My Cortana- FINISHED PICTURES PAGE 4

So, back in April some friends I met playing Halo convinced me to go to D*Con with them. And not only that, convinced me to costume it just because they were. They are going in spartan armor suits, but because I don't have the skills (yet), time, or the funds, to either do my own or have someone do it for me, I decided to compromise by trying to do Cortana. I have absolutely no costuming experience, and I'm hoping my hidden artistic abilities come out and help me, because I would love for this to be awesome.

I'm also going to apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures, my camera went missing a few days ago, and I've torn up my apartment looking for it but I'm having no luck. ><

Anyways, it's been an adventure. From making my own mannequin to trying to find the right paints and everything else, and I honestly couldn't do it without some of the previous Cortanas I've seen done here. Especially Hyokenseisou's. Her's was what prompted me to do it in the first place because I absolutely loved it.


So because I have no sewing skills (yet), I decided to just buy a body suit. Unfortunately despite the attempt at buying the lightest blue possible, I still didn't like how dark it was. And in my defense the picture I "bought" was a lot lighter than what I was sent, but having foreseen this happening... I was prepared to deal with it. Yay for spray paint!
Before:


And if you ignore the crappy lighting.... After:
This one also has my shoes that I'm planning on wearing all day. Haven't decided if I want to go the heel route for pictures and such.



Glitter! (It doesn't like to show up in pictures :/ )


Taped off and ready to go!




And I just put the paint on like 5 minutes ago, and even though I have a test fabric that I've tested everything on... It turned out nothing like it did on there. You can see through it a lot here, and I'm worried about that. I'm thinking it could turn out really cool, and end up being an unintentional good thing, or it will just look bad. I'm gonna let it dry overnight, and hope that it looks ok in the morning or that another layer will make it less see through. Crossing my fingers that it turns out ok!

Looks like a real good start!

hey dont feel bad. everyone has to start somewhere. no one is born with the knowledge to making amazing things right from jump street.

onmi shift said:

hey dont feel bad. everyone has to start somewhere. no one is born with the knowledge to making amazing things right from jump street.

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True, I can wish I was though!

Thank you both for the encouragement though! Despite that I feel it's turning out well it's good to know that someone else thinks so too!

I'm also starting to realize just how much room my apartment doesn't have. >< I'm thinking I'm definitely going to have to crash my Dad's garage for my future armor build. Just this body suit project seems to have taken over my living room, dining room, patio, etc. Lol.

So far so good!
Glad to see another Cortana build, they are far and few.
Will be following along for the ride

Dave/Cereal.

So, just when I thought things were going well, and I was going to avoid any huge disaster on this... of course something goes wrong. I somehow managed to get all sorts of paint underneath the tape and it looks like a four year old was trying to color in the lines. D: I also haven't decided if I like the "faded/see-throughish" look of the dark blue either, I think that could be fixed with another coat of paint though.
I'm just not really sure how to go about fixing all the not clean lines... I thought about just making my deigns wider to fix all the "smudges", but I don't want to do that if the same thing is just going to happen again. A friend suggested just taping off everything and spray painting it, but that means a lot more work and buying more paint and my funds are limited for the next month or so. Does anyone have any tips to maybe make this work better? Or maybe a different technique?

It's looking pretty good for a first attempt!
Although I don't have any current tips on me, your best bet is to look around the forums and see what you can come up with!
Anyway, looks good so far!

-goboy3133

what alot of people do i use minimal details on their cortana costumes. me personally, i like a heavy, intricate pattern. what hair style are you going with? its like every game her hair is tweaked.

Very nice, another Cortana costume.
Looks pretty good for a first attempt.

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What type pf paint did you use? They actually make a latex based Acrylic clothing paint that would be thicker, and have much less chance of running/seeping under the tape. Its actually fairly cheap ($2.00 a bottle) and found at most any craft store like micheals or hobby lobby. Second; a tip from an old pro modelr... after you tape your design, spray the suit withthe same color spray paint as the base. That will seal off the tape lines and when you apply the darker color, it should (emphasis on SHOULD) prevent the darker paint from seeping under the tape. Just a thought from a noob! ;-)

First off, Thank you everyone for all the comments/support. It just makes me want to finish this sooner/better all that much more. (Also, I apologize if I'm not making much sense... it's 4 AM and about 5 hours past my bed time><)

Spoonman606 said:

What type pf paint did you use? They actually make a latex based Acrylic clothing paint that would be thicker, and have much less chance of running/seeping under the tape. Its actually fairly cheap ($2.00 a bottle) and found at most any craft store like micheals or hobby lobby. Second; a tip from an old pro modelr... after you tape your design, spray the suit withthe same color spray paint as the base. That will seal off the tape lines and when you apply the darker color, it should (emphasis on SHOULD) prevent the darker paint from seeping under the tape. Just a thought from a noob! ;-)

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I didn't even think of that lighter color trick! I'm going to have to try that when I do the back tomorrow, thanks for the advice. The paint I'm using for the designs is just a fabric paint, and you'll see in my picture here that my second attempt turned out much better.

onmi shift said:

what alot of people do i use minimal details on their cortana costumes. me personally, i like a heavy, intricate pattern. what hair style are you going with? its like every game her hair is tweaked.

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I'm loosely basing everything off of this picture here, mainly because I really liked the design on the back. So I plan on going with this hair style shown here. Just have to wait for my wig to get here! Which should be within the next two weeks. It's being shipped from Japan, and I'm convinced they are shipping it by row boat >< However, rowboat shipping is free, so I can't complain too much. Hehe.




AND....
Can't leave without an UPADATE

So, widening the designs, and having more patience and carefulness, I was able to go over the original designs and end up with a fairly good result. There were still a few spots where the paint seeped through the edge, but I was able to "scratch" most of them off, and still plan on going over the spots with the leftover paint I used on the suit originally. I'll do the same for the two spots that accidentally didn't stay in the lines(which of course ended up front and center on the costume) ><
I'm also debating going over the belly button area where the designs don't line up at all... I swear taped off they looked dead even, stupid illusions of tape.




Started to get the back taped off, but looking at it now I'm worried that its too long and I won't be able to fit the scaled pattern that I was going for. Which means redoing the all the work it took to measure everything out. *sigh* We'll see.

Wasn't able to get a whole lot done today. I worked this morning, and went to the Batman premiere tonight. But I have tomorrow morning off, and hopefully I can get up and get the back and sides finished before I go to work. Anyways, goodnight for now!

Deveralia said:

I'm also starting to realize just how much room my apartment doesn't have. >< I'm thinking I'm definitely going to have to crash my Dad's garage for my future armor build.

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I take over my grandparents garage because my apartment is to small lol

Your outfit is coming along nicely

I'm officially finished with the top half of the my designs! I'm actually really excited and have been pleasantly surprised with how well the whole costume has been turning out. And... I found my camera! Yay! It ended up being under a pile of movies, that I thought hadn't been moved since I moved in in May. Apparently not. But it means I actually have good quality pictures.
Finished the entire upper torso (minus the arms) today! And I'm still way excited about how this thing looks. I've definitely started playing with the designs and made them mine own. I usually am all about doing things as accurate as possible, but I'm finding I really enjoy the fact that this is MY pattern. Makes me feel slightly artistic.


The back turned out amazing! I think it's my favorite part about all of it. And I do realize that I still have a lot of places I need to clean up better, but I'm planning on doing that once I get all the dark blue designs on and have them where I want them. I expanded the front designs already to accommodate the sides, there's no reason to make more work for myself but cleaning up edges I might change later.




And as I was typing this... I was gonna go try it on to take pictures... This is probably something everyone already knows... DON'T PAINT ZIPPERS. I didn't think anything about it, because the spray paint didn't hurt the zipper at all, and I've seen other zipper's painted, but I definitely just broke my zipper. The fabric paint made the zipper line thicker and so the thing couldn't get over the paint. I even took most of the paint off the zipper too. First the tab went, which wasn't terrible. But then the rest of it broke off. Stupid plastic zippers. Of course, I have more... explicit... words about it.
However... that also means the end of my costume, because until August 18th, I don't know if I can afford another bodysuit, and won't have time after that to get one ordered and painted with school starting and working all the time before D*con. *Sigh* I was pissed off, now I'm upset and pissed off. hagskhgalsgh. Unless some miracle happens, There goes my cortana. :/

Your suit is coming out neat! I definitely wouldn't scrap it just because of a broken zipper.

It looks like it should be pretty simple just to replace the broken zipper with a new one. Zippers are pretty cheap from JoAnn's and you can get them in all different lengths, colors, and types (both metal and plastic). You can just undo the stitches that hold in the current zipper (don't cut any of the fabric though), then sew in the new one. Voila! Good as new

Even if you don't have a sewing machine, I'd still say that (while more annoying) it's totally doable by hand if need be.

You're suit is coming out neat! I definitely wouldn't scrap it just because of a broken zipper.

It looks like it should be pretty simple just to replace the broken zipper with a new one. Zippers are pretty cheap from JoAnn's and you can get them in all different lengths, colors, and types (both metal and plastic). You can just undo the stitches that hold in the current zipper (don't cut any of the fabric though), then sew in the new one. Voila! Good as new

Even if you don't have a sewing machine, I'd still say that (while more annoying) it's totally doable by hand.

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Now I'm not too knowledgeable on zippers, but I don't think you need to replace the entire thing. You might be able to find a metal zipper that is the same size as the plastic one that broke. All you have to do then is just put the new metal one on! I'd try looking at a local craft shop or a fabric shop.

LilTyrant said:

Your suit is coming out neat! I definitely wouldn't scrap it just because of a broken zipper.

It looks like it should be pretty simple just to replace the broken zipper with a new one. Zippers are pretty cheap from JoAnn's and you can get them in all different lengths, colors, and types (both metal and plastic). You can just undo the stitches that hold in the current zipper (don't cut any of the fabric though), then sew in the new one. Voila! Good as new

Even if you don't have a sewing machine, I'd still say that (while more annoying) it's totally doable by hand if need be.

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Now that I've calmed down some, I think I'm definitely going to try this and just replace it myself. My old roommate has a sewing machine and I'm hoping that she can help me fix it. And if she won't, I can sew surprisingly well by hand, even though that is WAY more annoying. Thanks for the idea though! I don't feel so much like the world is ending now.

Dont worry! stay positive
its coming along nicely.

Yay! Another Cortana! My zipper broke off my under suit because it was a plastic piece of crap, adding new zipper is quite easy and cheap. Hope you can finish in time : )

Yay you're not giving up! Best of luck to ya

All hope is not lost! And once again I want to say Thank you to Liltyrant, because I really would have never thought to just replace the zipper on my own, although it was also the first thing my mom said too And after one failed attempt by myself, and one by someone with a lot more experience with me, it was finally fixed (although she just about hated me for the stretchy painted material ><), and close enough to lined up that I just had to fix a few spots in the design. and of course, thank you to everyone else for all the support. But anyways, I've gotten the whole upper torso done minus the arms. So after I finish the arms and legs, it will be all painted, and we can hope that there is no more hiccups along the way. *fingers crossed*

Anyways, here are the pictures so far with the new zipper and fixed design.





And, My contacts got here last week!! To say I was excited would be an understatement. They don't look nearly so blue without the camera flash, but I think they're gonna work just fine, especially with my whole face painted blue. I've come to love my dark eyes, but not gonna lie, it's kinda fun having blue eyes. The contacts are a great conversation starter at work. It's amazing how many people ask if they are real.


And my wig got here today! I'm going to get it cut, but that won't happen til Thursday when I have a day off work. But I'm still excited to have it.


And (there are a lot of ands in this post....) I have to give credit to my photographer, Jak. LOL. Oh the things I'll do to get a picture when no one is around to take it...


Well until next time, keep up the good work on all the builds!