Thoughts: This seemed like the costume that would never end! It's still not 100% complete actually! We still have some details and fix-ups to do for the next wear!

This is probably the most time consuming and challenging costume I have ever worked on. It was a close collaboration between my husband Josh aka (Neon Genocide) and I.

Construction notes:  This is going to be a long one! *phew!* Literally months of work went into this thing. But we're pretty happy with how it came out thankfully!

Undershirt: The base shirt has the black and white stripped sleeves. I sewed strips of black and white together, and then pleated the black pieces.

Hood and Jerkin: The hood and Jerkin are made from a nice soft black knit. The hood has a ton of different pattern pieces that I had to draft on my own. I did satin stitching on each side of the seams in dark gray thread to highlight details. I hand made the gold and black trims by painting ribbon the correct gold color, combing two together to get the correct width, and then adding the black ribbon on top of that. The gold trim around the bottom and front edges was hand sewn on. (and it was annoying as heck!)

Under coats: All of the coats are fully functional, button up coats. This basically made it seem like I was making three different costumes in one. 0_o

The first longest black layer is black twill lined with crepe satin. The silver is heat N' bonded on the bottom, and the griffons were hand painted. It's pretty and symmetrical in the back where it comes to a point, which I was super happy with!

Second layer is the red coat with the funky gold trim. The impossible to find gold trim! I ended up hand cutting it out and Heat n' bonding two pieces of gold together and then sewing it onto the coat.

The 3rd layer is the "eagle wing" coat. I pleated each feather all the way up to the top of the coat. Silver bottoms were attached with Heat N' Bond. I put a subtle black gradient at the bottoms, and cut the little nitches that real feathers have.

Boot spats: I made these from a thick dark brown leather. Neon Genocide made all of the straps with buckles and riveted them onto them. We are still missing the upper cuff to the boots, which will be added soon!

Belt: The red fabric of the belt was made from dupioni silk, pleated on top of interfacting for stability. It has a small opening on the bottom where a plastic backing is slid into. The belt insignia bolts onto that plastic piece. I hand sculpted the insignia with Super Sculpey baking clay. Neon Genocide made a mold and cast it in resin afterwards. I painted and detailed it. All of the brown belts were put together and hand dyed by Neon Genocide. Pouches were sewng by me; they are also real leather. They were dyed a dark brown color by Neon Genocide.

Gauntlets/bracers: I made the silver plated griffon bracer from Worbla, sanded it, and painted it. The silver details on top of the leather gauntlet were also sculpted by me and then cast by Neon Genocide. He attached them with bolds to the leather. Hidden blades were purchased, but he is planning on making his own for the next time he wears it!

Armor: The shoulder pauldron was crafted from thick leather by Neon Genocide. He tooled all of the details into it, and stitched up all the lines by hand. He also custom dyed it. The silver clips were sculpted by me, and then cast in resin by Neon Genocide. I painted them. The cape ties under the pauldron through gromet holes.

Chest and back armor were made from polystyrene sheeting and rubber tubing. They were made and painted by Neon Genocide. They bolt into the fabric through 40 small button holes I made in the jerkin, and are completely removeable from the costume.


Accessories: Sword was made from wood and Creative Paper clay by Neon Genocide. He bought a real metal dagger and throwing knife...and then made molds and casted them in resin. He painted them on his own.