shameless @trigunfanfic self-rec for my fic i know how all this ends! trimax-focused slice of life vashwood vignette ! :’)
words: 29k
chapters: 16/16
status: complete (part of an on-going series!)
rating: T
main tags & warnings: Introspection, Slice of Life, Humor, Fluff, Angst, Banter, Pining, Character Study, Canon Compliant, Mentions of Suicide, Canon-Typical Violence, Manga Spoilers, Suggestive Themes, Unreliable Narrator, Foreshadowing, Non-Linear Narrative, Slow Burn, Intrusive Thoughts, Vignette, Drinking, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Jealousy, Selectively Mute Vash, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Kiss, Bittersweet Ending, a study of wolfwood’s most important trait: being annoying as fuck
summary: “Wolfwood could say so many things to him. Instead, he does what he’s most familiar with: suddenly pulling in the motorcycle’s front brake and violently launching Vash out of the sidecar, sending him careening into the stifling desert air.
“You fucking piss me off!”
(Traveling on No Man's Land, all the things left unsaid, and trying not to fall in love with a hurricane.)”
the '98 anime did this too but I really don't like the retooling of the flashbacks to make a good twin and eeEEEeevil twin. nai was just a normal kid. they were just normal, incredibly similar kids that grew up too fast without any real socialization and handled the tesla discovery in completely opposite directions. they found out horrifying things and Rem (reasonably) prioritized the kid who was in a self destructive spiral over the kid who was in a trauma coma so vash ended up working through how he could live with humans while knowing how they treat plants and nai never did. that's it. that's the difference. we don't need to retool him to make him a creepy child, ok?
(I especially don't like that they found tesla because nai just. decided rem was suspicious?? where is her ghost/psychic projection please tesla deserves that much agency)
Just rewatched the original anime for the first time since reading the manga part where that’s revealed and I was SO ENRAGED at how they changed a perfectly good very interesting backstory just to make knives…. EeeeEEEVILLL… like i did really enjoy some of the episode’s imagery. The apples, the butterfly and spider and knives reflected in the case of dead butterflies pinned to the wall. Mmmm. Great shit right there. But I feel like it was so much more interesting when there wasn’t a kid that was just evil from birth™️
My friend watchinh for the first time had to watch me crash out over it hahah
Vash as a slopping wet cat (with his hair down cuz it’s wet) looks a decent ammount like the reboot design. They really made him a wet little meow meow in stampede huh.
First I wanted to say I SO appreciate the interest!! The reception of this cosplay both here and on reddit was, just... beyond my wildest dreams, thank you all, I'm so honored and absolutely floored by the response. ::')
This post will be an overview of the process of making the various pieces, but I've also made a sort of prologue that details figuring out how I was going to do the face, right here, for anyone interested.
I'll start at the beginning by saying I talked myself out of this like 3 times over the course of a year before I actually did it. 💀
It took awhile for the pieces to fall into place in my mind as far as how it could be actually made to work to my standards. I had a few key goals that I thought may be impossible to make look good.
I wanted to:
do this ideally without cosplay contacts, for health reasons
have NO painstaking movie magic level makeup every time
retain the use of my facial expressions in a way that looked natural/have the entire face emote with me, namely the second pair of eyes.
Once I came up with the idea for how I'd do the head, I knew it had the potential to check all these boxes, and more. (See the process below the cut!)
@tippertot, if what you mean is anything having to do with the second pair of eyes being more or less hidden at various angles or with different expressions, this is how!!
It was SUPER important to me to retain the use of my facial expressions without breaking the illusion.
With a mask like this, and for this character in general, I knew if I hit it just a little wrong, it could easily look too sloppy, goofy, or uncanny and the effect would fall apart.
I began just by cutting a couple of plastic masks to shape and trying it out. (More on that in the prologue post!)
The Face and Head
Here is a vid of where I'd gotten the effect to something I was happy with!
Fully effective double eye squinching!
At this point, the idea was a go, and I started working on other pieces as well. But I'll cover those at the end!
The next step on the head was deciding how I'd make the final product. I took far too long deciding on my final solution, which was foam clay!
On Choice of Material - I considered thermoplastics and papier mache clay for the face and head, as well as the idea of just the back of the head being tightly felted wool (like a smooth felted hat!). The clay idea seemed hard to smooth, and heavy. The thermoplastics I wanted, I couldn't get in time for the con I was aiming to go to—I did not end up make it, but I'm glad about my final choice anyway!
I put a layer of foam clay over the mask I had already cut in order to form the face, and also started building a makeshift head cast (if. if you can call it that) to build out the shape of the head onto. Some, uh, progress shots. HGLSKDJF.
I used activewire sculpting mesh.
After duct taping the headform inside and out, bracing it with cardboard, and stuffing it with some paper, I then started taping paper on with packaging tape to build out the shape.
I kept taking pictures of it and pulling it into photoshop to test the proportions.
I had to really decide here how I wanted the proportions to BE—how I could get the design to look natural and cohesive while still being constrained by the human proportions of my body and face.
I made it too big, and had to do some violent surgery, smooth it over again, and just keep taking pictures, photoshopping it onto myself and making notes. The second image below was my goal that I would compare it to.
When I had it right, I started coating the head form with huge slabs of foam clay, rolled flat before I'd lay them on.
The top two pictures are right after it was done, and the bottom ones are after one night drying. It really smooths itself out.
It also, unbeknownst to me at the time, shrinks a lot.
The next day I added on the back of the head in the exact same way. With a little water, the two pieces melded together super well. Water also helps to smooth out bumps in the clay on the surface as you're attaching and blending!
After letting the surface stiffen up for just a day, I took it off the head form so it would dry it a bit quicker. I had to cut the back of the head, which was no big deal as I could reattach it later with more foam clay.
It took a LONG time to fully dry out! Don't believe any "3 day" estimate, even for small crafts. This took weeks! It also doesn't dry as squishy as you might be led to believe.
Around this time, I also made some mockups of ears, first with foil, and then with just the sculpting mesh. I got the mesh to the proportions I liked, and then covered it with foam clay.
After a taped together fit check of the head, I attached ALL the head pieces together with foam clay (not including the ears—they stayed separate). Keeping everything aligned, wet enough to smooth and blend, and held with just the right symmetry, was difficult and was definitely a two person job.
I cut the head apart and put it back together multiple times in one sitting til I was happy with how everything lined up. The pitch and yaw of how the face sat was the hardest part to get right.
Above, you can see how lumpy it is before drying and sanding!! But the first pic below is after just one day of dry time. So amazing how it does this??
Then I did LOTS of sanding, both just by hand and with a rotary tool/Dremel. Foam clay sands very easily and nicely, and I was working to refine the shape and smoothness all the way up to priming and painting.
As I did all this, the clay continued to harden and dry.
Because I was trying to rush for a con I failed to make, I did actually start to paint the headpiece at some point in here, to explain the paint you'll see coming up, which I later sanded away as I refined the shape even more.
The above was the night I lost my mind as I realized everything was ACTUALLY working out as planned. The whole thing fit around my head really well. I decided not to wear this to the con happening over the next few days, so I could take my time and really do it well.
Refitting
I took a break after the con and the holidays passed, and two months later, I started working on it again.
The head, which had fit so well (and was in fact a little big) before, shrank more than an inch around altogether in the time since I had last tried it on! The size looked just fine, but it had to crack to fit. Both under-eyes split pretty readily and I cut the back of the head off completely since it didn't fit anymore.
Foam clay does not in fact dry squishy like EVA foam. It has give, unlike ceramics, and it feels squishy during the first week or two. But overall, it dries pretty hard and brittle in the end. With this clay, if it wasn't hard and brittle, it just wasn't dry. I saw a video that mentioned something about mixing other things with foam clay to make it actually dry squishy, but by the time I saw it, it was too late! Just thought this worth mentioning—though I'm still very happy with the way things came out.
I also used the rotary tool to cut into the nose bridge, since it wasn't the right shape for my nose and I'd wanted to redo it anyway. Here is the head before a lot of patching up:
Then I patched everything with new foam clay, making sure to sand enough paint off of the existing clay so that the new stuff would attach and meld.
I also added a bit to the base of the ears, since they were a little too narrow.
You can see the double-eye part of the illusion already beginning to work in the photo above. Even though I don't have eyes drawn on at all, the eyelid shadow alone does something.
Patching From Behind - Over the course of the sanding process, when shaving down the brow, I broke through several very thin places (near where the mask section connects to the rest of the head). In this image you can see how I patched things from the back with more foam clay. I used PVA glue to try and fill in the gaps when the patch-clay dried and shrank away from the rest a little.
I finally called it good, and primed the entire thing with gesso!
Because of how much it had shrunk, I decided never to reattach the (pretty thick) back of the head. It just didn't fit anymore, and I liked the idea of a more flexible back. I had two extra pairs of tights I didn't use for the arms.
I cut the widest part of the tights to shape, and used PVA glue to attach it around the cut out section of the back.
From there, I agonized over color, mixed and swatched, figured out a scale pattern, and used the paint shades mixed generously with fabric medium to cover the now-fabric back of the head (this worked better than I ever imagined).
I used liquitex ultra matte medium (not jUST matte) to dull the shine of the paint as much as possible.
(pic 2 above) I glued in a small piece of grey felted wool to the back of the head underneath the stretchy mesh, to help smooth out the transition between the foam clay and where the fabric would cover just my actual head.
In that same image, you can also see that I painted the facial area black to decrease bounce light around all four eyes as much as possible.
I also glued in some thin fabric around the facial area for comfort (and to give myself a sense that there was at least some barrier between my skin, and the plastic and technically-water-soluble material underneath).
You can see how shiny even the black acrylic is without the ultra matte medium! I'm very glad I used it in all the paint on the outside!
I did the final fit check on the day of C2E2, and adjusted the fit with tiny amounts of felted wool (I still may do more of that to improve the eye squinting/sliding).
And I was done with the headpiece! It is INCREDIBLY lightweight, even painted. Weight wise, it felt like nothing was on my head, and besides peripheral vision, my vision was basically unimpaired. Extremely comfortable and wearable.
The Armsocks
For the arms/hands, my first step was making fingers. These are felted wool from wool sweaters, needle felted together.
I made them huge intending to trim them down, but with how compressed they were in the end, I didn't even need to!
I traced my hand shape with the fingers on, onto a piece of cardboard, cut it out, and put the cardboard pattern inside the pair of tights I was gonna be using. I sewed around the cardboard (OUGH), and I had my hands!
I lightly felted some loose wool into shape to smooth over the backs of my hands, and my mom took in the wrists by hand, sewing from the outside, while I was wearing them.
Then I painted them with my base and scale colors + the fabric medium. (I wrapped my arm in plastic wrap and wore them for this part so I knew where everything would fall. I wore the right hand "upside down" on my left arm so I could still paint with my right.)
On Fabric Medium - I used Liquitex fabric medium (at more of a 2:1 ratio rather than their recommended 1:1 ratio, too), and I wonder whether the tights/mesh pieces would've retained full elasticity if I had used Folk Art fabric medium instead (it's supposedly softer). I almost went for the Folk Art stuff in the last few days when I was painting the arms, but then decided not to—perhaps if I had, the arms wouldn't wrinkle, and would still be skin tight. Though, I LOVE how the thicker painted surface turned out on the back of the head!
On Fingernails - I also tried out adding fingernails by cutting plastic from a takeout container and then curving it to shape with heat, but it didn't work out (even curved, they "floated" too much just resting on top of each finger). They did, however, make good stamps for fingernail shapes, and (getting my idea from the first failed ones), I ended up using them to purposefully stamp a thin layer of glue over the places the nails were, and then outlining it with darker paint. I love how even this very faint impression looks, so I want to go over the fingernails more in the near future to make them clearer.
The Clothes
In the first image here, you can see my starting point with the clothing!
Details - I took in the shirt a bit, sewed on the patches and stitches (embroidery thread, each stitch gone over twice to give it some extra thickness), added button holes for the lacing, sewed two seams close together down the middle of the shirt, and then cut between those seams to split it (leaving the waistband intact).
I used fabric from cheap t-shirts I got at Michaels to make the legwarmers!
Makeup
For my makeup, I had mixed up a test body paint color long before painting the head, and was lucky the two already matched up really well. On the day of, I made some final adjustments, and went at it.
Makeup Used - I have lots of chemical sensitivities and don't want to wear synthetic stuff for long periods of time, so all of the color was Natural Earth Paints face paint, for the main blue I mixed a color from their white, blue, and green. Dried and set with setting powder, touched up throughout the day. The black lines (eyes and lips) were eyeliner and held up GREAT.
Eye Color - I painted/colored the golden iris of the second pair of eyes, but (happily!) not around my real eyes, since I deemed my skin color close enough to the light orange golds I was already mixing. I accidentally put heavier paint along the waterline of that right lower eye, and thought it looked good so tried to repeat it on the other side.
Thoughts on Lip Shape - I wasn't as bold with the lip shape change as I could've been, since I had limited body paint mixed and didn't want to have to redo more than I had to on the day of the con. But I'm happy with how I got it to line up with my natural smile when stretched.
...and in my room I kept a bunch of impressions of all my eye practices, so I could see clearly whether my way of drawing them was changing, and what exact lines I liked best.
It helped that now I had the head finished, so I could "sketch" them on and then refine their placement using the headpiece as guidance.
Again, I wish I could've gotten more shadow and nuance into this instead of just using one color, but, next time!
And that's it!!
This is probably the craziest and most risky art project I've ever done with how the head had to come together, and the fact that I didn't have an example to follow of anything exactly like this being done with these materials. I had to really trust the process and plan, and I'm still SO amazed at how well it actually worked out in the end.
Feel free to ask any other questions! I believe this is already apparent, but I enjoy talking about it a lot!
Thank you very much for taking a look behind the scenes. ::)
OH WAIT GUYS I forgot to say that I actually primed using a 1:1 mixture of gesso AND fabric medium to prevent any possible cracking!
(I'll edit the post but ik it's been reblogged some (I AM SO SO HONORED EVERYONE, JUST, AA A A H H H ::'))) so I wanted to have the detail laid out in a reblog too!)
I also used a small amount of fabric medium in some of the layers of paint for the same reason.
No pressure tags @tendebill @annanuna-arts @pompeike @assassininblack1783 @soft-sparrow @darie-vox @moominmanoneandonly @domesticatingaliens @crono8 @xuxukooo and anyone who wants to join in!!!!
hello friends this is going to be another (long) post with my artworks and sketches and concept art i've done over many months for @tometen sheriff vash post canon au. for more context go to their blog. (O.<) u can also check out the au's tag to see more of our awesome sauce art
edit/ YOU CAN READ FICS TOO LOL!!!!
this post is mostly vashwood (hides my fudanshi masters degree in yaoi behind my back #meninism) im sorry
more under the cut
first drafts of ww and milly's designs. yes i realize im channeling dominique the cyclops thru milly's silhouette
these sketches are so faint u can barely see but love i milly sm i need to show her. ill color these one day........
now i have to assault your senses with vash and ww drunk degenerate shenanigans. forgive me
getting sober with bro, the arc. dw theres gonna be 100 years of miscommunication and emotional constipation. no one walks away scot-free
thank u for ur attention gamers. if u have any question u can go to @tometen or u can ask Me abt wolfwood or milly cuz im writing them xP ATANERRUM PEACE OUT....(mic drop)
Is it just me or wre knives’ eyes more icy blue than they used to be this season. I feel like they were less. Light.
Okay drama king sure slaughter the whole band ig.
I really enjoy midvalley. I really enjoy how his subservience/fear/passivity is what kept him alive all the way back then, and how you can see it reflected in his later actions. He is fr a character of all times
I also really like his power system. I enjoy the fact that he is very shackled by it, how each sound corresponds to a specific attack or defense move. He can’t just play, he has to always repeat specific sequences. Takes the fun out of music.
I’m sorry but for some reason the way they did Wolfwood’s eyes is SO FUCKING DUMB. He looks like a meme of a stoner. It just looks so wrong 😭 I don’t even know how else they would’ve made it better, maybe profit of the 3D medium and draw some actual veins on the damn things 😭
VASH. HI VASH. YOU ARE A BADASS
Lowkey feel. Like this shot is a parallel to the season one shot with him on the edge of the cliff and the captain he was dueling but I can’t be bothered to go find it.
Legato you ABSOLUTELY FREAK. The longing look and the snuggling against the glass? GAY 📸. Legato having a one sided romantic infatuation with Knives is literally so canon. As canon as ever.
Overall really enjoyed, though I was very surprised that Wolfwood even tried to reason with midvalley. I fucking love midvalley. The way they did Wolfwood’s bloodshot eyes looks so fucking stupid. Vash is a badass. And it’s a great day for Legato/Knives shippers.
However I lowkey feel like a lot of this season has felt kind of corny and we lack some of the nuance that I love in stampede, 98 and maximum. Vash’ perspective has so far been seen as the absolute truth, and when it’s challenged, it’s only challenged by bad people because they’re bad. While in other iterations the whole point is that the truth is somewhere in the middle, neither black or white, and vash’ conviction is somewhat hypocritical and selfish. In stargaze he just fees kinda like “let’s defeat the evil with the power of friendship!
Even Wolfwood is being “converted”, and it doesn’t have the same weight as it did in the manga honestly. Though maybe if I rewatched stampede, it would flow better.
I’m sure something atrocious is about to happen lol but still. I know we had to cut a lot of the manga out and I know it’s a reimagining, but honestly I have issues with it both as a standalone thing but especially as an adaptation.
Brynde looked down at the kitten again, gently stroking its fur. Going to the cat shelter was a genius idea– being able to cuddle with cats without the commitment of getting one. He'd considered it, getting a cat, but he was too much of a workaholic to keep it company.
"There's a stereotype that veterans like dogs more," he began, his tone low so people wouldn't hear. He never particularly liked people knowing he was a veteran, never liked how their demeanor would change once they knew. "But I've always preferred cats."
Waough. I think this episode was my favorite so far. I enjoyed how they set up the characters and we actually got to see them interact. I enjoyed the moment of respite and having fun that this episode was for the gang. It’s crucial in establishing the future stakes and what they have to lose. I am happy to see vash laugh, and to see his new haircut and fit >:)
Enjoyed seeing Vash and Wolfwood talk. Still don’t have a very clear idea on what this version of Wolfwood has in mind, idk what his plans or goals are now that he’s (presumably) no longer associated with the eye of Michael. No clue why he was looking for Vash other than just that he likes him and wanted to give the gun back. Hope his goals will get adressed.
This was one of my favorite scenes in stampede. The whole dream sequence, Tesla, the distortion, the glitching audio. It carried the disturbing qualities that I absolutely DIG. I am obsessed. It was incredible. And bone chilling. Wough.
Hihi. Legato and Midvallry.
Legato is frankly a dramatic ass. At the same time, with all of his theatrics and drama, he is very interesting. I totally get why he’s such a big fan fave. Though he was a bit over dramatic in his speeches at times, he had plenty moments of being genuinely scary.
Midvalley. I’m actually not familiar with him. I haven’t gotten to any pet that he’s in in the manga. He’s also… fascinating. His hesitance and reluctance and his “were birds of a feather” idea about them all being killers reminds me a lot of Wolfwood in the first season.
All in all. Much enjoyed. Can’t wait to see what happens from where the cliffhanger left off.
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