Odin - Legenary Eidolon of Thunder

Final Fantasy XIII - Odin Cosplay
This costume was made and worn for Madman National Cosplay Championships finals 2014, Australia. 

Costume made and worn by - AmenoKitarou (A.K. Wirru)
Photo by - George Wong Photography
Helper - Thai-tanium Cosplay


Costume Thoughts:
The battle that started in April has finally came to an end. 
Odin was my dream cosplay since the end of 2012. At that point I had hoped to create Odin for Madman National Finals last year, but I was lacking in skill and time, and most importantly his character was extremely hard to write a skit for. So, Origami Cyclone was born. 

It ended up taking me a full 8 months to craft. Surprisingly, I finished with 7 days to spare before the competition. But I couldn't have done it without the physical and mental help of my best friend Tsubaki Cosplay. 

It definitely became the more difficult, the most frustrating, the most time consuming, the most experimental, and in the end my proudest achievement in cosplay. 

I am so glad I made it. 

Production Notes:

Helmet: This was a combination of leather (face portion), foam and worbla (his horns(?)), fabric (ponytail) and beading work (ornaments). It was patterned with cardboard before tranferring to final materials. This took countless re-dos until I was happy with the proportions. 

Torso: His chest piece, collar, and middle zippers are embossed leather. I started these parts first because they were the most time consuming out of everything. Once embossed, the pieces were wet formed into shape before being hand stitches together with waxed thread. 
The green portion is a thinner sort of leather. I wasn't sure what animal though... This was patterned out into many tiny panels to create his muscular definitions. Then I sewed it together. There is a foam chest embedded on the inside so I could achieve his ginormous pec tits... and I made it extra tight around the waist to achieve good proportion. 

Armour: Most the armour on this costume is done with 5mm garage mat foam covered by worbla. The giant horse arm (his left arm) is the only bit that is foam and fibreglass. This is because it was so huge and worbla is expensive, and I am cheap. 

Zantetsuken: This was the most frustrating part of the entire project. Simply because of the number of failures I encountered. 
I first made a wooden original out of MDF. Then I flooded the MDF sword in silicone, made a fibreglass jacket, demoulded the silicone, then repeated for the other side. 
Then I casted. I brushed two layers of fibreglass resin, let each layer cure, then applied fibreglass, let that cure, then demoulded. I repeated this 4 times. So I ended up with 4 halves of swords that I would join together. 
My failures included: fibreglass warping, silicone moving, wrong casting material used before deciding on fibreglass, mess made in the backyard, stabbing myself etc. 
Eventually I got two hollow fibreglass sword. I shoved a metal rod into each sword, filled the swords with exanding foam, embedded a screw on pipe joiner into the sword so they can combine into a spear, then reinforced with bolts, and an extra round of fibreglass. 
The above took 3 months. 

Shoes: Odin is a TALL character. I am a SHORT guy, with a HUGE head. Odin's helmet is HUGE. So to get the right proportions... I must made myself taller. So I made these suicidal heels. 
They are simply a wooden structure that is decorated with foam details. A wide piece of wood sits at the bottom and acts as support and balance, making it safe and very easy to walk in. The weather feels different up there though...

Painting: Odin's costume is entirely hand painted with acrylic paint. I put a lot of thought into the paint job. Each colour has at least 3 tones, plus weathering and gloss finish. 
Eg. The sequence for the gold portions went something like this: 
Black undercoat > mix gold with gold powder and dry brush on > dry brush on plain gold > water down black so colour in detail lines > dry brush silver for weathering > gloss varnish. 
Repeat similar for all colours. 

THE HORSE: bahahahahahaa the horse. The horse was necessary for the skit. So I made him in a night. I used shitty camping mat foam, put a movie on and took a pair of scissors to the bitch. The lights in his head are a bundle of battery powered christmas lights from under the bed. His paint job was done with spray paint and some dry brushing. 

Makeup: Odin, annoyingly, has a green face, and green eyes with gold details... I got some Ben Nye theatre make up for the face, applied with LiquiSet to make it last longer. For his eyes, it was impossible for me to achieve his completely green eyes, so I used a pair of black sclera lenses instead. 

That's about all I can think of to share about Odin at the moment. 
Please feel free to ask about anything on this costume by commenting below 

Enjoy!