Post Mortem (Belated): Gamestart and AFA

Photo courtesy and post-processing to Tan Lum Hoe

Now that I have a bit of time on my hands, here's two very brief snippets of our Gamestart and AFA experience this year.

Initially wanted to push out my Blazblue Chronophantasma Izayoi for Gamestart, until I started to pick up Code Geass: Akito of the Exiled again and got the feels for Cornelia when I re-watched the main Code Geass series.

That and with the boy having a chibified Emperor Lelouch in a perpetual OTL pose for his Whatsapp icon, I managed to "cajol" him into finally pushing out his long overdue Emperor Lelouch cosplay.

Was searching for at least one more member to join us for our Code Geass scheme (haha!) and while trying to persuade Jade on one hand, I managed to convince Icetea to come on board as Euphemia. Initally she wanted to push out her C.C (the gothic dress version which you see at the end of Season 2), but since Cornelia and Lelouch are of the Britannia Royal Family, she finally decided to remake her Euphemia (Viceroy version) which she had first debuted almost a good nine years ago.

Thanks to her help, since she's much more familiar with the Code Geass series, we managed to get all our cloths together. But with this amount of white cloths in different textures, our poor tailor almost got our cloths mixed up haha! I've to say Lelouch's costume dissection was the hardest this time round because who the hell wears a cloak that's split into half?

It was quite a hectic time during the costume checking phase because I was having my Jap school's final exams within the week of Gamestart. Most of my time was spent drafting out Lelouch's costume patterns to scale and aiding our tailor in making his eagle beak patterned shoulder armor at her shop, while studying my Jap notes of 20 plus chapters in between. All I can say is, Keigo (敬語) and I can never see it eye to eye.

However, somehow, we made it alive through Gamestart haha! It was interesting to see how Icetea "came alive" as Viceroy Euphemia again in her re-made costume. Our tailor followed the exact model of her old costume (but which Icetea was careful to advise her not to follow the collar pattern as the one on her old costume was wrongly made due to time constraint then), whereas the new one had a more royal feel to it due to the cloth combinations used this time round.

Cornelia's cloak "feathers" weren't able to stand as much as we had expected and kept falling because the corset boning used for it was not strong enough. Had to remake it with the more sturdy wire used for clothes hangars. Not to mention, the cloak trails were too heavy to have a flowy effect due to the honey-coloured beads I used. Already gotten gold velvet stickers to replace them soon (yay to Daiso haha!).

Learnt an efficient method to holding up Cornelia's cloak by rolling it up and tucking it into the crook of one of my arms, kudos to Icetea haha! The 3 of us went in to have a look at the convention but didn't manage to see much because the interior was much too dark. I understand they want to have that LAN shop kinda feel to the convention, but still, I think there could have been a bit more lighting. Managed to catch a glimpse of the retro section and man, those games there sure reminded me of my childhood haha!

Again, I must say the husband and I must really buck up for our makeup skills. And to check our wigs before event day. We both forgot that Lelouch's wig was yet to be trimmed and Icetea had a hard time trying to trim his wig on the spot (with it worn on his head and he forgot to wear his wig cap too haha!). End up it didn't look too bad, just that signature fringe in the middle of his forehead needs a lot more working on on our end.

Yes yes, I'm looking at Botanic Gardens for a proper photoshoot already.

Photo courtesy to Jade, Post-processing by me

Made the last minute decision to finally debut my long overdue Asuna for AFA. My costume base and all was already ready 3 years ago, but because we had some problems creating Lament Light then, I didn't bring out this costume until now where Hubs's weapon-smithing skills had improved by leaps and bounds since then.

Her chest armor and belts were already made by STGCC and her wig was already styled, but we also didn't make it for STGCC because Hubs fell sick on the morning of event day itself.

So what I had left to do was to stud the borders of her top and shoulder harness with 6mm and 2mm ruby and topaz acrylic iron-ons. Hubs on the other hand, was busy building Lament Light from scratch. Her old body was now used as a base for Dark Repulser instead. It was a miracle that we managed to create Lament Light within a short span of two weeks, paper-mache work, setting, painting and all, sans the sheath.

It was surprising that the FolkArt Sky Blue pigment, initially bought for Dark Repulser, totally fit the bill for Lament Light's handle and sword guard as well. Not to mention, Hubs had very cleverly made the blade of Lament Light detachable from the handle and sword guard for easy transporting. Both swords fitted very nicely into Hubs's guitar bag as a result haha!

First time trying to do makeup ourselves and I think we spent 2 hours over it? Candy came to the rescue for our eyeliners and contouring, which was a real life-saver! Thank you so much Candy! And we were thankful that Jade were there for us as well otherwise we would have no event photos at all because we were busy running around looking for people haha!

Now that our 2015 cosplans are all wrapped up, it's time to start working hard and fast for our 2016 cosplans! Already started making our Owari No Seraph's cos stuffs so must get them up and ready as soon as possible because that is slated as our first cosplay plan for next year haha!

Seeya in 2016 peeps! Looking forward to more new works, new crafting techniques and meeting new people!