So, What's Karrde Been Doing Instead of Gaming

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Well since passing the boards, I've been going nuts so I decided to do something creative.  I haven't had much in the way of time to do costuming since starting school so I put together something for a local sci-fi con masquerade competition.  Not the most complicated thing I've ever done, but I had a good time doing it. So, quick background. The costume is of Death/The Grim Reaper and took about 3 weeks to design and build. The scythe blade is made out of medium density fiberboard and was shaped with a combination of orbital power sanding, hand sanding, and dremel work. It was then painted and polished. Took about 6 days including drying time. The mask was made by molding my face using plaster strips and then affixing the teeth and horns, which were made out of "Model Magic", which is a kids clay-like foam compound Then painted to resemble bone. The cape and tunic were a bitch and a half. I've never sewn before. 14 fsking yards of fabric. Took about 8 days, 3 of which was actual sewing, and I spent most of my time doing it during those 3 days. In the end, I won the award for best prop, which was nice since that's my specialty. Look at the bottom of the post to see why So, pictures!











And here's an old picture of the most insane thing I've ever built. Mos of the work was done by my friend and I.  It's the Dalek (from Doctor Who) on the left.  The Hello Kitty Klingon (Hello K'tteh) was done by some friends of ours.



We kinda buggered the belts but we ran out of time to fix it.  The lights on top actually work and we originally had it wired to a voice system but we didn't have the amp we needed so we just rewired the lights to a switch.

And now to make everyone jealous.  So there was this group there called 'Fallout Shelter Arcade."  They brought in a multiplayer custom Mechwarrior game.  The switch was inside these pods were complete sets of controls including joysticks, throttles, multiple HUDs and a lot of customizable options.  The game can be played simply as a DM but for those who wanna get crazy technical the game has a lot of options for maneuvering, heat management, and everything you expect in a mech. It's based on MW4 and has a massive list of mechs plus loadout options.  It was insanely awesome

[CaffeinePowered]

Battletech Pods are massive win, they had them at ACEN and there was an arcade near me that used to have them as well.

Problem was at ACEN at least, most of the variants weren't loaded and they had the thing stuck on easy mode, so half of the buttons didn't work :\

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Yeah these guys let you do whatever the hell you wanted.  You just had to ask them how to set the options.  Looks like they'll be coming to Anime Detour as well.  Mostly because or Chairman was like 'Hell yeah, more battletech!"

[Dtrain323i]

Battletech Pods are massive win, they had them at ACEN and there was an arcade near me that used to have them as well.

Problem was at ACEN at least, most of the variants weren't loaded and they had the thing stuck on easy mode, so half of the buttons didn't work :\

oh chasers, how fall they fell.

[KorJax]

I've always wanted to play in a battletech pod. When they removed the ones from DnB that place suddenly became a lot less interesting of a place to want to visit

[Luca Shoal]

You were Death, but you had no Death of Rats? Fail :V

[A. Crow]

You were Death, but you had no Death of Rats? Fail :V

The Grim Squeeker is the ultimate prop. 

[rumsfald]

Karrde link=topic=4781.msg162493#msg162493 date=1278439215]
Well since passing the boards....orbital power sanding, hand sanding, and dremel work....Took about 8 days, 3 of which was actual sewing....In the end, I won the award for best prop!

You are going to make a great husband and/or wife for a one lucky guy. He sews, he sands, he nurses, and he has an award-winning prop!

[CaffeinePowered]

[quote author=[fr31ns]Karrde link=topic=4781.msg162493#msg162493 date=1278439215]
Well since passing the boards....orbital power sanding, hand sanding, and dremel work....Took about 8 days, 3 of which was actual sewing....In the end, I won the award for best prop!

You are going to make a great husband and/or wife for a one lucky guy. He sews, he sands, he nurses, and he has an award-winning prop!
[/quote]

Handy Murse....that can mean so many innuendos its gotta be a title

[rumsfald]

hahahahahaha

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Hey, my prop is pretty fucking amazing.  It's great at receiving mustache rides.  Enjoy that mental image

[Eightball]

*Necro* *Photo alert*

So, in preparation for the convention in Madison that Caff, Karrde and I are going to (apparently a few others too?), creatively named "Geek kon", I have done what I thought unthinkable and started a cosplay project. I'll be going as RED medic. Here's some shots of what I have so far. Feel free to laugh at me, my family already has.


My costume so far. It consists of a belt and slacks I found at a thrift store, some farmwear belt pouches, rubber boots, rubber gloves from Hong Kong, red tie from Amazon (we didn't have a red tie in the house :L), a shirt I already had, an old pair of frames, elastic straps, and a lab coat I stole got from work. The clothing is nearly done, I just want to hem the collar a bit and maybe add some length to the back; it looks kinda obvious how short it is.

The backpack is still a work-in-progress, but here's what I have so far:



It's made of several layers of .5" extruded polystyrene pinned together with toothpicks and Elmer's glue. Once all this sets, I guess I'll have to paper mache it and hit it with this weird thermoplastic that Caff linked me, called Wonderflex. A bit of that and some acrylic paint and the backpack will be mostly done. The "anode" and "cathode" at the top will be some PVC fittings I found. It won't look identical to in-game...but it'll be good enough. As for the tank, I'm probably just going to snag a large nalgene water bottle and spray it red and lacquer it. Then I'll probably take the cheap way out and Gorilla tape it to the backpack. You might also notice the holes in the bottom, those are for tubing. I stole recycled some chemical tubing from work, will be spraying that black and super-gluing it. I also have some vinyl hose to connect the backpack to the medigun (which I haven't even started work on :[)

[Kirby]

d'awwwwww what a cute baby pic 8ball

[beep beep diglett]

ya sorry man you kinda got a baby face thing goin on

[Luinbariel]

Tee hee so cute!

I'm jealous though, I want to do the medic thing as well but of course... no.

[Versus]

i think that's his brother in that pic not eightball

[Eightball]

i think that's his brother in that pic not eightball

^ Pretty much. My pic is blocked by my head.

Also Luin, "no"? If you want to, do it. I know, it's easy to laugh at people doing cosplay, but once I started getting into the project it has been a lot of fun. Not as expensive as I was expecting either.

[copulatingduck]

normal people laugh at cosplayers

people who go to cons think cosplayers are the bees-knees

Man-Faye is an amazing person and deserves notoriety for everything he does for cosplay

[CaffeinePowered]

I am making a flamethrower, no pics until its finished

[rumsfald]

normal people laugh at cosplayers

people who go to cons think cosplayers are the bees-knees

I shall share my favorite quote from Cognitive Surplus, which I am now reading. Ahem...

[tt]The spread of digital hobbies hardly seems significant, in part because we've learned to regard amateur interests as faintly ridiculous, if not actively suspect. While I was growing up in the United States in the 1970s, I learned, without being explicitly told, that grown men who build model trains or women who created macrame were, in some unstated way, pathetic. Meanwhile, it was perfectly acceptable to spend hours every day watching The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch (a task I performed, as most of us did, as if it were my job).[/tt]


Also, can't believe no-one saw this joke yet.

Q. So, What's Karrde Been Doing Instead of Gaming?
A. Men.