Warhammer 40k Cosplay: Canoness Cosplay

Canoness Cosplay - Warhammer 40k

Hi, this is my attempt at making this lovely fanart Canoness from Warhammer 40k. I spotted it in the CODEX: ADEPTA SORORITAS (EBOOK EDITION)

I just love the draped headdress and cyborg eye.

I shall be doing my own take on the decoration and won't be having a cyborg arm - I need to put things down and grab a coffee when I cosplay!!

I have never worked with foam before - I usually sew - so this will be a whole new ball game for me and a steep learning curve.

I read lots of tutorials online and picked up lots of info.

So here we go...

First cut

This is the first piece - an arm guard or vambrace.

I wanted to keep the religious theme with the pointed top - a bit like a church window.

First lesson was - use a proper craft knife that you can push the blade out of.

The scalpel was great for about a minute then went blunt. It also obstructs against the depth of foam.

If I had a craft knife I could have pushed the blade out further to get through the thickness of the foam.

I smoothed off the edge on a bench grinder. That was a scary experience - I used a test piece first - good job I did as the grinder snatched the foam into the wheel and ground out a big dent in a nano-second!!

Once again if I had a long craft knife I could have cut the angle rather than grind it in later.

Here's another shot to show angle. It just makes the edges look neater.

This was the second lesson, I knew I had to seal the foam to help the paint to stay put.

I overdid the sealing process and the top turned black.

You only have to gently wave the heat gun over the surface, this changes the texture to a slightly glossy look. Don't do charred!! Not pretty!

The heat closes the tiny air pockets on the surface making it look smoother.

This was the foam spaghetti I used to give the edges a knurled look.

Its called 'joint backer rod'. Its a non-absorbent closed cell polythene foam, its inserted into a joint to control sealant depth.

I purchased 10m x 10mm for £3.30 then slit it in half for the edging.

Lesson 3 was not to touch it with the hot glue gun nozzle! It is much lighter in density and melts really fast.

I tried 'googly-eyes' to give a riveted look, but I didn't like it - I felt it looked to masculine so pulled them off later.

I mitred the corners of the foam spaghetti to make a neater edge.

I am going to make the shin guards, or greaves, in the same way, then spray them all black in one go.

The first vambrace took about 30 mins!

This was the best part for me - decorating!

I used thin craft foam and downloaded different 40k symbols that were suitable for the Canoness.

They were stuck on with impact adhesive as the glue gun was too messy for such fiddly bits.

Boot tops (sabatons) were next, I used a paper and tape pattern stuck over the boot, then used pattern to cut out the foam.

Lesson 4 - always cut a little bigger than the pattern to allow for the thickness of the foam!

These are held on with 1" elastic. I would like to put a brad through the foam and elastic to make sure they won't come off, but don't know yet what to use as the foam is thick where it's doubled.

These are the shin parts of the legs - the greaves. I have yet to decide what to embellish them with! I curved the edges up where they rub over the sabatons, this just eases them over so they don't catch when you walk.

Fed up with Foam

I did get a bit fed-up with the foam work so I had a little think about the cyborg eye.

I used a cheap (flimsy) white face mask and cut out a shape around one eye. Next was a pair of swimming goggles - these were dismantled and one eye lens was used. They come with a nice black rim round the edge that fits nicely in the eye socket. I drew around the lens on the mask and cut out a bigger hole for the lens.

Don't make the inner hole too big - the black line is where the edge of the black rim round the goggles sits.

I then strengthened it all with a thin layer of fibre-glass tissue. I always use the tissue as its so much easier to work with than the hairy coarse fibre-glass!

I saw a pepakura helmet strengthened with the coarse stuff and it was such a mess - it was done on the inside too. I do hope they lined it first, can you imagine how prickly it will be...

Here is the LED inside the swimming goggle lens, you can also see the soft black rim round the edge of the goggle lens.

This is the whole thing put together - its really comfortable! Now it needs lightly filling and sanding then painting. Later I will add some elastic to hold it in place under my head piece.

Here is the finished 'eye' with the lights turned on

This is the draped head dress, its all mounted on a motorcycle under helmet, so it's very comfy and safe to wear!

Back to foam work

Bolt Gun (Bolter) this time. I had a look on the 40k wiki for inspiration. Something like a Space Marine weapon.

I used a plastic gun (I liked the grip on it)

and a Go-Cat box.

I cut out a shape in thick card and covered the whole thing. I also filled the inside with foam blocks to stop it squashing.

The magazine clip was funny - I wanted a curve, but a plate was too curvy so I used a banana!

My daughter Holly, said I should leave a flap in the bottom to store the banana in for a snack!

The whole thing has been covered in EVA foam - off cuts from the armour.

I used thin foam to make the ridges and details on the magazine clip

Tip - use black craft foam if you are spraying black, the coloured stuff shines through and you need more paint to cover it!

Here you can see I have added details with thin craft foam and cut out the vents. The whole thing was sprayed in Plastidip - a flexible paint that peels off hard surfaces. I did try the metallizer from Plastidip but it is quite glittery!

Holly said "We are girls. so we are allowed a bit of glitter!!" Just don't tell the Emperor!

Now getting painty ..

I used Humbrol metallics with a small brush

and for the weathering/scuff marks I used the same paint but scrunched in a kitchen towel.

(I also added a few more rivets on the big panel)

Finished Bolter ( once again I have added more rivets here and there but you get the idea, and I dare say I will keep fiddling with it)

All done in 2 days.

Purity Seals

Here are my purity seals. I started off printing the usual 40k fluff on to champagne coloured parchment paper. They are cut out and the edges scorched with a candle.

Now, at the last Con I attended (May Expo in London) it absolutely poured with rain, so as the seals were on paper I was worried about being caught outside again and they fall to bits.

I painted some clear varnish on both sides, this now means the paper won't fall to bits, the ink won't run and they are quite tough and resist tearing. An added bonus was that the paper went slightly see through - like vellum.

The red seal is just a blob of modelling clay painted red - you could use Fimo but I just used what was at hand.

Cloak, collar and censer

Bit of sewing done next - lovely heavy velvet with a soft fur collar. One of the pauldrons is in place too.
The cloak is attached to a waistcoat style corset with side release buckles. I will use the same buckles to attach the power pack underneath the collar.

Here is a sneak preview of the bottom half (no painting done yet). Censer is made of a cistern float!

Things are getting painty now!!

So here we are with the painting, the next best bit!

I researched what to use as far as paint on EVA goes and came up with Rustoleum All Surface Matt Black. I tested a piece of EVA to see if it was OK with white spirit first as you need to thin down the paint for the first coat to enable it to soak in.

These pieces have 2 coats on - its not so matt, as you can see, but I like the slight sheen.

These are the pauldrons - same method.

The coloured craft foam soaked up the paint really well. A coat of Mod Podge may stop it from soaking in too much.

Rustoleum brush on paint was by far the most economical - 250 ml for £9 from Homebase. It comes in 20 colours too! I was able to cover with no waste and work into nooks and crannies with a brush.
Compare it to Plastidip spray £14 - quite wasteful with overspraying and trying to get into all the edges.

I tried acrylic paint on this piece but it looks too flat, I am going to get some more colours in Humbrol enamel paints as they look nicer.

This is Humbrol paint - I used a brush and scumbled some kitchen roll for the scratches.

The part finished pauldron and a finished one. (I don't know whether finished is the right thing to say - I am a fiddler and will probably keep tweaking!) The left one needs a bit of filler in the gap on the top edge.

Boot tops with paint.

I tried a little too hard with this pauldron, I wanted it to look like a clipart picture I found, but when it was done it was too different to the other painting (too detailed).

Here it is again with the detailing painted over, it still needs more weathering but I think it is more in keeping with the others.

Nice Sword..big.

I really don't need a sword but could't resist making one!

Started off with a strong wooden dowel, sandwiched between thick cardboard and Modpodged over with newspaper.
Hilt is card tube over dowel and whipped with burgundy velvet ribbon.
Details on cross-guard are craft foam over thin card.

The blade was sprayed with primer and chrome car paint.

Chest Plate

The grey mat foam was too heavy and thick (I didn't want the bother of making it from scratch either - far too complicated).
I needed an easier way so hit upon this idea - the main part was a WMA martial arts chest protector, I found some on eBay that were seconds and very cheap - only £4.95!! I then used a softer foam exercise mat to cover the outside with (I also changed the white straps for black so they won't show).
Th foam was stuck on with hot glue - I tried EvoStick but it wasn't strong enough and peeled off.

This is how it looked when all glued down - I later cut the edges down, not too close to allow for the foam to shrink back a bit.

Because this blue foam was softer I decided to Mod Podge over the whole thing to give it a bit of a tougher skin, it also served to glue down any added embelishments

This is the blue mat with the Rustoleum painted directly on to it, as you can see, with the foam being so soft it allowed the paint to crack badly, hopefully the Mod Podge will help with this as it soaks in slightly and makes a better finish with the paint.