CosBlog #37: Bayonetta By Nebulaluben

by Meagan Marie on Dec 08, 2010 at 05:20 AM

Many have tried to pull off Bayonetta’s over-the-top look, but few have succeeded to the degree of cosplayer Nebulaluben. Working over nine months on the costume, the lengthy process included fabricating a catsuit from scratch, hours upon hours of detail work, and custom molding Bayonetta’s unique guns. Combined with some stellar photography and post-processing work, Nebulaluben knocks these Bayonetta snaps out of the park.

Who: The Character

Bayonetta’s formal battle uniform, from Bayonetta.

Why: The Decision

My boyfriend and I were watching the trailers of E3 2009 when Bayonetta grabbed our attention. From the very first moment he was encouraging me to do it, but it seemed a very difficult cosplay to me compared to what I had made before and so I didn´t really think about it.

Talking to some friends of mine while watching the trailer, all of them agreed that I looked like that character because of her dark hair and her glasses (I wear similar ones). Even my family said that to me.

Afterwards, the videogame was released and I fell in love with it. I finished the game in two days and I said: "I have to make the cosplay of this woman, I do love it!"

What: The Process

The whole process – since I began making the costume till I finished the last detail – took me about nine months with some intervals.

The first thing I did was buy the imitation leather and make the catsuit with a lot of help. I had never made a garment like that one and I was lucky to have someone to teach me.

Starting with the head: the hairstylist Dydak Dc made the wig, for which I will be eternally grateful. Later on, I changed a pair of small details so that it looked more like the original one.

I bought the glasses in an accessory store (they are fake). The earrings, the eye of the world (the jewel on the breast) and the medallions are gold spray painted plastic and adorned with red gems. The butterfly adornments on the sides of the glasses are made with the same plastic painted in black and adorned with transparent color cellophane.

The straps of the arms are made from some belts and buckles I bought, and modified with dremel and painted. The cloth hanging from the sleeves was a difficult decision because I had some doubts between using wig hair or some kind of cloth. Finally I decided to use two coats of silk organza and it looked rather well.

I bought the gloves and painted them red on the palms. The adornments of the wrists are made of black craft foam with a golden fastener.

The rose on the abdomen is painted with glossy paint for cloth. You can hardly see the rose in the pics, but I preferred doing it like this than painting one that would be gaudy.

I spent about ten hours sewing the chains on the catsuit, chain by chain! I thought I was going crazy.

The shoes are a pair I had at home; they were modified with black strips and a pair of tights.

Our first try to make the guns failed and we had already made an appointment with Urbandancer for a photography session, so my boyfriend worked very hard for a week to make the sword Shuraba for me. It’s made of wood, and you can see how he made it here.

Later on, we tried to make the guns again. It took us about three months, including the purchase of materials, learning and processing. No doubt, it was a very difficult task. I made a prototype with Styrofoam and PVC, and then we made a mold of the two halves and, starting from that, we made the guns with polyester resin. I sandpapered them once and again, joined the two halves and painted and adorned them. I made it like this so that all of them were exactly the same, but this technique is very expensive and the pieces very heavy, each gun weighing 1 Kilo! Here you can see how we made them.

The total cost of the cosplay has been about 300 €, a bit high due to the blue lenses and the guns, which are the most expensive items of the cosplay. Luckily, I didn´t have to buy the wig because I could use the one of Shanoa again.

Where and When: The Debut

The first time I wore the whole cosplay was in June 2010 for the photography session with Urbandancer. We did it in a little village of Madrid called Patones de Arriba.

After finishing the guns in September José Manchado took some pics. Half of them were taken in his studio and the other half in a park in the capital of Madrid. We also recorded a video.

At the end of September, I attended the III Japan Weekend in Madrid wearing this cosplay and it was an unforgettable experience. I didn´t register for any contests, but I was lucky to meet Hiroshi Matsuyama (the president of Cyberconect 2, who was there presenting a video game), a friend of Hideki Kamiya, the creator of Bayonetta himself. He took some pics of me, uploaded them to his Twitter page and Hideki commented on the pics. It was a great honor for me and I still cannot believe it happened to me. While there I also had a mini photography session with Taichia.