Gears of War 4 - Kait [building thread]

[Reclaimara]

So... yep. I haven't even finished my first costume and I'm already starting new building thread. Mostly to keep stuff organized - I'm not working at it at the moment, but just gathering intel what and where to buy or get, write down my ideas and all that stuff, to not get lost in my head and not to forget anything.
Will actually start the real work on the costume in the fall, or when I'll finish the Palmer costume.

So yeah, here is my take on Kait from Gears of War 4, I hope to get it finished in 2018.

Character reference:

First off, boots. Actually I have old shoes that are pretty much perfect fit for that cosplay. As you can see, pretty darn good if I may say. Of course customize it bit more, add straps and such, weather of course, but I think it's a perfect base. (I have these shoes for like.. 5-7 years now? and never really used them... seems like they've been waiting for that perfect moment "boi my moment finally came, yay!")

Some time ago I bought the Gears of War 4 Lancer from PDP. It's a very nice replica, pretty much perfect, it has nice thins like the moving chainsaw-handle, slide, triggers (both!) and of course you can remove magazine too... and the lights on both sides! These are pretty much impossible to get outside of USA, so when amazon had few and was running out of stock very quickly, I jumped to the occasion - I rather get it now, instead of worrying and most likely not getting it anymore.
It's a very nice replica of the Lancer, totally great cosplay material, looks great just out of the box. The paint is nice, especially that blood, but it's nowhere near satisfying to me. So, I'll be repainting the whole gun, with the exception of the chainsaw part.
Oh, another con? It's bit heavier, it's 5-6kg or over 11lbs. And it's front-heavy as you have to install 4 of the big and heavy C batteries which are located in the front "grip" in the very front.
But to me? It's perfect, so I rather bought it instead of trying to find model to 3d print it and all. It' great, has great texture in all parts - the buttstock has real wood texture even! So yeah, great base plus movable parts and lights? Best choice to grab that thing IMO.
PS. This is where all my monies went and why I won't get 3d printed Magnums for Palmer anytime soon. XD

As for the chest piece, I'll do it of course the "hard way", the pepakura, so loads of cardstock, resin, fiberglass and body filler again. While I think foam is nice for detailing, I refule to ever make full thing completely out of foam, haha. File? Easy, because Kait wears old chest of Anya's from earlier GOW games.
Here I was already thinking ahead as in what to just and how to connect front-back parts together... Again buckles, but I was really thinking about how do connect them at the shoulders... will make it in 3 parts: front -shoulder parts - back.

Already bought leather gloves. Boy, it took me few days of searching online. But shape wise? Best I could find, I mean the overall shape and the big hole. I'll make the knuckle holes bigger and of course, darken the gloves. Still haven't decided if I will actually use just one glove or both.




Still have to search for the belt I like - it won't be a big problem, I just want to have that nice buckle, material and shape, but I thought about using possibly leather on it anyway and foam since it looks like it has such metal parts too. I have to look through military belts - that buckle totally has shape one of these.

As for pouches, I found these so far - it was also days of searching on the internet... literally days.

I can't sew, I'm not even trying to hide it. I don't even own a sewing machine so I can't make them myself from scratch. Also, I want working pouches, so I can dump there my things like wallet, phone and even camera and more... So it's best for me to buy pouches online and modify and customize them myself.
I also suspect in the reference the pouches resemble leather, but I've looked everywhere for pouches and I didn't find anything that looked even close... so I'm going to buy those pouches and try to paint and weather them and try to achieve that effect and even glue some leather in some areas.


This is what I found for the big pouch on the back. Will customize it and add foam parts to resemble metal...? At least it looks like metal to me. And LED lights inside.

Two of these for the back. These look pretty nice too. Thought of gluing leather pieces onto it, since it's such a bare part.

Front pouch? Haven't decided on it yet, but I'm considering this pouch. Sadly they don't have the tan/coyote color anymore, or even black, but i'll have to build over it with foam parts anyway. That pouch in the front looks pretty much like it's hard material anyway, but for a base, that's closest thing I could find.
Of course, foam parts over it and LED lights inside.

(I really have no money to spend 50$ on each pouch, but if I order exact these pouches I'll spend around 40$ on all of them together which I find great TBH)


Other parts like the beanie, the hanging shirt or trousers aren't a problem, just gotta find a nice and close looking parts online... I'm a sucker for weathered stuff, so this cosplay is great, haha.
As for hanging shirt - even if I don't find a perfect one, I can always buy white-gray one and dye it...


EDIT:

I think I found a belt too, two actually.
This one, I chose it for the main belt.

The belt reminds me as if there was another belt on top or something, for which I found this.
I'm not 100% positive about it yet.




Also, I think I found a very nice beanie as well. Remove that P-logo and fits perfectly as Kait's beanie seems to have such bigger texture.

 

[BlazedStarbon]

That lancer is beautiful, and this makes me so happy that someone's creating Kait.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

For not starting it yet you seem well on your way.

Looking forward to seeing you bring it to life! Only one pepakura part? You're slackin Mara! just kidding. Good luck!

 

[Reclaimara]

BlazedStarbon, hahahha! Thanks! For thing out of the box it's seriously great. I would have no problem in using it just like that if it wasn't for my pickiness about paintjobs.
But on the other side I don't expect a perfect looking thing for 150$ and this is how much the Lancer by PDP costs. Considering how huge it is (1:1), so all the materials, the size, all the moving parts and the lights and all... IMO for 150$ it's a damn steal, so I don't expect the factory paintjob to be perfect quality.
They did pretty much the whole rifle in black, whereas in the game it's rather gray, dark gray with some light gray parts. (and only few black parts). So I'll be mainly fixing that too.
Triforce is doing the Lancer too, but it costs 1000$ and will arrive maybe in 3-5 years and you won't even be able to wield it because they do it in polystone... So yeah, total display piece only. BUT, they provided nice reference images from the in-game Lancer. So it's perfect for me to use because other than that there were pretty much no reference photos of the Lancer. At all! :/

PerniciousDuke, well now I fully understand what it means searching for many costume parts online. XD Funny because with Halo - you pretty much build the whole from scratch by yourself. This one is the opposite, like many others. The more clothing, the more you have to search online. ._. This is gonna be the death of me financially... but also the reason why I don't want to spend too much money on each part.
The bright side? It's gonna be rather a very light and comfortable costume... compared to full and heavy Spartan MJOLNIR armor. I was thinking about something like that, so I could always bring two costumes especially if I'm going to a con for few days, so I could change if I need or want.
And well, starting "practically" as in starting, buying and actually working on the armor... it'll come after I finish the Palmer. I would love to buy all the parts now! But then I'll be broke, I need to buy the paints for Palmer. So either this or that. And, if I started it now, I'm sure I'd get lost and won't finish Palmer in time. ._.

 

[jsg6]

Can't wait how this turns out as your Sara Palmer armor was great.

 

[Reclaimara]

I think I gathered most of the materials and stuff I need to buy. And TBH it makes me bit happy because I won't kill me financially so hard.

Gloves (already bought) - 25$
Pouches - 45$
Belt - 15$
Beanie - 15$
Flannel material - 10$
Eco leather - 10$

Looking at those prices, it's seriously not that bad. I always try to go with budget. Looking at my prices list, I'll have to spend around 100$, which isn't really that much, I've feared it'll be more and I'll cry.

Not counting the pants, because I might either use my existing one or buy new ones... so no idea here, but I'll look into that in few months - pants are my smallest concern here. There is so much more work involving everything else.
Oh, same with the white t-shirt... or rather a t-shirt that has been white once upon a time.

Hm... I think I found a perfect material for that hanging flannel shirt thing. I've been looking all over the internet and I haven't found any orange shirt. Either just red, white, blue or totally different pattern.
Then I just looked for material, not shirt. Found it immediately... Which is quite alright, because that hanging thing underneath the belt doesn't look 100% like a shirt anyway... or it would be near impossible to hang it like that... So I might just cut some parts and put them together and of course weather hell out of it to appear very worn out like it's on the reference.

Also, I've found another amazing and helpful reference. I value it a lot, because textures and colors often distract a lot, and such grayscale bare model shows a lot more, especially on the best and pouches... o.o
But it's seriously surprising Gears of War 4 or GOW overall has so little references available. Halo and 405th is way way better.
They made a Cosplay guide for main characters, but it isn't really helpful, it has just pretty much the turnaround front-back-side from the first reference just in higher resolution and commentary... Which leaves you with many details and angles missing. They should improve their references and 'guides' ^^"

Btw - another beauty of digital world - HOW would she put those boots on? There is no zipper or laces or anything and they are pretty tight. Wouldn't work in real life...
Also things like "Kait's glove is tan colored, it matches the colors of her boots"... like, seriously? The color is tan, I agree, but those boots are clearly brown and those two colors are NOTHING alike. -_-''

But yeah, my work is done here for now. Going back to Palmer for now. This is all I could do for now... because if I'll start this costume for real, I might finish Palmer in few months and end up with 2 unfinished costumes for a long time... ._.


jsg6 Oh, thanks! It'll take some time though...

 

[Spartan55]

Don't worry palmer I haven't finished my frist sutie either (way behind you) and I have already got a commitment with another spartan to do a fun run in another sutie

 

[Reclaimara]

Spartan55 At least you've just committed and not started working... ending up with two unfinished costumes.

-//- UPDATE -\\-

Will you believe me if that I haven't done anything with this build? ._.
No?
Really no?
Well done. I lied.

I've been painting the boot a bit. I couldn't keep my hands off it. Not finished yet, but majority of the work is done.
Of course just the paintjob on the shoe, I'll still have to add the straps on the top... one day, but that's gonna happen after I'll order the leather-y material... and even then, I'll rather paint the boot first, then add other stuff... no idea why.

Aaaaand my gloves are gonna arrive on Monday! Can't wait and I really hope they'll be alright...

So... um... now... Um... Yeah, now back to Palmer... ._.

 

[Reclaimara]

Last update for now. Just got the gloves and I have to say I really like them. Very comfy. Color nice too.
Will just have to make those holes for knuckles bigger and give them a paintjob and weathering... Very satisfied.

 

[Reclaimara]

I've done a little paint test on left glove to make it bit darker and weathered. Looks more accurate.
Also, I'm not ignoring anything, those tests are quite important for me so I can learn and get exp, yay.

 

[mblackwell1002]

Nice! Your painting is pretty awesome, I must say. Keep up the good work!

Just checking, but the right hand does not have a glove...it is wrapped in some sort of gauze or something. Idk what fabric it is, just pointing that out.

 

[thatdamnjodie]

I wanted to do Kait a while back but gave up trying to unfold that chest piece for foam, haha. I tip my hat to you for going the pepakura way. Excited to see how you go!