Brown Manticore Cosplay

🗡️ LVL 35 USA West Coast Cosplayer 🏹 Current WIP: Chimera Falin 🛡️ Cosplays

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Progress has been a little slow but I've been doing a lot all the same.

Worked on the lights for the staff today with my partner, who thankfully has some knowledge of electronics and can keep me sane during the process lol.

I made a clay sculpt of the Golden Lion's head, my first attempt at sculpting something like this, and made a silicon mold and have been casting it in repeat in resin to make decorative coins.

I've been marking my base armor where I'm going to carve and add layers.

I also filler sprayed and primer sprayed a ton of pieces, mostly pokeballs for our villains group cosplay and Falin's staff. The staff also got its textured base paint and now I need to work on highlights and weathering before I move to installing the lights for good.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Falin's shirt is finally done. I originally wanted it longer but it looked off against the armor and hip pieces at the length I started with. I think it'll be okay once everything else is on.

The shirt as a whole is kinda a mess for fit, but it's going under a lot so that's okay!

The sleeves kill me though lol. Look at the size of them.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Chimera! Falin WIP

My current WIP, Falin from Dungeon Meshi. An og design based very loosely on the idea of parade armor.

I've been working on this since January and haven't made too much progress considering the time frame, but I do like what I've got done. The articulated tail is complete. The horns have been made. Staff is currently in filler stages, and the shirt sleeves are almost constructed. Unfortunately I'm waiting on my embroidery machine to come back from the repair shop so I can't make more progress on the shirt yet, so it's time to either start beading for the hip pieces or construct the rest of the armor bases. Not sure what I'm feeling yet.

The staff base is a 3D print file from Dangerous Ladies. I added worbla horns, wings and dragon scales to the design to reference the Rod of Asclepius as well as Falin's own transformation.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Sand-Seal Shop Gerudo WIP

This cosplay was contained as many techniques as I could manage for a cosplay I didn't originally plan to compete in a construction competition (but did anyway, primarily for practice and to hang out with a friend). Bias tape making, iron-on vinyl, 3D modeling (though just with Tinkercad, I got pretty close!) and prep, armor making, pattern drafting and modification, resin casting, foam work, hand sewing, and wig work.

I wanted this to look as cartoony as possible so I used bright colors and iron-on vinyl, no shading or weathering.

This was my second ponytail wig, if you count my terrible Fran (FF12) wig lol. This was the second attempt, as the first was even more helmet like than this one, but unfortunately looked awful. This one came out fairly clean, but it's uncomfortably heavy and when I wore it it gave me a bruise on my head for a few weeks (I've sense added padding underneath in the hopes to save myself some pain next time I wear it).

Since the og design of the Sand-Seal gals would require me to wear a strapless bra (and expose parts of me I'm a little shy about), I modified it by making up an OC and deciding why she would have a little coat lol (she's a sand-seal conservationist and tour guide of sorts haha). This gave me some leeway into picking the hairstyle I wanted, as well as what jewelry I wanted to make; in the end she got a mix of every Gerudo age category for her jewelry, and the jacket came from the elderly Gerudo ladies, but with an original-ish logo.

After the con, I remade the shirt, pants, apron, belt, and of course the sand seal (last pic). The shirt and pants I originally made from a poly georgette, which was a mistake by far. The second version is linen. The apron needed shrinking almost by half, and the belt by about an inch in height. It looks much neater now and is just more proof not to rush a piece for the sake of competing lol.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Sand Seal!

My favorite and largest plush to date: the sand seal!

I have an extreme love for the Sand Seals and the Gerudo rental outfits lol. Naturally I had to make both!

I patterned this by printing out a 3D model, taping it, and marking out the shapes. I then scanned this and increased the size by a good deal.

All the fake furs were from Howl.

The plush is pretty large, probably close to three feet or more in length. She has eva foam and worbla claws and tusks, and her current eyes are hollowed out googly eyes, all of which are attached via hot glue to felt pieces that were sewn against the fur, so they can be reapplied easily if accidentally pulled off without damaging the plush itself. She was stuffed with faux fur and fleece scraps and weighs a lot because of it.

This is my fourth plush, but only my second complex one. There's some things that could be cleaned up but honestly I'm thrilled with it.

PS Don't mind my curtains lol. I finally hemmed them, I was just lazy about it for a very long time.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

My plushie Sand-Seal from BotW/ToTK! I used witchcraftyYT's pattern from DeviantArt and used scrap fabric to make and stuff it. The buttons were spares from my jar, textured and painted pink.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

San (Princess Mononoke)

This was a "reset project", as I like to call them. I needed a break from the Gerudo cosplay, badly, and had recently watched Princess Mononoke. I knew I had everything I needed to make her, and threw her together in a matter or two or three weeks.

Naturally I hate the dress and apron, as well as how the cosplay looks on me as a whole, so I ended up buying new fabric, a ton of beads, and will eventually set about remaking a bunch of this in a original-ish design (because somehow we all end up loving beads everywhere on this gal).

That being said, I love the mask, ears and earrings. I'm super proud of how the mask turned out. All three were made with eva foam and textured with a hot wood knife. The mask attaches to the faux fur hood with buckles, while the ears snap on with magnets. This is one of my first times making successful boot covers as well, funnily enough.

The knife is wonky and I hate the paint job, so if I do ever get around the making this better, I'll probably remake that as well.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Malon (BOTW fanart)

My friend @alpal-arts designed a beautiful version of Malon if she had been from BOTW/TOTK.

I used a faux-wool for the vest, and it's a little bulky but I love it. I lined it with a cute Zelda fabric and handstitched the button holes as well as a decorative stitch arounnd the horses and triforce.

The Bowser scarf pin was designed with the Zonai statues and weapons in mind, and made with eva foam and worbla.

The shirt and the skirt were both machine embroidered. It was one of my earliest attempts and is by no means perfect.

I added her OoT design to the apron because of nostalgia for my favorite game in the series. I used the Cricut to make a stencil and then airbrushed the color on. Unfortunantly I made it too solid- I originally wanted it to be slightly faded, like an old feedbag.

This wig is my first and only current attempt at anime bangs and hairline. I'm fairly proud of it, especially since I did manage to butcher another wig in the attempt, oops.

This is yet another cosplay I've yet to get any pics of and I'm still salty about it lol.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Mismagius

As with all of my "simple" cosplays, this one took way too long to complete.

The idea was to build off of the concept of the 80s-90s simple cartoon witch designs: spiky hem dress and hat. I ended up adding a robe and a waist belt to add more shape and character, as well as beads to the robe hem. I used poly silk for the robes and a simple cheap stretch fabric for the main dress, as well as a "waffle" fabric for the scarf to add in more texture.

I used a free witch hat pattern from Lumin's Workshop as my base and added the spikes with scraps, then built up a creepy texture using foam clay and a few rocks from our collection. Most of the jewelry is worbla shaped with silicon molds and sponge painted with metallic gold. I used previously cast resin gems for most pieces, since I tend to use leftovers from other projects.

These pictures of the spellbook prop are my first attempt. I remade both a closed version and the open version last year, and while they aren't perfect they're much better than the attempt seen here. The open version has lights and glows red from inside.

This cosplay has yet to see a con OR a photoshoot, unfortunately. It's simple and not really all that spectacular, but it's something that I'd like to take out with my spouse and shoot at an abandoned building or a cave sometime.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Namari

I had extremely limited armor making skills (still do, really, but this helped me a lot) and had never made a breastplate until this point. Unfortunately it came out way too tall at the shoulders and it shows in pics, but for a non-comp piece I'm not too worried about it. I textured and painting it with a lot of layers, so I don't think it looks too accurate for leather but I wanted to try something a little different.

The wig is an Arda, can't remember the color, but it took a lot of crimping and trimming to get to Namari's chopped-with-a-knife look. I actually shortened it again recently, so it's a bit different than the pics with Kira show.

This is the first time I've ever managed to figure out how to make pants with a button leg cuff. I don't know why I could never figure it out, but it finally happened and I love the pants an unholy amount.

The shoe were a perfect find that just needed some leather paint to make them brown instead of black.

The halberd is not a proper model but something I threw together in Tinkercad and 3D printed. I learned a lot just by putting those shapes together thanks to that program, and I highly recommend it to anyone with limited modeling experience to try.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Biker! Bowser (and Prince Peach)

Bowser was mostly bought and modified cosplay. I bought a vest, pants, and shirt in the colors I wanted, weathered them with paints, and added touches like the spikes and back logo. First time layering iron-on vinyl, it was a disaster, but it's a casual cosplay so I try to ignore it lol. The wig styling was probably the most time consuming, but I really like how it came out. The horns attach with magnets.

My first makeup test earned me my favorite picture of our cat Cinder, back when she still liked to sit on shoulders.

For Peach, I primarily helped my spouse in designing and modifying patterns for the coat, resin casting, as well as 3D printing the medals and crown. He bought pink slacks and red dress shoes. I learned that sateen needs to be cut on the bias in order to reduce the weird rippling it'll otherwise develop when sewn.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Ivysaur was based loosely on my love of Anne of Green Gables, combined with the idea of a medicine (and poison) seller. I drafted my own collar pattern for the dress, and eventually added some embroidery to the apron, but otherwise I enjoy the simple design of the dress and apron combo to add more (I did try to add spots to the dress at one point but didn't enjoy the look).

The back basket is my favorite piece of course, and is one of my favorite props to date. I made the base out of floor mat foam and built up the weave around it. The twisted pieces are eva foam dowels wrapped around a wire to help it keep shape. I then painted it with a yellow spray paint that I had, followed by weathering with a rough cut bristle brush with warm browns to get that more natural grass look.

The flower bulb is a styrofoam ball covered in foam clay, then wrapped in a foam pieces that would technically make a ball shape if glued together. Since I uploaded these from my phone, there's no pic of the painting process, but it was a lot of layering with the airbrush of several pinks, as well as a heavy layer of glossy finisher to give it that fleshy petal look.

This costume has the second most little props and pieces after Tunic. I made bottles full of fake plants with move names on their tags, as well as the burlap bags (full of old pokemon marbles lol).

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Eileen WIP post 3 of 3

Weathering for this project was mostly grey or brown acrylics with fabric medium dabbed everywhere. I primarily used a bristle brush that I had cut short, because it really pushes the paint into the fabric and also applies it unevenly and rough.

My favorite piece of the costume is the mask. While she's a little uneven from the front, I think it came out really cool, especially for one of my first complicated foam prop pieces. I had to modify a pattern (can't remember who from at the moment, my notes are MIA) that I kept adding eva foam to until it was shaped how I wanted. Then I continued to build up with clay foam. I textured it with balled aluminum foil after it dried, using a heat gun to make it somewhat pliable again, which would have been a mistake for most projects because high heat does things to clay foam lol. I stabbed holes for the stitches in with a giant, blunt needle (darning needle, maybe?) and painted it with my air brush, first bone white, then with the brown shadows, followed by an oil wash. The stitches are little pieces of hemp twine.

For my first project back into cosplay, Eileen was probably Too Much. But I'm very proud of the results and really look forward to more photoshoots with her. I really want to haul her out to some ruins or an old church, though both are kinda a hard sell in our area haha.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Eileen WIP post 2 of 3

Sewing was the biggest task for Eileen. I modified and drafted multiple patterns. The coat was a modified costume pattern that required a new collar, different pleats, additional seams, and whatever the heck the front panel with all the buttons is called. I used a zipper in the front to save me misery getting in and out of it, and it's a good thing I did; the coat is made from a wool mix (one of the only ones I ever saw at Joann's, RIP lol), and is lined in the upper half, making it incredibly heavy and hot to wear when combined with the rest of the cosplay. The fabric was darkened a bit using acrylic paint and fabric medium mixed in a lot of water and applied via spray bottle.

The "feather" cloak was made of many, MANY strips of linen, each cut with scissors and a sharp blade and then sanded along the new edges to make them worn looking, and then sewn in layers into the lower of the two shoulder pieces. The outer shoulder cover was made with a wool mix, while the inner one was made with several layers of a heavy poly mix for strength.

The spats were another adventure of tape patterning and sewing on a machine not capable of sewing leather. It somehow happened, though each of the buttons had to be sewn on by hand. I broke so many needles, and had to use pliers to accomplish most of it.

The hat was made using a tulip had pattern I found on Etsy. I made two hats to accomplish this, one with the basic tulip shape that would become the lining, which I then patterned the pointy outer hat on top of. No panel is the same but the hat is weirdly one of my favorite parts of this cosplay.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

Eileen WIP post 1 of 3

Eileen was a relatively simple cosplay for me as far as skills go, though some pieces gave me a grief. I had already started leather working and had some idea on how to pattern both bags and the belts, though I still need the correct tools for inserting rivets lol. I patterned the medical kit bag with fabric due both to the shape and the lighter appearance of the bag itself, while the square bag was patterned with cardstock due to the said square and structure. Both bags and the belts were dyed, heavily oiled and weathered using a tough metal bristle brush and a lot of flexing.

The Blades of Mercy were a whole other thing. My first attempt (seen here) was made of foam, clay foam and worbla, with magnets on the inner blades to allow the trick form. My prop skills were much weaker at this point and this prop, while having survived a few cons, are cracking where the blade meets the handle. The paint job also wasn't particularly good due to my paint not appreciating the weathering, for reasons I still don't really understand. I did make these a second time with a thing wooden inner piece, but I think if I made them again I would make them entirely of wood- something I can do now that I have more appropriate tools available.

[brownmanticorecosplay]

The Tunic Hero was a work of love (and a lot of rage). I adore the game so much and wanted to fit as many of the secrets and items as I could into the cosplay, including the Golden Path and written language into the lining, items like the Bone, the white puzzle flowers, and more.

This was a cosplay I expected to take a few months to build given the simplicity of the design. However... it bled my patience dry with numerous mistakes, issues, and redos due to lack of certain tools and my still growing skills. I remade the sword several times in eva foam before 3d printing it with a free file; lining the tabard without using spray basting was a mistake, etc lol.

I learned a lot in the process, too, especially about fake fur and what not to expect out of stretch fabric. 😂

[brownmanticorecosplay]

The Saw Clever from Bloodborne.

Another dream prop of mine. I had tried making this back in 2022 when I got back into cosplay, but lack of tools and skills held me back. I ended up trying again in early 2025, and while it isn't perfect I am extremely happy to have it on my wall.

Everything but the swivel point and latch are hand made, while those were 3d printed from a free file on Thingiverse. The rest is entirely eva foam with linen fabric strips. The blade itself was colored using graphite powder with some highlights in bright silver acrylic. I'd like to go back and add better weathering to the blade at some point.