I want to preface this by saying that there isn’t any sort of natural talent involved in this. It takes time and effort, but anyone can make cool stuff! If you see something and you’re like, “Man, that’s awesome, but I could never do that myself” I encourage you to instead see the journey and not just the destination, that every awesome project represents a wealth of smaller steps and projects that came before it, that experience builds on itself and that you can always take one step, and then another. You might wander off of your desired path at times, but that’s okay! Everything, even failures (especially failures!) are great opportunities to learn and grow, and you will always be progressing as long as you’re willing to work at it.
Photo by KP11 Photography on IGand on Twitter (He’s on FB too! But I can’t link him directly because the automod removes my post if I try). Check out the other photos in the set here.
A friend of a friend took these shots a weekend before, if you’re curious about a different perspective and location.
You can also check out my unordered gallery of WIP pics here if you’re curious to see how things came together. There’s a lot of stuff missing because I wasn’t religious about taking photos, but hopefully it’s interesting to someone.
Now, as far as this costume goes, I don’t have a real # of hours spent. It was hours per day, every day, for maybe 4 months for what’s actually pictured. That seemed to be the most common question last time I posted a progress photo, so we could say it’s definitely been just a few months overall.
I learned to work more armor-type leather (vegetable tanned, ie vegtan) earlier this year on my own (starting in around February) using a few YouTube tutorials and patterns I’d purchase from content creators, just stuff to build my chops (or do my reps, if you wanna think of it that way). A mousepad, a pouch, a pair of bracers, a helmet, and then this. Although I had a little help building the first iteration of the tunic pattern, it ultimately didn’t work and I made my own patterns for every finished piece.
The armor is primarily made out of 6-7oz vegtan, though straps and accent pieces are thinner (some are 2-3oz, some are 4-5oz). The cloak is mostly made out of pig suede. I didn’t make the boots at all (I commissioned them) because I have terrible feet and wanted proper footwear for walking around in. Plus, boots are really, really hard to make right. The gloves are a modified pair of the cheapest I could find at Harbor Freight, which I dyed and then attached the backplate and knuckle plate to. My wife sewed the pants out of coarse linen.
Most of the armor is hand-stitched. Some of the pieces are just attached with leather glue, but I’m not sure that’ll survive walking around a con, so we’ll see if I go back and stitch those down more securely. A few pieces are held together by Chicago screws rather than rivets, both because they match the game design better and because they let me detatch things if I need to fix this or that (like my poor belt buckle shattered in a fall at one point and I had to take it off to epoxy it back together).
I modeled and printed both Mehrunes’ Razor and the Skeleton Key. I found that the model files I pulled out of the game’s .bsa (and then via .nif) weren’t as detailed as I wanted, so I used Blender to make my own. While I wouldn’t call the prints exact replicas, I’m fine with them. I just wanted something to hold in my hands for photo shoots at cons, but there are some pretty strict no-metal policies at some. (If you want the .sla files I made, here they are. I’m a noob modeler though so… get ready for disappointment).
If you’re interested in learning how to work with leather, I can direct you to people who are far more experienced than myself (and who already have great learning resources online already). These three in particular were my primary learning sources:
Take a look around, find something that’s either “I think I can do that and it’ll teach me something new” or “That’s super cool and I want to make that even if I have no idea how”. I used both approaches.
If you’re just curious about tooling, I tried to write a list a couple times of all the stuff I used, but it’s pretty extensive (but pretty basic for most projects). Two things that I want to call special attention to made my life a million, bajillion times easier though:
A multi-prong hole punch. Unlike the multi-prong diamond chisels that are included in most variety kits, the punch actually removes material, rather than just pushing it aside. This can be good or bad, so consider the context it’ll be used in, but I found that it made stitching much easier and less frustrating. You can see this sort of punching done throughout all of my armor. A Speedy Stitcher. You can sew with needle and thread, absolutely, but I found that this tool just made it so much faster to get through, especially in tight spaces or ones where I was blind. I have a LOT of stitching on the armor. Much is functional, but more than a little is decorative too, and this thing kept me from going crazy doing it.
Mm. That’s about it for this wall of text. If you have any questions, let me know! I’ll be wearing this to two cons in my neck of the woods, so if you’re in the PNW, maybe you’ll see me around : )
Honestly I've thought about unsubbing to this subreddit. It's all scenery shots and "I just played this game again and...." posts. It's all the same. But this cosplay right here.. this is different. This is skillful labour. This is magnificent. This is a phenomenal representation of hard work and dedication to craft. This is love for the lore. This is skyrim.
Drakmire on November 14th, 2019 at 05:55 UTC »
I want to preface this by saying that there isn’t any sort of natural talent involved in this. It takes time and effort, but anyone can make cool stuff! If you see something and you’re like, “Man, that’s awesome, but I could never do that myself” I encourage you to instead see the journey and not just the destination, that every awesome project represents a wealth of smaller steps and projects that came before it, that experience builds on itself and that you can always take one step, and then another. You might wander off of your desired path at times, but that’s okay! Everything, even failures (especially failures!) are great opportunities to learn and grow, and you will always be progressing as long as you’re willing to work at it.
Photo by KP11 Photography on IG and on Twitter (He’s on FB too! But I can’t link him directly because the automod removes my post if I try). Check out the other photos in the set here.
A friend of a friend took these shots a weekend before, if you’re curious about a different perspective and location.
You can also check out my unordered gallery of WIP pics here if you’re curious to see how things came together. There’s a lot of stuff missing because I wasn’t religious about taking photos, but hopefully it’s interesting to someone.
Now, as far as this costume goes, I don’t have a real # of hours spent. It was hours per day, every day, for maybe 4 months for what’s actually pictured. That seemed to be the most common question last time I posted a progress photo, so we could say it’s definitely been just a few months overall.
I learned to work more armor-type leather (vegetable tanned, ie vegtan) earlier this year on my own (starting in around February) using a few YouTube tutorials and patterns I’d purchase from content creators, just stuff to build my chops (or do my reps, if you wanna think of it that way). A mousepad, a pouch, a pair of bracers, a helmet, and then this. Although I had a little help building the first iteration of the tunic pattern, it ultimately didn’t work and I made my own patterns for every finished piece.
The armor is primarily made out of 6-7oz vegtan, though straps and accent pieces are thinner (some are 2-3oz, some are 4-5oz). The cloak is mostly made out of pig suede. I didn’t make the boots at all (I commissioned them) because I have terrible feet and wanted proper footwear for walking around in. Plus, boots are really, really hard to make right. The gloves are a modified pair of the cheapest I could find at Harbor Freight, which I dyed and then attached the backplate and knuckle plate to. My wife sewed the pants out of coarse linen.
Most of the armor is hand-stitched. Some of the pieces are just attached with leather glue, but I’m not sure that’ll survive walking around a con, so we’ll see if I go back and stitch those down more securely. A few pieces are held together by Chicago screws rather than rivets, both because they match the game design better and because they let me detatch things if I need to fix this or that (like my poor belt buckle shattered in a fall at one point and I had to take it off to epoxy it back together).
I modeled and printed both Mehrunes’ Razor and the Skeleton Key. I found that the model files I pulled out of the game’s .bsa (and then via .nif) weren’t as detailed as I wanted, so I used Blender to make my own. While I wouldn’t call the prints exact replicas, I’m fine with them. I just wanted something to hold in my hands for photo shoots at cons, but there are some pretty strict no-metal policies at some. (If you want the .sla files I made, here they are. I’m a noob modeler though so… get ready for disappointment).
If you’re interested in learning how to work with leather, I can direct you to people who are far more experienced than myself (and who already have great learning resources online already). These three in particular were my primary learning sources:
Weaver Leathercraft (This dude is just so positive it’s fantastic) Dark Horse Workshop Prince ArmoryTake a look around, find something that’s either “I think I can do that and it’ll teach me something new” or “That’s super cool and I want to make that even if I have no idea how”. I used both approaches.
If you’re just curious about tooling, I tried to write a list a couple times of all the stuff I used, but it’s pretty extensive (but pretty basic for most projects). Two things that I want to call special attention to made my life a million, bajillion times easier though:
A multi-prong hole punch. Unlike the multi-prong diamond chisels that are included in most variety kits, the punch actually removes material, rather than just pushing it aside. This can be good or bad, so consider the context it’ll be used in, but I found that it made stitching much easier and less frustrating. You can see this sort of punching done throughout all of my armor. A Speedy Stitcher. You can sew with needle and thread, absolutely, but I found that this tool just made it so much faster to get through, especially in tight spaces or ones where I was blind. I have a LOT of stitching on the armor. Much is functional, but more than a little is decorative too, and this thing kept me from going crazy doing it.Mm. That’s about it for this wall of text. If you have any questions, let me know! I’ll be wearing this to two cons in my neck of the woods, so if you’re in the PNW, maybe you’ll see me around : )
imSoch on November 14th, 2019 at 06:01 UTC »
Honestly I've thought about unsubbing to this subreddit. It's all scenery shots and "I just played this game again and...." posts. It's all the same. But this cosplay right here.. this is different. This is skillful labour. This is magnificent. This is a phenomenal representation of hard work and dedication to craft. This is love for the lore. This is skyrim.
I'm drunk.
Spitting_HolyWater on November 14th, 2019 at 06:19 UTC »
The ultimate stealth archer! Looks great! And warm!