Guess who’s finally getting around to posting the photos from my Shadowheart outdoors cosplay photoshoot!
Well, not mine, there’s plenly of other people too, but I’ll post the other photos slowly as I’m also trying to fill out my bluesky profile. And I can’t as of yet make more than one pic per post look good. I’m bad with social media -__-
Model, costume and flowers prop - me Photos and retouching - x.com/eXze_cos
I’ve this awful habit to create a thing and be happy with it and never share the result. Let’s see if I can reverse the trend! Here’s my improved moon lantern from BG3. The handle, spikes and key are from another creator, but I remade the rest to match the original design. I finally got myself an FDM printer, so this was the project to teach me both blender and fdm printing and post-processing. I’m pretty happy with it!
Finally a silly little dream of mine came true, and here we are, in a forest, doing a bg3 photoshoot! Just in time before the end of the summer! Not present here, but present elsewhere: three tents with their props and a very fluffy Scatch, alongside with many more pics, to come later!
Some Shadowheart spring photos by exze photography I don’t think I shared on tumblr before. With a new Spear of Night of my own too!
I’m making a lot of Shadowheart decorations right now I want to share, but I figured I should start with the essentials, like the Spear of Night I made by hand from 5mm EVA, 2.5mm sheet of plastec for rigidity, and a wooden shovel handle (plus some half-beads and star-shaped sequins for the handle decoration). The handle is removable, and I’m using a metal rod that slides into the pipe placed into a hole drilled along the handle. Alas, etching a thread into the pipe didn’t work, so the two parts aren’t really attached and can be separated a bit too easily. Still, it holds on frictions alone, as long as you don’t apply any force (don’t try to pull them apart).
Having the game textures and 3d model helped a little. Here’s the 3d model, the relative sizes and the texture.
Here’s the patterns I created/printed.
And some work in progress pics.
Next I used a 60mm glass cabochon from aliexpress as a base for a silicone mold, then cast two resin stones using black tint and just a bit of glitter. I’ve written about resin a little back in my tadpole in a jar tutorial.
I primed the spear with rubber spray paint, then painted it by hand.
Let me know if you want any clarifications on any part of the process, I’d be happy to elaborate!
Some Shadowheart spring photos by exze photography I don’t think I shared on tumblr before. With a new Spear of Night of my own too!
All of my crunch crafting paid off: the world now has a proper Abdirak cosplay, and I couldn’t be happier! Everything fits, no wardrobe malfunctions! =^__^=
Cosplayer - Avtor Photo - eXze Costume & decorations are a team effort done by the wonderful BG3 fan stand that I’m a part of as Shadowheart!
Actually, I’m posting this to instantly add another thing: I’m crafting him his iconic weapons. Borrowing mine is not allowed.
They are way fancier too!
All of my crunch crafting paid off: the world now has a proper Abdirak cosplay, and I couldn’t be happier! Everything fits, no wardrobe malfunctions! =^__^=
Cosplayer - Avtor Photo - eXze Costume & decorations are a team effort done by the wonderful BG3 fan stand that I’m a part of as Shadowheart!
Hell yeah, I’ve been dreaming of this ever since I started working on the costume!
The photo and the post processing are by eXze, many thanks!
As promised, I’ll start uploading tutorialsfor my Shadowheart cosplay. I’ll start small: a few words on the tadpoles. What you need (no link since you’ll probably have different brands available) :
a 3d printed tadpole; I printed it myself, took Dark Nyarl’s model, but there will probably be other models soon if there aren’t already;
everything you need to paint a 3d miniature (primer, purple and gray paints; optionally, some vanish);
a round glass jar with a cork stopper. Those key words gave me nothing in my region, but it got easier once I figured out that the required volume is around 120 ml;
2 component resin. Important: it needs to allow for thick layers; measure the height of your jar - the resin should be poured in in one layer;
greenish resin color pigment. Important: it needs to say that the pigment is translucent. Semi-translucent will not do.
Here are some details:
I modified the 3d model’s size. The tadpole on the left was 5 cm high and turned out to be too small, so I printed several more 6 cm big. If you can print something at home, I don’t need to explain to you how to print and paint it, but if you’re asking someone else to print one for you, remember that a miniature needs to be primed before you paint it (there are liquid primers you brush on, and there are spray cans). Here are the colors I used:
You don’t NEED varnish after, but the paint will crumple somewhat in the resin later on. It’s not really noticeable with a naked eye, but keep that in mind anyway.
Glue your tadpole to the jar from the inside if you want it to stay in a specific position. Be warned that it’ll look very chonky once there’s resin around it. Follow the instructions for the resin: mix the components as suggested (use a kitchen scale if you have one), add your color pigment and mix it in. It took me 10 drops to get the color you see above.
I tried pouring in several 2cm layers of the most standard reson, and it didn’t work out for me, I could see the layers. A pro might know how to avoid it, but a newbie should try to find the kind of resin that can be poured in a 5cm layer of thicker. Here’s the old version:
If you want to avoid having bubbles in your resin, research bubble-removing methods in advance if there are no tips in the instruction that comes with the reson you found. Let the resin solidify as per the instruction!
For once, a costume I made a photoshoot of instead of being satisfied with simply having finished it! (Sorry, Lohse! Jester has some pictures in the works too, but they will have to wait.)
More is on the way, and I’ll sit myself down to make posts with some in-progress/tutorials too.
Photos by Belka While I’m planning to craft my own, the spear is borrowed from Hehidna
For those interested, I have a BG3-centric sideblog, though I gotta warn you that I don’t post much, and will be reposting the BG3-related posts over there.
I’ll finally be making an effort to have a proper photoshoot of a previous costume before I move on to the next one! I never did one with Lohse, and come August, BG3 and Shadowheart will have all of my attention, so I really need to give my Jester (photos by foks_pictures) some love before that!
The August release is so exciting! It probably means that I won’t finish my cosplay in time for the release, but I probably don’t want to rush it!
Man, that Halsin romance snippet from the last Panel from Hell was a lot
