Sunday, March 11, 2007

ClawII: Vincent's left arm Redux

Vincent Valentine claw, from FFVII game character design. Mostly.
I'm rather determined to have the best Vincent costume ever. (My Vincent pwns yours. 'Specially that sparkly one. Really. WTF.)
Left arm, vambrace, articulated wrist, gauntlet. Click for larger resolution.
Story/details @ bottom of page.

Full view of claw vambrace & gauntlet

Closer look at gauntlet area


Demonstration of articulated joint


Moooonster energy drink (hence the 5am-ness)


For Otakon 2005 I cosplayed as Vincent Valentine.
The costume was a hybrid between the character design for the FFVII game and various info scrounged up for Advent Children and Dirge of Cerebus. The claw was borrowed almost entirely from the game design, but the clothes got upgraded to movie design. I also made the three barrel revolver (and a holster) to go with the mostly-movie-design costume. At the end of the convention, I sold the claw and gun, but kept the cloak & holster.
This spring break, I decided to re-create the claw. Curiously, I think my original was better made--I had a day or two in a machine shop in '05, so I was at a disadvantage for ClawII with just a drill and metal shears.

General construction information:
Vambrace, flared elbow-obstruction-thing, wrist and back-of-hand armor was all made of annealed aluminum. Pretty thick but really soft. Chicago screws for the articulated joint, and two-part rivets for the flare-to-vambrace fastening. There's some epoxy putty on the underside, mostly to cover the raw metal edge.
The glove is leather, previously with a cashmere lining. (I'd lost the other side, so I was fine with sacrificing the remaining one.) The plates on the gauntlet are made of polystyrene, thermo-formed on hand carved wood molds. The "rivets" are actually scrapbooking brads (which makes the inside of the glove a little uncomfortable, what with all the little bits of metal exposed).
The entire thing was spraypainted with Rustoleum's Hammered Finish Gold paint. I love the stuff--it's made to hide surface imperfections, so little scratches and nicks don't show, but it looks like an even finish. I tend to use it on all "metal" cosplay props I make. (Previous examples: ClawI and Movie-Van's lorica manica)
ClawI was constructed in pretty much the same way. I didn't change the design itself, but the details like the exact dimensions of the vambrace or elbow-obstructor weren't kept for ClawII. The materials and finish were the same.
Meanwhile: I do have ClawIII in the works. It'll be a claw based on the movie design. Similar materials, so far. (The scalloped gauntlet back was obnoxious to form by hand. Like "bend the metal into little ridges with no tools" obnoxious. I hope to find someone with tools that I can work with, 'else ClawIII isn't going to happen. I want it to be a well constructed claw, unlike ClawII.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Soapstone Critters

Bought a 2lb chunk of soapstone from a small arts supply shop near home. Took some files/rasps/sandpaper to a few little fragments and made these:
First item made was ... well, it's supposed to be a seal. Then I made a heart (that's the triangular thing--it's a horrid angle).


Then I made a penguin. (Penguin loves you~) That's the heart, at a better angle.