MH4U Eldaora's Taus Hunting Horn cosplay prop [part 3]

Hello cosplay fans and monster hunters alike!

Here comes the third part of my Monster Hunter cosplay project. I'm building a Hunting Horn weapon prop from scratch as part of a big school project. I've been a major fan of the MonHun games for years and I thought that it would be high time that I made a costume to make my love for the games visible, haha. The Hunting Horn that I'm making is the Eldaora's Taus from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and, if you missed the previous parts of this project, you can find them here and here. ^_^

Note: this project is split into several parts because otherwise it would turn into a kilometer post; I need to document my progress carefully (many photos etc) since it's a school project. 

Let's get to crafting this thing!

Starting position. I know that the end knob
is crooked but it was unavoidable. I will
hopefully fix it later.

Okay, so I left off last time with my Hunting Horn looking like a sleeping foam mummy. I had run out of the two extra cans of PU-foam (aka expanding foam) that I fetched from Säästötex earlier and, meanwhile I was busy with school since I left, mom actually went and bought more of the sale cans for me. Once I got back to mom's on 4th June five cans of foam were waiting for me. The sale 5 cans for 10 € was still available, God bless. 

I continued applying expanding foam to the build, mainly the knob at the end of the shaft, the back of the "horse head" and the thickest part of the shaft's backside. I left it to dry for some hours and when I came back I noticed that the foam had hardened but it wasn't ready to be cut. I checked the knob and noticed that the foam had indeed fallen off and was partly stuck to the ground (thanks gravity) and so I separated it from the floor –which thankfully I had covered in plastic before, for protection– and decided to turn the prop so that it laid on its side, to allow for the "inside" of the knob to dry. You see, where the foam had fused with the ground it actually was all wet on the inside, and when I turned it I accidentally grabbed on that non-hardened spot and my fingers just sank into the sticky goo. Eww. Protip: if you ever get PU-foam residue on your hands (it sticks like a second skin and feels like really sticky glue that won't go away) you can get rid of it by applying nail polish remover onto a cotton pad and swiping the affected areas with it. It's important that the remover contains acetone.

The following day I returned to start shaping it. I started off with the back half of the mane and just cut it somewhat into its general shape. I noticed at some point that I'd need to to make each of the mane hairs (there would need to be 7 +1 on the back of the final product) deeper.

Started carving out the back mane.

While I was working I suddenly caught a sniff of that strong distinct smell of fresh PU-foam. I stopped in my tracks and checked where the smell was coming from – it didn't take many seconds before I noticed that some thick, yellowish and unhardened foam was bubbling up from the inside! It was all gooey and sticky and I used whatever scrap pieces I had at hand to wipe it off, but it just kept coming out slowly but steadily. I was just standing there like "oh come on..." because it had gotten about 24 hours to dry but it was still, seemingly, not enough.

Red arrow points to the fresh foam bubbling out.
(note: this was taken directly after I noticed it, it grew a lot more since then)

No can do but put the carving on hold until it has completely hardened. What a bummer, I don't have so much time to finish this project.
During the remainder of the day I went out a couple times to check on it and there had formed a pillar of foam! It was probably close to 10 cm in height and had this weird I've-kinda-hardened-on-the-surface-but-still-gooey-on-the-inside consistency – like I could touch it without making a sticky mess but I was sure that my finger would crush the surface if I applied even a small amount of pressure, aka I could feel it give in under my fingers. I decided to rip off the protruding pillar of foam (using tools and not my own hands) to make sure that, if anything else would flow out later, it would be able to come freely.

The next day I checked the hole that the foam had been flowing out of; it had hardened and so I continued work. I continued to shape the "hair bananas" in the back, aka the back mane. :) As I've mentioned before I'm not even trying to make this thing 100% accurate to the game (which would be a pain in the butt because of all the symmetry) and so all the mane bulks are free-handed; I kinda wanted them to have a natural "flow" to them, if that makes sense. I did make sure that there were 7 of them though – and I'll add the small pointy tip one later.

Mane carving in progress.

Once the back mane was somewhat in shape I decided to test out the papier-maché ears that I had made in school earlier – turned out indeed that they were a tad too big. :/ It's really hard to get the size right when you don't have the head there to compare with and have to go by memory and a note.
I quickly made some new ear bases out of chicken wire, slightly smaller.

Comparing old ear(s) to the head.

Comparing new ear(s) to the head.

I decided to skip the papier-maché approach on the new ears because I don't have the equipment for it and I think I might get better end results with the foam anyway, since the whole build is covered in expanding foam. I'll save the old ears for another project so they won't go to waste.

New and old ear side by side. For size comparison.

I didn't attach the ears yet and instead continued on carving out the shaft (handle, whatever you want to call it) of the Hunting Horn. I thought that this would be easier to do than the manes but lolnope. :') So yeah, I started carving as usual and then, at some point, I realized that those separating lines (showing where each of the three levels end) didn't meet! It was really annoying to notice it after I had already done a majority of the work. Even the slightest difference would add up and then when you had spun the thing around completely the separating lines, at worst, had more than a 10 cm difference. -_- It was impossible to keep track on if the line was straight or not because of the foam's bumpiness and the circular shape, aka I had to constantly rotate it to do any progress and thus couldn't get a good grip on if I was cutting it straight or not. I had to improvise a lot and it's not perfect nor symmetrical – good thing it's not super noticeable because of the shape.

Started carving out the shape for the shaft.

I took the can of foam and filled in some uneven spots on the manes, on the shaft and wherever else there wasn't enough foam. Meanwhile it was drying I made the horns in the same way as I made the ears. They had to be 50 centimeters long each.

Horn bases done.

You might notice that the horn sketch is under and that the curve on it is different. I can say that I drew the reference image way too big for the paper (common mistake that I do, lol) and thus the proportions were off (I had to fit it in); I wasn't planning on doing strictly the same shape anyway, just drew it to get a general idea and as a reference for details, once I get to painting the horns.

I left the horns for later and left the Horn (hihi) for drying overnight. The following morning I continued carving – this time doing the rest of the shaft, except for the end knob. Now it's starting to look like something!

Shaft carved out and new foam added to uneven spots + end knob.

I can't help but think that it looks like an oversized fancy chess piece. It's quite noticeable that it's not exactly like in the games and yeah, I had to make it different for a number of reasons and hey, taking some artistic liberties every now and then is fine~! The main difference is the shape of the upper neck (where the head attaches to the shaft) and thus the head's position, as well as the position and shape of the manes. It just ended up differently and I don't even mind – I made it my own and it will still be easily recognizable. It's like, maybe 85% accurate, haha.
I have used so much money on this that I don't want to butcher half of my hard work just to correct some proportions and/or placements. I can't change the shape of the head/neck part anyway (which is the only thing that slightly even bothers me) because it's a placement miss that happened so early on, aka already at the cardboard base. Because of that, and how I started with the front mane hairs, the head is pretty much doomed to be almost stuck to the neck instead of being more up and free like in the game. No can do and no big deal – it will be awesome anyway! 

Before I left it for the day I added some foam to even out the end knob and to patch up some small spots on the shaft that were uneven. The following morning I went out to carve the end knob and oh boy, it was a pain in the ass! I was thinking all along that "it can't be so hard" but I swear this was the most frustrating part of the project – by far.
I quickly gave up on trying to get the knob to be identical on all angles because it was flat out impossible! Every time it looked good, when viewed from a particular angle, I would spin it around and then the opposing side looked like a case of "end my misery". The more I tried to correct one side the more it messed up when viewed from a different angle... or when compared with another side; it basically needed to have the exact same angles on all four sides to be perfect. It just wouldn't line up nicely no matter what I did and I ended up losing my patience, which is rare. Yeah, I was at the verge of ragequitting.

Fuck this shit, let's call it close enough. 8C

So yeah, the knob is far from symmetrical and it's obviously tilting more towards one side than to the other but oh well, I did what I could. It's not bad enough to be a complete eyesore but it does trigger my perfectionist side a bit, lol. It could be worse though – at least that's a consolation!

That's all for this part and next time I'll get to start on the surface treatment! Be sure to follow my blog if you don't want to miss it. ;)

~ Shiro Samurai out.

MH4U Eldaora's Taus Hunting Horn cosplay prop [part 2]

Hello hunters and cosplay fans!

If you've been following my blog or social media accounts you know that I'm currently working on a big and challenging project, namely my first Monster Hunter cosplay prop! I've been a huge fan of the games for years now and as part of a big school project I'm now making the Eldaora's Taus (aka Rusted Kushala Daora one) Hunting Horn from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. I will eventually make a full MonHun armor as well, to go with this Hunting Horn, but for now I'm focusing on making the weapon prop first!

And, in case you missed it, I highly recommend that you take a look at part 1 of this cosplay build to know what I did before this post! ;)

Note: this project is split into several parts because otherwise it would turn into a kilometer post; I need to document my progress carefully (many photos etc) since it's a school project. 

Let's get to the prop making!

Above are some additional reference photos of the Hunting Horn in question, seen from different angles. Enjoy my hunter in his undies! These have been my main references while I've been working on this project. I'm not aiming to make it perfectly identical to the in-game version (that would be really hard when it comes to symmetry) seeing how I'm making the whole thing by hand and with materials that I'm new to.

Continuing from where I left off I went to school's art classroom to work with chicken wire. This is a material that I've barely working with before and so my art teacher –and supervisor for this project– showed me how to work with the chicken wire. At first it was a bit hard to get the net to do what I wanted but once you got the hang of it it was actually quite easy! Save for accidentally poking yourself with it – use gloves, people. I needed to fill some gaps on one of the ears with steel wire, which basically meant just "sewing" it closed.

Wire base for the ears.

I was supposed to make the ears about 10 cm long but I ended up making them almost the double, oops. When I made these I thought that 10 cm looked ridiculously small, to be honest. Now to hope that the ears aren't too big once I get to the part that I'll attach them to the head. Before starting putting papier-maché around the whole thing I wrapped it in masking tape, for extra sturdiness and to even out any bigger gaps.

Ears left to dry after first two layers.

I returned to the art classroom on several days to add papier-maché layers to the ears. The problem with papier-maché is that once the wet paper dries it sinks in a bit and, unless you have enough layers built up, the hollows left by the chicken wire's hexagonal (or whatever size you have) patterns will show through. I did over 5 layers to get it to be somewhat smooth.

Reference sketch for the horn's general shape.

I sketched some references for the horns but I didn't start building them on the same day. Instead on the weekend I went back to mom's to continue working on the main body of the Hunting Horn in the garage – which mainly meant adding a lot of PU-foam to the back and sides.
The thing is that I had to add PU-foam (aka expanding foam) in layers and move the head around every time I wanted to get to a different area because otherwise gravity would do its job and I'd waste foam. Learn from your mistakes.

Backside unfoamed.

Added some foam to the back.

I kept spraying on some foam, waited for it to expand and dry and then came back, turned the thing around, rinse and repeat. It's time-consuming but it's better than messing up and I'd rather be patient and not take risks.

Once both halves of the backside had gotten their fair amount of foam I started building the shaft. After having worked with the ears I figured that I could try my luck at using chicken wire for building the main body. I must admit that I hesitated but ultimately went with a yolo mindset. Half the time I was not sure what I was doing because yeah, it was a complete trial and error episode. Good thing Sacchan was with me and so she provided a pair of extra hands for holding things in place meanwhile I secured the nets to each other with steel wire etc – it's convenient to have friends around when you're working on large-scale builds.

Base for the main body done.

Same as above but from a different angle.

I'm actually surprised how well it turned out! It took some hours but it was worth the effort. It's satisfying to see things for once in a while turn out well, even though you went at it looking like a big question mark. I just hope that I'm gonna be disaster-safe until the end, lol.

Close-up of the front of the shaft.

Same as above but the backside.

Now the next part was to cover the whole thing with something and my first thought was to use expanding foam as well, but I wasn't sure if it would actually work. I was afraid that while the foam was fresh it would fall through the wire's structure but once I stared applying it onto the chicken wire it actually stayed on top – good! It seemed to stick just fine (then again, my stepdad said that it has some glue in the contents anyway, hence why it's a bitch to get off if you get it on your clothes etc) and I left it to dry for some hours. Once I came back the foam was still on, now expanded and hard.

Started spraying expanding foam on the wire parts.

Knowing that the foam method works I continued to apply PU-foam all over the build. I had to go out and buy some more cans because yeah, my spare can ran out before I knew it. Luck was on my side and Tamperen Säästötex in town had big cans of expanding foam for dirt cheap because the best before date had recently passed. I bought two cans (different brand than the one I used before) and happily went home to continue the project. For anyone interested the cans were 2,50 € each and you got 5 for 10 €!

Almost done foaming. It looks like a sleeping mummy horse... :'D

I'll need to add even more foam later, especially to the back of the head and to the little end knob, but I'll see what it looks (and weights) like once I start carving out the details.

I'll end the second part here and next time I'll continue adding foam to the back, carving the main body of the Hunting Horn, start making the horns and more! Stay tuned for part 3!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

MH4U Eldaora's Taus Hunting Horn cosplay prop [part 1]

Hello geeks and fellow hunters!

I've wanted to do a Monster Hunter costume for years now (I'm a huge fan of the games!) but I've been hesitant to start because of the difficulty level of the designs. I finally got the push that I much needed when a major school project came up and I wanted to make something big and impressive for it. I thought that I could start by making a weapon from the games and save the armor for later.
After going through a lot of weapon candidates from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, I decided on making a Hunting Horn. It's one of my main weapons in several of the installments, one that I use a fair lot and enjoy playing with, especially in multiplayer hunts. So yeah, once I had decided on that I wanted to try my hands at making a Hunting Horn I only had to figure out which one – there's a lot to choose from! I soon came to the conclusion that the Eldaora's Taus (aka Rusted Kushala Daora one) would be a fun challenge to make and it looks really pretty too!
Also, I want to mention that this is my first time making a cosplay prop of this caliber –and difficulty– and also my first time using PU-foam for a bigger project; I've only used expanding foam previously for small stuff like a spearhead etc. There will be a lot of learning involved.

Note: this project is split into several parts because otherwise it would turn into a kilometer post; I need to document my progress carefully (many photos etc) since it's a school project. Some photos in this post are taken with my SLR camera, while others are taken using my crummy cellphone camera. This is why the photo quality varies, sorry about it. 

Let's do this!

I couldn't find any references of said Hunting Horn, the Eldaora's Taus, on the internet so I had to start my own game and take some photos of it myself. My camera had a really hard time trying to capture the colors accurately from the screen, but the photos above are as close as I could get.
 

Around the end of last year (November something) I started this project. The first step was finding a wooden pole that I could use for the base. I found one in my school's garage that had a broken tip, most likely it had been a broom before and the broom part had broken off. It didn't matter to me that the top was broken because it would be covered inside the bulk of the weapon anyway – aka the "horse head". I know it's not really a horse with the horns and all but yeah, during the early stages of my work some other students and my teacher asked me what I was making and, well, it's so much easier to just say "oversized hobby horse" instead of starting to explain that I'm making a huge-ass monster slaying cosplay prop to people that don't even know what cosplay is...

I needed to make a base for the general shape of the head part. I asked Sacchan for help with cutting out two identical horse-shaped heads out of thick cardboard that I had saved over the years. I hoard things that I think might be useful for cosplay purposes later on. I then taped them together but made sure to tape the whole thing in a V-shape to give it a bit more dimension and depth.

Cardboard base cut-out on wooden pole.

I realized afterwards that the ears were misplaced –and thus useless– but luckily it doesn't really affect anything because the whole thing was to be covered in expanding foam (PU-foam) and then carved into shape anyway. I couldn't have placed the ears right anyway because my cardboard is only 2D while the prop is 3D, if that makes sense...

I started adding foam to the build. I had to take turns spraying each side to try to get them as even as possible, which proved to be hard since the foam expands so much. This part of the process is really slow and it's better to be patient and careful than try to foam many different spots at the same time
– I did this mistake and ended up being unable to find a position that I could put/balance my work to dry (too many fresh spots on both sides of the horse head) that would keep all the newly foamed areas from shifting positions because of gravity. So yeah, I could only watch as the foam either fell off or moved significantly and thus I wasted half a big can of PU-foam. Needless to say I was really mad at myself and wanted to throw the whole thing out of the window...

First layer of PU-foam.

3 big cans of foam later... #epämääräinenmöykky

You might notice on the photo above that there's something white on the pole – it's filler that I tried experimenting with to see if I could thicken the upcoming shaft for the Hunting Horn. Turned out that it's really annoying to work with but it does stick to the wood after some careful application. I did realize halfway through that it's too tedious and time-consuming, especially considering how little thickness it adds and how much I need, and so I stopped putting filler and waited for a better idea to show up. 

Started test carving the head.

I started carving with a mora knife to get an idea of if I had enough foam or not. Turned out that some spots needed more and I had to use a fourth can of foam. I also had to use some foam to cover up carving mistakes...

This (school) project stood still for some months meanwhile I changed schools, which meant that I couldn't work in the garage anymore and had to take my project elsewhere – which meant that the only possible other place was to take it to mom's car garage, or well, that little work room in the back of it. I also had to figure out some things regarding my school change and what teacher would be my supervisor for this project. Luckily my new art teacher was also willing to take up this project as well! The reason I opted to ask the art teacher out of all possible teachers I could have asked is simply because this is a creative project duh and I thought that an art teacher would understand it the best and be able to help me with any issues along the way, material choices if I got stuck etc. My supervising teacher was awesome enough to lend me a full roll of chicken wire –and tools for working with it– when I said that I'd need to use some to make the base support for the horns and some other parts later, score!

This is the "stand-by" state that it was in for months.

On 8th April I went to mom's to celebrate Easter with my family. On the same go I took with me my creation, along with a shitlot of primer sprays, spray paints and whatever else I had lying around in my apartment that I might need for this project. I mean, I got a car ride to mom's so of course I'd bring with me all the stuff that I might potentially need to finish this MonHun prop!

A couple days later I continued to shape the other side of the "horse head". I had a hard time carving it because of pains so I didn't progress a lot on that day. At least stepdad had given me another tool option instead of the ordinary mora knife – a really handy saw! I don't know what it's proper name is in English but it was a godsend.

My carving tool options. (middle one is just the knife sheath)

The head's general shape is starting to look like something...

I returned to work on this project after approximately a month, on the Mother's Day weekend in Finland (aka this weekend). I continued by carving out the head in more detail and to slim it down. It was important to get the head as ready as possible so that I could measure it and make the horns and ears separately at school the next week. It's too cumbersome to move this large prop around and, to be honest, it might not fit into a car once the horns are attached... 

Head slimmed down and details added.

I didn't notice it at first but I accidentally measured the eye placement wrong (I only used eye measure, pun not intended) and so one eye was higher up than the other. Good thing it's only foam so I could easily cover up the faulty eye hole with more foam and carve it out again in the right spot.

Once the head was more or less finished (for now) I continued to make the mane/hair/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. This was a bit tricky because there's quite some depth going on and I needed to plan it and think in "layers" before I started sawing off big chunks randomly. I started by carving out the upper bulk of the mane on one side and then carefully mapped it out in my head where the lower one would be.

Started shaping the mane... or whatever you want to call it.

Once one side was in good shape I turned around and made the other side. Too bad I only managed to make the upper mane bulk on the remaining side before I noticed that there's not enough foam – the mistake earlier (when I put too much foam and it slided etc) had made it so that the sides were not of the same thickness. Good thing I had a spare can of PU-foam lying around, waiting to be used – I knew that I would need it. Ennakoi, tiedät kyllä miksi. :D

Put the prop on the garage floor, plastic underneath for protection.

Added PU-foam to the lower mane half.

I left it on the floor to dry. I must say that I'm actually a bit surprised by how well it's turning out so far, despite the errors along the way. Can't wait to get more progress done!
I will need to come back later to carve out the lower mane on the side that I foamed and then add some more foam to the tip, to get it similar to the side that I already made. Wow, now that sounded clumsy. Once that's done I can move on to foam the backside of the head, to make it big enough to carve out the back mane – but I'll get to that later.

Next up I'll continue with carving the lower remaining bulk of the mane, as well as go and start progress on the horns and ears. Keep your eyes peeled for the second part!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Throwback Thursday: Jushiro Ukitake cosplay from Bleach!

Hello you all!

This will be my last Throwback Thursday post for this time and it's gonna feature my fourth cosplay (fifth, if we count an OC) who, just like Ichigo on my first post, is a Bleach shinigami. The difference is that this time we'll be climbing up the ranks to a captain!

Ever since I found some really old cosplay WIP photos in the deep dark corners of my laptop I've been wanting to do something with them – like, for example, show them to the world because we all started somewhere. Yes, I totally took progress photos before I even started cosplay blogging. 

This means that, once a week, on Thursdays (because it's called Throwback Thursday for a reason), I will invite you all to experience a 'blast of the past' with me – featuring old cosplay photos, WIPs and stories ranging from late 2009 to 2011. Fasten your seatbelts, we're gonna be riding the time machine one last time and you'll get to backtrack into my cosplay history and see some never-published-before photos on this here blog!  
Be warned that this, naturally, means a lot of (potential) embarrassment for me and highly varying photo quality for you. ;) I only had a crummy compact camera back then and didn't even notice if a photo was blurry or not...

__________________

Jushiro Ukitake. Bleach.

Ah, good old Ukitake. He's the captain of the 13th Division in Soul Society and, despite having a fatal illness (similar in symptoms to Tuberculosis, although I'm not sure if it was ever officially revealed), he kicks some serious ass. He's a well-liked and highly honorable man who treats even enemies and those weaker than him with respect. Ukitake has a high moral code as well and goes out of his way to protect those he cares for. He's a really kind and likable guy who dislikes unnecessary bloodshed – he's the shinigami cinnamon roll, in other words.

From the first time I saw him in the manga he has been my ultimate favorite character in Bleach. I have a bias towards white-haired/long-haired guys anyway, lol. He will always be a dear character to me and, even though I haven't followed Bleach for years, I can't stop caring about him and wondering what has happened to him since then. Jushiro Ukitake to me is not just any fictional character – he is so much more. I know this probably sounds cliché but he is tied to me on a deeper level, because of a really personal experience, which happened almost exactly 6 years ago from today. I know that the story below may sound unbelievable but I want to assure you that it's all 100% true. Read it if you want but I warn you, it's quite long and not really a happy one.

~storytime~

A long time ago, during the year 2011 and when I still lived at my mom's, I had decided that I wanted to start working on my next cosplay. I was aware that on an upcoming weekend the following Monday would be off from school, which meant a 3-day weekend to spend on cosplay making. I had planned to start working on my Ukitake cosplay on said weekend, which was now some few weeks away. This 3-day weekend was in the end of January or beginning of February, I'm sorry I can't remember more exactly.
So I waited and waited and on the Friday, the day before, I suddenly got struck with a headache and felt very slow and tired on the morning. I still went to school, not thinking too much about it.
When school was over I went home to one of my friends, who lived near school back then. While there I started freezing like hell and shivering the whole time. So when I finally got home (I had to wait for mom to finish work and pick me up) I had developed a fever and was declared sick. Oh well, I though at first that it was nothing more than a common cold, but after five days the fever didn't go away (it became worse, if anything!) and so we had to go to the health care center. There they listened to my lungs, took some x-rays and stuff and they soon found out that I had some defects in my lungs, gave me medicine and sent me home. Please note that because I'm scared of hospitals they gave us the option to continue at home.
Some days go by and my condition keeps getting worse, I couldn't hardly do as much as get up from the bed without feeling like I'd collapse or some such. Just simply walking around the house had never been so hard before. So yeah, you can guess that I couldn't work on my cosplay and oh dang, was I disappointed.

The week before the third Kitacon was to be held (Kemi, Finland) –which I had been looking forward to since forever– I had to leave for the hospital in Kemi because my condition was... alarming. Needless to say I couldn't attend Kitacon and the worst part was that the con was so close to the hospital that I could have thrown a stone from the hospital's parking lot and hit the con building. So yeah, meanwhile my friends were having fun at the convention I was stuck in an isolated hospital room, fearing that I'd die. It was horrible. I could even see the convention from my window. At least my mom went there and bought me stuff like Pocky and a Byakuya Kuchiki plush. #momgoals

At the hospital I got a room far back in the corridor. All the rooms were numbered and I got room number................. 13. Thirteen, just like in Ukitake's Division. When mom said that (yes, I had to ask her because I wasn't allowed to leave the room and, physically, I couldn't anyway) I would have burst out laughing, had I not completely lost my voice and, even if I tried to laugh, it would have immediately turned into cough attacks and I can't even start to describe how painful those were. The closest I can think of is to imagine that a shitlot of needles stabbed your chest for every single cough – and I coughed 24/7. All the time.
The reason why I got a room so far back is because the doctors wanted to isolate me and my mystery disease, as a safety precaution. This meant that except for getting room number 13 I also didn't have to share it with anyone, which was a luxury in misfortune. I remember how hard it was to get up from bed and walk those five steps to the bathroom – heck, even when I was just lying in my bed, not lifting a single finger, it still felt like I was endlessly running for my life; I remember even telling my mom that it feels like I'm constantly running a marathon. I don't even want to know what my heart rates might have looked like because they must have been in the skies. There's that one early morning I remember being woken up by a nurse and she, half-jokingly yet in a concerned voice, asked me if I was alive – my blood pressure was way too low and I assume I looked like a ghost...

I also had to use a nasal cannula because I had respiratory problems and couldn't breathe sufficiently on my own. I could easily take it off though and put it back on and I remember how even being a short time without the breathing aid felt like slowly choking. Don't ask me why I messed around with it, it was semi-annoying to wear and would dry out my nose sometimes.

I was in the hospital for a week and the doctors didn't know what the hell I had gotten. They thought at first that it was H1N1 but the tests were negative. I had to take several different antibiotics (not everything at once though) because this sickness was immune to almost everything – now that was scary. I actually legit cried during the nights because I was too afraid of sleeping, thinking that I might never wake up again – and it wasn't even an irrational fear, it was highly real.
Not to mention that I had 41 C° fever going on and off in waves, which was pure torture. I've read somewhere that 42 C° fever is enough to cause irreversible brain damage and, in the worst case, possible death so yeah, 41 C° is pretty damn horrible in itself and I don't want anyone to experience that. The fever came and went really suddenly and thus, whenever it struck, it made me shake violently and just feel generally miserable; I remember being in so much discomfort I had to press the buttons to get a nurse to come with gel coolers because it was unbearable, those seconds I had to wait felt like the longest in my life. Do you know that feeling when you're in so much pain that your body starts crying unwillingly? That was my everyday whenever the fever hit me...
So, at last, they gave me this one antibiotic and I remember the doctor saying that normally they wouldn't give it to people under 18 years (which I was at the time), unless as a last resort – that one actually helped. Sweet Jesus, the relief.
Afterwards I got to know what it was that I had – I was MYPM positive, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae. There's a 10% risk, I read, that when getting this sickness (which starts of as a common cold) it evolves into pneumonia and, because I'm such a sure-fire Donald Duck, I of course got it. ._. MYPM is also known as "walking pneumonia" and I've read that it's actually the least scary kind of pneumonia (my ass!) and that's because it's a mild one and does not generally require hospitalization; you could have walking pneumonia and not even know about it. And then there's me who, on top of it all, got a double-sided case and it was bad enough for me to balance on the brink of death for a week. Fuck my life. :)) I was born with underdeveloped lungs (and anemia) and I've had childhood asthma as well, which could be a reason for why it seems that I'm prone to get shit in my lungs...

I still remember clearly that final day in the hospital, when they had decided that my condition was decent enough to let me back home – two nurses came to assist me in leaving the bed and doing a test-walk in the corridor. They had to support me from both sides and even then I barely managed to walk more than a dozen steps without feeling like everything was blackening rapidly before my eyes. It still feels like it could have been yesterday – my body was disobeying me; never has it been so extremely hard to do something as simple as walk and breathe at the same time. It's something we take for granted and when you realize that something so ordinary gets taken away from you it... it feels unreal. It destroys you in a way. It's hard to find words for it.
I had to use a wheelchair to get to the main entrance after the test-walk (they deemed that I couldn't walk on my own, obviously the right choice) and I remember how other patients, of all ages, around the hospital looked silently at me during the way down; I still wonder what they were thinking. All of this has burned into my memory – the helplessness, the fear, the uncertainty, having death breathing on my neck. Ever since then February has never come without me being anxious, scared and just extremely uncomfortable. Some years later during two separate occasions, around the same time of the month, two different family members got into life-threatening situations as well. I'm rightfully traumatized by February...

Because of all this Ukitake nowadays has a really special place in my heart. This cosplay and character means a lot to me – it's a memory to not take life for granted, to stay strong and believe in yourself. I'm glad that I survived, it can't even really be put into words the gratitude that I felt and still, to this day, feel from being spared from death's grip. Just because you are young doesn't mean that you're immortal; I used to think that nothing will happen to me yet but oh lord, so very wrong I was.
I guess it's a human trait to deny one's own mortality...

tl;dr - I got a serious, life-threatening lung sickness one day before I was going to start working on my Ukitake cosplay. I got hospital room number 13. Let that sink in.

~storytime end~

Okay, so with that cleared up it's time to talk about the costume process. ^^
Because I already had a shinigami shihakusho (the black robes and hakama), from my Ichigo Kurosaki cosplay, I already had a big part of my Ukitake cosplay done – I just needed to get a wig, make the captain's haori and make Ukitake's zanpakuto. I tend to call the white overcoat a haori but some people refer to it just simply as captain's coat or cloak or whatever.

I started to work on this cosplay some time after I got home from the hospital, which means in early 2011, possibly around March. Back then I lived at my mom's (same goes for the other TBT cosplays I've posted about) and so I had easy access to a sewing machine etc and also woodwork opportunities

– which meant that making Ukitake's zanpakuto myself was not a problem. But I'll get to the sword making later, first I'll talk about the haori progress. ;) You see, my mom is a former fabric store owner and once she closed her business she ended up with a lot of leftover fabrics and well, this has been extremely useful for me as a cosplayer – free fabrics! :D Yes, this haori didn't cost me a single cent because we had fitting fabrics at home. 

Warning: almost all of the photos below are of poor quality, especially the progress pics. They are almost all taken with my old compact camera and originate from 2011-2012.

13th Division insignia sewn on.

Above is the first progress photo I have of this project. I had already appliqued on the squad insignia really carefully; I had to measure it to make it the right size and attach it at the center. The details and strokes I paid a lot of attention to and decided to make them as how they appear in the manga, aka more calligraphy styled – I'm still to this day really proud of how it turned out. I've also gotten a lot of compliments on the insignia, haha. The insignia is made out of some ordinary black cotton fabric and it's backed with interfacing fabric, so to not wrinkle once sewn on.

The haori itself is made out of some kind of heavier off-white bridal fabric, possibly a cotton blend. It's extremely pretty, has a very slight shine to it, drapes very nicely (despite its weight) and just overall is a quality fabric that feels luxurious. I thought it would be perfect for a captain's haori because of the high rank.

Lining cut out and "tried on". Bottom details done.

The fabric that I used for the lining is actually not a proper lining fabric – it's a deep red/crimson quality satin, I think. It's not as thin and overall shitty as satin fabric tends to be. Mom had good fabrics. 

All those details on the bottom of the haori are appliqued on in the same way as the division insignia, and of the same fabric. It was extremely tedious because I had to carefully measure the distances so to not screw up a single centimeter. I'm still surprised that I didn't mess it up and it ended up looking really professional. It surely took a lot of time and patience but it was so worth it!

Finished Ukitake haori. Front.
(flash photo)

Finished Ukitake haori. Back.
(flash photo)

The haori was so beautiful when it was still new. ;_; I'm so angry at myself for ruining it at that one convention many years ago, just thinking about it makes me want to punch myself... in the face... with a frying pan. LU BU SMASH!!
The story goes like this: at Finncon-Animecon in 2011, which was held in Turku (Finland), I did a terrible mistake that I regret hard to this day. Me and my brother were sharing a hotel room for the con. On con mornings it was common practice for us to always put on our costumes in the hotel before leaving for the con, so much easier that way. I still do it. The weather was cloudy and gray while we were walking towards the convention, which was maybe half a kilometer away or something, can't remember. Oh well, guess what happened? It started raining, of fuckin' course. :)) And of course did neither of us have an umbrella at hand. So yeah, I ask my bro to go to the nearest shop to buy one and just one; we were cheap and didn't have much money on us. He comes back with one umbrella and we continue walking.
I notice that there's pools of water on the streets and it's raining quite heavily. I also notice that, to my utmost horror, my shoes (zori) are flinging up the shitty water onto the lower half of my coat while I'm walking. But at this point I really can't do anything because we're half-way away from the hotel and the damage has already been done so yeah, I continue walking and thus destroying my cosplay further with every step I take. Just imagine the mental self-hate and regret going on in my head. I'd probably had cried if it wasn't that I was so motherfucking angry at myself for not checking the weather forecast and putting on the cosplay at the con instead...
I remember that when I got to the con and met up with the Bleach cosplay group (my first cosplay group in Finland and from which I got some lasting friends) some of the cosplayers were worried and pointed out how dirty my coat was. I mentally panicked. Luckily the Rukia cosplayer quickly escorted me to the nearest bathroom and helped me clean off the big chunks of dirt; I'm still really thankful for the help because really, I was on the verge of a breakdown. ;_; We managed to get the worst shit off but my cosplay still looked horrible and cry-worthy – the lower half of the coat was a muddy grayish brown and filled with stains and just completely soaked. I just wanted to disappear and pretend that it didn't happen. It was horrible, I felt so bad – I had just ruined my nicest cosplay for good and it was only the second time I ever wore it to a con (the debut con was Uppcon 2011). The disappointment was real.
Once I got back to my dad outside Stockholm (we took the Finland ferry to the con and then back; it was during our summer vacation when I visited dad) his wive put the haori in the washing machine. After that it got notably cleaner but there's still some faint stains left, but that's not the main problem – the problem is that it shrunk unevenly. You see, I never pre-wash my cosplay fabrics (I can't be bothered because most times you never really need to wash a costume because it either can't stand it or it won't be worn often enough) and, well, the white fabric shrunk while the lining fabric did not. This makes it so that the sleeve mouths and the bottom is constantly "rolled up" and it just... looks ugly. It's the main reason why this costume hasn't been worn since 2013, even though it's one of my favorite and signature cosplays and I would have loved to wear it out more – I'm just so terribly ashamed and regretting that I messed it up. I hate myself for it, even to this day...
Psst, many years ago I even made a rage comic about the situation.

This is the best photo I have in regards to showing off the back's
bottom detailing.

Above is one of the only photos of the haori that shows off the back nicely, especially the hem details. It's actually an unintentional/candid shot – I was just about to stand up, after having been lying on the ground for some other photos, when my friend snapped this one.
Nowadays I'm really happy that this photo was taken because it's probably the best one in regards to showing off the bottom details of the haori, before it got fucked up of course.

But now, let's talk about the coolest part of this cosplay and what greatly added to the wow-factor of my costume on the old days of deviantArt – namely the swords. You see, I wanted to stand out and be mega cool and so I tackled the challenge of making Ukitake's shikai, aka the released form of his zanpakuto – Sogyo no Kotowari. A bit of an intimidating project for some, perhaps... but I did it. I guess my thought process was something along the lines of "I've done Ichigo's shikai Zangetsu so this shouldn't be so much harder...", lol.

As per usual I started out by making wooden bases. Cutting out those 'secondary backward blades' was a bitch, to be honest. I had to be really careful not to accidentally break the swords while cutting, because of the thinness. I don't understand how those back-running blades could ever be useful in actual combat but oh well, it looks cool. xD Bleach logic.

Blades painted and tsuba is test inserted.

The blades are painted with silver spray paint for the edges and the black is actually just some kind of indoor paint meant for painting walls, lol. It worked and we had a whole can left over so why not? Getting the silver parts to be crisp and clean was a bit of challenge since I had to really carefully use masking tape to block out all the black parts before spraying. I remember having had to repaint the black along the meeting spots a couple times because the silver paint kept bleeding onto the black anyway.

Finished tsuba.

The tsuba are plywood (not 100% sure) with craft foam details and painted with gold spray paint. All Bleach shinigami have their own distinctive tsuba designs and so it's important to pay attention to the details. I remember having had a hard time finding clear reference images of the patterns back when I made these in 2011, you know, with inconsistent references and the like...

Habaki made out of clay.

I made the habaki, blade collar, out of air-drying clay. It was my first time working with modelling clay and it went well, except that the clay cracked a bit once it had dried (it shrinks). Luckily it's not really noticeable from a distance and so I never originally bothered with covering it up, probably mainly because I didn't know how to.
At this point I also attached the tsuba – they were tight enough as-is so I didn't have to fasten them with anything. Besides, I would thicken the handle anyway so the tsuba would get locked in place.

Habaki painted. Made five silver charms.

Same progress as above, just a different angle.

Ukitake's shikai has those weird metallic-looking silver charms hanging on the rope that connects the two blades. Back then I didn't even know what worbla was and so I made these by layering craft foam, sealing with a water-glue mixture and then spraypainting them silver. I used a cardboard cut-out as a template to get identical ones. It's not the sturdiest build ever and especially not on a windy day – I've had several of them bending/creasing badly at the thin 'neck' and I had to repair them with duct tape during the con. Ah, memories.

Additional pieces added to thicken the handles.

Close-up. Same progress as above.

Both of the handles were thickened by adding a block of wood to each side, which I then filed down and sanded until I got a comfortable, slightly rounded grip. The blocks are kept in place by two screws that I drilled in.

I learned how to do tsukamaki (Japanese handle wrapping) and wrapped the handles by myself, using some deep red satin ribbon. I used a bit of universal glue at specific spots to make sure that the wrapping would last and not come undone – it hasn't gotten loose yet.
I screwed on hooks at the end of each handle and from those I hung some square-shaped, err, things. xD I'm sorry but I really have no idea what those are called but I know they're used when making houses and stepdad happened to have a few in reserve, which I immediately thought would be perfect for Ukitake, lol. I spraypainted them gold (they were white originally), attached each one to its corresponding hook and then I got some wide satin ribbon to make the 'rope' – it was the best that I had readily available at home. 

Finished shikai form Sogyo no Kotowari.

Close-up view.

Those charms are actually sewn in place with fishing line onto the ribbon, which means that it always looks as if they're defying gravity. :D The stitches are invisible (thanks to the fishing line being transparent) yet super strong and I've never had problems with any of the charms coming lose, even though I've worn this cosplay out on very windy days.

I'm still really happy with the swords and surprised that I even managed to make them for friggin' 6 years ago – I mean, I barely knew how to use makeup back then, lmao. Yes, this was during the time when I thought that the only cosplay makeup one needed was a bit of powder and some really basic black pencil eyeliner, if even that. *cringes*

The good thing with this cosplay is that it's probably my most worn cosplay and thus there's plenty of old photos to be found; I've worn Ukitake to 8 conventions! The debut convention was Uppcon 2011 in Uppsala, Sweden. Sadly Uppcon doesn't exist anymore – the last one was held in 2012. It was Sweden's biggest convention back then (and also the most expensive) and I still remember that year I wore Ukitake so very clearly – it's probably one of my most memorable con experiences. I got so much attention, it was insane! I remember how I couldn't walk from place A to B, no matter the distance, without someone stopping me for either a picture, a hug or to comment on how awesome my cosplay/swords were. Just remembering it all makes me really warm and fuzzy inside. ♥ So much kindness and attention was overwhelming to me; I've never worn such a popular/attention-grabbing costume before or since then, haha. Then again, back then Bleach was still popular and I saw a lot of other Bleach cosplayers. It was surely one of my best convention experiences, even to this day. People were so kind to me, even though I was socially awkward, and I experienced some really memorable encounters.

One of my first Ukitake cosplay photos.

The photo above is one of my very first Ukitake photos, ever. I was trying to recreate a scene on which Ukitake would have collapsed from illness. It was probably the first time I ever tried out the full costume. I even remember how this photo was taken with my laptop, my old Mac. x) I used the inbuilt camera's timer and messed around with it. The quality was shitty but it was better than nothing at all because I rarely had a photographer available back then. This was also during the time when I raped all my photos with bleach filters and auto-blur-the-corner effects... :'DD

Another early photo. I blur-raped everything back then. x)

The wig was bought from Epic Cosplay and that was a good choice because their long wigs are known for not getting tangled as easily as other brands. I eventually had to replace my original wig with an identical new one because lazy me forgot to comb it thoroughly and so a horribly knotted mess slowly built itself onto the lower back of the wig, you know, the neck area where the undermost fibers are that keep touching your costume. I still have the first wig lying around somewhere, I've thought about cutting it short and using it for some other character. The second wig is still in usable condition, thankfully.

One of my first Ukitake selfies. 2011.

The photo above is one of my earlier tries at taking cosplay selfies. Do notice how I have zero eye makeup on! Back then I refused to wear any kind of eye makeup for Ukitake, mainly because "it made me look less like the character". I'm pretty sure that on this photo I've only darkened my eyebrows and, at most, I might have some powder on. I remember how I once, back then, tried doing him with black pencil eyeliner (I had nothing else) and it looked horrible and so I never did it again, lol. xD
I also want to mention that I've had a lot of people telling me how I'm their headcanon Ukitake or just generally the one with the best suited face for him that they've come across – it's really flattering, even to this day and, especially, because Ukitake is such a precious character to me. ;_; I've never been happy with my face (save for my eyes), to be honest, and so I never expected such comments, popularity nor that I'd really fit any character. It's still a weird thought to me, even though I can kinda see why people say it... weirdly enough. I'm sorry, I'm just rambling.

Early 2012.

The photo above is from my first tries at using fake blood. I was home alone one day, bored and decided to cosplay; randomly putting on cosplay at home when I was alone/bored was a really normal thing to do back then. Nowadays I can't be bothered unless I actually have a photoshoot planned or such, lol.
Oh well, for some reason I often depicted Ukitake in a suffering state when I cosplayed him. I wonder why. It was easier and it came naturally, especially after all those, back then recent, experiences...
Speaking of which, at some of the cons where I cosplayed Ukitake (especially during 2011) I did end up with randomly occurring chest pains and breathing difficulties, which made for some unintentional in-character moments. I'm pretty sure that if anyone (except those who knew, of course) noticed it they probably just thought that I was acting or faking it just to be true to the character but... I was really not, sadly. ^^" I mean, I'm not suddenly freezing in place (because of sudden pain) or walking up stairs reaaaaaaaally slooooooooowly just for the hell of it. :D
I remember that one time at Desucon 2012, me and some other Bleach cosplayers were heading for a nearby Chinese restaurant to eat. Everyone walked there in a group but, because I had so much trouble with a slowly ascending uphill, I ended up way behind everyone else suffering on my own. It took its toll, I was really out of breath (for a normal healthy person they'd not be affected at all) but luckily Ri-kun, who cosplayed Izuru Kira, noticed and helped me by carrying my bags and just being close so I could lean on them if needed. ;_;
I have a lot more similar con stories but yeah, it'd be a bit depressing to go through them. ^^"

Old home photoshoot. 2011.

If we go back to my Uppcon 2011 experiences I want to tell you all about one of my most memorable and cutest con experiences!
I was wearing my Ukitake cosplay and it was around evening time. I was walking somewhere upstairs when I noticed a really young boy who stopped right in his tracks and looked at me. I'm really bad at guessing age but I'd say that he was maybe around the 7-10 year range. But whatever, this little boy was looking at me and not saying a word. Once I met his gaze he walked up to me with his arms spread out, still without a sound, and gave me a long, big hug. Then he turned, walked away and disappeared into the masses.
I continued my con day like normal, although I couldn't forget about this boy. I kept being stopped by people everywhere (I even noticed how some would take candid photos once I had passed them) and then, some time later, I ran into the same boy again. I recognized him directly and smiled gently again. He came up to me and hugged me again, without warning and without a word uttered from his lips. I didn't mind though, something about his presence felt really warm and innocent and I happily let him hug me as long as he wanted. He walked away again once he had hugged me, I didn't follow him or ask anything – just smiled.
It was now night and I was sitting alone in the video game hall, casually watching how some kids in front of me were playing games. I was mostly just there to enjoy the atmosphere and to rest my legs, I didn't play anything myself. At one point one of the boys playing in front of me just suddenly puts away his controller mid-game, stands up from the chair and walks straight up to me. I realize that it's the same boy (if I recall right he had changed into a Bleach t-shirt) and this time he gives me an extra-long, super warm hug. I was thinking that maybe it's because he'd have to go sleep soon (it was quite late) and so I decided to give him a lollipop that I had in my bag and... and... the face he made when he noticed it! I swear, it was the cutest, most innocent smile I've ever seen and I think my heart melted then and there. ;O; It's really hard to describe but imagine that kind of expression that a young child does when they're really happy – that genuine, heart-warming smile that is so pure and full of magic. That simple joy.
He happily accepted the candy, hugged me even tighter and, if I recall right, he actually spoke for the first time and told me, in a shy and silent voice, how Ukitake was his favorite character. I swear the cuteness level was over ninethousand. I just can't. ♥

I have a really vague memory that he might have been wearing a pink t-shirt and that he had a cap when I first saw him – not sure because it was so long ago. ^^" I have a really faint memory of his facial features but even those have gotten blurry with time. I sorta regret that I never asked for his name or anything, I still wonder who he was...

Oh and yes, I forgot to mention! One thing that I almost always did when I cosplayed Ukitake was that I handed out candies at the con. Mainly lollipops. I remember how at Uppcon 2011 I had my whole shoulder bag filled with lollipops – I had probably a hundred in there and everyone who saw it were floored. It was hilarious!

Another Uppcon 2011 memory is from when I was in the merchandise tent. I was just walking around casually when a Japanese holder of a nearby shop excitedly shouted out at me "Ukitake-taichoooouuu!" and, upon hearing the call, I stopped and went closer. She was really excited to see me and started saying something in Japanese to me; sadly I didn't understand much at all back then but I remember how she beamed lots of "sugoooiiiiiiii", haha. I knew they were compliments at least, it was easy to figure out from her body language. After a while I held out my swords to her (she seemed like she wanted to check them out) and she looked surprised, grabbed them and wanted her shop friends to come look at her while she did some poses – it was so cute, omg. So we all stood there, all happy and excited. I even have a photo of her holding my swords somewhere, haha.
Before I left I gave her a lollipop and, again, she was super happy and signaled with her hands a "wait a moment" sign. She soon came back and gave me a Japanese lollipop in exchange – it was so sweet and cute of her! After that, every time I walked by her shop, she would smile and wave at me in an adorable way.
A bit later I noticed that my digital camera was nowhere to be found in my bag. I panicked and tried to backtrack in my memories. I realized that one of the last times when I had used my camera was at her shop. I went back to her, tried to explain what was going on and she actually went out of her way to help me find it. ;_; She worried for me and told me to go ask at the information desk and, luckily, whoever had found my camera had been a kind soul; they had dropped it at the info desk and thus I got it back – with all my photos still there and no damage done.
Some people are amazing.

Taken at Desucon, Finland. 2012.

The photo above is one of the more recent photos I have of this cosplay and yes, I'm still without any eye makeup, lololol. :D On this one you can also see the haori after the shrinking accident and how the sleeves are rolling themselves in a fugly way; it bothers me to no end and I'll try to do something about it whenever I get around to repairing this costume. The swords need repairing as well, one of the square holder things broke at Närcon 2011 when a Matsumoto cosplayer accidentally struck it with her hand – the swords need a new paint job as well and, possibly, some partial remaking. I also want to add the tsuba designs on the other side because I originally didn't do that and, afterwards, it started bothering me, of course.
I can't wait until I get to take Ukitake out again and see what he'll look like in my current standards! I really want to have a proper photoshoot of this cosplay as well – those swords deserve to be showcased properly, goddammit.

 __________________

So yeah, Jushiro Ukitake is a cosplay that holds a lot of memories to me, both wonderful and painful ones. It's the costume that pawed the way for me – it made me go from basically a nobody to being known as the Ukitake cosplayer. :'D I don't think I'll ever be able to completely stop cosplaying this white-haired captain so expect him to be a long-lasting one in my cosplay repertoire. ♥
I'm probably forgetting to mention a lot of things about this costume but I feel like this post is getting way too long already so... yolo!

Current status of this cosplay: In need of repairs/update.

Thank you for reading this final post in the TBT series (for now)!

Shiro Samurai out.