Wonder Woman? 3 weeks later...

Well as many of you know for free comic book day I cosplayed as Wonder Woman/warrior/man. Part of the choice to be her was to then get to use the costume again 3 weeks later when the (SUPER AWESOME) Wonder Woman movie came out! You know, dress up, get food and a movie...
Well being that I finished it the first time in 2 weeks, I had time to take apart what I didn't like, fix stuff up and add things that didn't get made the first time.

I circled lightly what I added or changed... 

I wanted to add:
Shoes! (didn't actually get to these the first time and just threw together shin guards that looked terrible...
A Sword!!!
And and arm band.
Things I wanted to fix:
I had a lot of glue goobers that I wanted to fix up.
The back had no detail and I wanted some.
The skirt had a hole, exposing my butt...

So I started making shoes...

I kinda thought it would be fun to make the whole thing... it was but I can definitely improve on what I did...

So as you can see I took foam and layered two big pieces, putting straps in between and attaching a back heal piece which ran up the back of my leg.
In hindsight when you are pinching two flat surfaces together, don't stand on them to get the glue to bond. That makes the edges pucker up! Next time I shall clamp the edges down so they don't need filling after I do that! If you look at the first picture of the shoes, you can see two little loops on each shoe, yeah those didn't work out like I originally thought so an improvement will be to make that strap go all around. Also this time around I wanted to try what all the cosplayers say they use, 'plasti-dip' but I got the cheap off brand kind and it doesn't really work well so don't do that!

If you look at this picture (after the whole day of walking in them) you can see the pitted part on the bottom shoe, that's what the off brand plasti-dip did...  Also this picture is a see how they did, pic. after having them on, from 9:30am till 8:30pm. I'd say they did pretty good, but as you see on the back "stalks" they got a lot of stress and started breaking apart. I think I can solve this problem by using one piece from angle to calf! But all in all I'm Impressed that they lasted all day, the soles are still good to go for more wear and tear!

 This pic has a great view of the shoes, I thought they looked pretty good, and very 'roman-y'.

The sword.

For this entire project I'm trying something new, but as I did each section or thing, I would try a new technique that I watched or read about. Here I am trying out the spray-foam technique. Which I honestly don't recommend. Maybe some day I'll try it again, but I think I can do a way better job if I don't do this... but it is what it was. So let me explain it! 

First I took a piece of cardboard and cut it to the length and shape I wanted, then I used spray foam to spray both sides of the cardboard (you have to wait till one side is mostly dry to do the other). 

then you take what you see in the above picture, and cut it until it's the shape you want. 

Now this leave lots of air pockets and odd shapes and at this point you're supposed to add tape and paper-mache and plaster... buuuuttt I didn't take into account how much bigger it would be when I made the form, so I didn't do that... 

No I added tape, then I covered the hilt cross guard with foam. That worked great. Then I covered the end pommel with foam, and that worked too! I even wrapped the handle with the same material as the skirt. The hilt looks amazing. Unfortunately the sword blade wasn't smooth enough. I got some HVAC tape (which I had seen Adam Savage use on a Hellboy sword) but with all the bumps, it doesn't look good. so I'm not showing a picture of just the sword close up. At a distance it looks fine and having the cool hilt stick up from my back looked great too!

Anyway if you look in the pictures above my bicep you will see the new armband. It was pretty simple, I just cut the Double 'WW' and made the wings wrap around, and I used the elastic left over from my headpiece to fasten it around my arm. After many coats of paint, it looks great!

On to the back which most will never see. (except here!!!)

So I tore off the back of my armor so I could cut it to fit better and add detail to the back! One of the things I noticed was that, because I didn't use a pattern (wait what??? Crazy guy) it was a bit big and didn't sit well on the shoulders. Also I couldn't sit well... So taking off the back was perfect for more than just adding detail but changing the shape of both pieces and how they re-attached.
So the design was a new technique I wanted to try, and one I look forward to trying more of in the future, because it worked amazingly! You cut (lightly) into the foam (and I'm told this only works on EVA foam) then take a heat gun (I bought one to re-work this costume, and it's a must have!!!! If you want to work with foam for costumes then go get a cheap one, I got it for $9 at harbor freight and it's the same one that Evil Ted uses on his foam making channel and he's a professional!). Heating the foam where you cut will have two effects. First, the foam will be heat treated, which I came to understand meant you don't need mod-podge, plasti-dip or any other sealer because it's sealing the pores and top layer of foam for you. Second it separates from any cuts in a nice smooth way (well smooth if you cut well). So boom cut your design and heat and you have a perfect design, no glue!!!!

It worked wonders! Ha! Wonders...okay yeah, moving on. If you look at the double 'WW' symbol you can see it looks pretty good and that was all just heat treating!! One of the nicest new tricks I learned the 2nd time around!

So I went to fix up some of the goobers around the front symbol and I accidently dremeled out a chunk of the 'WW' so I needed to add another layer, which I think looks amazing but was really hard, until I decided to lay a piece of thinner foam over the top, cut it and heat it until it came apart.
FYI thinner foam bends when heat treated and it IS better to use a sealer of some kind instead of heat treating! but it worked out okay...

Also this is where I REALLY learned that heat treating a knife cut will make EVERY cut you make show up. For a split second I was super worried, but then I just made it into a 'wear scrape' which when you add those to a costume and paint it accordingly really look great. It gives it a 'used' look. I'm pretty happy with it being up-raised more and everything.
Also check out the stars. I added those, because originally I wanted to add stars to the body, (like the newer comic book Wonder woman has) but I forgot (and it was good that I forgot, because it saved me sooooo much time) but I wanted to add stars to it anyway, so they went up top... which means you never really see them with the cape... but if I ever take off the cape (ha!) you would have that nice feature and the back too!

I fixed that skirt, but sadly didn't have time to add any paint or detail (which it needs)
Also I ran into a new problem. The fabric stretched and the clasp that I used needs pressure to stay, so towards the end of the day anytime I sat down it would undo itself! I only mention this because it's worth saying, 'If you are going to make a costume use clasps that will stay together no matter what!!!' You're costume is going to 'breath' with use and needs to not have this problem! I learned it the hard way, now you don't have to!

Now here are more pics!

The last one is with the Woman herself (well the cardboard version) right before the movie!
Which the movie was amazing! If I give myself time, I'll review it later, but suffice it to say it was great, go see it!

That's all, for the 2nd time, I'll probably work on it some more, but probably wont need to blog about it since most of the changes will be minor vs the major add-on's this time (though I do want to make a shield so maybe I'll jabber on about that when it comes time)!
Thanks for reading and as always click the adds (it should make me money;p)

Oh and remember if you're making you're own cosplay, have fun and give yourself more time to work on it! I enjoyed walking around all day and had many people ask to take pictures with me. Sure some probably made fun of the guy in costume (in a woman costume as a man?) but I had fun and many people had fun seeing me! That's what it's about, having fun and enjoying doing something different. Also someday I'll make it to a comic-con... ;)

The Dark Knight Rises and DC comics...

I saw the Dark Knight Rises a few days ago and I've been pondering it a bit since then. First I will give you an overview of the movie and what I think about it, then I want to talk about DC comics and what they're doing these days...

The Dark Knight Rises is the third and final Batman film with Christopher Nolan as the director.
Everyone you would talk to would say these three movies brought back Batman, and were true to the comics... well mostly at least... but I think in most cases nobody cared where he changed things because he made them awesome; and everyone remembers Batman and robin and cringes... so anything that is done with batman that has a good storyline, and doesn't do stupid things with the characters has to be better... right? So let's talk about the DKR, the story and plot line, and see if that is true of the third installment of the trilogy.
DKR starts off where we left off with Dark Knight, well sorta... there's no talk of the joker (except references to 'the war' before)... but it centers around Harvey Dent and the law that got passed that put many convicts in prison, made Harvey out to be a great man, and Batman out to be a terrible villain. Oh and it's like 8 years later... the city hasn't seen Batman since then, and relatively speaking is at peace...
It all makes sense...
Bruce wayne, has been holed up in his manor for the last eight years as well, not showing his face... and also since he's not going to be batman, he's not been working out at all either...

Okay so plot is set up in away that makes sense... Then they set up bane, vaguely telling us who he is... and it's actually pretty cool.  Okay so at the risk of telling to much more, let's stop there and I'll just tell you I liked the plot completely.
So lets talk about what felt off or I didn't like...
First it felt like a typical 2nd movie in a trilogy... not the third. I think this had a lot to do with the joker being gone, now they really were short changed because of Heath ledge dying but I think despite that they did a good job moving on and not having the joker in the story line at all. But again I felt that it gave it the feel of a middle movie and not the ending... (though it did wrap up well like a third movie should).
Next.
Batman is awesome right? Who doesn't at least think that? But who thinks that batman stripped of his utility belt and gadgets is as good a batman as a batman with those things? In the movie I believe he only used his utility belt maybe twice... and he mostly tried to fight villains with a straight hand to hand combat... what?! Why?! Batman is great because he's smart enough to be using his supplies to get himself out of situations he's not actually strong enough to fight his way out of... that's part of what's cool about batman, he's smart enough to be better than that...
Well apparently not in this movie...
And next...
Wait nope plot wise that's it... it was wonderful. Well done and the above two things were all I could complain about...
I will mention that I think hans zimmer is better than what he did for the music of this film... the last two were wonderful soundtracks and this one was lacking...

Okay so awesome... so what does this mean for DC comics?

The last three dc comics logos.

Well it means that it's the end of their only successful movie series.

Did I say only? Well okay Christopher Reeves Superman series was pretty successful... until they did a third, and a fourth... and then later a new one (with a new actor) that rarely anyone liked... and we also got a preview for another one with the new 52 style at the DKR...
Which I'm going to throw it out there for a question, Does anyone like the New 52?
I have been trying it and trying it... and I dislike it every time I pick up a comic...
Why does dc feel the need to change everything all the time? Okay well starting over with all the series, marketing (and lets face it who really knew what was going on after all the universe crisis' happened), but what's with the logo change again? I can honestly say, in my lifetime DC has changed their logo three times in my awareness... Why? What's the point? Also we saw the superman logo has changed again too... ummm how many times does superman's logo have to change?
So what do I think this means for DC comics? As sad as this is coming out of my mouth, I think it means yay lot's of money and then a plummet as they seem to not have any idea how to make their characters into movies (green lantern, superman returns etc...) except without Christopher Nolan, who is done directing them and is only producing the man of steel... This makes me sad... I grew up loving DC comics, they were fun, and bright. Now they are gloomy and dark and hardly any good... So though I wish that with the ending of an epic series trilogy that they will put out something better or equal to The Dark Knight trilogy, I can't help but think that this is something they wont be able to do...
So should you see the DARK KNIGHT RISES? YES, Should you pray that DC comics gets it's act together after this success? YES, because if they don't this will be the start of their end...