Vincent Valentine
(Advent Children)
Heyya Everyone!
This page will be walking through the various stages of how I went about creating the Vincent Valentine cosplay from the Final Fantasy: Advent Children film. This cosplay was created as a commission.
Cape:-
This is the part of his costume I was most excited for, as I adore the design of Vincent's cape!
I used the Simplicity 1040 pattern as the base shape of his cape, as it was the closest one I could find. I spent ages looking at reference pictures, trying to figure out what fabrics to use. His cape seems to be made of some sort of canvas fabric, as it has a rough texture and a dull finish, and in the end I settled on two fabrics for his cape; a medium-weight red canvas fabric, and a deep red silk dupion fabric for the lining.
I made the base for the cape up by following the instructions in the pattern, making a few small changes:-
- I only put the interfacing on the part of the collar that sits around the neck, to hold it up and give it strength. This was because I didn't want the bottom of the collar part to be rigid, as this made it look like he was stuck in some kind of stiff ski jacket! Plus the models on the front of the pattern look really uncomfortable with it stuck right up against their face!
- I didn't use velcro to attach the straps and buckles, as the ones I used were quite heavy, and they would always come undone if only attached with velcro.
Once I had the base for the cape done, I stopped following the pattern, and went about doing the rest of the work my own way.
I used some Sculpey to make the end clasps which are at the end of every leather strap on his cape. After sculpting each one, I baked it in the oven for 15 minutes at 130oC to harden. To make sure they were all even, I used some mould making putty to make a mould of the piece. Once this was set, I cast about 15 of them from the resin I had in my work room (standard polyurethane resin).
I used some thick black faux leather fabric to make the straps for the closures on the cape. I cut each one to 1/2 inch thick, machine stitched along each side to add detail, and glued one of the
Shirt:-
Vincent wears a shirt under his cape, it's pretty much just a plain long sleeve t-shirt, only made from leather. I used my favourite black stretch faux leather fabric, and the Jalie 2918 pattern.
I made the shirt up according to the pattern, then got Karl to try it on, to check the fit. It was a perfect fit everywhere except the top of his arm, as the pattern was for a jumper, and this was being worn as a t-shirt, so it didn't need to be as baggy. I took an inch off of each bicep, then stitched the sleeves onto the shirt.
I also cut another piece of faux leather, and stitched this to make a cuff around his left forearm. This was stitched to the t-shirt, to make it easier to get the costume on and off.
I used some thicker faux leather to make the straps that wrap around the cuff, and stitched one end of these to the inner seam. The other end had a small strip of velcro added onto it, with another velcro being added on the other end, to connect them. After this, I made a few small
Gauntlet:-
Vincent's gauntlet was a lot of fun to make, as I really enjoy working with worbla!
I made a template for the forearm and hand plate by wrapping Karl's wrist to elbow in cling film, with the extra folded over his hand, then layering duct tape over this. The shapes was sketched out with a sharpie, then carefully cut away from his forearm.
I transferred the forearm pieces to 2mm foam, and cut two extra pieces, one to make the cuff around the wrist, and another to be the cuff around the top.
All of these were sandwiched between two layers of standard worbla, heated up, wrapped around Karl's forearm to get the right shape, and then the cuffs were added on over the top.
I repeated this for the hand plate, by transferring the template shape to 2mm foam, sandwiching this between two worbla sheets, and heating over Karl's hand to give it the right shape.
Vincent's gauntlet also has armour pieces over the fingers; there is a piece over each of the phalanges, with a pointed claw at the end of each finger. As me and Karl have the same size hands, I made each piece based on my finger length.
I used 2mm foam to make the pieces, sandwiched each piece between 2 pieces of worbla, same as before, and as it cooled, I curved it over each part of my finger, to give it some shape.
Next step was to prime the hell out of all the pieces. I used my go-to primer for worbla: Gesso acrylic paint, as it's thick, easy to sand, and cheap to buy. I painted about 10 layers on each piece, making sure each one was fully dry before adding the next one.
After the final layer was dry, I sanded them all with 230 grit sandpaper. I didn't sand them all completely smooth, as Vincent's gauntlet would have scuffs and scratches from years of use - so I sanded it down so it was mostly smooth, but with the odd scuff and dent,