Nightmare - Soul Edge I

So we in the Corps are pretty big fans of starting with a character's weapon and working backwards to the outfit itself. Weapons are a good way ease into a big project but have some early, tangible results to make you feel like you're getting somewhere.

Usually these weapons don't look like this, though:

6 feet of crystal sword. Well. Okay. Not so much of a quick, early project, but you gotta start somewhere.

As discussed in the initial post, my plan is to sculpt the hilt and cast it in foam, use plexiglass and polycarbonate for the blade, and hold it all together with a wooden shaft. Lets see some progress, shall we? 

Nightmare - Bodyform

Okay. Nightmare has some weeeird stuff going on with his torso, making it necessary to do quite a bit of careful modeling and engineering. Holding stuff against yourself and looking in the mirror is okay for a while, but eventually you really need a form to work with. Using the tutorial found here, the Corps teamworked up some bodyforms. Making these things is indecent, so we don't have any process shots. Here, though, is the finished result for me:

But I have issues, and a very weird hat to build. So I took it a step further:

Are you scared? Because you should be. This thing is terrifying to be in a room with.

Nightmare - The Beginning

Well, costuming season has come, and it's time to get to work!

As previously introduced, my Foam Corps moniker is Foameo - that chap in the bulky grey suit up top. I'm a pretty mediocre hand with a sewing machine, so when we start looking at a new round of costumes, I'm the one who aims for more structural outfits.

So this time, I'm going for this bad boy:

Nightmare from SC IV. What a badass, right? Claw hand, glowing bits, smoking helmet, big freaking crystalline sword...

Yes, this... costume... is psychotically complex. Yes, I'm still going to try and build it. This would be a good time to reinforce T-paint's earlier observation: we are pretty much lunatics when it comes to propmaking.

But look at the upsides with me: As the ultimate villain, being Nightmare will make for great scene-setting with everyone else's outfits. The costume has room to build in lifts so I tower over the masses, something I'm terribly fond of. I'll get to build that articulated claw I've always wanted to do. His nonexistent midriff and exposed joints mean it will be much better ventilated than my last two big projects - I won't have to build in fans!

Obviously, there are some hurdles as well. In the clear light of day, then, let me briefly run down my plans for each. Hopefully this will help make me accountable for all the trouble my big mouth gets me into. I'm pretty long-winded when I get going, so I'm putting it under a cut.

Welcome to the Foam Corps!

Hello, internet! We are the Foam Corps, a group of friends joined together by our mutual love of cosplay and self-hatred. We generally tackle one large project per year. So far we've won 2 major awards: 2nd Place in Gaming costumes at GenCon 2010 for our Bioshock group, and Best in Show at GenCon 2011 for our Warhammer 40k group. We're pretty much going to own at GenCon 2012 as well with a Soul Calibur group. Watch out!! All of us have cosplayed before, but I'm only really going to feature the costumes we've built together because I think they're way more awesome than our solo projects.

So who are these Foam Corps members, you ask? Let me tell you.

T-PAINT (me!)
Strengths: Paint finishes, surfacing, screen printing, detail work, not procrastinating
Past costumes: Co-builder and wearer of Big Daddy suit, Warhammer 40k Sister of Battle
Future costumes: Hildegard von Krone, Soul Calibur IV armor
I am T-Paint. I'm a visual artist and pro screen printer.  My favorite part of costumes is all the finishing touches and paint effects. As a result, I maybe sometimes have some odd ideas about how some of my armor pieces will work, but dammit, they look awesome! (even if they require a lot of repair between wears....) I love armor-heavy costumes to the point where I'm in a perpetual contest with myself to try and show less skin than the previous outfit. Big Daddy is probably the winner.

FOAMEO
Strengths: Engineering, foam carving, large-scale builds, sled management
Past costumes: Co-builder and wearer of Big Daddy suit, Warhammer 40k Grey Knight Terminator
Future costumes: Nightmare, Soul Calibur IV armor
Foameo is the math guy of the group. He's most often seen wandering around in PVC frames and muttering about the properties of caulk. Foameo has a penchant for building large-scale armor, and he's damn good at it! He has a slight tendency to start projects later than he should, but we're going to make him get started early for GenCon 2012. Right.....?

BOBBIN HOOD
Strengths: Sewing, sewing, sewing, sewing, detail work, sewing, epic swords, glue gun burn recovery
Past costumes: Little Sister (Bioshock group), Warhammer 40k Sister Repentia
Future costumes: Ashlotte, Soul Calibur IV
Bobbin Hood is our ace seamstress. Driven by perfectionism, her pattern-drafting skills are honed to a razor's edge. She is the mistress of machine-sewing, the scion of serging, the hegemon of hemming. If it can be sewn by human hands, Bobbin Hood is its master. Bobbin Hood also has the distinct honor of having won a totally badass sewing machine that was expensive enough to technically constitute coming out ahead financially for a costume. Nice.

JAMES BONDO
Strengths: Hardware, sewing, optimism, muddling through, contest blurb writer
Past costumes: Splicer (Bioshock group), Warhammer 40k Inquisitor Eisenhorn
Future costumes: Yoshimitsu, Soul Calibur IV 2P version
James Bondo is, in theory, the least experienced costumer amongst us. However, he's been bringing the thunder with his drive to succeed and his ability to learn quickly. As a former hardware store employee, James Bondo brings to the table an extensive knowledge of nuts and bolts as well as connections in the business that we mercilessly exploit.