Devil Mercy - Overwatch WIP

[SabraHummus]

Hey, guys! I'm new here. An old member referred me to ask for some guidance from you all because you're really helpful.

I'm a new cosplayer, I usually just buy most of my props, but I decided to do it right with this costume because I love the character so much.

Many of you know the game Overwatch has a character in the support class called Mercy. She has a skin that I have set out to recreate, wings and all, and I was looking to post my project to get some advice and help out anyone that might be doing something similar.

Devil Mercy

Reference Pics

This is the bodice. It's a bit rough, I know, but it was literally the first time I had every used the sewing machine, so gimme a little bit of leeway.

On the left is the harness that I'll be using to pin the wings against my body, and the right tube is my tail. It is a thin belt with thick wiring wrapped around it, so it is basically a large pipe cleaner. I want to bend it the way she has it, so it has worked well so far. I glued strips of fabric to make a scaled look, and I'll be pasting on the black scales to achieve her tail look.

Finally, my pride and joy:

(feat: Cody) the wings. Made out of 3/4" brass tubing, the wings are pinned in one spot so that I am able to articulate them when the costume is completed. Today I'll be cutting out the armor that is to make up the wings, and fixing the harness to fit through the bodice. Jedihomer, my dad, helped me with the wings.

So I have some questions.

What should I use to make the "feathered" part of the wings? (plexiglass, etc.) It has to be light-ish to not break the brass off of the post.

How is the best way to attach the tail to my body?

How would I go about articulating the wings? I built them with this image in my mind

Thank you for the help in advance! Hopefully this will be a piece of cake, in the words of Mercy. c:

 

[JediHomer]

looking great SH! i'm quite sure someone here will chime in with some ideas, but, if i may... the search feature is great here, you can search the entire forum, or just the costume's forum

there's already a few good posts concerning wings/fabric etc.... one of those makers can be contacted directly if they don't see your post and comment here.

subscribed ofcourse, i'll be watching with great interest!

 

[nathancarter]

If you've already built the tail without consideration on how to mount it, this might not be of much help to you. Or, you might be able to use this to modify your existing design for a sturdy mount.

I've lately gotten to be a big fan of Dritz heavy-duty snaps (#5 3/8" snaps, applied with the snap setting pliers). We're using those as a primary mounting hardware for my wife's Nightcrawler tail, as well as lots of other costuming projects lately. Snaps are great.

I can't take full credit for the tail design. Much of the inspiration comes from here: http://rarsuit.livejournal.com/44876.html
However, different from that design, we needed a slimline harness/belt that goes under her form-fitting Nightcrawler spandex, and we needed the tail to be removable from said harness.

The belt is non-stretchy nylon webbing, and the harness base is a piece of flexible cutting board (thin, sturdy, flexible plastic).

The core of the tail is Sintra sandwiched over flexible denim. I designed a mounting point and harness to be a combination of snaps and a sintra hook-shape to support the weight and torque.

The male/plug side of the snaps are screwed and glued into the Sintra; the female/socket side of the snaps are crimped (with the snap pliers) through the plastic cutting board, with the convex side against the wearer's body.

The nylon belt is outside of the plastic cutting board, to keep the edges of the plastic from curling up and making a weird shape poking out of the spandex.

I wanted to make the hook out of a single Sintra piece for maybe a little extra strength. I did a couple revisions out of cardboard before transferring it to the Sintra.

Hook shape, folded in half but not folded back out to the "butterfly" shape:

Formed to the final shape, inserted through a slot in the harness base, and the tail snaps on over the hook.


NOT SHOWN: I added two more outer layers of thicker Sintra so that the hook is completely enclosed, and the first segment won't swing side to side and un-snap the snaps. Also, the third/bottom snap is not yet screwed into place.

This hook-and-snaps design is actually sturdier than I expected. One or two snaps should be plenty for your small tail. We could probably get away with just the snaps and no hook, or the hook with just one snap. However, walking around a convention it WILL get banged and bumped and tugged on, so make it sturdier than you think you need.

edit: Hey, the video works now.
Click through for a video of the spandex & tail test-run, sorry 'bout the photobucket interface.

 

[SabraHummus]

Thank you to both of you.

Thanks for the great pics and walk through for the tail, it gave me a better visual on how I could do the tail. I'll probably modify the tail a bit and it won't be nearly as pretty, but I'll give it the old college try and keep this updated with pics as I go.

I've glued the horns together and I'm preparing to spray paint them black, and I've covered the wing frame in a foam noodle to give more shape.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

[JediHomer]

dat's the stuff! let's see the next phase when you're done!

 

[SabraHummus]

I come bearing progress!

These are my shoes, and they are completed for the most part. I may tweak the hooves, but they're painted and finished. The color is as accurate as I could make it with the exception of the back, because painting around the heel horn is nigh impossible. I think they look pretty good!

The horns are almost done, I just have to create an ombré effect on the orange color to make it more accurate and then paint black over the orange splotches. I had an incident involving my dog jumping into the paint and getting it everywhere, so that was a fun time.

And finally the wings. I gave up on making the bone part game accurate because I lack an exacto knife and patience, so I ended up just layering them like scales. I'll probably do another coat of grey before I'm done. The harness was attached to an old backpack back because I can secure it vertically and horizontally at the same time if I tie the ends at my stomach. The brass piping began to crimp and snap, so I took wiring and wrapped it around and glued it at the problem areas. I ordered tule and I'll be attaching that to the wings as soon as it arrives to create the effect they have.

Any ideas for the staff? How can I get the head to rotate as it does in game?

Also, articulating the wings, how should I do that? I was thinking fishing line to the joints and just holding it at cons. Thanks for viewing!

 

[JediHomer]

looks great!

fishing line is good idea, nearly invisible under normal light, won't see it under dim conditions. if the brass pipe is begining to weaken, that doesn't bode well. might be able to do something with acrylic rods, just drill pivot holes similar to the brass pipes?

i'll ping you about the exacto knife, i have 2

love the can of resolve in the background... you might want to do that painting work off the rug

 

[justanuthercap]

Just noticed this thread. Very nice work so far and I'm very impressed by the movement you are getting out of that tail! If you stopped right where you were in the video you'd have one heck of a nice nightcrawler costume!

 

[JediHomer]

Just noticed this thread. Very nice work so far and I'm very impressed by the movement you are getting out of that tail! If you stopped right where you were in the video you'd have one heck of a nice nightcrawler costume!

that tail video is from @nathancarter ... they did NightCrawler (nice job on it too!), the tail movement is perfect, however, the OP is posting for a cosplay for Devil Mercy in the Overwatch game. Not sure if she wants the sway @nathancarter achieved with the tail, she's not commented.

 

[justanuthercap]

Well, now I see that.... crap, that will teach me to read things a little closer!

 

[JediHomer]

Well, now I see that.... crap, that will teach me to read things a little closer!

meh, it's happened to us all one time or another, no harm no foul

 

[SabraHummus]

Bodice main part completed. I just did the patches for the arms, and they're drying.

Painted the horns and they're completed. Second piece to be done as of today.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

[JediHomer]

fixed a couple of pics for you that needed it





looking GREAT!