Lessons learned

Something I'm starting to get about cosplaying is the idea of not necessarily buying a costume to wear, but creating something yourself. Like these highly impressive, award winning cosplayers from Matsuricon 2013 in Columbus, Ohio:

They say this fellow made his powered-armor-type suit out of cardboard,
duct tape, and paint. I don't remember the name of the character. (edit: it's

Jl Prime cosplaying Kamen Rider Decade!)

I recognize this one. It's Lord Death from Soul Eater.

She's a character I think from a video game I haven't played.
(Edit: she's Big Sister from "Bioshock." Yeah, I should probably get a PS3 or something...)

A handmade Transformers Starscream costume, made by cosplayer extraordinaire Chelsey. She gave her
Decepticon a smile. An evil smile. An I've-going-to-blast-you-into-a-million-pieces-with-a-song-in-my-heart smile.

That makes sense. Unleash your creativity and all that. This gives me ideas for long-term projects of my own that will almost certainly require visits to Michael's and/or Joann's (shudder). I've been meaning to hit those places anyway. I need to look into building some actual sets for Living Room Wars. I have lots of ideas for that, too!
In the short term, I'm looking to head to Northern Michigan Anime Con in Traverse City next weekend and Anime USA the weekend after. I'm looking to continue my cosplaying career with a modified Soldier A and something new, for me - an actual character!
For Soldier A, I'm going lighter...

...for something like this...

I can add another uniform to the things-I-can-fit-into-it-again category!

The character I have in mind is still in progress, sort of, but fans of the webcomics I like will recognize where I'm going with this...
 

The rope's for emergencies...

Matsuricon!

Matsuricon was awesome! I figure I am now an official cosplayer.

Me in my Soldier A cosplay outfit, dwarfed by the very cool voice actor Travis Willingham, at Matsuricon 2013.

Some may have been a bit confused by my outfit. One fellow con-goer asked if I was a cosplayer or just wearing my old clothes. Both, I said. Travis up there, towering over me, he said something like, "Ah, 'Soldier A.' We've all done that." He got it, at least.
But my confused fellow cosplayer and everyone else treated this newcomer exceptionally well. I was called out by name ("Soldier A") within the first hour. I got a pose request for a photo, which is indeed a most excellent thing to happen to a cosplayer. I hope he didn't delete it! Another recognized me from this blog (Nicholas?) - thanks very much! And yet another, a Call-of-Duty player I think he said, wanted to see what it was I was toting about - not an airsoft, he knew that much.

It was this, my convention-scarred rubber training rifle.

I let him try it out. A fellow closer to my age knew exactly what it - probably a vet.
My highest compliments to all the Matsuricon organizers and staff. Those folks put in a ton of work and I appreciate all of it. This was my first multi-day convention, attendance-wise, I mean. My previous conventions, I'd consider five hours a long time. Added onto four-hour drives from and to home, it still made for a long day. I spent no fewer than 12 hours at Matsuricon on Saturday, with another five on Sunday. And there were more than a few times I wanted extra hours thrown in there, cause there were two or more events I wanted to go to at the same time. The convention was too awesome - a good problem to have!
A lot of time was in line for autographs. My first response on Matsursicon's Facebook page was to compliment them on their guest lineup. It was truly outstanding, and included these "Soul Eater" voice actors.

Boom.

Also from "Fullmetal Alchemist" (minus the furface).

Which of these two characters would you say is the Fullmetal Alchemist? Nope, it's the other one.

I'd say those are a lot of autographs for one convention! Got my picture with a couple other voice actors, besides Travis up there.

Me and Micah Solusod, who plays Soul Evans in "Soul Eater." He eats souls, but he's a good guy. He eats only bad souls. He also draws the webcomic "Ties that Bind," with Ayu Sakata. A webcomic creator - his stock just went up with me!

I'm with Stephanie Young, who plays the villainous and sexy Arachne in "Soul Eater" and the heroic and sexy Mira Armstrong in "Fullmetal Alchemist." This was on Sunday and my cosplay uniform was all bagged up.

Probably at least one more posting on Matsuricon to come, especially on the other cosplayers and what I learned from those folks (you can make a Transformers Starscream costume by hand? Yes, yes you can).

Ready to cosplay!

All the pieces are together for my inaugural cosplay Soldier A outfit! Not much compared to the folks slinging hot glue and mad sewing skills for hours and days - I've enjoyed following along with fellow cosplayers' progress on Matsuricon's facebook page. Someone posted a Metal Gear Solid 3 cosplay. Snake wears woodland-type BDUs. I have those! And  a big box, too? Does he go around in a box in that one? I still need to finish that game!
So anyway, here's the final outfit:

High-speed low-drag! Well, maybe a little drag.

I have a canteen for hydration and buttpack for my camera. I probably won't wear the darkened goggles and scarf much. I don't want to fall down or run over small children! 
I continued my trend today of promoting favorite webcomics during weekly runs through town by wearing their T-shirts. This week, Blue Milk Special!

It does your body good!

Rod and Leanne Hannah's long-running Star Wars parody webcomic has been an inspiration of mine for years. Intensely funny, with strips like this...



And I enjoy their manga/anime influences, like crying Luke here...



They're big supporters of their local 501st Legion unit, folks who dress up in Imperial outfits and armor and do lots and lots of community work, like encouraging children to read, promoting children's safety, and raising money to fight autism. One heck of a cosplay outfit!
I want to eventually do something like that, and if I do, it will be in part because Rod keeps writing about the importance of directing energy like this to "helping your fellow human beings" and stuff like that.
And I could be a stormtrooper - bonus!

Next week's T-shirt will feature ... well, nothing yet. This exhausts my supply of webcomic T-shirts. I might have something soon, depending on size. I won this art contest by the wonderfully awesome Naomi VonKreeps, my favorite Canadian Star Wars/superhero/etc. cosplayer and model, with this...

See, in Star Wars, things tend to get cut off a lot...

The prize includes a couple really awesome T-shirts. One is a woman's small, which I will never ever fit into, but the other is a man's medium, which maaaaaybe I could fit into at some point. We'll see. This is what my Darths think of it...

Yeah, I too am a webcomic maker, with Living Room Wars! It's a mashup starring my old Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. action figures. Anime influences are starting to work their way into it, too, like in this part...

And he is. Oh yes.

Here's what my little Sith lords think of an actual Naomi print...

They're rude because of the Dark Side.

So a week before Matsuricon - my weight was at 188 this morning, almost 70 pounds down from the holidays. The last time I was at this weight was 1997ish, or maybe even before.
Stay tuned for pictures from the event! (hopefully)

An "old friend"

Embarking on this cosplay project, I knew it was only a matter of time before I would have to face an old nemesis from the darkest recesses of my mind. One I thought to be rid of forever. It has to do with these...

My old jungle boots, which of course we wore in the deserts of the Middle East. A required component of my Soldier A cosplay outfit. Unlike the more sensible footware issued nowadays, the black leather parts are supposed to be polished, something these haven't been since the middle of 1991. I can't walk around with raggedy-ass footware! Which brings me to the "nemesis" part:
 

Mr. Kiwi. We meet again. Old. Friend.

I found and broke out the old shoe shining kit, also not used even once in the past 22 years. It's all held up surprisingly well. The polish is just as messy as I remember it.

Nostalgia!

 Now they look like this, hardly a mirror finish and I got kiwi on the canvas, but good enough for now...

Ready for combat, I guess?

Polished combat boots. The idea always seemed strange, especially when I had to be polishing them all the time! They've switched to non-shine boots since then, which seems practical when the objective is to not be shiny.
Anyways, I'm thinking it's a go for cosplaying Matsuricon! Still tight around the middle but so what...

Two weeks to go!

Ebay success!

I won my second Ebay auction for a piece I needed for my first cosplay outfit. It arrived today - thank you neighbors for not swiping it!
It's a prop rifle, something I need, of course, if I am to succeed in my portrayal of Soldier A (the unsung hero of anime).
Rules are fairly strict for weapons at conventions. They acknowledge they are an essential part of many cosplay costumes, for men, women, boys, as well as girls. Swords, guns, gunswords, swordguns, etc. Rocket launchers, like for the fellow whose picture I posted on my first post (I'm assuming he's a fellow).
No real weapons, naturally, but they also don't allow weapons that shoot plastic pellets, so airsoft is out. They're not even supposed to have moving parts, which, from what I've seen at conventions, may or may not be that much enforced.
But anyone who's served in the Army, Marines, or other branch that marches a lot knows exactly what would qualify. Something like this:

This cat isn't included either.

Dummy rifle. Rubber ducky. Rifles molded out of rubber to issue to troops for marching and other exercises when leaders don't want the hassle of issuing a bunch of real weapons.
I bid on Ebay for a black rubber M-16A1, just like the one I carried back in the '80s, but was outbid by like $40. Other folks looking for props, training or something.
This is a new model, molded in blue. I also had the option of red. Anyway, I'll be painting it black, with red or orange on the flash hider, just like the rules say.
I ran another four miles today. I wore my TOGM shirt, from the late, great The Other Grey Meat webcomic.

Sorry, no duck face.

A local teen layabout asked to see it, so I'm doing my part to keep TOGM alive (sort of. It's set in a post zombie apocalypse. Well maintained zombies. All the characters on the shirt except the guy in the middle are zombies).
Hmm, TOGM featured undead resistance fighters who liked to wear army uniforms, just like the ones I have. Future cosplay idea...