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CosBlog #91: Demon Hunter By Its Raining Neon
Its Raining Neon’s Demon Hunter costume turns heads whenever she enters a room. That’s what happened when I first spotted her at Katsucon in 2012, easily a cosplay highlight of the entire show. What I didn’t know at the time is that this was her first foray into armor fabrication, making me even more impressed with the end result. Wonderful work, Neon.
Who: The Character
Diablo III: Demon Hunter class.
Why: The
Decision
I actually started playing the Diablo franchise back in 2004 with Diablo II, and fell in love. Little did I know at the time that I'd have an eight year wait from when I first played untill Diablo III, but I digress. Flash-forward to one day in collage last year when I heard it was really going to be coming out. They had started posting character classes and I immediately started poking around to see what classes I might play as. I then saw the Demon Hunter class and loved its design and practicality, but still couldn't decide if in-game if I'd like it or the barbarian class more. So I decided I'd try both when beta started, but in the mean time I thought to myself I really wanted to pay a small tribute to a game that really inspired me growing up. I wanted to try and make this Demon Hunter into a costume.
What: The
Process
Total the costume only took me about a month and a few weeks. When I first decided to do this project I had NO previous experience with making armor. So this was leaps and bounds above what I'd been working on previously. I started with a LOT of online research into different materials and methods to get the look I wanted. I wound up going with EVA matting (those little puzzle mats kids play on) and Apoxi sculpt since I was familiar with it and rather confident in my sculpting abilities. Unfortunately Apoxi sculpt is about $40 a container and I went though a lot of Apoxi. It made my costume weigh about 50 pounds, so anyone attempting this I would NOT recommend using Apoxi sculpt for all the raised surfaces. The whole project went rather smoothly especially considering this was my first shot at making armor ever. I did make a small plastic prototype to ensure it went as smoothly as possible, though, out of an old plastic display from my work. I think the hardest part of the project was fitting in the work time I needed along side full time College and work.
Where and When:
The Debut
I first debuted my Demon Hunter at Katsucon 2012. All the shoots of this costume were all around the convention hotel, which in itself provided a huge challenge for getting a fitting location.
Links: The
Cosplayer
Facebook
DeviantArt
Twitter
Instagram
Tumblr
My Website
The Gallery
Photos by Joseph Chi Lin, Anna Fischer, Stillvisions, Katsuya Weller, and Ash B.
Miss the past few CosBlogs? Check out the CosBlog Hub for a full archive of past costumes.
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