Cosplay Interview with Caitlin from Contagious Costuming
Just a couple of weeks ago we spotted a creative cosplay from the comic Saga. The character Prince Robot IV appeared at HeroesCon in North Carolina, and his television head functioned and went through different images on an LCD display. We caught up with Caitlin of Contagious Costuming to talk about cosplay and the Prince Robot IV build.
Adafruit: How long have you been cosplaying, and what was the first costume you made?
Caitlin: I’ve been cosplaying since 2012. It started with a cape for Free Comic Book Day which quickly turned into a full Power Girl costume when we were convinced to go to DragonCon. Things escalated quickly soon after that.
Adafruit: Which of your costumes was the most challenging to make and why?
Caitlin: Gaige the Mechromancer from Borderlands 2 has probably been my most difficult to date. It had so many pieces to put together and details to obsess over! I learned a ton making it, like pattern making from a draped design, working with Worbla, embroidery digitizing, casting resin and crafting with foam. Doing so much problem solving on that one project has made everyone since a bit easier.
Adafruit: Tell me about what materials/processes you used to make the Prince Robot IV head – especially the electronics.
Caitlin: Prince Robot IV has been my favorite build so far! We wanted to try to make this character as realistically royal as possible so I choose wools and silks for his cloth pieces and made sure everything fit well. The proportions of the head were really important, so we tried to keep everything as streamlined as possible.
The head was vacuum formed with a frame to hold everything together and the screen in place. There’s a piece of bent acrylic on the front to make the LCD look a bit more like a CRT. Everything was held together with rare earth magnets.
We kept our electronics really simple. The front screen is a digital picture frame that we gutted playing a video loop. We used a *very* basic camera/tiny monitor set up for vision. It didn’t work as well as we wanted- this will be the first thing we upgrade for V2.
[Note: The helmet was built primarily by Mike, who is in the costume, and Austin – the three of them work as a team at Is It Contagious. Prop builds are at Contagious Props.]
Adafruit: What cosplay material could you not live without?
Caitlin: I couldn’t live without hot glue! Or grosgrain ribbon. Or the raw silk from DharmaTrading.com – that stuff makes the prettiest capes.
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