Award Won- Anime Expo 2010- Best Master Construction
At a prior Anime Expo, the masquerade had the Nokia theater hold it’s event, i was able to watch it from the
audience in 2007, and knew that i’d love to be in the masquerade just to be on that wonderful stage!
In 2010 the masquerade was brought back there, and i entered my Kirin Armor.
As an individual it’s hard to keep it entertaining, so i did a short walk-on, displaying the costume
when i had gathered supplies for my costume, i bought a pop-up light in the shape of heart, with the full intention of showing it off
in the dark like i did at the beginning of the skit!
Character – Series- Kirin Armor (female) – Monster Hunter
Date of completion- Anime Expo 2010
Debut- Anime Expo 2010
Personal thoughts- I’m really happy with the costume, despite not having my accurate wig arrive in time, and deciding to do this costume 2 weeks before Anime Expo 2010. I hope to take on other armor sets from Monster hunter!
Reasons behind prop choice- Like anyone who makes an armor set they want a prop to go with it. I’ve gotten a lot of questioning behind the choice of the weapon i chose to make, and if i have a kirin armor, why do i even have this as my weapon?? Well simple- it doesn’t have to deal with anything about the game/stats/etc, it was the fact that i was making the sword in 2 days, could only use materials i had at home, and couldn’t be too complex of a design, BUT still be impressive for a masquerade entry- THUS my choice was narrowed down vastly. This particular one was the easiest, most do-able sword i could have done in 2 days. All it required was foamcore, a large dowel, black/gray spraypaint, and some vinyl, all of which was things i had on hand. The design wasn’t too complex construction-wise as it has few curvatures, and concave curves. Bottom line- easiest to construct+already had the materials+and still be impressive for a masquerade entry!
Construction details- 2 week costume ahoy! I pulled this one out as quick as i could. So please forgive inaccuracies, my wig did not arrive, and i had to finish up stuff in the hotel.
-Fabric- Started off as a brown scaly vinyl, that i then painted white, and added the painting details.
-Fur trims – pelts- made from fur fabric. I made my own trim to go along all the edges. The pelts are cut and sewn together and has a lining done in fur as well, so that the edges would also be nice and fluffy.
-Black collar- is vinyl with fur sandwiched inbetween and then another layer of vinyl underneath. The color has many intricate cut out’s of the same vinyl that is machine-stitched onto the collar. A blue casted gem, with a plastic silver base i made acts like a broach that keeps the collar closed.
-Braided ropes- because i wanted all the reds to match, i cut strips of vinyl and braided it together to create a rope that ties the top of the leg warmer, and goes around the neck of the collar. In the artwork/design it’s a rope but i thought it’d be a nice detail to do!
-Headband- styrofoam horn base sits inside of the fun-foam horn you see. mod podged over and spraypainted. headband features numerous vinyl cutouts on it as well.
-Thigh-high bands- made from fun foam, and then has red angled red squares that go along the whole band. if you look close enough you’ll notice i have them rotating away from the opposite leg.
-Sword- i began the sword 2 days before ax… it almost didn’t happen, but my bf honnou/kasou helped finish it for me. It is a foamcore base, that ha s a wooden dowel that is sandwiched in between. The foamcore blades and curves were cut by my BF. All of it was hot-glued together. Then painting.. which was done by me and my bf, and help from our friend max. Painted on 4am-10am of anime expo saturday morning. Basically the sword was done in the hotel, and despite being rushed it looks flipping amazing!!!!!!!!!!
