Con Men

Nine days until ye old GenCon, and I'm gettin' pretty stoked. Granted, since I dragged my ass on it I don't have ANY events set up for myself. My plan is thus-

Day 1.) Bag some swag and hit the vendor floor like a mad bitch. I intend to get as much free shit as humanly possible. And maybe some shit that's only inhumanly possible. Also, True Freakin' Dungeon.

Days 2-4.) Seminars, pick-up games, anime, and maybe trying to finagle myself into a few rpgs.

The biggest thing for me as of yet is costuming. I've decided that I'm doing one main costume, with up to three others. There'd be a lot of cross-over between pieces, particularly boots, but here's where I'm at:

Main Costume- Frost Giant: Picture a viking raider. Then give them bluish hair and whitish skin. Progress thus far:

Clothes: I'll use my knee-high leather boots (yes, I'm a stripper), and do a simple tunic for the rest of it (with a plain black belt). I haven't found a fabric I like yet for the tunic, which is something I need to do soon. Then I need to find someone who knows what the hell they're doing so they can show me, and hopefully let me use their sowing machine.

Buckler: I currently have a leather covered buckler (made from a stool seat that was $2 at Axeman) with upholstery tacks for "studs." I just need to attach a handle, but it's looking good.

Axe: Using a mini canoe paddle, I took craft foam and made an oversized double-bit axe head. Wrapped the bottom of the head with leather boot laces, and the rest of the handle with an old brown leather belt. Painted the very bottom with black acrylic paint and the foam with silver rub 'n buff, and it's turned out okay. For some reason it's not really seeming as impressive as I'd hoped, but it works.

Helmet: This is by far the piece giving me the most trouble. I have the general structure set, with the round base, four strip with a center connection, and the eyeguards. The problem
is coming from the panels that go in between to fill the gaps. I can't seem to get them to bend properly. This really bugs me, because if I can't pull off the helmet I can't pull off the costume. Luckily my work on the axe showed me that the toughest part of making this stuff from foam is what I'm doing right now. As soon as I figure this out it should finish rather quickly.

Pigment: Friday I'm going to head down to Twin Cities Costume and Magic and pick that stuff up. Not worried in the least.

Secondary Costume: The big gay guardsman. Leather boots, kittle, boots, and a halberd. The halberd's gonna follow much the same procedure as the frost giant's axe. I just need to get a pole to put it on and do the gluing and painting.

Tertiary Costume: Generic swashbuckler. My poet shirt, leather boots, and poofy pants. Don't have the poofy pants, but I could get those done while I do the tunic. Accessorize to taste.

Quaternary Costume: I may try to pull of Hellboy again. I'd need to re-do the Right Hand of Doom, which could be a helluvan endeavor. I'm redoing the horn stubs right now, and this time I just poured a thick coat of latex over it, instead of doing coat by coat. It's going to take a looooong time to dry, but I don't need to touch 'em for another week, so I'm good there. I'd also want to get the tail done, and get the gun. This one is the "if I finish the other junk first this would be soooooo cool to pull off at GenCon" costume. I probably won't have time to get it done, despite that fact that I'll be devoting nearly all my spare time between now and then to costuming. Of course, if I stay stumped on the whole helmet deal, that'll give me lots of time to work on HB.