"It's been an honor serving with you, John."
First worn to Anime SuperCon 2008 & MegaCon 2010
Price wise I spent $75
Worked on this for two months
So why remake it? I was never really 100% satisfied with how my first version came out, I had a good idea but it didn't work out like I wanted. Sometimes the desire to make a costume nags at me until I finally just give in, and this was the case. When I found the perfect fabric for only $3 a yard at work I knew it was a sign that Cortana had to be done. This time around I wanted to make the costume the best one yet, and with some help from my friends and advice from my Dad I was soon on a roll.
I used the unitard from my old H3 Cortana suit and used it as a pattern, the assembly was very easy and it fit perfectly. The pattern of her design is what I spent the most time on, I referenced my Weta statue, McFarlane action figure, game art and a few other things to work it out. In no way is it 100% accurate because to me her design never looks the same, but I used all these things to sketch them out and make my own pattern pieces. My wonderful friend Megan was nice enough to trace these patterns onto the suit while I wore it and three sessions later we had it mapped out.
The entire costume was then misted with fabric glitter spray which sadly was too faint to really show up in photos, but it looks nice in person. Then began the painting; this time around I used a lovely acrylic paint made specifically for fabric, which I think made a huge difference. Usually I paint both her light and dark color but I only painted on the dark blue since the fabric was already light blue. It took a few coats to get the color nice and dark but I just loved how smooth this paint went on and it was just a gorgeous color.
I decided to do something different this time around to really make this costume pop and stand out from the others. Over all these years of cosplaying as Cortana I have always been asked if I would ever do something about her code lines. I thought about attaching beads to give the look of flowing code, and after some apprehension I decided to go for it. Each bead was attached with super glue gel and E600 adhesive, and they were put on one at a time which was very tedious. The end look to me is amazing and I am so glad I did it, thanks to Megan who really pushed me to make the change.
Price wise I spent $75
Worked on this for two months
So why remake it? I was never really 100% satisfied with how my first version came out, I had a good idea but it didn't work out like I wanted. Sometimes the desire to make a costume nags at me until I finally just give in, and this was the case. When I found the perfect fabric for only $3 a yard at work I knew it was a sign that Cortana had to be done. This time around I wanted to make the costume the best one yet, and with some help from my friends and advice from my Dad I was soon on a roll.
I used the unitard from my old H3 Cortana suit and used it as a pattern, the assembly was very easy and it fit perfectly. The pattern of her design is what I spent the most time on, I referenced my Weta statue, McFarlane action figure, game art and a few other things to work it out. In no way is it 100% accurate because to me her design never looks the same, but I used all these things to sketch them out and make my own pattern pieces. My wonderful friend Megan was nice enough to trace these patterns onto the suit while I wore it and three sessions later we had it mapped out.
The entire costume was then misted with fabric glitter spray which sadly was too faint to really show up in photos, but it looks nice in person. Then began the painting; this time around I used a lovely acrylic paint made specifically for fabric, which I think made a huge difference. Usually I paint both her light and dark color but I only painted on the dark blue since the fabric was already light blue. It took a few coats to get the color nice and dark but I just loved how smooth this paint went on and it was just a gorgeous color.
I decided to do something different this time around to really make this costume pop and stand out from the others. Over all these years of cosplaying as Cortana I have always been asked if I would ever do something about her code lines. I thought about attaching beads to give the look of flowing code, and after some apprehension I decided to go for it. Each bead was attached with super glue gel and E600 adhesive, and they were put on one at a time which was very tedious. The end look to me is amazing and I am so glad I did it, thanks to Megan who really pushed me to make the change.
The original costume that I reworked as the base for version 2.0
I thought that I could not have a better experience while cosplaying as Cortana, but then one came along. Right as I started work on this costume I learned that Steve Downes, the voice of Master Chief, was going to appear at a convention in South Florida. Best part was the convention was at the same time that I would be flying in to visiting my family. This was his first convention ever and I could not believe the luck, everything just fit together perfectly. Anime SuperCon. When we arrived at the con we went straight for his booth, not wasting any time. We got there and I was next up in line and then this girl sitting next to Steve said, "Cortana is here", which made me laugh because I felt like I was being announced or something. Once he finished with the person before me he actually came out from behind the table and we shook hands, I said it was very nice to meet him and then he asked for a photo. At some point in the conversation he referred to me as Cortana which was of course amazing. He then signed my helmet and then I took a picture with my camera and thanked him and told him how great it was to meet him. He said to me, "It was nice to meet you, finally" and I just about died. As I walked away with my helmet in my hand I just felt so amazing, he was genuinely a nice guy and just seemed really happy to meet the fans. Then I read his autograph and it just put a huge smile on my face, very well worth all the effort.
An A.I. and a Spartan
Prior to the con I had messaged a fellow cosplayer and asked if he would be wearing his Master Chief costume to MegaCon. To my delight he would be wearing it the same day that I was wearing Cortana and I knew that I had to get photos. It took longer than I expected to get ready on Saturday but I was able to run into him right before he decided to change. We took some photos together and I could not have been happier!
Thank you Ian for the amazing opportunity and for the awesome photos! I haven't posed with an MC while wearing Cortana since I wore the first costume back in 2005. This was truly a delight for me.
Thank you Ian for the amazing opportunity and for the awesome photos! I haven't posed with an MC while wearing Cortana since I wore the first costume back in 2005. This was truly a delight for me.
Photos taken by Michael Iacca
Photos taken by Dee of The Summasault Crew |
Photos by Will of River of Lakes Productions
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