Rain Mikamura
G Gundam
- First worn to Anime Festival Orlando 2014
- Spent well over $200 on fabric an accessories
- Worked on this costume over the course of 5 weeks
- Awards won: Best Craftsmanship Intermediate Division at AFO 2014
I absolutely love G Gundam, it was one of the first anime series that I really got into when I was younger. I know a lot of people think it's silly and cheesy, but I fell for it and I was totally hooked. Rain is an awesome character, and the fact that she holds her own on a show filled with male characters makes her that much more bad ass. I like that fact that she could be tough when she needed to be and at the same time sweet and caring. Back at Anime Expo 2007 I had cosplayed in her default outfit, I knew on day when I was ready that I would make her fight suit. I figured it was time to put all of my sewing and crafting skills to the test and give it a go on this costume.
This costume is a good example of how you need to do research into materials, methods and costume construction before you make the first cut. I looked into quite a few different methods of making this and I got a lot of helpful advice from my friends as well. The thing with early anime is that the animation tends to change so outfits can look different from one reference photo to another. I used a figure that I had as my main reference and worked out the design from there. Once I had a good grasp on what I wanted to do I started to work this costume out one step at a time.
First step; patterning out the suit itself. I decided to make everything as separate pieces and sew it all together. I reworked my Halo 3 Cortana costume and used that as a pattern to make the mock up for the suit. This was my first time using shiny stretch vinyl so I worked hard to make the suit as form fitting as possible. Keep in mind that this fabric does not stretch as much as standard spandex, so cut big! My first suit ended up being too small because it did not have the stretch to fit me so I had to to make another one. I made the pink suit initially and added a zipper to the back, I made it longer in the arms and legs. I knew I would cut this down eventually once I sewed on the gloves and boot covers. The black pieces I cut separately and top stitched onto the pink suit. For the front black piece I ended up not cutting this high enough over the hips and it made me look super duper wide. I seam ripped and took it in almost two inches to have that high french cut and this was the key to getting the right look.
The gloves were made using the 'hand turkey' method and I took them in until I got a good enough fit. The boot covers were patterned using a pair of thigh high socks and I covered a pair of high heels that I had in my closet. Both of these pieces were then sewn onto the actual suit so that everything could be one piece. |
All of the accessories on this costume were made using worbla, this was my first time working with the material. I purchase the eBook of armor making from Kamui Cosplays store and it was a great help. For the shoulder pieces I layered a piece on top of a styrofaom ball to get the correct round shape. I then cut one side of it off so that it could attach to my shoulder and I made the antennas out of rolled worbla. I coated the worbla with quite a few coats of gesso and then I sanded it as smooth as I could. I primed it with white spray paint and then used metallic gold spray paint for the color and topped it off with a matte varnish. The bracelets and ankle pieces were made with the same material and were painted the same way.
I made the pattern for the collar piece out of paper and transferred this to worbla. I then back it with craft foam and primed/painted it. All of these pieces attach to the costume with sticky back velcro. I covered a store bought head band with worbla and I did the same with fabric covered buttons for the earrings. I sanded both down and painted them, and added earring posts to the buttons. The necklace is also two layers of worbla stacked on top of each other. |
Photos by Michael Iacca
*NEW* Photos by Hoodedwoman
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Hall Shots
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