Tail: The first tail I'd ever made. I couldn't quite figure out how to attach the wire to the leotard and the leotard didn't have any real structure to anchor it to, so the tail was much more floppy than I thought it would be. I also made it a bit too long, so the tail flame dragged on the ground. The wire was just a coathanger I bent into the right shape. Since the tail was so long, one of the security guys suggested I sling it over my shoulder. Suprisingly enough, if I turned the tail a bit, one of the curves actually fit quite well, so I didn't really need to hold it on my shoulder at all. ^_^ I'm actually quite happy with the tail, despite it being too long. I just wish it had been anchored better.
Hair: I just used my normal hair, since it's brown. I couldn't exactly get the spikey stand-up bangs (my hair is very long) without a wig and I a) didn't know where to get a wig and b) probably wouldn't have been able to afford a wig anyway. I put my hair into those chunks that hang on either side of his face and braided the rest of it down my back.
Legs: I searched and searched for a pair of orange tights, but I couldn't find a pair anywhere. A few days before the convention, I managed to find a pair of orange-ish red tights that were about the right kind, if the wrong colour. I'm really glad I found them because otherwise I would've had to bare my ugly legs to the world, which would've been awful, especially considering the ugly bruise I got just before the convention. Luckily, the tights disguised that quite well.
Arms: I made myself some soft gauntlet-like arm things which went from my hands to just past my elbows made out of the same material as the leotard. I also used some old red denim shorts, cut them into pieces and used strips from them to make myself wrist bands. The little snaps took a bit of effort to sew by hand, but they stood up pretty well, so I'm rather happy with the way those turned out.
Tattoos: Bardiel drew on the tattoo Nanaki has on one of his front legs at the convention using some Halloween make-up, I drew on the markings on his face before the convention using more of that same make-up. The hind-leg tattoos were a bit different, though, since I couldn't draw them on, since they wouldn't show up. Instead, I cut the tatoos out of felt and glue-gunned them to the tights (using some cardboard and stuff between the tights and my legs, so I wouldn't burn myself. They turned out alright, though probably not exactly similar, since I couldn't look at both my legs while gluing the second set of tatoos, so it was hard to line them up.
Armour: For the armlets, I used the same base material as for the armlets (I chose to make them like the ones in Nanaki's official art, so I guess they're probably Gold Bangles?) (rings from jam jar lids). I bought some gold metal pain and damn did it work well. Actually, it was a bit thin, but that just meant I had to apply a few layers. ^_^ The armlets didn't chip at all, for which I was very grateful, since it would've been a bit hard to disguise any bare spots. I made the diagonal lines with silver glitter paint and this time I used much larger, semi-circular jewel-ish things for materia. I only put materia on the armlets and not the anklets, since I think that would probably be where Nanaki would keep it, since armour can only have so many slots. I didn't have any method of cutting and shaping metal and there was no way I was going to be able to get those jam jar rings, so I had to think of an alternate method of making the anklets. I ended up buying some cheap wired ribbon that was fairly wide in a post-Christmas sale (just like I got the make-up at a post-Halloween sale ^^;) and using the metal paint to paint over it. I used the metal paint because a) it was a bit expensive, so I didn't want to just use it for the armlets and b) it was the best way of making all the bangles the same colour. I hand-sewed some snaps onto the anklets, just like I did with the red wrist bands and they held up well, thankfully. I applied the silver glitter paint the same way as I did with the armlets. Unfortunately, the gold did end up chipping a bit off the anklets, but that was to be expected, since the paint was really meant for metal.
Paws: Nanaki has paws, as I'm sure you know, so really I should've probably made myself some paws to wear on my feet, but I didn't know how to do that, which would have meant a substandard job. Instead, I wore my brown leather-ish sandals (they're a little beat-up but rather comfortable). ^_^ I bought a set of fake nails at halloween to use as claws, but, unfortunately, I lost them sometime between October and May, so that kind of fell through. Oh well.
Flames: One of the biggest challenges with this costume was figuring out how to make the tail flame. At first, I thought maybe I would use model magic or something of that sort, then I thought I'd use metallic gold ribbon-ish things along with red and orange stuff of the same kind, but I thought that would just look like normal fur or something of the sort. It wasn't until after Christmas, around January or something like that, that I actually decide what I was going to do. I was looking around Lewis Craft for some ribbon (this was when I bought the ribbon that became Nanaki's anklets) and I came across these small, round Christmas ornament looking clear balls. They each had a metal base covered in shiny silver and a wire and were being sold in a very affordable bundle. Then I saw the rolls of cellophane that were being sold at the front of the store. I'm sure you can follow my line of thought here. Anyway, I bought orange and red translucent cellophane (supposed to be used for gift wrapping) and a bundle of those clear decorations. I cut out flame shapes in orange and red of various sizes and hot glued them to the balls. I made two of these, since the first one was intended as practice. Actually, I think that one turned out better than the second (originals tend to be better than copies, after all), but I'd already attached a different ball to the tail. I wrapped the wire from the ornament around the end of the coat hanger and glued it there in case the wire became unwound for some reason. It wasn't until after I finished gluing the cellophone to the ball that I closed up the end of the tail with some hot glue (since I couldn't remember how to do a slip stitch). The practice flame turned out better, so I didn't want it to go to waste and I ended up wrapping the wire around my fingers so that I could "cast" Fire for photos and such. When I wasn't busy being a pyro, I ended up attaching it to my backpack so that I could be more easily recognised. |
