Hello everyone! Hope you're all able to start relaxing a bit after the convention. Was a lot of fun and it looked like a great turn out this year.
I had a lot of people asking questions about my Stein costume so I thought I'd put up a (hopefully) brief little tutorial to cover the most common ones.
First, the turning clicking screw! It's actually really really simple, it'd a cardboard gift box kind of thing from Michaels (but round) they come in packs of three and all three are a different size. I ended up using the middle one but the picture below shows the largest size, really either one would have been fine on my big head. Inside is plastic noisemaker from a party supply store, I don't actually have an extra one handy to take a picture of but imagine something like this;/files/justpaste/d169/a7386921/noisemakers.jpg
The one I got was round but whatever, you just need something with a handle that's going to click.
The noisemaker handle goes through the lid of the box and into a hole drilled into a piece of doweling (you can see the completed ones in the back to see what I mean) I was pretty forceful getting it in so it likely would have stayed in by itself but I used hot glue anyway so it didn't pop off while I was doing something.
For the headband I wanted a really basic unadorned silver one because I wasn't going to have a wig so I wasn't sure if I would be able to hide one of the big tacky ones. Target has a pack of three or four fancy ones and one of them is wrapped in red ribbon, if you unwrap the ribbon it turns out it's just plain silver so I bought a few of those to start makin' screws.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/1557220_10202202232390865_888330127_o.jpg
Next is my hair, I play with my hair all the time. I touch it when I talk to people or when I'm just sitting around. I like other people touching it and it's really really soft so I never like using wigs if I can help it.
To go from my normal brown to the silvery grey I had at the convention I used a few
products from Sally's. We actually have one down in Langford and it's great if anyone is trying to do something wild with their hair.
Fair warning, I've been bleaching my hair myself for about ten years so I know what my hair can take, I know when I've done something I really shouldn't have and I know roughly what I need to do to get it sort of healthy again afterwards. I don't recommend messing around with high volume developers alone if you're never chemically treated your hair before. Chemical burns suck and are gross.
I use Salon Care (I think that's Sally's own brand? It's cheaper and works just as well though) creme developer and Clairol BW2 powder. Mix it as it says on the tin, yada yada. I leave it on for about an hour, wash it out and then start mixing another batch to go on right away.
Best to dry your hair and scalp completely before you reapply, wet hair will make you burn. Leave it on for another hour.
Afterwards my hair (when dry) looked like the colour of Cecil cosplayers, it was light but it still had a bit too much yellow for what I wanted. Remember that your hair will look darker when it's soaking wet after a shower so don't be alarmed if it looks like it hasn't lightened much after the second application.
Afterwards I mixed up a bottle of 20 volume developer (don't use 40, it's a waste) and added the T-18 toner, it's kind of purpley so it helps cancel out the yellow tones that bleaching leaves behind.
/files/justpaste/d169/a7386921/cw.jpeg
https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/1920440_10202202381234586_1120723145_n.jpg?oh=6c823c012172e33ff587abd922a63863&oe=54785CB9
After that my hair was like, white white. I mixed the 20 volume again with the 050 additive. I believe what it's actually for alter other hair colours, but by using it alone you'll get a grey colour. I left it on for about 45 minutes. Be careful leaving it on too long because you might end up with more of a lavender colour than grey.
To keep it grey after I use Clairol Shimmer Lights which smells like death and leaves my hair really gross and dry, but it tones the hair to keep the yellow out. For conditioner I use Joico Colour Endure Violet
Which smells much nicer and comes with a warning not to use it on your eyebrows or you'll go blind. So you know, be safe.
I've also had people recommend Roux Fanci-full, comes in a few of colours and is basically a rinse in colour. You'd apply it in the shower and then you're grey until you wash it back out. That seemed like a hassle to me but it might be better if you're already pretty light blond(e) and don't want to bleach or have anything permanent.
http://www.amazon.com/Roux-Fanci-full-Rinse-Ultra-White/dp/B000BPT0TG
I went back and forth on how to do the stitches and scar, initially I was going to go with modeling wax because it looks really gross. I found it kind of messy and time consuming to apply and remove and I had to be careful not to let anyone touch it or it would deform and ruin the thing.
Eventually I decided on Rigid Collodion which literally just requires you to paint over the area you want to look gross and with repeat applications will cause the skin to pinch. I drew where I wanted it to be with red lipliner (eyeliner would have worked just as good, but I couldn't find the colour I wanted) painted about ten coats on while giving it a minute or so to dry after each and I was left with a pretty nasty looking cut.
https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/1898822_10202202430755824_1717544678_o.jpg
The stitches are held on with eyelash glue, spirit gum probably would have worked even better but I didn't feel like ordering something online when there was an alternative at a drugstore. Maybe grab a whole bunch around Halloween when the Halloween stores open? I think they carried some.
I already mentioned on one of the Cosplay Contest videos but the song I used for my skit was Anthony Warlows version of Confrontation (from Jekyll and Hyde)
I cut a bit in the middle out for time so Natasha wouldn't yell at me and because it was a bit slower and I wanted to keep the momentum building to keep everything quick. My edit is here; https://soundcloud.com/yurik-arkady/cnfrnttn
Annnnd I think that's everything?
If anyone else has any other questions, feel free to message me or just reply here and I'll do what I can to help. Sorry this was so long! Thanks again for all the love and to the million people who wanted to highfive me after the Cosplay Contest, see you all next year!