Inquisitor Christgau & Sister Superior Carmen

[lilibat]

My husband and I have been working on 40K costumes for a while now. We meant to have them finished for PAX this year but we got sick and could not finish them or go. His Inquisitor is 90% finished, my sister more like 80%. We need to finish my backpack and our weapons. He will have a bolt pistol, I will have a plasma gun and a power maul.  

I have a few WIP shots of what we are doing, but as I said we are not done. Most of these items do not have all their detailing done.

[Ophilia Midkiff]

Wow, is most of that metal work? It looks amazing. I love all of the details.

[Seraphim]

Wow! You really captured the baroque style of the Sisters of Battle! The shoulders look a bit odd, but then again, they're that big in the art. [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

[lilibat]

I based the size of the shoulders as well as the general design on several pieces of art and on actual figures comparing them to myself, not my misshapen models. Please keep in mind I am shaped differently than that dress dummy and the mannequin. I have naturally broad shoulders for a small woman, a much bigger chest and wider hips. For reference I am built like this.

The insignia are mostly metal and wood with resin skulls cast from Black Library keychain skulls, the armor is leather, the robe velvet lined with black cotton. The leather corset is VERY heavy with all the metal skull conchos but it's worth it. The purity seals are sculpy with chicago screws embedded in the back for easy attachment and the 'parchment' is tea stained cotton muslin soaked in elmer's glue to make it stiff and keep it from unraveling. It's much more durable than using paper.

[Seraphim]

I'll have to remember that trick for purity seals- I've been using paper, with mixed results. Do you put the elmer's glue on before or after writing on them?

I can see how to shoulders would look on you now- It fits much better with your proportions than it does with the mannequin. You said the armor is leather- does that include all the armor? And if so, how did you shape it? I used plastic for my Saint Sabbat costume, and that was a royal pain to shape

[Kommissar]

I'll have to remember that trick for purity seals- I've been using paper, with mixed results. Do you put the elmer's glue on before or after writing on them?

I can see how to shoulders would look on you now- It fits much better with your proportions than it does with the mannequin. You said the armor is leather- does that include all the armor? And if so, how did you shape it? I used plastic for my Saint Sabbat costume, and that was a royal pain to shape

i thought i mentioned that to you, minus the glue, that's pretty much how i make my purity seal strips, i guess i didn't, my bad!  [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/wacko.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wacko.gif' />

[Seraphim]

I'll have to remember that trick for purity seals- I've been using paper, with mixed results. Do you put the elmer's glue on before or after writing on them?

I can see how to shoulders would look on you now- It fits much better with your proportions than it does with the mannequin. You said the armor is leather- does that include all the armor? And if so, how did you shape it? I used plastic for my Saint Sabbat costume, and that was a royal pain to shape

i thought i mentioned that to you, minus the glue, that's pretty much how i make my purity seal strips, i guess i didn't, my bad!  [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/wacko.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wacko.gif' />

Maybe you did, I am notoriously spacey. [img]http://i6.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> I remember seeing yours at comic-con, and thought it was a good idea at the time, but by then I'd already made a ton of them out of paper. I'll make some new ones for my commissar uniform, and my Saint 2.0 if I can get it done in time.

[lilibat]

I spread the glue on the tea stained fabric before I even cut the strips, hang it to dry then cut and write  and write  and write  and write  and write ...

Yes, all the armor is leather. I sort of duct tape or tie the leather into the shape I want being sure to only touch one side. Then I use water based poly coat on the bare side and paint it on super thick so it soaks into the leather, usually doing several coats. Once one side has been coated into submission I unbind it and rebind it on the coated side and do the same. Once I am done it holds it's shape quite well. I can smoosh down the shoulders when going through a tight space and they just sproing back happily without fuss.

[Kommissar]

do you write litanies in latin or english usually? i've got several friends who go one way or the other, so this is more a question of curiosity

[lilibat]

English mostly, though the purity seals on the witchhunter costumes are in German.

[Shade of Dusk]

the difficult part for me is the "wax" portion of a seal and whether to have only an aquilla or if i can use one of the mechanicus symbols. also what did you make yours from as i was going to reclaim some styrene to make mine and stamp them

[Kommissar]

the difficult part for me is the "wax" portion of a seal and whether to have only an aquilla or if i can use one of the mechanicus symbols. also what did you make yours from as i was going to reclaim some styrene to make mine and stamp them

i'm not sure how lili does her's but i hand sculpt them from sculpey aka polymer clay, usually from a craft store, and buy some brooch pins from the same store to attach to the back.
then i paint them black, then varying shades of red.
the common seal is a skull in the center of the wax, but leaving it empty, an inquisitorial ][, a fluer de lis, an aquilla or a mechanicus skull & cog are all good designs to keep in the center.
it all depends on what your costume is really.

[Shade of Dusk]

the difficult part for me is the "wax" portion of a seal and whether to have only an aquilla or if i can use one of the mechanicus symbols. also what did you make yours from as i was going to reclaim some styrene to make mine and stamp them

i'm not sure how lili does her's but i hand sculpt them from sculpey aka polymer clay, usually from a craft store, and buy some brooch pins from the same store to attach to the back.
then i paint them black, then varying shades of red.
the common seal is a skull in the center of the wax, but leaving it empty, an inquisitorial ][, a fluer de lis, an aquilla or a mechanicus skull & cog are all good designs to keep in the center.
it all depends on what your costume is really.

given my techpriest and servoskull, i have a symbol in mind...

on another note, soaking in coffee vs tea. which would be better? tea seems to be the standard choice

[lilibat]

Tea gives a warmer colour which is more like parchment, coffee is too cool a brown and just looks like it's been sitting in mud. Plain old Lipton gives a good colour but don't leave the fabric in too long or it'll be too dark.

I make my seals mostly by creating sculpy molds or stamps. I make a reverse using warhammer skulls, pins or things I cobble together. Then I bake the molds, spray them with PAM and press in more sculpy to make the actual seals. I bake the female end of a chicago screw into the back so I can securely attach the seals once finished.

[lilibat]

We are working on finishing our stuff for another try at PAX, hope we don't get sick this year. We tried on what we have so far so we can take inventory of what we still need, here are a couple WIP pix.