Auklara's Convention Adventures

I'm a cosplayer who loves video games and anime, especially Zoids! I've done cosplays from Xenoblade, Tales of, Vocaloid, Zoids, and many more!

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! For being a cosplayer, I don't really put in much effort in dressing up for Halloween, just wearing whatevers easy in my cosplay closet lol. But it was fun to dress up as 2B (with devil horns lol) to hand out candy to the trick or treaters and see all their creative costumes! We get so many at our house, so we do a lot of decorating.

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Debut of my Nausicaa cosplay! 

I wasn’t able to finish it for LBCC, and I was barely able to finish it in time for Nerdbotcon since I was so busy with school. But, I’m so glad I was able to! The hardest part of this cosplay had to be the hat, especially since I didn’t have time to do a lot of experimenting. The dress too was harder than at first thought, and I’m not sold on the material I used for it, but I’m happy with how the cosplay overall turned out. Needs some improving and finishing here and there but looking forward to wearing it again. 

Taken at Nerdbotcon 2018

|Facebook | Instagram | Flickr

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Morag Ladair

|Facebook | Instagram | Flickr

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Torna the Golden Country is out for everyone now! I’ve been playing whenever I have the free time this past week and I love it so much! Combat is improved and so smooth, the game is pretty and the music is fantastic, and I can already tell this is going to be a fun and heartbreaking adventure. 

Even though I just recently finished my Morag cosplay, I already want to cosplay Lora or Haze! 

|Facebook | Instagram | Flickr

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

The Flamebringer

|Facebook | Instagram | Flickr

[ligerzeroschneider]

From LBCC! Glad I got a chance to wear this cosplay again, it was a lot of fun! As much as I love wearing 2Bs standard uniform, it’s nice to switch it up a bit and wear something a little different. People really liked my Formal dress 2B too! I also made my own gloves for this cosplay, I’m pretty proud of how they turned out!

#2BCosplay #2B #NierAutomata #NierAutomataCosplay #Yorha2B #YorhaUnit2B #Formal2B #Pod042 #Pod042Prop #LongBeachComicCon #LBCC2018 #2018 #Cosplay #Cosplayer (at Long Beach Comic Con) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnzMgpdD_Ih/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=swe8lny2ogb1

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Morag Ladair - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 

My improved Morag cosplay from Anime California! Most of the improvements were structural: fitting the coat and pants better, using magnets to keep the capelet in place, reinforcing the belt loops on the hip armor. But there were also some aesthetic changes like details I couldn’t fit in for AX: better paint with shading, finishing the cuffs, semi styling the wig, and a new and much better belt. I could still make a few more improvements to this cosplay, but I am absolutely thrilled with how it all came out! Now if only it were more comfortable to wear haha. 

|Facebook | Instagram | Flickr

[ligerzeroschneider]

Long time no post! I’ve been pretty busy with school unfortunately and haven’t had the time to get to work uploading my backlog of photos here, or much else for that matter.

But I got a nice break from the stress and work of school this past weekend at Long Beach Comic Con with @thatvegancosplayer ! It was a great convention!

#LongBeachComicCon #LBCC #LBCC2018 #Cosplay #Cosplayer #Convention #SnowMiku #SnowMikuCosplay #SnowBellMiku #SnowBellMikuCosplay #SnowMiku2015 #Raven #TeenTitans #RavenTeenTitans #TeenTitansRaven #RavenCosplay #2018 (at Long Beach Comic Con) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnxM4ftFB8W/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1mphkyk4fdnbk

[ligerzeroschneider]

Diamond - Land of the Lustrous/Houseki no Kuni

From Anime Expo day 3! I expected this cosplay to much cooler, but of course it wasn’t lol. Really glad I chose to brave the outside and go to the HnK gathering though, even if we were all dying in the heat outside. (Sweltering heat was the theme of this AX, haha.) Seeing all the other HnK cosplayers was so much fun!

#AnimeExpo #AX2018 #HousekinoKuni #LandoftheLustrous #LandoftheLustrousCosplay #LandoftheLustrousDiamond #HousekinoKuniDiamond #HousekinoKuniCosplay #DiamondCosplay #DiamondCosplayer #Dia #Diamond #DiaCosplay #HnK #HnKDia #Cosplay #Cosplayer #HnKDiamond #HnKCosplay (at Anime Expo®)

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Morag Ladair (Xenoblade Chronicles 2) - Anime Expo 2018!

The debut of my Morag cosplay! I barely manage to get this wearable late the night before, but it was so worth it! It was a lot of fun to wear with our Xenoblade group and at the Xenoblade gathering, despite it being the hottest day at 107F. The Xenoblade gathering was awesome, its the first gathering for the series I’ve been to and I was so happy at how many people braved the heat to join us! It was one of the highlights of the convention for me. Everyone’s cosplays were amazing, and there was another Morag cosplayer!! I hope to get the chance to have another Xenoblade gathering in the future! Though my Morag cosplay needs a lot of fixes and improvements before then lol.

Cosplayers:

Maser Driver Rex - lordpaletuna

Pneuma- galahad_the_pure

Pyra - thracianprincess

Blade Nias -  pasteliakitty , Cherimage cosplay

Blade Jin - David/Cherimage cosplay

Morag - dondakeee

My instagram - zoideramy

Photos of the Xenoblade gathering on my flickr! 

[ligerzeroschneider]

Anime Expo 2018 by Amsterdoodle Cosplay Via Flickr: Photos from Anime Expo 2018 in LA, July 5th-8th!

I’ve uploaded all the photos from Anime Expo to my flickr, including photos of our Xenoblade group and the Houseki no Kuni gathering! I’ll have all the photos of my own cosplays posted to my secondary blog, AmsterdoodleCosplay , soon!

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Yorha Unit 2B, Pod 042 

Nier Automata. Taken at Comic Con Revolution 2018. 

Facebook, Instagram, Flickr

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

2B and Pod 042 at Comic Con Revolution 2018!

CCR was great! Had a lot of fun as 2B and even competed in the cosplay contest! 

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

From Pokeoasis at Griffith Park! It was a lot of fun to be a Team Skull Grunt again. Won best trainer in the costume contest and got an awesome little trophy too! 

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

I went to a small event, the Mission Viejo Library Comic Con as Diamond! It was a fun little event, the library is very nice. But it was tiny, not a whole lot to do or see and not as many cosplayers as I’d hoped. But I still enjoyed it and the cosplays I did see. Wanted to stay for the cosplay masquerade but after about an hour or two I had had my fill of the event. (I then proceeded to spend just as much time going to various home improvement stores as Diamond cause we needed some stuff for the bathroom renovation lol).  I hope they do it again though, I love any excuse to cosplay! But maybe don’t have the masquerade so late in the day, haha. 

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Making Pod 042

Pod 042: Made mostly from pvc, cardboard, and wire for the arms. Rushed to finish him for LBCE so some fixes are needed mostly in the arms. The acrylic rod used flexes and my stand is not perfect so he leans a little but I'm overall pleased with how it turned out!

How I made him under the cut. 

First, I started with a PVC skeleton which I added onto with cardboard. The main piece is a 4 connector, onto which I built the skeleton as an upside down T shape. 

Center connector. This will be where Pod 042 attaches to the pole of the stand.

 I covered the 4 sides with cardboard, cutting holes for where the arms and pole would attach. 

(upper arm piece with the wood dowel screwed onto the pvc perpendicular.)

The arms attach to the body via pvc, but the arms themselves are wood dowel with wire forming the lower part of the arms. 

(The arm together, with the wire drilled into the wood and covered with some ribbed plastic tubing I had. The piece on the top of the back is what keeps the wire held on.)

(Making the foam cover for the center)

I decided how much I wanted it to stick out and wrap around the middle piece, the folded it in half and cut out the shape of how it looks from the side. 

I then taped it in place temporarily, folded over the front of it and marked that. Before you cut and glue, remember that a hole has to be cut so it can be attached to its stand. 

Pieces on the shoulders are made with various sizes of cardboard tubes and foam, held in place raised from the main pole with foam spacers. 

The small arms are attached with floral wire and were made out of spare bits of dowel and pvc, details added with cardboard and foam.

Completed construction of Pod 042. The fingers were made with 2 pieces of foam with wire in between to give them shape.

(Pod 042 with a coat of primer)

The stand was an experiment, it ended up being more difficult than we thought. I used a half inch clear acrylic rod, with a pvc stand. The stand uses another  connector, it the top middle drilled out for the pole, which is screwed in. This was our first time working with acrylic. It was difficult to get the screw in straight at the bottom of the pole, even with a drill with a level light. This is probably the main contributor to the lean. The legs have foam board on the end of the feet to level it as the screw in the bottom is not flat. Currently he stands pretty well after a bit of trial and error, but still leans a bit. 

(First attempts at the stand. Blind drill, no leveling on the feet, experimented with leg length. Pod 042 pretty unstable, really only stands ok facing one way. )

(Current attempt. Switched ends and drilled with a level light. First part of legs glued, second part which is removable has the feet with foam board to level them. Stands much better, much more stable.)

[amsterdoodlecosplay]

Making of 2B

Just various photos I took and comments I had while making my 2B cosplay!  Not necessarily a tutorial, but you may find what I did helpful!

First, I used Cosplaid’s 2B pattern to make my dress. I found it while debating whether to make or buy a 2B cosplay, and this is what pushed me to make it as it saved me a lot of time than if I had to modify my own pattern. It was overall a very nice and helpful pattern, though I had a few issues with it, first being the side zipper and how short it was. It was easy enough to mod the pattern to fit a longer one though. Second, I don’t see this pattern being usable for non stretch materials. I have a small head, but the neck hole was worryingly small and the zipper restricted by the back design. Luckily as I used stretch material it really wasn’t a problem, it just needed a bit of stretch to ease my worry I was gonna rip some stitches trying to get it on. My last issue with it was that the skirt didn’t quite fit all the way around like it was shown to in the instructions. But maybe thats a good thing if you wanted maximum leg showing XD This could have been because I used a non stretch white satin to line the skirt though, or because I made an error when adding the zipper. Not a problem though, I just kinda pulled and stitched the skirt over a bit and it was all good. 

I give the pattern a 7.5/10. Minor issues and very basic instructions that may not be good for those new to sewing, but it was extremely helpful with the pattern on the skirt, back and chest and I would have bought it for that alone cause fitting a straight stencil to a curved skirt is no fun.  Something I did not mind but those going for accuracy might want to note, is that the front cut out is smaller than 2B’s actually is.I bought the smallest size of the pattern, though it probably would have been better if I went up one. It can be widened, just make sure you adjust the design to match.

Skirt:

How to do the designs was my biggest problem, as I used a velvet like fabric, (velour I think?) which ruled out normal painting and stitching would have distorted it and not shown up well. So, I used puffy paint! 

Using the pattern, I made a stencil and cut it out with an exacto knife, which took me forever but was worth it. I then matched it up best I could to the skirt (which was sewn at the side seam but not to the dress or hemed) and weighted it down. Then I went over it with chalk and lots of it to mark on the skirt. Chalk makes a mess and is not the most accurate but it worked well enough. Then I went over it with the puffy paint. I did this twice, a first coat and a second coat to make sure it was nice, visible and in an attempt to make the lines even. 

(The difference is a little hard to see but the top of the picture, the design at the top has been done with puffy paint and the bottom is the chalk guide)

Chest and back:

To attach the designs, some of which are thin and small, I used Heat N’ Bond. The iron will flatten the pile of the fabric a bit but I didn’t see too much of a difference and it saved me a whole lot of frustration. The stuff I used recommends stitching it on afterwards.. It held up pretty good not having been stitched down the first two times I wore it, but some edges did come loose. 

I laid it over the paper pattern to match it up while ironing. I also cut another piece to run along the edge of the sheer to give it a bit more strength and to sandwich the sheer chiffon between. Then I cut another piece that followed the edge of the sheer that would be sewn to the cutout, on the side that would be against my skin for comfort and also to strength and structure. It was thicker to sew, but the sheer can be finicky to sew taut. This helped stabilize it and keep the fray checked edges on the inside.

Lastly, the white stitching detail: 

I did this with embroidery floss by hand. Time consuming and somewhat hard to get the stitching even, but it stands out much better than regular stitching on a machine.