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.

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.

Helmets Teaset

I constructed an armet-burgonet cross helm for a teapot, and then added three tea cups to the set: Crusader great helm, Hoplite/Corinthian helm and a Norse helmet.

Story time!

Now, the armet-burgonet, great helm and Corinthian helms all have crests of various types that I could tweak into acting as handles, but I have found nothing that indicates Norse helmets having crests that stick out to any appreciable degree.

So what in the world can I do for a handle?

Other than crests, what else sticks out the back of a Norse helmet?

AXES, obviously.

And in conclusion: I am awesome.

Cupid's Arrows: Skewers+Needles Edition

What's Valentine's Day without Cupid? Well, it'd be a bow and some arrows that hurt.


Two 6" skewers, two sewing needles, a scrap of paper, some floss and superglue.


These are pretty dangerous: from about 6 feet away, I can lodge one of these arrows in a piece of hardwood. (With craptastic acurracy, but that's beside the point.)

Directions on how these were made are here (thanks to Instructables.com)

Dreamcatchers!

I got the idea for these from a post on Instructables. I've collaborated with the original author, so if you want directions for these dreamcatchers, head there.

Dreamcatcher 1: Half-inch in diameter, copper ring wrapped in upholstery thread.

Dreamcatcher 2: Quarter-inch in diameter. Aluminum ring wrapped in "metallic" thread.

Dreamcatcher 3: Three-eighths of an inch across. Paperclip bent to shape, wrapped in upholstery thread.

Stretchy chainmail et cetera

Top row: all byzantine weave

Second row: center item is spiral weave, side items are byzantine.

Third row: Two european 4-in-1 bands, 2 half-persian 3-in-1

(All the above listed items are in anodized aluminum and neoprene AND STRETCHY)

Bottom two rows: Half-persian 3-in-1 bracelets in anodized titanium w/ cloisonne center bead.

Thing between the euro bands and cloisonne bracelets: Half-persian 4-in-1 bracelet in anodized aluminum.

Happy holidays, from Socrates

When there's a bust of Socrates sitting in the Classics/Philosophy/Religion lounge, what's a necessary accessory for the winter holidays?


Socrates + Santa hat!

Chainmail Necklaces

(Click for a larger image)


From the top left, going clockwise:
-Byzantine weave with pink-lavender rosettes
-Eensy(TM) Byzantine weave with Iolite beads and dark blue-toned accents
-Green titanium Jends Pinds weave with tiny paper crane in a glass bulb
-Sterling silver spiral weave
-Sterling silver Half-Persian 4-in-1 weave
-Copper Half-Persian 4-in-1 weave

Medium-small crane in drop-bulb pendant. Wingspan: less than 1cm.

Chainmail Bracelets

(Click for larger image)

From far left, clockwise:
-3 Byzantine chains with rosettes (red, green and black) in aluminium
-Tiger's eye bead with titanium Byzantine chain (with gold-tone accents)
-Cloisonne bead with rose titanium Half-Persian 3-in-1 chain
-Sterling silver Half-Persian 4-in-1 bracelet
-Turqoise bead with titanium Byzantine chain (with green-tone accents)
-Jade bead with green and gold titanium Jends Pinds chain

Ceramics and cardboard

The only final today was the ceramics final critique.
I set up my area surrounded by a noose. Whee~

And instead of studying the rest of the day, I made a cardboard viking ship:
It will be used in a viking funeral! Yay finals!