe started off as an antique gas pump handle I found on eBay. Based on some research of similar models, I am fairly confident that this handle is somewhere between 60 and 80 years old. In case you really need to know, the handle moves, but it no longer functions as a water tight valve.


Old Gas Pump Handle, almost as old as my grandparents.

I apologize for the lack of development pictures as my camera broke and I am waiting for it to come back from the manufacturer. I will try to explain the process as best I can in case you are looking to make one too.

To prepare the handle for modification, I took it to the local car wash and pressure washed it to remove the several decades of grime that formed on it. After it was cleaned it was coated with primmer to prevent future corrosion.

The handle end that would have attached to a hose was plugged using a piece assembled from a ¾” pipe clamp and short nipple. Since the piece could not fully thread into the handle, a PVC sleeve was made to cover the exposed threaded area.


Base of the Syringe with Cap and Jar

After searching high and low for a suitable jar, I found one that worked at the local grocery store. It is a 3.5 floz container of Mario Imported Cocktail Onions. The label was removed with mineral spirits. Many people who have made syringes typically use Gatorade for the Adam inside. I opted not to use a liquid as I did not want to worry about leaks. Instead, the inside of the jar is painted with red spray tint and several pieces of red film were crumpled and put inside. The cap of the jar was modified to accept a fitting from Home Depot, with the other end going into a hole drilled into the gas handle. The handle, fitting, and lid were epoxied in place. A single super bright LED was wired through the fitting and connects to a 3VDC battery in the handle.

The needle started off as a 3/8” dowel. The taper was created by chucking the dowel into a hand drill and then spinning it while holding a piece of sandpaper around it, basically making the drill a lathe. The dowel was centered in the nozzle with ¼” balsa and capped with a washer.


Dowel and Washer

The entire assembly was painted with Krylon Hammer paints and then weathered with acrylics using the same method we used on Delta. Before people start to point this out, I am fully aware it is still missing the baby bottle top. This was left off due to weather and time constraints.


Fresh Paint




Final Product

Like I mentioned earlier, this was made for a photo shoot with Dim Horizon Studio this weekend with Subject Delta as well as the Rocket City Ghostbusters. We are looking forward to getting some awesome pictures and will be sure to post them once they are available.

Deadmau5 - Black and Red heads

Even if you are not familiar with his music, you have probably seen one of his iconic heads somewhere. Deadmau5, pronounced “dead mouse”, is a Canadian house musician famous for his elaborate stage shows and unique electronic music. Instead of just summarizing his Wikipedia bio, the best way I can describe him is that he is the polar opposite of Daft Punk; instead of the mysterious, formal, and secluded image of Daft Punk, Deadmau5 makes his personal life widely available to the public with web cast, and regularly updates his facebook and twitter accounts.



Besides completing our 2SP masked musician collection, one of the aspects I like about the helmet is that it is worn very casually. Most of our other projects require a specific ensemble and require a second person to get them on. Even Daft Punk with the tuxes requires a second person to button and unbutton the sleeves. Deadmau5, on the other hand, can be worn with a tee shirt and taking the head off isn’t out of character. In other words, it is an impressive costume to have when you want to turn heads without being too elaborate.



The project started off with research. A lot of people have attempted to make mau5 heads with various levels of success. One of the interesting things about the head is that there are pictures online showing how the original was made, and deadmau5 himself even put out some basic dimensions. I’ll warn you right now that some of the dimensions are not correct and I will point them out through the post. As of this post I have built 2 heads, a black one and a red one. The construction is almost identical so I will be going back and forth with construction pictures as needed.


One of the three dimensional drawings by deadmau5

Our build started by creating a cardboard template for the ears. Based on the dimensions I decided to make the ears a 13” x14” oval. Using the tread and pin method the oval was inscribed on the cardboard and cut out. A 14” circle, the outer diameter of the head, was cut out and used as a guide for the curve on the bottom of the ear template. Note that the center of the ear’s base to the ear tip is 13” as stated in the dimensions.


Drawing the oval for the ear

The ears were made using ½” thick pink insulation foam. This stuff is really light and does not leave particles like floral foam. Using the template, 4 pieces were cut out and grooves put on the inside for two ¼-20 threaded rods. Epoxy was laid in the grooves and then each half of ear was joined with spray adhesive. When the glue dried the outer edge was shaped with a rough sanding sponge.


Ear Halves and inner rods

The head is made from a 14” acrylic globe. Using string, measuring tape, and masking tape, the lines for the mouth, eyes, and ears were drawn onto the globe. While the dimensions say the ears are 15 degrees back from the top lip, most heads have them at 90, which is what I did with mine. The neck hole is recommended to be 8” x 7”, but I had to make mine 9” x 8” in order to get my head in and out of the globe. With everything marked the globe was trimmed with a dremmel to the correct shape. Reinforcement was added to the corners of the mouth to prevent cracking at the newly created stress point. I strongly recommend using the excess acrylic cut from the neck hole for reinforcement as this is the thickest part of the globe.


Drawing the cut pattern on the head


Trimmed Globe

To allow the globe to sit on my head (and other people as well) I installed a hardhat inside. The sides are cut to allow access to the wing nuts on the ears so they can be taken on and off. The hard hat is attached to the globe using two #8 bolts going through the top of the globe and threading into the hard hat.


Original Hardhat


Trimmed Hardhat


Hardhat installed. Notice the wing nuts for the ears.

The lip was created using 2 layers of 3mm foam about a 1” wide and attached with hot glue.



Covering the head is a bit tricky. The fabric used is called 4-way stretch velvet and you can find it (in limited colors at most fabric stores. For what it is worth, Hancock here in Huntsville had the best selection compared to the other local fabric stores. Even through the fabric stretches well, it is still a pain to work with to cover the head with the fewest seams and wrinkles. For the black head I sewed two 22” circles together halfway and stretched it over the head, cutting and stuffing fabric into the mouth until the cloth was smooth. Eventually I had to cut the fabric around the bottom jaw and add two seams. On the red one, with the help of a friend who knows how to sew, we used a 17” x 20” ellipse which wasted less fabric and gave better results, but still needed two seams. To hold the fabric in place I used a bunch of tiny clamps that you can pick up at home depot for a few cents apiece. The real mau5 head has only one seem, so I would recommend finding someone good with fabric to help you if you need total accuracy. The ears were covered by making “pillow cases” and slipping it over the foam.


Crystal putting skin on the red head


Black head with fabric clamped in place.

The visor is made with chicken wire from home depot. Basically, you cut an ellipse large enough to cover the foam lips and bend it to a spherical shape. The fabric for the visor is then glued to the wire and the whole assembly glued into the head. All adhesive on this project is hot glue.


Installation of the visor in the black head.

The eyes were made using 6” plastic globes and cutting a 4.5” circle from them. (Each globe will give you two eyes). For the black head, I used a clear globe and coated the back with VH nightshade. For the red head I used a white globe and then added the “X”s with electrical tape. The eyes were then hot glued to the head.


Cutting circles from the globe.


Final mau5 heads


Red


And Black

To complete the “Costume” I added temporary tattoos, a shirt with iron on letters, a ball chain necklace, and a Hurley cap when the head was off. Deadmau5 is also a huge Zelda fan, and we happened to have a master sword on hand for a few glamor shots with the black head. We will update when we have pictures from our Daft Punk/ Deadmau5 shoot using the red head.

















This project is a really fun build and I am actually planning to make a few more of these. If you are trying to make your own I hope you found this thread somewhat helpful.

And no, I have no plans to make this version any time soon:



Black Head Flickr: CLick Here!
Red Head Flickr: CLick Here!

HOW2: Henchmen Mask!

Warning: I like to type. Get your reading glasses out. This one's a doozy.

INTRODUCTION

So Dragon*Con 2011 has come and gone, Venturoos. Despite a year's worth of intense research and sculpting on my Daft Punk helmets, I was totally surprised (read: blown away) by the outrageously positive response my Monarch's Henchmen costumes received at the convention. I figured, you know, shiny shiny, Daft Punk, slick tuxedos. It's a sure bet, right? Nope! With near surgical precision and timing (and no small amount of devious...ness...), the Monarch stole the show, and it was his minions that did the dirty work.

Wait, wait. Really? Secondary characters from a show that's a few years old now... surely these costumes must be overdone! Ah, but not done the 2StoryProps way! Ok that was exceptionally cheesy. In particular, it was my vacuum-formed masks that really got all the attention. You see, most people are happy with trimmed cardboard or bent plastic, and it certainly achieves the cartoony look. However, I set out to make the highest quality mediocre costume I could, and I wanted it to have some real-world depth to it. I'd like to think that the costume as a whole caught everyone's attention, but the fact that everyone kept complimenting the vacuum-formed masks really speaks volumes about the methods used here.

This tutorial will take you through the process, methods, and tools used to create your own vacuum-formed Henchmen mask. The powers-that-be have informed me that this is to be an expert-level tutorial, so basic knowledge and skills on power tool usage and safety are required. Also note: You will be using sharp things, so don't stab yourself on my account.

SUPPLY LIST

Tools:
Dremel or other rotary tool with interchangeable cutting/sanding bits
Power sander with 120 grit sandpaper
120-320 grit sand paper (for hand sanding)
Steak knife or bread knife (Really? You betcha.)
Vacuum-forming machine or access to one

Supplies:
HARD green floral foam blocks (the really hard stuff, not the softer powdery stuff)
Toothpicks
Gorilla glue
Bondo or body filler of choice
Your choice of glazing putty (for small pits)
Primer spray paint of your choice

Misc.:
Respirator or dust mask
Safety goggles
Latex or vinyl gloves
Clothes you don't mind getting dirty

SCULPTING THE MASK

First thing's first - you have to know what you're sculpting. I drew out my design, which I based on several distinct views of the Henchmen mask from the show. I decided on a certain shapes and came up with a quick schematic in Adobe Illustrator. Nothing special about this part, you can just draw it out to scale on some printer paper if you'd like. The point here is that you have something to go by. Since you'll be drawing this directly onto the foam in a later step, go ahead and cut out your drawing (eye holes and everything).

Next you'll want to assemble your foam blocks. Decide how big of a block you need and then glue multiple blocks together with Gorilla Glue. It'd be a good idea to pin them together with toothpicks and bind the blocks up with some tape while the glue dries. Gorilla Glue expands while it cures, so anything you can do to keep those blocks together while the glue dries will be helpful. It'll take a few hours, so go watch some Venture Bros. while you wait. I don't have any photos of this part because it's gluing blocks of foam together. It's not rocket surgery science, people!

After that's done, go ahead and start tracing out your design on the block. Keep in mind, you'll be cutting away a lot of the foam, so keep your template handy so you can redraw it later as you remove material.

Remember how I wanted that real-world feel? I achieved that by sculpting in curves, giving it a 3D shape in addition to the curve around the face the mask would naturally have. Now this particular floral foam was chosen because it's rather rigid and I knew it would hold up enough under the pressure of a vacuum-forming machine. As such, it takes some elbow grease to sculpt it. So here's where the steak knife comes in handy. You don't have to use a steak knife, but as long as you have some kind of serrated blade that can slice into it you'll be fine. Do your sculpting by shaving off thin layers. Don't get overzealous and try to cut off large chunks. Your blade will only seize up in the foam. You can try power tools, but I've found that hand carving it produces far less debris and dust. At this point you're really only looking for basic shape. You can start to carve in some details (like the curve of the bridge of the nose or the goggle sockets, but if you carve a little too deep in an area, don't worry about that right now.

Next comes the smelly part. Be sure to wear your respirator here. To get the nice, smooth surface on the foam, cover it in Bondo (or any body filler of your choice). You'll want to be sure that it's really ground into the foam, so you'll do it in layers, gradually building up so that you don't see any foam left. While the Bondo cures, you can carve it with a box cutter to reduce any big peaks and smearing streaks. Doing so will help save the sandpaper on your power sander. Give the Bondo a few hours to get rock hard. Keep in mind, Bondo requires certain temperatures and cannot cure above a certain humidity, so be sure to read the package for ideal conditions.

Use your power sander and dremel to smooth the Bondo out into the final shape. When you start getting to the point where all that's left to fill is smaller holes, use the glazing putty to fill in the gaps, and then sand it all smooth. In the photo below, the whitish areas are Bondo, the pink and red areas are glazing putty.

Knowing how vacuum-forming works its critical to the design of your vacuum-forming buck, so you'll need to bore a hole through each eye socket all the way through the foam. The reason behind this is because as the heated plastic is pulled over the buck, it will essentially seal up around the eye sockets. If there is no way for the vacuum to pull the plastic down into the eye sockets, the plastic will remain flat in those areas. So you have to provide a channel for the air to be sucked out the back of the buck. For this particular project, it doesn't have to be pretty since this area will be cut out later, but just be sure that it's there.

Continue sculpting and smoothing with the Bondo until you have your desired shape. It may take you some time depending on your abilities, but be sure you get it nice and smooth. In previous projects we learned that even a bit of dust can cause unwanted peaks in vacuum-formed plastic, so spend some time here and get it really smooth. Spraying it with primer between each smoothing session allows you to see the form in a neutral color, and it helps point out problem areas. You should be wrapping up your sculpt by the end of this stage.

VACUUM-FORMING

While we did build our own vacuum-forming machine, it was not based on our own design. We followed the build of a friend and fellow prop builder, Volpin Props, to learn how to build our own machine. Since building the machine itself is not within the scope of this tutorial, I will instead refer you to Harrison's blog post on how he built his.

Provided that you have your own vacuum-forming machine (or at least access to one), the next step is to select your plastic. There are lots of vacuum-formable plastics out there, but our projects tend to involve clear PET plastic and white styrene. Either will work for this particular project. For the rest of this tutorial, I will be using white styrene to pull the mask. However, my initial pulls were made in some left-over clear PET plastic from a previous project, and that worked just as well. The eye pieces were also pulled in clear PET plastic, FYI. For your reference, here are some links to the plastics I typically use:

.60" High Impact Styrene Sheet

.60" PET-G Vivak Sheet

Please note: When selecting plastics, you should always read up on its characteristics. You should always practice safe vacuum-forming. The process involves heating plastic, which releases toxic fumes, so PLEASE be in a well ventilated area and wear your respirator. Also, ALWAYS have a fire extinguisher on hand - if you heat the plastic too rapidly IT WILL IGNITE and make for a very bad day.

Vacuum-forming works on the basic principle that you are heating a sheet of plastic so that it becomes temporarily elastic enough to be formed over the outside of a 3D shape (a "buck"), pulled into that shape by a vacuum, and allowed to cool in that shape. The buck is removed and then the plastic is trimmed and built into your final piece. Our particular machine has a heating element in the top section that we are able to clamp a sheet of plastic into place underneath it (the plastic itself is held in with a wooden frame), and a vacuum base on the table top that allows us to simply lower the heated plastic down onto.

The heating element.

A plastic sheet clamped into the frame.

The vacuum base with the buck in place.

Now because each individual vacuum-forming machine will operate uniquely to itself, I cannot provide any heating times or ideal temperatures for you. That's something you're going to have to play around with on your own. However, I will tell you that it's best to heat the plastic slowly! As I said before, if you heat it too quickly, it can ignite. Aside from that, the important thing is to let the plastic droop. You'll want to let it droop as much as it can, and that allows it to form easily to your buck, and it can prevent a problem I'll refer to later as "webbing."

I've prepared a video of what vacuum-forming looks like. Due to the cluttered background, I chose to focus only on the vacuum base itself. Understand that by the time the video started recording, the plastic had been heating for about 20 minutes or so and the plastic was allowed to reach it's "maximum droopage."

When the plastic is pulled down, it's best to let it sit there under the pressure of the vacuum for several minutes while the plastic cools. Otherwise it may try to spring back a little, and you could lose some definition in the pulled plastic. Generally the plastic cools rather quickly, so once our heating element is warmed up, we can run through several pulls in an hour.

Earlier I referred to a problem I call "webbing." I'm not sure if it's the correct term, but it's what I've been referring to it as. Basically it's what happens when the plastic is pulled over a sharp enough shape in the buck that two sides of the plastic are pulled into each other before they are pulled into the vacuum base. You can't really correct it on the fly, but sometimes you're able to ignore it completely if the webbing doesn't touch the usable portion of the plastic you just pulled. Below is an example of that. You can see where the plastic is forming a fold at the tips of the buck. However, since I'll be trimming the mask quite close to the front face, the webbing on this particular pull doesn't affect the final product.

Unfortunately, at the time I took these photos and shot the video, I didn't have any clear PET plastic with me to pull a set of eye pieces. However, the process is the same. The only difference is that I made a quick mold of my original eye piece model so that I could cast several copies up and pull a whole sheet of eye pieces at once (instead of one at a time).

How you choose to finish your project is up to you. Thinner plastics can be trimmed with shop shears or an X-acto knife, and you can use a Dremel as well. Since my personal masks were thinner PET plastic, I used an X-acto blade to trim the outer edge, and then I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to cut the eye holes out. Wear eye protection when using a Dremel since PET and ABS tend to throw out little chunks of melted plastic when you use a power tool on them. Also be sure to wear your respirator since both PET and ABS are plastics and the fumes from cutting them with power tools are harmful. Top finish up the edges hand-sanding on these kinds of things makes for a nice, smooth edge. I would recommend against using any sort of power sander on these materials because you can end up removing a lot more material than desire really quickly.

For final assembly, I chose to paint the mask and eye pieces, and then glue the eyes to the mask wit hot glue. The mask was painted with Krylon Fusion "Sunbeam Yellow" (which as close to the particular yellow of the masks in the show as I could find locally) and the lenses were painted with Krylon Stained Glass Red. A black elastic band was attached to the backside of the mask with some J B Weld, and then I lined the nose area with some thin black foam for comfort.

Well I hope this tutorial was informative and scientastic. I wrote it over the course of about 3 days, so I hope it's rather seamless.

Dragon*Con 2011 Part 1: Wayne's Story

After a year straight of preparations, Dragon*Con 2011 is now just a memory. Just like last year the con did not disappoint and lived up to the hype we put on it. This year was particularly interesting as we entered our first Dragon*Con costume contest, met some of the celebrities in the prop and geek community, and learned that things don’t always turn out like you plan. Here is my take on the epicness of the weekend.

Thursday

This year we discovered that although the convention officially starts on Friday, the party is well underway starting Thursday night. People were already going around in costume and socializing on “day zero” and we know for next year to get to Atlanta early on Thursday rather than midafternoon. We did not suit up for the night due to other plans, specifically meeting up with Harrison Krix, better known as Volpin Props. Dave and I have talked to him online here and there throughout the year, but this was the first time we all met in person. We presented him with his “My First Fiberglass” certificate for successfully using our fiberglass technique on his Thomas helmet, so hopefully it shows up in his next drunken casting video…


Group Shot of 2Story and Volpin Props

After meeting Harrison we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and prepare for Friday. Space is very limited in the hotel room so drastic measures needed to be taken to make sure we didn’t break anything.



Friday

Friday we managed to get up around 5 am to get our badges, mainly because we were so full of adrenalin and anticipation we couldn’t sleep. After several hours in line and almost reaching the point of beating the super nerds in front of us to a pulp, we finally got our passes and proceeded to put on our Daft Punk gear.


David having his glove attached

I don’t have any pictures of the suits on my camera as it is very hard to manipulate with the gloves on, plus I can only see blurs with the helmet on. Judging from the camera flashes we were a big hit, and I am pretty sure this is the only full pair of Daft Punk that was going around the con. David will have some good shots in his post, including what we believe will be the most confusing picture on the internet. This is one of my favorite shots, as a lot of people really wanted to see these three suits together.


Daft Punk and Deadmau5

Around lunch time some stomach pain that started Thursday evening began to get real bad. I won’t go into details but I was starting to worry about throwing up in the helmet or worse. Still we pushed on and made it back to the hotel for a photo shoot with David’s friend Chase, who took some great shots of our ODST last year. The pictures should be up this week. After the shoot we went back to the hotel to rest before the big completion.

Even after getting out of Daft Punk I was feeling terrible. My stomach was a mess, I was sweating, and I seriously thought I was not only going to miss the contest, but miss the rest of the convention. After trying some Hail Mary remedies of antacids, sprite, and Gatorade, I managed to improve a little, and knowing I had a really good crew with me made the decision that I was going to make it to that contest regardless if I was going to leave it under my own power or not. After preparing a cooler with drinks, ice, and medication, we suited me up in Delta and made our way to the Friday Night Costume Contest.


Go Team Delta!

Judging went very well and most of the other contestants complimented us greatly on our suit. After several hours of waiting for prejudging to end it was time to make it over to the main ball room to walk across the stage.


Walking on the Stage

When it came to my turn I walked on stage and noticed that there were A LOT more people in the audience than I though. Imagine filling two large movie theaters full of people, that is what I was looking at. The M.C. started to read my information and I strutted my stuff, and then pulled the trigger to start the drill…

The drill did not turn. The chuck came loose.

In a desperate attempt to get the drill to spin I held the trigger down and kept jerking my arm trying to get it to catch. Finally, it caught, the drill spun, and I raised the whole assembly over my head.

The crowd went wild!

After all the contestants went on they announced the winners. I was a little disappointed we did not win in the major categories, but we did receive one of the few honorable mentions. I still think the crowd cheered loudest when I walked back on the stage.


Let’s Hear it For Delta!

After the competition we headed back to the room. I wanted to pose for pictures but the cool packs were well melted and I would have passed out in less than 30 min. Originally I was planning to put Thomas back on and head to the masquerade ball, but I was exhausted so I put on an ODST shirt and hit the floor for a bit before crashing and heading back to bed.

Saturday

Apparently I was so tired the night before I forgot to hit save on my phone when setting the alarm clock, so we did not get up early enough to march in the parade. In retrospect this actually was a good thing as the sleeping in made me feel a lot better. As David, Jecca, and Ethan made their way to the parade to watch I stayed behind for a few min to get my Aperture Scientist (the Portal Gun) costume ready. When we were planning for the con I thought that I was going to be in Thomas for most of the con and the Portal Gun was only going to make an appearance on Sunday. I decided not to go that route due to the visibility in the helmet. If I stayed in Thomas, I wouldn’t be able to actually see any of the convention and my memories would literally be of blurs. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the Portal Gun since it is heavy and I was kind of cheating by wearing a lab coat and calling it a costume, but I hit the floor. To my surprise I was grabbed by more people wanting pictures than when I had the proton pack the year before! Portal was really big this year, and I found several people dressed as Chell, a bunch of scientist, and even a few personality cores.


Little Chell

In the afternoon I changed out and grabbed Delta’s helmet for the “Meet the Winners” costuming panel. Although they encouraged winners to bring the whole suit, I only brought the helmet to save some time and let the rest of the crew enjoy the con. I loved the reaction I got from the crowd when the helmet made a loud thud when I set it on the table. The panel was very informative and provided some excellent tips for next year. After the panel I took the helmet out for one last spin before dinner. Even without the suit, plenty of people stopped for a photo op.


Splicer, Delta, and Little Sister

After dinner I hit the floor again with the Portal Gun and ran into Jonathan Coulton. For those of who don’t know, he is the musician who composed “Still Alive” and “Want You Gone” for the two Portal games. He actually stopped me as I was walking by so he could check out the gun. After explaining how it was made I asked him to sign it. At first he didn’t want to mess up the gun, but I insisted and now like the proton pack the Portal Gun is a collectable instead of a prop.


Jonathan Coulton and Crew Examining the Portal Gun


Seal of Approval

Sunday

Most of Sunday was spent once again showing off the Portal Gun and taking pictures of other great costumes, which are all up on our Flickr account, so check them out. One I have to mention here is the unbelievable Wheatly puppet from Portal 2. In addition to being incredibly accurate, the eye moves AND BLINKS, plus it talks! I think this girl won best prop at the cosplay contest.


Wheatly Puppet

We also ran into Crystal with her Luka Megurine costume which features the headphones and arm display that we built. I think she did a pretty good job with the outfit and it was cool to see another one of our creations getting appreciated at the convention.


Luka Megurine at the convention.

Later in the evening I went and saw the masquerade costume contest. The first hour was pretty good and they had some really great skits. My favorite was a where a 6 year old dressed as a little sister was saved from splicers by the Kick Ass Big Daddy. Then there were about five skits in a row that were, painfully, painfully terrible, and I ended up walking out because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I did get some ideas though for possible acts for next year.

All in all the convention was a blast and defiantly worth the effort we put into preparing for it. As far as were we are going from here prop wise, it’s a bit of a mystery. There are a lot of projects we want to do, from the complex and huge to the simple but unique. There is also the question of how much time do we want to spend on a single suit again. Personally, in the immediate future I am planning to make a deadmau5 head for Halloween and casual wear and plan to take another look as the wiring for the Tron versions of Daft Punk. As far as the next big project or which contest if any we’ll compete in at Dragon*Con, I really don’t know, we are just going to have to wait and see.

Check out all the great costumes we saw on our Flickr page!

Finally, here is a preview of my next short term project which may lead to something considerably more complex for D*Con 2011.