Good morning, good evening or goodnight depending on what time you are reading this. Ergo, if you're reading this at say...2am in the morning, then you should probably get to sleep. Unless you're pushing through to get that last bit of armour attached or that final button sewn on in which case, keep on trooping!

I'm V. An easy enough name to remember, da? I've been in to cosplay for a good few years but only started properly cosplaying a year ago. A full time job and other shenanigans make it hard to find time for my hobbies (of which there are many, including cosplay) but I'm managing. Hopefully being here on Cosplay Island will help me prioritize accordingly!

I'm mostly in to cosplaying video game characters, but am open to anime characters too. I've always got ideas for new costumes and hope to contribute to the community here! I'm also still learning as I go in regards to cosplay. The costume I'm working on right now marks the first time I'm working with a wig and also crafting armour.

You can find me at MCM London each year as well as Eurogamer, Hyper Japan and maybe one or two others.

How's everyone doing?

I can relate to that I think most cosplayers probably have the whole time/omey/work/life/hobby balance to deal with, it's a hobby that needs a lot of time and money dedicated to it!! I always want to make massive costumes but I know it's just not realistic unless I give up about 10years of my life because I'm just too busy!
I have found since being on cI that I do prioritise more (it's coming with experience of planning costumes) I also have found that looking at everyone else's costumes has made me want to plan more and more costumes!

Personally I'll cosplay anything as long as I like the character and the thing it's from, I mostly plan Studio Ghibli cosplays though as they're my favourite!

First time working with a wig and armour huh? Sounds interesting, what do you need to do with the wig? And what materials are you using to make armour?? I haven't made armour yet but I've looked into it quite a bit, hopefully in the future!!

Welcome to cI btw if you're new here ^^ it's a lovely place, very social and helpful people!!

Thank you for welcoming me! I'm reckon I'm now in the right place for people who understand my time situation, glad I signed up already.

The wig needs to be cut down to length in different parts and the back needs to be put up in a thick ponytail. I've made a start and it's looking okay so far, will keep taking progress shots as I go (and eventually get around to uploading them here).

The armour I'm making uses Balsa wood as a base. It's very light and easy to cut/shape. I'm then using dowels and balsa cement to stick the parts together. I go over the wood with five layers of Gesso acrylic primer, sand and then paint. I've almost finished my sword, currently experimenting with paint colours. It's a long process, but it's loads of fun!

Those materials sound fun, I'd love to see how it turns out and how you use them is it bad that I use water and pva as a primer instead of Gesso because it's cheaper?? I've only really done it once to see how it went, think I'll get some Gesso in the future just because everyone else seems to use it!!

I have some photos on my DA page, will be uploading them here soonish. The wood is really fun to work with. It's so light, but surprisingly sturdy!

I'm not entirely sure about the primer, I've heard of people doing it that way but opted to try Gesso my first time instead. The Gesso wasn't too expensive and you get a lot of mileage out of one small tub. How well did the pva work?

I might have to try that wood in the future then, everything I've looked into for armour is all foam, foam, foam, Worblas, Wonderflex etc

If a tub of gesso goes far maybe I'll invest, I only used the pva/water thing on a piece of material, I wanted to prime it before painting it, I used it 5water to 1pva and it worked out for what I needed!!

I'd have gone with foam if I could find a local place that sells it. Unfortunately not though. Would definitely recommend the Gesso for priming!

Well craft foam is easy enough to get hold of, also DIY stores sell foam in big squares which I've seen people use, also expandable foam is awesome and is in all DIY shops

They sound much easier to find all of a sudden. Can you tell I'm a newb?

haha just go get lost in a DIY shop ^^ and see what you come out with!! And I'm also a total noob, you probably know more than me honestly!!

Eurogamer and Oct MCM for me aswell... look forward to seeing your raiden, ill keep an eye out, we can have a Adam Jensen v Raiden showdown! boom!

Awesome, same to you man. Deus Ex doesn't get nearly enough cosplayers! I see you're also cosplaying Drake! Check out my Playstation All Stars thread in the Cosplay Chat section, see if you're interested.

EDIT: I see you already beat me to it.

ha ha, im fast on my feet!