Dragon Armor 3.0: Bigger...I Mean Smaller, and Better

As I mentioned in my last post, I was having trouble deciding whether to upgrade my armor from last year or just remake the whole thing. Well, I guess I'm doing a full remake, however, I'll be reusing parts of the last build because there were many things that worked very well and I don't want to waste them. 

I've been busy ripping apart the old one and "harvesting" bits for the new one. Scales, mostly, which will be nice since I won't have to worry about messing up my wrist again from all the Dremmeling I did last year. After months in a brace and a steroid shot in the tendon from my doctor, my wrist is completely healed now, but I am NOT doing that again.

*Sigh* All that hard work...

Useful bits and pieces.

It's interesting how much a few tries at something can teach you. Not only do I now have more experience working with various materials and tools, I've also been able to dig into the design of the armor a little deeper. By now, I know it very well and I have a solid plan to make it all work the way I want it to.

Starting my remake back in March has allowed me the time to really focus on the details and proceed slowly and carefully. There were many things I noticed this time around that I didn't the first two-- things I simply didn't have the time or desire to include before. I've been able to find more reference photos, some of which are much more detailed than the first ones. I've printed, collected and organized them all in the pages of a sketchbook which I can pull out and write on as I work. Having everything in one place and not contributing to the overall chaos will be a huge help.

Things That Worked

• Overall Design- Close to movie-accurate, patterning was challenging, but I feel like I did pretty well and plan to use mostly the same patterns for v. 3.0.

• Scales- Despite the injury, the shimmering color-shift paint, the smooth edges, and the care and attention I put into every individual scale really made the whole outfit pop, which was reflected in my score/judge's comments from the competition. The scales are basically what makes the whole outfit, so I felt (and still feel) that they are the most important aspect of the armor. Pulling the scales from the old build has caused some ripping and wrinkling, but I'm confident that with a bit of foam clay, paint, and a few passes with the heat gun, I can make them look good as new.

• Paint- The Plaid FX was an excellent choice because of its vibrancy and flexibility, it's easy to work with, not too expensive, wide variety of colors. 

• Plasti-Dip- I used it for priming for the first time and I'm never going back. Provides a flexible primer basecoat and is easy to paint over. No more cracking Mod Podge! Don't get me wrong, I love Mod Podge, but it's not the best choice for priming/finishing foam armor.

Things That Didn't Work/Need To Fix

• Size- This was the biggest issue. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until the morning of the competition when I put it all on and could barely move. I made the mistake of sizing the armor closer to the actual movie-proportions than to mine. Accuracy is a must for competitions...within reason. Most judges understand that things that work in a movie don't always translate so well into the real-world. However, it's possible for a cosplay to still be accurate even when fitted to the individual cosplayer. This is real-life, not an animated show. Astrid is tall with a long torso and limbs. I am not tall, and my torso and limbs definitely show it. I'm also quite a bit wider in some areas because...well, I'm a nerdy, 33-year-old human woman who has given birth to two children, not a CGI Viking dragon-trainer. Everything is being scaled accordingly. Bigger isn't always better.

Me frantically trying to finish the morning of the competition. (Photo: Julia Anderson)

• Stuff Falling Apart- The second-biggest issue. Since I decided to cram the whole build into just a couple months and had to rush things in the pre-con crunch, I wasn't able to attach/secure the various parts the way I should have. The first time I tried the entire outfit on was the morning of the competition (bad, don't do that) and immediately, it started falling apart. Not ideal when the cosplay requires a lot of movement and you have in-person judging in an hour. While it may have looked pretty good on the outside, the inside was a total mess. Weak attachments and badly-placed straps and details made it nearly impossible to move without losing bits. As soon as the morning in-person judging was finished, I had to rush out of the con to go back and reattach parts and attempt some last-minute repairs. It caused a lot of stress and I missed out on some of the fun. Yeah, never doing that again. I'm going to make absolutely sure that I build the armor in such a way that not only looks good, but allows movement without things breaking and more comfort.

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• The arm straps fell off before I even got onstage. Then I accidentally pulled my glove off. (Photo: Get Geekish)

• Inaccuracies- Like I said before, there were details in the armor that I never even noticed during the first two builds. For example, the blue part of the back of the chest-plate isn't actually part of the chest-plate at all. It's some kind of vest worn over the undershirt underneath the plate. The bottom two strips of the chest-plate aren't attached to the chest-plate either. They're also part of the undershirt, which actually makes things a lot less complicated this time around. I'm very excited to add these parts.

• Wig- Astrid's hair in the third movie is mostly loose down her back as opposed to her usual braid. And while I'm very proud of the wig I styled, it wasn't very practical for this particular cosplay. The hair kept getting stuck and tangled in the fin on the chest-plate and ended up being a huge annoyance/mess. This time, I'm going to wear the hair down for the in-person judging, then pull it back for the onstage portion to keep it out of the way.

• Fewer Individual Pieces- Part of what made last year's build and competition so stressful was the fact that I had so many parts to keep track of. This year, I'm hoping to group and connect/combine the pieces of the armor that can be put on/taken off at the same time.

These fixes are going to be tricky, but I have some ideas and I'm confident I can make them work. I'm really looking forward to bringing this cosplay to the next level! It's going to be awesome.