Making of Gin Ichimaru's Shinso sword

Hi!

So a few days ago my stepfather told me I could make Gin's handguard (aka tsuba) out of this 9 mm thick plywood we had lying at home. So I did. I drew the design and he was kind enough to cut it out for me since it's quite a difficult design, yay! I went outside to sand it down afterwards and oh my lord, my hands were so sore after that. I remember cursing because of its shape – it was so hard to get inside those stupid.. ugh, what's the English word for it? ._. You probably understand what I mean by looking at the photo, lol.

Test fitting the handguard.

Under a week left until Desucon Frostbite and I still have to fill in all the cracks where the top layer of the plywood chipped off. The sword I'm using as a base is a shoto sword (a martial arts training sword), an inexpensive red oak one to be more precise; I just figured it's easier to modify something close enough than to make it from scratch because I'm short on time and besides, I knew I would stress with it anyway. xD I made this thing in five days omg.

Handguard fillered up.

A white-ish putty filler thingy was used to fill in the cracks. He's too kind. Stepdad told me to wait until the following day before coating everything in a white base paint, although it seemed like the one I had used before (for other projects) had been used up and yeah, I had to use another one that was slightly glossy... and he said I have to sand it after coating.

Worst paint ever. 8C
Had to let them dry in the sink to not stain everything...

This was one of the most unpleasant paints I've ever had the displeasure of using. Seriously, it's sticky as fuck, it takes forever to dry (and hair dryers doesn't help), it smells like crap and it's also impossible to wash away no matter if you use soap three times and scrub it with a harsh brush. I tried to get it off my own hands and it just smeared further the more I tried to get it off! I've never worked with a paint that made me this frustrated before lol. It stuck to literally everything – every loose hair strand and every surface it touched for less than a second. I even got some on this high leather stool that I've been sitting on and it won't come off no matter what I do. Mom's gonna be mad...

I learned soon after that it was some kind of oil-based paint and yeah, that checks out. It hadn't really crossed my mind that any other paints existed except for water-based ones because that's what I had been exlusively using up to this point. It was a nightmare to work with without the correct equipment and yeah, I lost my cool and was positively raging during the worst moments – stress-induced meltdowns anyone? I had to toss a paint brush I really liked because it got ruined. :c

Thankfully the rest of the progress should be a breeze to do, I just needed to spray paint everything and then do the tsukamaki handle wrapping. Or well, spray painting outside in northern Finland during the worst winter months isn't exactly optimal timing but whatever, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

Well, in theory it was easy. In practice it was not.
So I was outside spray painting Shinso and err.. the cold was a real problem. I needed to do a second coating because the paint dried so slowly it got stuck on the work station I used (I hate when that happens adfsgagf) and these annoying bubbles appeared and made the surface all kinds of ugly. It was like the paint froze before it had time to set? I ended up having to sand the bubbly surface layer down and repaint the whole thing. Yet somehow I managed to salvage the situation. 

Finished Shinso, full view.

All misfortunes considered I'm very happy with how this rush job turned out. In fact I'm very happy, I didn't think it would come together as well as it did in the end. :D I'm not making a sheath for now and who knows if I will at some point but ehh, it's fully usable as-is.
Can't wait to cosplay Gin soon, it's gonna be fun to be part of that upcoming Bleach cosplay group!

Thank you for reading! 
Shiro Samurai out~

Sealed state Sogyo no Kotowari sword finished!

Hello!

I've been making captain Ukitake's zanpakutou in its sealed state for the upcoming Desucon Frostbite anime convention and I finally finished it today! I do have his, agreeably much more impressive, shikai version of his swords made already prior but due to convenience reasons I wanted to make the ordinary version of Sogyo no Kotowari for this con. Traveling with those twin blades by train is a bit cumbersome.

I was so excited (and kinda in a rush) to make this cosplay prop project that it didn't cross my mind to take any progress photos, oops. The base of the sword is a martial arts bokken training sword, made out of wood, that I removed the plastic handguard from and repainted the whole thing to look like the character's sword. All Bleach shinigamis have distinct designs on their zanpakutou handguards so I used a few references to make Ukitake's out of a plywood sheet. The details I made out of craft foam that I then used a diluted water and glue mix on to seal and harden it before I painted over it with gold spray paint. It took several layers to make the craft foam less, well, spongy.

I did the tsukamaki (read: handle wrapping) by following a tutorial I found online. It's quite easy to do, especially if you glue it down as you work your way forward as it keeps the slippery satin ribbon I used from shifting and made the end results look neat and crisp.

Sogyo no Kotowari full sword.

Close-up of the hilt.

Gosh, how bad lighting we have in our house! The only place decent enough for photos is the shower/sauna room during this time of the year. My digital camera (Samsung ST500) ain't the best quality gear for photos either but whatever, better some photos than none at all, am I right? :D

I'm happy with the sword for now. I'll admit though that I cut some corners in my eagerness to just get it done as soon as possible, hehe. I might eventually want to add a sheath for it but we'll see; I'm just not too sure how to go about doing it with my current experience. The handguard, aka the tsuba, feels a tiny bit too big so I'll maybe remake it one day, but for now it'll suffice.

Thanks for stopping by. Sayonara!
Shiro Samurai is out~

Desucon Frostbite 2012 lineup!

Hi everyone!

The next con I will attend is called Desucon Frostbite and yes, I'm very excited to attend it! It will take place in Lahti, Finland, during 14-15 January 2012. This is the very first Desucon Frostbite to be held; the regular Desucon has been held during the summer for some years now (although I haven't attended it yet myself) and Frostbite, as its name implies, will probably from now on be held during winters as a smaller sister event.

My cosplays are pretty much set in stone for the weekend. Both days I will be part of a big Finnish Bleach cosplay group (although the main meetup day is on Saturday) and naturally that means both my cosplays will be from said series. I'm really looking forward to this as I find it fun to get to know other fans of the same series I'm into!

Here comes the cosplay plans~

Saturday: Juushirou Ukitake from Bleach

Sunday: Gin Ichimaru from Bleach

Due to me not starting this blog already earlier in the beginning of my cosplay journey I can't blame anyone for not knowing that Ukitake is currently my signature cosplay. Before I started blogging I used to share my cosplay stuff on DeviantArt and, while there, I garnered quite a dedicated following as "the Ukitake cosplayer". :D It's not like I was crazy viral or anything but yeah, within a particular subset of the Bleach fandom during those days I was quite popular and it really helped my confidence as a cosplayer barely starting out. Ukitake is one of my favorite characters and due to a very personal experience I can relate to him a lot, which makes it all the more easier to act believably. Lung disease is no joke.

So yeah, on Saturday I'm bringing out Ukitake but on Sunday I'm going to be doing something new and going as Gin Ichimaru! He's creepy and intriguing and well, we'll see how it goes because I suck at smiling and I suck at emulating an eerie bad guy lol. xD

Because the con is held during the winter I won't bring my shikai twin swords with me this time; I will just make Ukitake's sealed state zanpakutou instead and carry it around. It's just way more convenient to be able to carry a sword on your waist instead of having both hands busy holding epic swords all the time. Not to mention that whenever I have to go outside I'd rather try and keep my hands warm and cover my face with a scarf so that I can breathe properly because, as everyone probably knows, Finnish winters aren't exactly mild.

That's all I got to say, see ya there!

Shiro Samurai out~