With the Fallout TV series' second season coming out soon, I figured I'd share a set of photos we shot back in April of this year with my dog Caboose as Dogmeat and me in my Sole Survivor costume.
I wish more Fallout 4 cosplayers shot stuff on the beach, considering how much shoreline is playable in the game, so we shot this a few minutes from my house before the trees started budding again(nuclear apocalypse in the game and all...).
I smashed out an Extended Ripper prop and a Lever-Action Rifle(Far Harbor DLC) prop in a couple of weeks up to the morning of this shoot, and I was so excited about how they turned out.
My Grey Warden Alistair costume is getting a pretty hefty overhaul! Cross those digits for me because I'm hoping to get all of these checkboxes on my marker board crossed off in the next month-and-some-change before C2E2 '26(Saturday(March 28th) only)!
I was never completely happy with how the costume turned out, and while the PVC foam armor looks pretty decent, it's bulky and a little brittle(see the crack on the shoulder), so I'm swapping it for an HD-Foam build.
My favorite bit on the entire armor, though, is the griffon emblem that I put a bunch of time into hand-carving. I'm planning on making a silicone mold from that, and may wind up selling some resin/foam clay casts of it, if there's enough interest.
I might drop some periodic updates on here over the next month, but the most likely place is on my Instagram account(it's only cosplay content there), probably in the form of some Stories.
Robert Moonbrow, Cleric of Pelor | Sole Survivor & Dogmeat
Photography by David Ngo at C2E2 2024
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Hello, Tumblr!
It's...certainly been quite a while, hasn't it? OOF. I really apologize for the unintended hiatus.
I was at C2E2 in Chicago a couple of weeks ago with some updated costumes, and figured I'd share!
Friday and Sunday I wore my Sole Survivor costume from Fallout 4, with plenty of extra weathering and proper strapping since I slapped it together prior to Halloween last year. I made the Dogmeat Heavy Dog Armor for my actual German Shepherd(Caboose), but since he's not a service animal(please don't bring your pets to conventions), I wound up purchasing a close-to-life-sized plush version that the costume *mostly* fit on. The number of people who did double-takes and "thought it was a real dog" was staggering, so I guess I did something right. Also, Sunday of C2E2 is always touted as family day, so the number of kids that came up asking to pet my dog was adorable.
On Saturday, I wore my D&D costume: a half-elven cleric of Pelor of my own design. I adore Dungeons & Dragons, and as an homage to nearly playing with the same group(multiple campaigns) since 2002, I made my first character Robert Moonbrow. I debuted this back in 2022, which revealed some issues with my design, so those fixes were made(mostly reinforcing the straps to prevent stretching and to reinforce the area around the rivets since all of the armor is EVA foam) as well as a heater shield I never got around to finishing, which turned out great, with the exception of being able to see the wrist straps through the foam on the front. On a whim, I decided to enter the Crown Championships of Cosplay this year, ReedPop's costume contest. I had zero expectations of anything, since people have no attachment to original characters other than the person making it, but I worked insanely hard on this thing, dumping probably close to 1,000 hours into the costume overall, and pushed the boundaries of my skillset to make something I was truly proud of out of a love for the fun my friends and I had with our time together. I didn't win anything, but it was genuinely great just to be in the same competition as the others who entered with their insane craftsmanship and attention to detail, and I do mean that, sincerely. We had a great time talking shop backstage during the competition and admiring one another's costumes.
Will I ever compete again? Probably not. It kind of eats up the entire day, and it takes me forever to make a costume in general, much less one to compete with. If I ever did, I might consider revamping my Grey Warden Alistair costume or something, but it's an extremely low priority. At the end of the day, cosplay is just a fun hobby for me, and adding extra stress with competition prep and anxiety kinda sucks some of the fun out of it, even though it was a fun and new(at least at this level) experience this time.
This is the only convention I'll be attending this year, much as I absolutely miss all of my friends at Dragon Con and would love to attend. I haven't been there since...2018? Oof. My friend Darryn said he'll be there in 2025, so I made the promise to him that I'll be there, which means I'll be bringing Alistair, since we became friends by cosplaying the character. I would also love to bring my D&D costume, but it's not exactly a cool and comfortable costume, so I'm going to try to test out its comfortability in the heat by wearing it to the Bristol Renaissance Faire on the Wisconsin/Illinois border at the end of July this summer(Saturday, July 27th is the plan). If you're in the area and want to see it in person or say goodbye to me as I potentially die of heatstroke(kidding!(hopefully...)), feel free! Fingers crossed the weather holds out that day for a solid test.
Anyway, time for me to shut up! Enjoy some additional shots from C2E2 2024:
As is typical for me, I'm incredibly slow to put out new costumes, and after three years of hush-hush work, I finally had my newest in a wearable enough state to toss it on for C2E2 a couple weekends ago.
I'm a D&D nerd at my core, and I've griped about the impracticality of various armor and weapon designs in video games for years, so I decided to roll up my sleeves and design an armor set from scratch(or nearly entirely from scratch, taking design influence from a 16th century Italian cavalry harness displayed at The Met) for my first Dungeons & Dragons character back when I started in 2002, Robert Moonbrow, a half-elven cleric of Pelor.
Shoutout to my buddy Steve at SKS Props for creating what I feel is the best EVA foam on the market. This stuff sands incredibly well, cuts super cleanly(assuming you maintain a sharp knife), and is always a pleasure to work with. I’d honestly use this foam even if I wasn’t good friends with him. If you haven’t had a chance to work with it and are looking at giving it a shot, you can pick some up here.
After C2E2 at the end of March next year, I'm gonna take it easy and likely build some Fallout armor for my dog because that honestly sounds like a lot of fun. I'll probably build some basic Combat Armor over military fatigues for myself from the game as well, but let's be honest...no one's gonna care what I'm wearing if Caboose is in-costume as Dogmeat.
Thanks for stickin' with me in spite of the severe lack of updates, everyone! I'll try my best to not turn into a cosplay ghost again. Here are some more photos that were taken of me during C2E2:
Additionally, here are a few detail shots I took after tossing it up onto the mannequin in my office(Sorry, Inquisition Alistair. You get the storage box now):
Gettin’ ready to binge The Witcher on Netflix when it comes out soon. Although Eskel’s not gonna show up in it, as far as I’m aware, he’s the only Witcher costume I’ve got.
Hi, I was wondering if you have a instagram and if you were going to any conventions this year?
Yo!
I’m under the same username over on Instagram, but…you’re going to be disappointed with me over there. I promise. Hopefully I’ll actually put more effort into it this year.
As far as cons go, here’s my tentative schedule this year:
Anime Milwaukee - February 15th - 17th
I want to get my Eskel costume done for this to test it before C2E2, but realistically, I’ll probably just be wearing my splintmail and attending as Alistair
Bristol Renaissance Faire - Sunday, July 28th (technically not a convention, but I’m slapping it on here anyway)
Eskel
Gen Con - August 1st - 4th
Alistair(splintmail), Eskel
Dragon Con - Aug 29th – Sep 2nd
Eskel, Strike-Commander Morrison, Grillmaster: 76 (these might be subject to change)
Eskel’s on there a lot because my friends and I want to do a Witcher group, and we’re pushing to make it happen this con season, so it’s on there quite a bit with it being my newest costume, even if I’m criminally far behind on it right now(he said to no one’s surprise).
Hope to see you and some of you other Tumblr folks at one of these places this year!
