Bringing "Typhus, Herald of Nurgle" to life.
Hey guys! It looks like it has been a few months since my last blog post on my website. I do apologize and thank you for continuing to like and follow my work. It means so much!
It is hard to believe I had created a full suit of cataphractii terminator armor in about two weeks. I still call myself an idiot for trying such an endeavor, but I had already decided I would put my mind to it. You remember that topic I continuously talk about involving the budget of ones time? and spreading your workload over a prolonged period of time? Well I threw that out the window. For this build anyway.
It all started last year after my trip to banzaicon with my game together team. It was there that actually solidified my idea of bringing Typhus to life.
"but raf, thats an anime convention. what does that have to do with Warhammer 40,000?"
It doesn't. That is the beauty in cosplay. You can be whoever, whatever, and whenever you want. (but thats a whole different blog haha)
"then how did you come up with the idea of bringing him to life?"
Simple really, I paid a little visit to a local game store! Its a bit of a new tradition I have developed where I will go out of my way to visit a random local game store (if there is one, and I'm not talking about videogames) and just chat, hang out, check out the local meta, etc. I mean may as well, how often will you be in a different city taking part in a major event right? Might as well go exploring!
Anyway, the game store I had checked out in particular was about 10 minutes from the event I was partaking in and it was called "Firefly Games". I had a few friends with me and we checked out the place pretty thoroughly, but what really caught my eye was the Warhammer 40,000 products.
And then I saw it. Sitting on the shelf next to a baneblade....
I knew it had to have been a sign.
I am an avid Warhammer 40,000 fan (if you have figured that out already) and I have always been a tyranid player at heart, but if I did choose another faction it would have to be death gaurd. Again, I must correct myself from segwaying to hard!
Anyway, I had been steadily reading up on the death gaurd faction's lore in the previous months leading up to my trip to banzaicon, and the more I read the more I liked the look and feel of nurgles favored mortals. I dared to dream of creating my own suit of costume armor modeled after a character of nurgle and in fact that was one of the big intimidation points and why I kept second guessing it for so long: It was a big friggin costume!
I had done a fair amount of research into the type of character that typhus is. Being born an outcast with powers he couldn't control, fear of being disowned by his future kin in the death gaurd ranks (Pre-heresy for all you 40k fans) and eventually being swayed to the side of chaos. Which ultimately wasn't as difficult as you would think.
As far as the design for the costume went I wanted to maintain as much simplicity as possible, so I used the updated model I had found on my trip to banzaicon as a point of reference. It looked simple enough to follow and I began with rough sketchs that eventually led to a full blown blueprint of how I would go about putting this thing together.
"but raf, its not to scale. You know typhus is wayyyy taller than you in lore."
True, but after my last experience with stilts I thought it couldn't hurt to play it safe and make the costume suited to me.
I had seen many videos on people building their own space marine armor using various types of stilts and support structures, but I didn't really want to lug all that around with me at a con. Mostly because I just did not have the time to throw them together and make the costume and maintain some form of sanity.
I officially started on this costume back in december, but at that point I only had the gloves made. January 14th was the official start date for the armor itself. After many tears, and many beads of sweat, I managed to crank this costume out in 16 days between my day job, and minimal sleep. I tell myself never again, and I am right back at it a week later. Its how I function.
Now I will go ahead and state that I had some assistance with painting. A friend of mine from out of town needed work, so I helped him out and he basically tackled one side while I got the other following the color scheme I had layed out. It was a huge time save and I am thankful for that.
All in all, I can say I learned a lot in the making of this costume. I was kind of sad it was over as quick as it was. I had brought another character to life, that I had no idea I could do. As fast as I did. I was inspired and motivated by those around me and I kept moving forward. And thats what I am here to tell you. Keep moving forward. Even if your afraid. Even if your unsure. Just do it. Maintain focus, and don't quit. It's okay to ask for help along the way on a project. Just always be moving. The rest will work itself out.
until next time my friends,
-Raf
P.s. Thanks for the talk Tom.
