Supanova is almost upon us here in Sydney, and as I type this from the warm comfort of Jeremy's Mum's lounge room, Jess has conned Annie into coming outside with her in the freezing dark and spray-painting her wings (which are yet to be mounted onto the harness). Having left the Kerrigan madness for a later convention, I was still determined to finish Klaymen until I realised I'd sowed my morphsuit in such a way that it was impossible to put it on - and realised it was time to give up and leave it for later.
But I am ahead of myself. Let's go back and have a look at how things have been progressing since last week's blog, and how I now happen to be broadcasting from the land of the New South Welshmen.
I had a few busy days of work and such between starting my costume and when I was able to work on it again, so time was beginning to get away from me. Jess also neglected to work on her costume during this time, so it was all hands on deck on the Wednesday before we were due to leave.
Jess decided to go with my wing design but
was able to use the leftover wire to create a more
even curve.
By this point, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and actually think about how I was going to harness the wings to my back (a seemingly impossible task). Having already purchased the materials for the costumes, it was now a matter of putting the harness together with whatever was lying around (otherwise known as MacGyvering). Fortunately, this is the most fun part.
I find the easiest way to design something is to just
start cutting things out. The foam backing is to prevent
the harness cutting into the back, and the cardboard will
be the side contacting the wings.
Jess was going through the steps I went through on the previous day, and was now gluing her wire to the wings with the hot glue gun. We were starting to work out the kinks of the formula, but she was soon to make a realisation that was going to cause more than a few fits of laughter and a slight delay.
The purchase of more hot glue made "tunnelling" in the
wire much easier, as opposed to having to glue it from the
bottom side.
Having realised I had no spare material with which to make the harness, I unfortunately had to send an old doona cover to the grave. I allocated four long strips for the harness - one to go over each shoulder and two to go around the abdomen (and I'm keenly aware this will probably get very heavy and very painful very quickly).
I glued the strips to the cardboard and glued the foam over
the top - hoping this will hold!!
At that moment, Jess realised that something had gone horribly wrong.
It was something akin to buying two left shoes at the shoe shop.
Realising her mistake (and after the hysterical laughter had subsided), she decided to keep the wire where it was and simply bend it in the opposite direction. It worked pretty well, so disaster averted!
It was getting quite late by this time, so I set up the shed with a heater and some lamps (because none of the lights work) and prepared for some serious slogging into the early hours of the morning. Jess had managed to complete papier-mache on one side of one wing before turning in, and I dried this by the heater for the morning.
My harness was nearing completion by this point, and although the mutilated travel-board-game lid I stuck onto the base didn't look like a supermodel, I thought I could get it to function.
A cardboard "butterfly" shape glued to the base plate
consisted of a cardboard backing and an aluminium
support. The wings are to be sandwiched between the
two, and the design means that the angle is adjustable
before I glue it into the final positioning.
It was then up to the ol' bucket-and-chair
buddy to hold the wing in place while I used
hot glue to squelch it into the cardboard and
metal sandwich.
Naturally, it wasn't enough to leave the wing as is, so I decided to use the foam from the abandoned Kerrigan costume to make the stone "feathers". The actual weeping angels don't have a lot of detail in this, so it was not a hard task to somewhat emulate the angels as they appear in the show.
Annie had arrived at George by this time and I roped her
into helping. Actually, that's not true - she felt compelled
to take over cutting out the feathers because mine apparently
looked like they had degenerative diseases.
We cut out four of each feather - originally for the front and back of my costume, but we soon realised we were fast running out of foam and the seconds were saved for Jess. It turned out that coating only the inside of the wings with feathers looked better, because the outside caused them to bend like wet bananas.
Some feathers in raw form.
Gluing them on was a painful process because
I only had PVA to work with (the hot glue was
on reserve for all the harness work Jess had yet
to start). This took several hours longer than it
should have.
I finished the night off by painting the whole thing in a layer of white primer in preparation for spray-painting the next day. You can't paint directly onto dark foam without priming it, and newspaper is a cow to cover with spray (we learned this doing our previous wings). By the morning, the layer was pretty much dry and I was able to try on the wings for the first time.
Yes, you heard me. For the first time. I
definitely checked everything was working
before I just stuck it all together and painted it.
Yes.
By this time it was Thursday morning, and we were due to leave for Sydney at about 1pm. Jess made some more progress on her papier-mache and primed her feathers but left them unattached - she would have to do it when we arrived.
My last task before we left was to spray-paint
the wings using layers of grey, silver and ivory
to give it the mottled look of worn stone.
Theoretically.
Then we packed the car and it was time for
the 10+ hour drive to Sydney.
We decked ourselves out with the finest in all gluttonous snackage and the first CD of the musical Rent, which we sang along to on repeat for at least the first 5 hours of the trip. (We're hoping to acquire the second CD for the trip back).
Cut to montage!
Annie's view in the car.
We were a bit squished.
The sun setting over the Hume Highway.
I resent the fact that your car has no heater, Jeremy.
Our "Famous Landmarks in the Dark" series - The Submarine
at Holbrook.
"A View of the Submarine sign in the Dark"
"Annie climbs the Submarine in the Dark"
I guess I had better own up to the fact that
I guess I had better own up to the fact that
we went walking on the deck, and, following Jess
pointing out the stern and wondering aloud if we
could get over to it, I promptly shouted "Let's go!",
tripped, and fell on my face. I spent the rest of the trip
in pain.
Jeremy!
"Fresh" air at the Truck Stop of Doom, where everything
is Steak.
Even the tables and chairs were made of steak.
Could use some warm right about now.
"The Dog on the Tuckerbox in the Dark and
Surrounded by Interpretive Dancers"
"The Dog on the Tuckerbox in the Dark woz 'ere"
The front seat in the dead of the night ... ne na ne na ...
Sydney!!
So, by the time I've managed to post this, I've already done a day of Supanova - so hold tight blaggers. Next episode ...
... DON'T BLINK!
WOW! What a day. Can't wait for the next installment. At least with your eyes covered at Supernova no one could tell if you were sleeping or not :)
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