Nov 6-13. Weeks left:14
This is going to be an ongoing blog about my new cosplay. If you love cosplay, making things, Doctor Who, or all of the above, this blog is for you! In February I will be headed to a Doctor Who convention and, of course, I became extremely ambitious yet again and wanted to make myself a new cosplay. This, however, wouldn’t be any cosplay. I have decided that I want to dress up as a Cyberman. Not just ANY Cyberman; the Cyber Master Leader.
For those not in the know, Cybermen are a common reoccuring villain in the Doctor Who franchise. The concept is easy; people lose their individuality and get “Upgraded’ into the hive mind of these Cybermen. They are a robotic race. Over the course of the show, there have been many different versions of the Cybermen. The Cyber Master Leader is the most recent version.
When it comes to constructing and fabricating this piece, a few things were obvious; we are going to need a lot of foam and a LOT of time. There are 14 weeks until the con and many many parts that need to be made. Helmet,“collar”, chest piece, corset, pauldrons, bracers, gloves, codpiece, tassets, grieves, and boots. There is some light work (LED work maybe) in two places, and then my favorite part: all of the Circular Gallifreyan! Those circles, dots and lines are the language of the Timelords; something I have spent over a decade learning, writing, and teaching others how to write (yes, I’m that nerd). There is also the problem of having a voice changer so I sound more robotic. It’s a lot on my plate.
I spoke to my friends about helping out. You can’t do all of this alone! I reached out to a fellow cosplayer known for his work in making Cybermen. He was more than gracious enough to let me use past patterns that he already made. This is a huge leg up in the to do list. If I don’t have to make a pattern, but just need to modify it, This moves me up two or three weeks into my schedule. I also spoke with my friend who loves fabricating new cosplays and happens to have a shop with space and sanders and whatnot that we can work together at least once a week. I brought over the patterns and some foam and we were off.
Being met by two cute dogs at the shop door, we decided to make one of the helmets to get an idea of how the patterns work. “But Shawna,” you may think, “you are wasting time making something you might not even use!” Perhaps, but I’m hoping to make most of my mistakes and learn from this piece. After an hour or so, we had traced, cut, and beveled all of the helmet pieces, lots of conversation was had, and naturally the dogs were tuckered out. And so was I.
There is a lot left to do, and not a ton of time left to do it. But as the Doctor has been known to say, “Time is not the boss of you.”
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