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[Sabine]

Hello everyone!

I finally decided to go through with a new Sabine build, and decided the Epilogue kit was the one for me. The good news is she has the same belt/bandolier set up as season 2, so I can use all my leather goods on both kits. Sad news is the epilogue flight has grey panels on the arms and black and grey pants, so a fabric search was in order. I found a nice ponte knit at Spandex World that came in black and charcoal. They're reasonably stretchy so I'll be able to get my head through the collar. It's also a slightly heavier fabric that my season 2, so it should hold the weight of the plates pretty well. When I actually feel like cutting the patterns out, I'm adding color blocking to 2 free patterns from Mood.



Next was a wig, since I plan to keep the season 2 hair once my salon reopens. I chose a dark purpe hermes from Epic Cosplay. It should just need a minor trim and styling to get rid of the "let me speak to your manager" cut.



Another change to the epilogue,  is unlike season 2, the boots are clean, which meant finding a a comfy low wedge my feet can tolerate. Convention floors have not been kind to my feet in my season 2 wedges, which are about an inch and a half, but somewhat narrow. I ended up with these wider and better padded ones from Duluth trading. They end at the same point on my leg as my season 2s and are more comfy.




From there I started in on color matching. My go to brands are Montana Gold and MTN 94, so in photo shop I did some matching with a paint dropper to figure out best matches. I did some with screen shots (in sunlight where possible) and some with the concept art so I could get a decent average. Ultimately, MTN 94 had the closest matches, so now I'm the proud owner of a crap ton of paint and an assortment of caps for different effects and blending.





Plate wise, so far I've got the chest, ab, collars, boots, and elbows into paint. For most pieces I pulled out my season 2 templates. I went through 3 sets of chest plates before I got a shape that seemed pretty close without being too wide or too tall for my short torso. Not being able to get the downsides of trying to convert animation to someone who is not 5'9" and a size 2 with no cleavage, I guess. Hopefully they make the cut. with the app team. I'm still tweaking my shins, knees, and shoulders. The chest plates, I filed out the light slots, and will be  filling them with a transparent yellow resin and backing with an EL panel. I began painting over the weekend. Trying to go with the final version where possible because there are definite difference in paint designs, but the show didn't have good shots of say, the shins, where I'll have to rely on the concept art.

Sizing spacing (season 2 suit pictured)



EL Panel


Differences in Concept Art and Finished show:



And current paint. I'll probably remove some of the paint chips, as the show ones don't match the concept art, now that I'm getting better quality screenshots. The Orange stripe on the chest definitely needs more red added as well.

[Rayne]

This is one of my favorite versions of Sabine even though we only see it at the end!  I love that you used a program to match paint! I’ll have to have you show it to me sometime.  That would make things a lot easier matching canon references!

I’m interested to see how the elbow plates turn out. We haven’t seen plates like that yet.

Looks great!

[ClanKryze511]

Where did you get the chest armor for this?

[Sabine]

This is one of my favorite versions of Sabine even though we only see it at the end!  I love that you used a program to match paint! I’ll have to have you show it to me sometime.  That would make things a lot easier matching canon references!

I’m interested to see how the elbow plates turn out. We haven’t seen plates like that yet.

Looks great!

The elbow plates are the same as prior seasons, so they should be pretty simple. I have them shaped and metal coated already, I just haven't looked close at their paint or weathering yet.

Where did you get the chest armor for this?

I traced a set of season 2 templates for general size, and then adjusted them from there. I cut and shaped 3 sets before I got dimensions I liked. Unfortunately because my torso is shorter and wider than the cartoon with a bigger bust, I can't get the exact angles and lengths without them being incorrectly fitted and sized for my body.

Anywho, got a little more painting done this weekend. I've been advised to use the finale screen shots  where possible, so there's been much zooming of screen shots to get as good a view as possible.  The right collar plate was fun. From the closest front shot, it appears maroon with a red line, with pretty much no weather, but from the top the outside half seems more orangy, with no stripe. For the right chest plate, the bottom portion is the dark grey in the concept art, but on the show is definitely misted with the lighter grey. Then, there are differences in weathering between close and distant shots, so I've tried to reconcile them best I can and do weathering that looks like it could be there and is in line with previous seasons (nothing is blackwashed yet though).

Collar Front, where it looks maroon and red:


Top and back, where it's more maroon and red/orange:


Right chest plate, where the bottom section is predominately lighter grey.


For the collar plate I laid a maroon base and then blended a bright red and orange over it. The chest Plate I think I may mist in a little bit more of the dark grey, particularly around the light slot as that part should be much darker.


Finally, found out I will have to make the bag. I'm think a higher thickness sintra wrapped in canvas, but nothing is final yet. I'm not great at getting structures like this to come out squared, so tips would be appreciated.

[Rayne]

The paint looks great! Nice job!

[Sabine]

Got the elbow plates finished this weekend.  These I had to extrapolate between the episode and the concept art because the lighting was terrible in the show. Ended up using a brighter orange, with three people and hints of maroon.

For the left elbow, both the show and art look to use orange striping. The art had a decent amount of chip weathering, which I decided to include, as I know from experience it's realistic. My season 2 elbows take a lot of abuse and have developed quite a few dents.



For the right, the art has purple striping, but the show all that's visible is a little touch of orange. I decided to add the purple, because the lighting on with the elbows in shot on the show is particularly awful.  It's shaded and weirdly desaturated, with even her blue shoulder appearing grey in it.




After the elbows I got to work on thr shins. I originally drafted my own pattern, but didn't like how they turned out, so instead I pulled out Eitanya's templates and modified them slightly. I made them a couple inches shorter,  and then narrowed the opening where the boot plate slots in so the openings wouldn't be overly wide once shaped, since they're supposed to pretty much touch all the way around. Once they were cut, I shaped them over my boots and have spent today filling and sanding any wrinkles in the edges.  I still have to widen the bottom to fit the boot plates, but that will take a few minutes with a dremel.


Next up is shoulders. My sintra ones im having trouble getting the right shape,  with and without darts.  My season 2 uses 90° pvc elbow joints, but they're so heavy I can only wear them a few hours at a time.  I need to find a 4 inch 90° elbow that's about half the thickness of what I have (which is about 6mm). Does anyone have suggestions?

[Rayne]

They look really good!

Could you use pvc pipe instead of elbows? I’ve seen some people do that to get 90 degree shoulders. It might be thinner material than an elbow

[Sabine]

They look really good!

Could you use pvc pipe instead of elbows? I’ve seen some people do that to get 90 degree shoulders. It might be thinner material than an elbow

A fellow Sabine in the facebook group dug around in her garage this morning and found me a sku# for a much thinner elbow than what I've used previously that she's been approved with. Turns out my local home depot doesn't carry them, so I'm going to try and find a lowes after work as she said that's where she gets them.

[Kryamla Redalur]

Commenting to follow! Looks like you’re making good progress

[Sabine]

Between the heat and humidity, it's been harder to work on stuff, but it's still coming along. Good news, is I did find the thinner elbow joints at a Lowe's, so I managed to saw one shoulder out before it got super hot.

With the humidity last week, I decided to try filling the slots in my chest plates. I picked up some color pour resin and dye from joanns since I didn't need a lot. It was easy to work with, but after I set the plates aside for it to set, the table they were on got shifted and the resin spilled over into my paint job  this meant sanding down the corner areas and repainting them. I think some strategic scuffing and black washing that I was already planning on, should help blend the before paint and after paint pretty well.





From there, I moved onto shins and boots. Sadly, there are no clear shots of them in the show, just some orange blobs. So I turned to the concept art. We have three different angles but no right side view, so had to make up some weathering there. The right boot plate is the only once with a medium grey, so I had to get a whole can of paint for about 2 square inches.  these photos are fresh so there's still a bit of latex to peel.










And the whole thing as it currently stands:

[Rayne]

The paint is turning out really nice! That’s a bummer about the resin, hopefully it turns ok ok after weathering.

[Awall]

Tight paint job keeps getting better!  I like your detail!

[Arminius]

I am loving this build! Your attention to detail is amazing.

[Sabine]

After many more stupidly humid days, I got more painting done. First up was the knees, where I again had to use the concept art since there are no clear views in the show.




From there I moved onto the shoulders, which required some spot putty and shaping to get right. The right shoulder was the easier of the two, with a simple purple and maroon gradient. I used a combination of the art and screencaps to try to get the size and placement right. I have the alliance starbird painted on, but it needs a couple touch ups so no closeups yet (I may have cut too deep when weeding the tape and forgotten the maroon ring around the yellow).




The right shoulder was an experiment in painting techniques. Ultimately I felt careful application of stripes to make a gradient looked best. There's also an issue where it photographs differently on every background and in every light I can find.





After that came adding the space whale, which I had to sketch 3 times before it fit correctly. I then hand painted with custom mixed acrylic.




As it stands, I need to touch up the alliance starbird, color the chest diamond, blackwash everything, trim my wig, and finish sewing my flightsuit. Demon Dogs tells me my bucket should ship Friday or Saturday so fingers are crossed I have it next week.

[Rayne]

Looks great! Can’t wait to see it all together!

The gradient blue on the shoulder turned out really nice.