#steveclarktrafficwarlock — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #steveclarktrafficwarlock, aggregated by home.social.
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#Halloween trick or treating was a success!
Zoe wore her Hornet costume for the third year running, and I chaperoned as a mostly-complete Steve Clark, Traffic Warlock (I haven't made the backpack yet).
#SteveClarkTrafficWarlock #TaxticalBreachWizards #HollowKnight #Cosplay
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Since last time:
I added the visor. It's a cheap baseball cap worn under the hood with the correct fabric glued onto the brim. Not my best work but it'll do. Maybe one day I'll replace it with a custom-made cap.
For extra spookiness, I bought a cheap face shield to wear under the snood that covers my face. This hides my big 'ole nose (and other features) and gives a more mysterious look. Additionally, it gives me space to put the 'eye' lights later.
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Now we're getting somewhere!
This is the finished hood, minus the cap which I'm currently working on.
Obviously I'm wearing a mask (actually a snood unrolled over my face in this case) but I also added a black lining and I'm glad I spent the extra time doing so. Previously you could see the outline of my head against the inside of the hood, now it's just this void. Excellent 😈
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Back on the horse today. Making the hood. I sewed it together once before realizing that I should have attached the interfacing *first*.
I needed 'craft' interfacing for this as I want the collar and brim on the hood to really keep their shape.
This is after unpicking the seams (seam rippers are amazing btw) and pressing the interfacing on with the iron. You can't really see the interfacing here but it's under there, I promise.
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Didn't get as far as I'd hoped with sewing at the weekend due to pesky Real Life bits and bobs getting in the way.
I did manage to wash (easy) and iron (hard!) my fabric though. So I'm calling this a win
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It is finished! #SteveClarkTrafficWarlock shall have his staff! Over the weekend I'm going to start sewing his robe so stay tuned for that.
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Wanna see a neat trick?
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Time for glue! The plan here is pretty simple. I'm using wood glue to attach the sleeve sections onto the dowel. The key is using the right amount. Too little and it won't hold, too much and the squeeze-out will be a pain to remove from the little indents. That said it does dry clear so a little bit won't be noticeable.
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Some progress shots on the lights. Over the weekend I printed the remaining ones, stuck the LED strips into each one, and used my deburring tool to knock off the edges. The ones adjacent to the bed when printing had bulged a bit which made the fit into the side panels tighter than I wanted. After deburring they were much easier to slide into place.
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Extremely happy with this 😊
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Had a crack at getting the lights to pulse tonight. The duration of the loop and easing of the duty cycle need work but the principle is sound!
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I also picked up some off-brand lever nuts to help with the wiring. They're more expensive than regular wire nuts but since I want to be able to dis-and-reassemble this later the ease of use is worth it.
I'm currently printing the last few pieces, namely the light inserts and spikes. I'll make sure to take some pictures of the wiring before I close everything up.
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The staff doesn't need much in the way of smarts but the lights do need to pulse. For this purpose I've snagged an Adafruit Prop-Maker Feather. The proof will be in the pudding but the specs look fantastic on this thing. I'm looking forward to getting some code on it and putting it to work. It has "tap detection" so maybe I can have something happen when I strike the ground with the base 🤔 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5768
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A printing/assembly milestone: The outer shell of the staff is complete!
I knew it was going to be big, but... This thing is big! Fully assembled it stands bang on 7 feet tall. It's going to be fairly top-heavy too. The centre of mass is already at the top of the handle and I've still got to add all the stuff into the light.
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We're quickly catching up with my current progress.
I redesigned the light inserts to include a threaded post onto which the spike screws. Clockspring3D has an excellent tutorial video for making 3D-printed threads: https://youtu.be/tr2YuelgF-8
At this point my construction speed is being governed by how fast my printer can make the parts. Each light section is 5 hours and each light insert is an hour. Lots of printing!
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Let's talk a little bit more about the lighting.
There are 12 separate lights on the staff. I considered several options to make these work, including:
- One central cluster of LEDs (no room for other things)
- Neopixel rings (expensive!)
- EL wire (narrow)I went with edge lighting with LED strips, specifically the newer COB strips to make diffusing the light easier. I printed my own diffusers in red so that they look good even when the lights are off.
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Now back to the staff!
Since getting a 3d printer 4 years ago I've slowly been learning the ins and outs of parametric CAD software.
This project is easily the biggest thing I've designed. I feel that I've finally gotten over the hump where I'm constantly looking up how various features work and now the software is working for me rather than the other way around.
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A couple of shout-outs: The first to my wife, who is an avid quilter. She taught me how to use and then let me loose with her sewing machine, helped me with pattern making, and even let me use The Fabric Scissors!
Second, this is the playlist I used to get my head around sewing a tunic. After the first two videos I felt that I had actually learned something rather than just being able to blindly copy a pattern. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl7yvdDBVO_ByTpqkb6b8WIyIzAPBzcZh
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Now, I've never sewn a garment before. I had some cheap black cotton, so I started with that.
After making and not really understanding how to modify a robe pattern from Etsy, I went down a rabbit hole learning about medieval tunics on YouTube. I came out satisfied that I could make something to fit my needs and put this together. The hood is from a different pattern I bought.
(Check the alt-text for more details on the construction)
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Switching gears, here are the materials for the robe. "Safety Yellow" twill, matching thread, and a couple of metres of retro-reflective stripe fabric.
The colour confuses my phone camera and doesn't photograph well, but I assure you it's *extremely* bright.
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I wasn't happy with the seam between the printed parts that make up the handle of the staff, so I tweaked the design to hide the join between the diamond sections. This worked way better than I expected and I'm very pleased with the result!
#SteveClarkTrafficWarlock #TacticalBreachWizards #Cosplay #3dPrinting
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I've been working on a costume for the last month that I'm ready to start sharing, so strap in!
This is Steve Clark, Traffic Warlock. He's one of the recurring characters from #TacticalBreachWizards. I'm currently working on his staff and robe.
First up: The staff started with a 6-foot long, 1 inch diameter wooden dowel that runs all the way up the middle. The outside is 3d-printed with a light friction fit. They'll be glued on later.
