Liara T'Soni (Mass effect 3 standard costume) - Mass Effect 3
| white and blue costume - bodysuit, leggings and overjacket. In various lycra/spandex and neoprene fabrics. Armour out of foam coated with modge podge and plastidip. I have challenged myself to make this in time for October Expo. |
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pattern for 'coat' part
I dug through my pattern collection and found the perfect base pattern for the 'coat' part of the costume. Its an old New Look pattern 6673. Its a dress pattern, which means it will be tight fitting on the body,especially across the back on the shoulders like the 'coat' is on Liara. I'll be re cutting it to remove most of the front section and because of the weird way the 'coat' pulls back below the waist, i'll be cutting away more near the skirt part.
armour ponderings
Looking at how the torso armour sits on Liara, its very flat to her body, like the thorax parts are attached directly to the suit underneath, Unlike say Shep's armour which sits onto on the bodysuit underneath and held on my straps. Im wondering wether to attach them permanently to the bodysuit, so that if i bend forward or sit the armour plates wont buckle outwards. The bust armour is slightly thicker, but this wont have the problem of buckling as it will sit over my own bust and bra. Course the other thing i'm thinking about is the fact the jacket part isnt loose over the body, its tight close to it. Looking at how i'd get in and out of the costume whilst maintaining the look of the costume. May figure in magnets or strong velcro to hold all parts of costume down flat.
Leggings stripes take one - fail!
Lucky i bought 2 pairs of these grey leggings as my first attempt didnt work as i planned. I found some very thin masking tape (the white papery kind) and stuck it onto my leggings whilst they were on my duct tape dummy. Used some fabric stencil spray in black to then spray the stripes on.The reason i'm doing it this way is because the stripes spiral around the legs, which with the right fabric isn't really possible to do, as you'd have to cut on the bias and then the stretch might be too much and cause sagging. This way the leggings are cut on normal and should stay nice and tight all the time. Plus i get the stripes exactly where i want them. problem i found was the masking tape didnt always stick as well as i thought it had and the paint bled underneath some areas. Typically those areas are not hidden by the armour! So...now have some automotive plastic masking tape which says it sticks well to stop any bleeding of paint. I do like the effect the stencil spray paint gives - a shiny raised texture to the matt flat jersey lycra of the leggings material. The photos show the first attempt, just to show how the stripes sit.
Back to original version
Since there has only been 1 ref pic of the alt costume i thought id stick to the original version for now as i have WAY more reference and it has a completed rendering. I now have AWESOME fabric for the costume. A white fake neoprene for the jacket part, plus some insanely gorgeous blue shimmery neoprene for the straps and detailing. They were both fabrics a shop in London had bought in from a warehouse sale and i got them for a steal compared to the big mainstream fabric shops in London down Berwick Street. The textured fabric, not sure what to do there...if i can find a right type of fabric with the texture then ill use it for sure, but the texture is almost like the carbon fibre texture of Shepard's armour and i dont think i'll find that texture. So as back up found a cool video that showed how car art painters fake the carbon fibre look using spray stencils. Have fabric spray in grey and may try it out. Found the perfect pair of footwear too. Zip front wedge platform hightop shoes in black. I can put the foot armour over the zip to conceal it and then the boot has the exact shape of Liara's footwear.
coat details
Since i am now doing the alt version, Liara coat is a shiny black fabric..like PVC. I already have a suitable pvc coat that will work quite well, once recut to shape.
makeup is go
Bought myself a 'baby' compressor and airbrush kit for just under £70 Bargain!Also bought a Kett hydro proof aibrush ink tester kit which includes red,blue,yellow, white and black which will allow me to get many blue tones to Liara, and if i get on well with it, i can buy a standard size blue ink and still have plenty of the other colours to blend other tones. I also got myself a Grimas water activated palette and ben Nye Liquidset in case i do an event where i cant bring my compressor with me.
starting
First part got. The dark grey leggings for the stripy leg parts. Next will be sticking strips of low tack masking tape down the leggings, so i can spray the stripes on with spray fabric dye. I have bought two pairs as there is also a section on her arms that have the stripy fabric too.
Good luck! The armour looks like it'll be a bit of a bitch xD
Im working on the same principle that EvilFX used for his Shepherd armour, only with thinner foam. Using Mod Podge coat over the foam should give it a great smooth look but still be flexible to be form fitting on the bodysuit. http://bioweapons.wordpress.com/
i saw this at expo, you looked wonderful, really great job!
Dahlia - thankyou!
Amazing work! You make a great Liara =)
Amazing Liara cosplay! O__O You both look awesome. I was wondering though is the undersuit for your other halves Shepard hand painted or printed? It looks amazing and we've been trying to figure out how to do the undersuit for our N7 armour without resorting to hand painting everything >.<
Manjou - the undersuit is a cotton motorcycling undersuit so cool under the layers of foam which get very hot. I found an image of woven carbon fibre, enlarged it to scale and then printed it off. Then cut out the pattern and used it as a stencil. You can buy fabric paint as sprays now and we used a stencil type which is thicker and shinier than standard fabric spray paint. Think if did it again, which plan to do, the pattern will be smaller. Might even try making a block print of the pattern instead as the stencil spray can clog sometimes and then splatter. By spraying it all into a bowl then using it as a block print, i'd avoid that.
Oh my god, you look amazing! Best Liara I've ever seen!
relion - thankyou!!! :D
Ah so amazing!
Well! Fancy seeing you in the show case! Well done love! Well done ^_^ you already know I'm a massive fan! ^_^
This is really Brilliant! A well deserved Showcase, Congratz! x3
EEEEEEEE! How cool is that! *feels Honoured*
A very well deserved showcase! I am blown away! great costume and great makeup skills! a powerful duo! :)
WOW good work!!!
Deservedly in the showcase! Well done, looks awesome!
Congrats on the showcase :D Awesome Cosplay!!
Well done hun on the showcase ^^. Really deserved it ♥ The make-up is amazing as is the costume
Good lord that's impressive! O_O
This looks amazing!
Well deserved showcase, congrats :)
Woah, completely stunning - bravo! Love it :)
Congratulations on the showcase hun! This is one of your most impressive works :)
Wow this is an amazing cosplay! You defiently deserved the showcase!
Such a well deserved showcase! This is just amazing!
Full of win!
Thanks all for the wonderful comments!