Cosplay: The Making of the Visarch
Last week we began delving into the creative process of an amazing new cosplay of the Ynnari Visarch. This week, we take a peek behind the mask and see how this armor was forged!
Last December we were introduced to a stunning crafter of details and armor work. This season, she’s back with a bigger, better, BADDER Cosplay- The Visarch himself. Arboreal Keyboard is a Cosplay Artist who makes exceptionally accurate armor constructions and weapons. You can see our interview with her HERE. Her detail work and attention to detail in the painting and shading create pieces of armor that jump off the pages of our source books and breathe new life. Let’s take a look at just how she brought this amazing project to life!
Gems
I received many questions about my spirit stones. I bought glass cabochons in large quantities from AliExpress (along with the metal settings). I just painted the backside with nail polish (I have many nail polish colors just for costume making, I have yet to put some on my actual nails…). Here are a few of my stones.
Texture and Paint
I gave the whole armor and undersuit a vein-like texture. I achieved it with dimensional fabric paint (there is a tutorial on my website).
After applying the dimensional paint, I covered the whole armor (and even the undersuit and gloves) with Flexbond (my primer of choice), and painted everything with acrylics, using a sponge.
Cape, loincloth, and fur I chose a pretty heavy fabric for the shoulder cape, it is called “Alaska” (in France, at least). It is a double-sided fabric, with a woven aspect on one side and black fleece on the other. I painted some runes on it with gold acrylic.
I damaged the bottom edge and weathered it with dirt mixed with PVA glue, and brown acrylics. I added a trim to the other edges to finish them properly.
The fur cape was made with cheap pillowcases (originally beige). I spray painted it VERY LIGHTLY with metallic black.
The whole thing looked like this:
There isn’t much to say about the loincloth; the runes were painted with acrylics as well. 
Weapons I have two, Asu-Var and a small wych knife. Asu-Var was made from fir baseboards. It is probably not the best thing to make a sword out of because of all the knots, but I had baseboards laying around, and at least it is lightweight and sturdy.
I then added some 3D printed details (the rune and the power cell). They were modeled with Fusion 360 (if anyone wants to know) and printed in PLA filament. The grip and the decoration hanging from the handle are foam. 
I primed the whole sword with wood glue, painted it with acrylics (using a sponge), and covered the grip with pleather.
The knife was made with similar methods, but with MDF board instead. 
Image Credits
SixAiles La Mascarade: https://www.facebook.com/La.Mascarade.de.SixaIles/
Elkashir-san: https://www.facebook.com/Elkashir/
Tof2Stars: https://www.facebook.com/Tof2Stars/
~Join us next week for more Cosplay! Coverage~
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