[ENG] Making-of : Alphonse (Fullmetal Alchemist) Part.3

I return once again to Alphonse's armor, to which I have already devoted 2 posts!

Part 1 was dedicated to the helmet and the bust and part 2  to the arm parts. So here we complete the "Crafting" part with the making of the legs of the armor.

Unless otherwise specified, all parts are made of 5mm thick EVA foam.

With the « Making-of » posts, I go over the whole conception of a character, including the mistakes sometimes made, and when possible the sewing part (for which I don’t always have pictures…).

3. Crafting

• The thighs 

The thigh piece was pretty easy to do (yes I tend to say that for a lot of pieces, but usually once broken down the elements aren't very complicated…).

Alphonse's thigh is in three parts: a shorter back piece, and two similar front pieces that form a central ridge and a spike at the top.

Since the thigh does not need to be adjusted to my own thigh size at all, I only needed to draw the necessary parts before transferring them to foam:

The back piece, similar to the arms, has two edges which give it a somewhat square look. To do this, I cut out two gutters on the inside of the piece, then glued them and pinched them to form an edge.

yep, my foam had a bubble right in the middle! But that's okay, it's the inside

To form the front edge, the pieces are beveled cut, similar to the outer piece of the forearms.

Tape assembly to see how it falls :

note the very comfortable angle to take a photo.

After that, just had to glue the back piece to the inside of the front for good.

• The feet :

Yes, I go directly from the thighs to the feet, because I had to have finished the shoes to be able to start the shins, the second coming to fit into the first.

For the choice of shoes, a somewhat tricky question arose: Alphonse is taller than Barry, which was good since I'm a bit taller than Neevillia. Except that for her to be able to see (this is something relatively important in convention), Neevillia's face had to be at the level of Barry's open mouth (I'll let you go to the end of part 1 of Barry's making-of to better visualize). So Barry's helmet was raised a few centimeters, which reduced the height difference between Neevillia and me. So, Alphonse wears heels. Yep.

The foot part is undoubtedly with the helmet, one of the complex elements of the armor. There are several overlapping plates, not to mention the fact that it should not interfere with walking.

Unlike other pieces like the arms or the thighs, I couldn't widen the feet. I could have but at the expense of practicality, and it was hard enough to move around without adding more difficulty! Fortunately, I have long feet. (paradoxically, as the heels refine the feet, I seem to have bigger feet with my dr martens than with Alphonse shoes…)

I used a pair of boots that I hadn't worn since the faux leather had peeled off, but perfect for sticking foam, since all you had to do was remove the plastic part of the fabric.

In the same way, as for the shoes of Thor, I first covered the shoe with tape, then I traced the different parts:

As the pieces overlap, I used several colors to better visualize each piece to transfer them to paper afterward.

I wasn't really sure about my pattern, so I first made a prototype of the front in floormat:

we can thus take the opportunity to admire the faux leather that is peeling…

And fortunately, I made a prototype because, in my first pattern, I had omitted a detail: the heel of the shoe was not straight but slightly biased inwards, which necessarily either deformed my heel piece to follow the bias or created a void between the heel and the part. So I made a small wedge to have straight support:

then I was able to repattern using the already good prototype parts:

How come you don't get anything with all these traits? I understand myself just fine!

And so re-prototype:

then after some minor tweaks, the final pieces:

and finally gluing on the shoe, unlike Thor, the parts are directly glued on since I don't need to keep the shoes:

ta-dah! It's ... to start all over again.

In fact, I made both shoes, and they looked good, that's not the problem (for once), but during the many fittings I did (for the shins and to see the overall result). I realized two things:

- First, the boots were laced, which was not very practical to close since the shin piece had to be put on before. But still, that was a hassle but manageable, it's not as if I was going to put on and take off my shoes several times on the day of the con. But above all:

- My feet hurt! Despite the insoles that I always put on, just by wearing them for twenty minutes for the fittings my feet hurt. Not a lot but a little. So, a little in 20 minutes means a lot after an hour of convention, especially with the comfort of the rest of the gear…

So I chose new base shoes, more comfortable, with elastic and as long as a straight heel. Luckily, as the shape was relatively similar, I didn't have to repattern the pieces, just lengthen one a few centimeters:

Bonus, these shoes made my feet a little bigger than the previous ones.

And I'm very happy to have redone them again, my feet didn't hurt at all during the convention. Cosplay shoes are not the kind of thing you can ignore, if your feet hurt, your convention is ruined. You won't want to walk around or pose for a long time for pictures, just sit down or take them off.

• The shins:

In the photos of the shins, it is the first version of the shoes, but that does not change anything.

The shins have a construction quite similar to the forearms, with a basic structure, a plate on the back, and a front plate that forms a ridge. The only difference is that instead of spikes, there is a plate that closes the top, similar to the spike on the top of the bust (layer 4 for those who follow/reread part 1 recently )

The base is in two parts, one which forms the shin itself, which is roughly drawn to my measurements, and another at the bottom, which will be used to fit the shin on the shoe to give the illusion of a single piece.

This piece is patterned on the shoe, roughly, the part in blue on the first photo in tape. Once the parts are assembled, the base is ready:

As for the forearm, a 3 mm foam plate is glued behind (I don't have a photo, but you just have to imagine a long blue rectangle), and like the collar, a lid-type plate is glued on the top of the base:

On this subject, on the armor, this plate is rather tilted forwards but despite several tests, it really did not fit well with the outer plate, so I had to resolve to make it straight.

The layout of the outer plate is a little complicated to explain, but basically, I partly used the base parts widened in places and shortened on the front, and I drew the upper part by measuring the diameter I needed (shin circumference with 3mm plate, and shin circumference with cover plate).

To give the illusion of several layers, in the same way as the bust, the outer part reveals the base in places, as if the latter were a plate of the shoe and not of the shin.

In this photo, we can see the pattern of the spikes band, the last detail of the shin. This piece is in theory on the foot, but it served me to reinforce the illusion of plates. The band is located at the junction of the outer shin and its base, but it gives the impression that the edge of the shin is at the level of the spikes.

spikes assembled, shins finished:

This also allows me to show the finished legs.

• knee pads and elbow pads:

Spikes are also a great transition for knee pads and elbow pads! Because Alphonse has spikes. Lots of spikes! If we do not count the cones on the shoulder blades or the one on his forehead, Alphonse has 18 small spikes. Three on each foot, three on each knee, and three on each elbow.

To make them regular, in the same way as Barry's teeth, I modeled one in polymer clay, which I then molded to be able to make copies in EVA foam clay. Knowing that the foam clay dries in about 24 hours and that it is difficult to unmold a piece that has not at least semi-dried without deforming it, I let you imagine the time it took to make 18 spikes (spoiler alert: Barry has spikes too…).

But first, to support these spikes, you should have a base. And I must admit that the pattern was extremely easy to make.

I happen to have tiler's knee pads that I use when I work on the floor, especially when I cut pieces in my large EVA foam sheets, Maybe I have sensitive kneecaps…

So, I just used my knee pads as a base:

And for the elbows, I just made a smaller version of the pattern:

at the top the knee pads, at the bottom the elbows.

So technically, Alphonse's pieces are shorter and more rounded, but the rectangular shape at the base wedged my pieces better with the forearms and shins, and longer pieces allowed me to hide my own joints better. Because I may be thin, but my armor is not empty…

To come back to the spikes, once their location has been marked on the pieces, I did exactly the same as for the shoulder straps, or rather I reused the spike technique for the shoulder straps. This is also how Barry's spade bracelets fit.

Because of their small size, I used half a toothpick per spike, which I glued to the inside of the spike with superglue:

then I pre-drilled the pieces in the center of the slots:

Then just stick the toothpicks into the base:

and cut the excess flush and safe with a drop of super-glue, (note that the foam part of the spike is also glued to the part with contact cement)

I did the exact same thing for the spiked band on the shoes:

Placement, spikes, toothpick.

The legs are complete:

And I ended up finding the self-timer function of my phone…

With that, the armor crafting part is done!

• Miscellaneous alterations:

But don't go thinking that everything fits perfectly during the fitting, it's something that is rarely specified when I watch or read making-of. When you work on a lot of pieces to form an ensemble, you can't always try everything, even if I did many fittings of the arms, legs, or the bust separately, once the whole armor was put on, there had lots of little adjustments to make. That's also why I only started painting after the armor was completely finished (who said "procrastination"? Everyone knows I love painting! *sarcasm* )

Stupid thing: but while trying the whole thing I realized that my leg pieces were going up too high, which was pushing the bust up, except that suddenly it was also pushing up the collar, which in turn was blocking the helmet, which was completely stuck between the edges of the collar. But if I lowered my legs, well, you could no longer see the knee pads…

It was, therefore, necessary to reduce the top of the legs by one centimeter, then slightly planed the bottom of the bust:

I also very slightly reduced the length and height of the collar:

I'm not going to detail all the alterations, but I also had to modify the cut of the crotch, to walk more easily, that sort of thing.

All that to say that not everything is perfect the first time!

4. Sewing

I mention it quickly because it's really not thrilling, but for Alphonse's armor, TheMom sewed a small lilac gray linen loincloth, which is simply composed of two rectangles mounted on a belt. To prevent it from lifting or creasing oddly, the hem is lightly weighted with curtain weights.

Little fun fact, there is a ring on each side at the hips, these are plastic rings recovered from a bathing suit thrown away years ago, which had been lying around in the pocket since of my dressing gown. After each wash, I mechanically put the contents (two rings, 3 screws, a piece of ribbon, a cutter, etc.) in the pockets back in their place…

Note that I took care not to talk about painting in these three making-of parts. Unfortunately, I had to do it at some point. But since these crafting posts are long enough as it is and as much for Barry as for Alphonse, there is not much to say about the paint, I will make a single post on the painting for both as well as on the finishes (especially the eyes of the helmets).