[Request] Cosplay Guide for Kleese [+ Cosplay Build Progress] [Last Update: 1.30.17]

RollingEwok · January 16, 2017, 7:35am

Checking in with a late-night update! Mostly pictures this time around.

The gloves are two pieces for easy removal (and so I can use the black gloves for another cosplay). One of the girls in my cosplay group came up with the idea of making the purple fingerless gloves out of the same fabric as the top.

Using @lowlines’s reference picture (thanks again for that, btw!) I was able to print a properly-scaled size of Kleese’s back piece and also the laser device on his bracers. (I’ll have a picture of the bracers later on. I’m hoping that the E-6000 will keep the strip of Velcro adhered to the fuzzy inside of the vinyl if I let it set overnight.) My original plan was just to cut out one piece and paint it, but my friend Andy taught me how to give it that 3D quality by building things up in layers:

See? I was quite impressed when he did it, and then today I attempted to replicate the same thing with the lasers:

(NGL, I’m proud of myself for remembering to fold over the foam in order to cut out pieces for each bracer before getting too far ahead of myself, because that’s something I would in all likelihood forget to do.)

Everything is currently glued together and waiting for Mod Podge to dry so that I can sand down the sides as best I can (in order to make the layers more even). After that, I’ll get my hands on some paper clay to smooth out the edges that refuse to sand down evenly, follow it up with more Mod Podge, and then painting! Followed by nervousness as I try to glue them where they need to be and hoping they stay in place. I’ve got to start working on the headpiece next…

I need to get a picture of the top, because we’ve actually got that pretty much finished! Hopefully I can remember to do that tomorrow for you guys.

lowlines · January 16, 2017, 10:10am

Looks awesome!!

legendoflink2288 · January 16, 2017, 3:58pm

That looks badass. I can’t wait to see the final result.

RollingEwok · January 18, 2017, 5:05am

Bros, tell me why I thought Oscar Mike’s story op was coming out today instead of Thursday? Imagine my surprise and sadness when I finished working for the night and realized my plans to take a load off by hanging out with my favorite Battleborn Bro has been postponed! (Semi-related: Seeing Jim Foronda do all of the different voices during last week’s livestream brought so much amusement to my day. Oscar Mike has been my ultimate fave since Beta and I do want to cosplay him eventually, but getting to see his VA in action? Awesome.)

I quickly recovered when I realized I had enough photos to make an update. I’m running on the kind of exhaustion that permeates my entire day even when I get a full eight (because my anxiety has been running higher than normal lately, for obvious reasons), so if I get a little rambly, do pardon me. First off, here’s a picture of the bracers I mentioned last time:

(Again, ignore my face. That is currently my “I should be getting more rest except not really because I get a full night’s sleep” face.)

The E-6000 came through and now the velcro stays put! So I just have to put on the decorative bits and I’ll be able to cross them off the list! Said decorative bits need painting, but first they need a bit of forming with the heat gun we recently purchased. Some of the gang’s coming over tomorrow, and I feel like it’s going to be a two-man job, so I’ll see about doing that with them as help.

The headpiece, I knew, was going to be the biggest challenge. Even with the reference chart @lowlines came up with, getting a good sort of cutting reference is tricky. For that, Andy came over on Monday with an idea involving getting the form of my head with tape–which meant it was wig cap testing time! (Here is a video from my Instagram in which he explains it better than I can.) It was…semi-successful? I need hair clips instead of bobby pins to hold my hair in place, is what we’ve learned. Also, I’m definitely going to have to wear both of the ones I bought; the first, fairly cheap one to keep all my hair in and then the second theatrical grade one so that my hair doesn’t show through the “skin” (followed by makeup over that one, because it’s a couple shades lighter than me).

I felt like I was in The Crucible while wearing it. After all the tape shenanigans and after looking at the headpiece some more, we created a template; then from that template, the first of the foam pieces:

Here’s an idea of how it should sit against my head when finished:

And with that update, I’m off to raid the kitchen for more bread to go with this peanut butter!

lowlines · January 18, 2017, 8:28am

Looking pretty slick! Oscar Mike is another one of my favourite characters too (was actually the first one I picked up and played all the way to Rank 15 before I moved onto someone else).

Hey, I can’t take away all your fun

The thing I am working on would allow you to freely rotate the character to look at it from any angle for these types of tricky reference jobs, however it’s just not at a point where it is easy to load up a model where I feel comfortable handing the controls over to you guys. There’s also a heck of a lot of data to currently load up (Kleese is like 60MB using the high quality textures and high polygon model). There are also other quirks such as this…

If you look very closely, you will see the chair has a pair of feet! That is because Kleese is actually rigged so his chair and body are part of the same model and for animations to work, their default position have to be in the same location resulting in a chair that has eaten Kleese’s body so it can wear a pair of snazzy shoes. I had to do a bit of hackery to separate him from his chair to take screenshots for the reference (see the Hips and Fake_Weapon_Root checkboxes) and is another reason why this sort of thing makes it hard to set up something for you guys to use.

A bit late seeing how much progress you’ve already made, but here’s a video of his head

deemsss123 · January 18, 2017, 11:26am

I love this topic so much. Firstly, because of this awesome cosplay of course! But also @lowlines coming to the rescue and giving all those references.
This really shows how amazing the Battleborn community is.

RollingEwok · January 19, 2017, 6:39am

My dude! I already posted a comment about it on the video itself, but this is no doubt going to make my life easier in terms of putting things together. It’s also really fascinating to see how much goes into building the different models! Two of my friends–the sisters?–are educated (and in the process of studying) game design, and one of the things that fascinated me most while I was earning my English degree (and still fascinates me) is the creative process itself; seeing how someone goes about putting together the finished product. I’m big into documenting and making available information that others who might come looking later can then apply to their own projects, which is probably why this thread exists as it does now! XD

Now if only I could either find an appropriate beard or find an easier DIY alternative… One of my friends suggested using craft foam, but I’m worried about it looking too cartoony? Which, I know that’s weird to think about given Battleborn’s aesthetics, but… Maybe I’m just not picturing it enough? If anybody out there has an idea or a way that’s worked for them, let me know. I’m still holding out hope that I can create that prosthetic beard with the synthetic hair I have (especially since the mustache I ordered came in today), but I may need a Plan B that looks good and will get me through next Saturday.**

…aw, [redacted by author], it’s next Saturday. Why did I remind myself of how much time I have left? /o\

**(Initially the idea was Friday and Saturday, but logistics means I’ll be punk-gijinka!Sylveon on Friday. If you’re going, come see my panel at 5:30pm!)

RollingEwok · January 23, 2017, 6:30am

Construction on the Battle Chair has begun!

“But Ewok–” I hear you say to your screen. “–what do you mean construction has begun? You’ve only got this entire week left until PAX South! How can you only be starting on the most important piece of this cosplay?”

And I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, have a look at this:

In an ideal world where I had a bit more (and cash) the back piece would light up, but I’m quite pleased as it is. The wonders a bit of craft foam and paint can do, eh? I’ve also finished painting the front clasps–

–and I almost painted the little “on/off” symbol on these upside-down, until I took a look at the in-game screenshots next to the guide provided by @lowlines and realized that theirs is mirrored to how it is in game:

- Official Character Image

- Fan Ref Sheet

In the span of things, it doesn’t matter a whole lot, but this is also why you can never have too many references! References from multiple sources are good and important and I cannot begin to tell you just how useful their ref has been in terms of helping my mom get a sense of how to structure the Battle Chair’s shape around my own chair. But before I get to that, more pictures!

Flash is a double-edged sword, but I’m still really impressed with how that purple photographs. In any case, the top just needs those two fasteners and…I’m just realizing I may not be able to do the shoulder pieces. Hm. Well…no. I still might be able to, as long as I just… Anyway, no. I can still do them as long as I remember to attach them just to the brown vinyl. (My thinking out loud has officially spilled over into the progress reports…) I don’t know if I mentioned this in previous posts but in order to make things a little easier, the brown trim/shoulder pieces were sewn as a separate brown bolero jacket. If I don’t get a better photo this week, then after the madness of PAX South for sure.

The headpiece is coming along nicely. I should have that done (or at least close to finally done) before my mother gets home from work:

If you think I’m worried about how lumpy some of that hot glue is, you’re mistaken, because a)nobody else is going to see the inside of this thing, and b)

I swear it will look fine once it’s painted. Trust me. Trust the method.

Speaking of method, let’s talk about that Battle Chair! My mom started working on the frame yesterday and spent all of today not only working that out but also putting on a foundation layer of what were once anti-slip mats? They’re thin and flexible and lightweight, and they’ll reinforce the shape that the wire has been curled into.

Partway through today Mom came up against one of the problems she knew would come up: Maintaining symmetry. Kleese pilots his chair with his hands (for the sake of simplicity), which means he doesn’t need to devote space to a joystick box. I do, because I still rely on technology that the LLC would probably find primitive as [redacted by author]. This makes for a quandary when trying to construct a replica model of future tech.

See the difference?

(Side note: The pup in the crate is my boy Delta, being kept safely away from power tools and inedible scraps. He has already shown an interest in electrical tape. /o)

Eventually, we just went with the simplest option: Cut a notch in the wire/foundation and slide it into the long handle on which the control box is situated, then anchor it down with more wire. I won’t be able to reposition the box closer to my side for the day, but that’s totally fine. It’s not like I’m going to be sitting at a table all day at PAX.

The frame is pretty much set and nearly covered. My mother works at a learning center practically down the road from where we live and is planning to ask to go home early all this week (she’s worked there a long time) so that she can just come home and focus on putting this together. That’s how she does. That’s why I’m not nervous about that. I trust the process. And I mean–

–she and I managed this in like two weeks, so…y’know. Pretty sure we’re gonna make it? (That said, I’m also pretty glad I scheduled wearing this for Saturday, just to give her as much time as possible.)

lowlines · January 23, 2017, 7:08am

My bad! I’m aware of the issue with my models currently being mirrored, I just forgot to mention it >_<

Looking sweet as [redacted]!

RollingEwok · January 27, 2017, 1:44am

Day 0 of PAX South. I’m all checked into the hotel, I’ve picked up my badge, and I am really hoping this weekend goes in my favor.

I was hoping that I would have a picture-heavy progress report for you guys as a cliffhanger going into this weekend, but today was a rush of packing and coming downtown–so, alas, it’ll have to wait until after the con. I’m looking forward to seeing those of you who will be at PAX South on Saturday–including you, @JoeKGBX !

Wish me luck, badasses. <3

legendoflink2288 · January 27, 2017, 2:06am

GOOD LUCK!!!

May the gods of RNG be in your favor. Lol

And Pax South, I’m jealous.

RollingEwok · January 29, 2017, 2:41am

Dear Fellow Badasses:
I will have a full report after PAX South. Until then, let this keep you tied over:

Here's a full look at @RollingEwok's amazing Kleese cosplay! pic.twitter.com/PbBLuUS2KT
— Joe King @ PAXSouth! (@jauxking) January 28, 2017

lowlines · January 29, 2017, 3:43pm

So cool to see it all come together! I hope you are enjoying yourself spending a weekend as Kleese Make sure you taser somebody, especially if it happens to be a cloaked Pendles!

RollingEwok · January 31, 2017, 12:34am

This wrap-up might actually take me multiple posts, mostly so that none of us get saddled with Post Fatigue. Let me begin with where I intended to leave you at the start of PAX South weekend–with pictures of prep work, arranged by category!

The Headpiece:

It wound up being that I actually didn’t need to put in that middle seam; what I should have done instead was a triangular sort of seam? I think? I can’t honestly remember what my friends suggested. Point is, it was kind of big around my head, but it was only noticeable if you looked at me from the top down, so it wasn’t a huge problem. The other thing–and this we didn’t realize until day of–is that it wouldn’t quite attach with the prosthetic adhesive. I’d sealed it properly on the inside so that it wouldn’t get sucked into the foam, but it just wouldn’t stick against my bald cap.

Then my friend Pat said, “Your mom left you electrical tape.” (We’ll come back to this later.)

So we tried electrical tape. It worked…sort of. Then after someone took a photo, the whole headpiece fell off. So my friend Pat said, “I’ve got safety pins.”

And I was kind of just like, “Do it.” And it worked! And thank goodness for that, too, because their next idea was to try hot glue and I was not entirely ready for that.

The Shoes

There really isn’t too much to say here because I wound up not modifying them like I wanted to, but all the same I figured it was worth showing them to you guys. I’d initially asked Mom to just pick up some black ballet flats. Then she found these:

Tap-dancer shoes. So now I have the headcanon that Kleese either used to or aspired to be a tap-dancer in his youth.

The Beard

I looked down on this thing before me on the table and I was nervous as hell, guys. Seriously. The worst thing I figured that could have happened to me was for the latex to tear. I’m not sure how many layers I put on it (in hindsight, probably too many because it was a bit too thick) but I was so worried it would tear. I’ve never hand-lain facial hair before, but I was going to, because I didn’t really have another option.

It held all day with the prosthetic adhesive, surviving most of the day and through the two big photo ops I was hoping it would survive. I didn’t really get a chance to trim and style it the way I wanted to, and I will end up remaking it before I wear this again, but I’m still really proud of giving it my first shot!

The Chair

Here is where things will probably take me at least one more post to share with you, if only because I want to have a post that focuses solely on the progress and then another on how it all came together on Saturday. And I’m really glad that I made this thread in the first place and kept it going with pictures, because now when I tell people that she built this thing IN A SINGLE WEEK, I can actually show them proof, because she did. My mom built this thing in a week. I’m still amazed, given how it turned out.

(She says it was her most challenging work and still thinks there’s room for improvements, but I’m so proud of her. I really am.)

The white material you see going over the wire is poster board. I don’t remember if I mentioned it in one of the previous posts, but the black material covering the front is what used to be a couple anti-slip mats my uncle brought over.