Dr. Fate and Mortal Kombat

Over the weekend I have been working on a Pepakura Dr. Fate Helmet. I've highlighted Pepakura before in my post showing off my mini-nuke and Birdo papercrafts. The Helm of Fate is the same process, but I intend to harden it, finish it more completely and talk about every step along the way.

Unfortunately, my helm of Fate is too small! My gigantic head won't fit in it! I was frustrated with this, but I've realized it is an opportunity as well. Apparently, when using Pepakura for costuming, getting the fit right is something everyone struggles with. So, I've increased the size of the Dr. Fate helmet by 10% and I'm going to try again.

The first time I talked about papercraft, I said that I used white glue to hold the parts together. I did that with this helm of Fate too, but after looking at a ton of tutorials to figure out how to fix my sizing problem, I've learned that most costumers who work with this use hot melt glue. So, next time, that's what I'm doing too.

The helm of Fate was printed on mock A4 card stock. I say that it is 'mock' A4, because I couldn't find A4 cardstock anywhere in my city (I live in the U.S. and A4 is not a standard size here). How I got around the need for A4 cardstock was by buying 9"x12" cardstock and cutting it to size. Last night at around 1:30 a.m. I learned that this is not something I should have worried about.

In Pepakura Designer (not Pepakura Viewer, but if you are doing these papercraft things, you should download both), it is possible to change what size paper the pieces are printing on, and rearrange them if you need to. For the next incarnation of the Helm of Fate, I am printing it on good old American standard card stock ( 8.5"x11").

Next, Mortal Kombat. Any male of my age knows and loves Mortal Kombat. It was the excessively violent video game that came out in 1992, and caused a whole generation to fall in love with side scrolling, 2D plane fighting, and more importantly finishing one's opponents.

Tonight at midnight, Mortal Kombat 9 is available to the public! I have preordered a copy of it from Gamestop, and will be picking it up for my PS3, tonight. That means I am going to be up all night killing my enemies, and then dragging myself through the day tomorrow. Good times! Just like my childhood!

Until next time!

Showing off my Koopa

This fellow is my Koopa Trooper. He's just shy of 16 inches tall, and each block is 5/8"X5/8"x5/8". He hangs out in the living room, just inside the door. I am not sure what possessed me to make him, but I can tell you how I did it.

First, I found a sprite of the Koopa. (If you all aren't in the know about such things, the sprites are the 'models' used in the older games. This one is a Super Mario World sprite from the 16bit Super Nintendo system). I blew it up, printed it out, and drew a grid over it so I could see how many 'pixels' I would need. Turns out I needed roughly ...a bunch. I think it was around 244? But I'm no longer sure of the number.

I bought some bitty little wooden cubes from Hobby Lobby, while all their wood stuff was on sale, and I painted them with acrylic paint. I counted out how many light green cubes, dark green cubes, black cubes etc. I would need then divided them up and painted 'em all. It was a slow process.

After all the painting, I glued them together with wood glue, starting at the bottom and working my way up, one row at a time. I found it was easier to glue a whole row together at once, or at least big parts of the rows, then glue them to the existing rows. That kept things mostly straight. There's obviously some distortion in him, but I liked it, so I left it.

After he was all glued up, I left him to dry for a day or two, then propped him up on the mantle. I was afraid to put him anywhere else, cuz I thought he would break. He's tough, though. He lives happily on the floor, now. Maybe some day he'll get some company, like say a Boo to hang on the wall above him.

CIA and Illuminati use Flouride to Control Minds!

Okay, the title is a bit of silliness, granted. The point of it is to let you all know I just finished reading "The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies" and I very much enjoyed it.

While I've linked to the Amazon page so you could see it, I actually picked it up at Ollie's, and payed somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.50 for it. Well worth the money. It's very cool if you are interested in learning about all the weird theories out there, but don't really feel like reading reams and reams of mad ranting.

It's a little off the beaten path of my 'normal' stuff, but really, if you work at it, you can see how it would fit with the other stuff.

Now, a word as to why I've been quiet lately. I've been busy. I sewed a vest (Not a big deal if you know how to read a pattern and sew...but a very big deal if you don't) for my steam punk costume. It's cool, just not cool enough to get it's picture taken, yet. I've been working frantically on a bird doll for Cloth and Clay Dolls little contest/assignment...what ever it's called. The bird is almost done, but he is having a little trouble standing on his own, so I've got to tweak him a bit before he's finished. Also been doing all the spring cleaning crap that one does in the spring. Oh, and playing Super Mario Bros. on the Wii (I can't work all the time!)

More stuff soon, I swear it. Until then, read a book!

Advanced Apology Regarding The Morrow

If you own a TV or play video games, you probably know that tomorrow is the U.S. release of Final Fantasy XIII. I'm on the preorder list for this bad boy, so tomorrow, I'm not going to be around much on the internets. I've got some Chocobos to catch and Summons to perform and uh, bad guys to shoot or magic or stab or something.

If one of the most highly anticipated video games ever isn't enough, I also have a concert to attend tomorrow night! Yay!

They Might Be Giants are playing at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC tomorrow, and I gots some tickets! That alone is exciting for me, but it gets better. Jonathan Coulton is opening for them! Woot! If you don't know the music of which I speak, I do suggest giving their sites a visit. It'll open your eyes to the world in which I live. Mwhahahaha! Okay, not so bad, but ya know.

It's all very exciting, as you can tell, but it means I'm gonna be busy, and not with cool art stuff. To make it up to you, I shall tell you what I've been working on lately. For the last few days, I've been making some polymer clay jewelry. It's all either kind of magical looking or kind of steampunk looking. I'm not 100% happy with the results yet, but I'll post pictures as soon as I am!

Until next time, be good...or whatever you usually do.