Day 808

Day 808...

And today was all about the Star Wars, with another day of trooping for charity.

The day started relatively early for a Sunday and after some breakfast and a kit check we loaded up the car and were on our way by about 9am. Thankfully we only had a few miles to travel to support an event called Greasley Gathering.

The organisers of the event had asked if the East Midlands Garrison, the Star Wars costuming group that we are part of, could attend the event in exchange for a donation to the charity we support, PASIC. It is a local community event that has run for a number of years and has been supported by the Garrison in years gone by but because of the pandemic had not taken place since 2019.

Although we'd been invited at short notice we were able to gather together six of us to wander around the event, join in the fun and have lots of photos taken. Although the weather forecast was not great for today and I had feared that the day could have turned into a washout. Thankfully the site where the event took place was a sports centre and a good portion of the stalls and activities had been brought inside out of the cold and the rain.

The attendance seemed to be pretty decent although it was such a shame that the massive outdoor area could not be used as I would imagine with better weather it would have been even busier. But we still managed to entertain with lots of photos and even some dancing...yes dancing! There was a great live band playing 'rock n roll' and it was just too good an opportunity to pass up for our Stormtroopers, but by the end of the afternoon I think we had all stepped up for a bit of a boogie.

But thanks to the kind generosity of the events organising committee, and of those attending we raised just over £120 for our charity PASIC; this is a charity that supports families of children with cancer and at all our troops we raise money for them as well as helping out with any events that they organise.

Stormtrooper & Governor Pryce

After a full day on our feet it was good to get home, have something to eat and to put our feet up...well we will do once this blog is written and our kits have been checked over and stored away ready for another day.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 800

Day 800...

And my first official day of 'retirement' and I was looking forward to a slow and steady start to the day but that was not to be.

Today was our first time 'trooping' with our fellow Star Wars geeks since February 2020...for obvious reasons. Although events had started happening a few months back a lot of places had been insisting on tests and masks and we simply refused to go along with anything that wasn't just normal.

We are members of two costuming groups; Joker Squad and East Midlands Garrison and so it is a matter of seeing when either are attending an event and whether that event is something that we are able to get to. Luckily for us today we were trooping with East Midlands Garrison at Em-Con held at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham which is only a few miles away for us.

So we were up and out the door by 7.50am and were outside the arena by 8.20am to meet up with our Star Wars family.

Arriving at the arena with our East Midlands Garrison family

We had about 20 members of the garrison in attendance today and our first task was to find our changing area and get kitted up for the day.

Star Wars cosplay is not a glamorous life and we often find ourselves allocated some rather interesting locations as our changing area. Today was no exception as it appeared to be an empty storage room with a few chairs and not much else. But we got on with getting kitted up which for me involved transforming into Governor Pryce from the animation series Rebels complete with a black, bob styled wig and for Simon it was Stormtrooper time.

Our day was then spent wandering around the convention, meeting the public and having lots of photos taken, some of which were with a few of the celebrities in attendance!

With 'Hunter' from the TV show Gladiators!

With actor Will Mellors

With actor Nick Frost

A long day but an enjoyable one and one in which we were able to make a lot of people smile as well as raise money for a charity called PASIC which supports families of children who have cancer.

So now it is time for a well earned feet-up in front of the telly!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 795

Day 795...

Monday...our non-working day of the 'working week', and the start of my last week at pre-school.

Around 9am I had a phone call from my deputy manager who called to let me know of a change of plans. Tonight was supposed to be my 'leaving doo'; nothing fancy just a meal out at a local Indian restuarant but due to circumstances outside of my control that was now not happening.

One of my team had been ill over the weekend and so wasn't in work and therefore could not make the meal tonight. Another colleague had pressures in her personal life that simply meant she wasn't in the right frame of mind for having a night out. So with a third of the staff unavailable (we are only a team of seven) it was decided to cancel tonight and to rearrange for a couple of weeks time when hopefully everyone will be fit and well.

We then decided to make the best of the day and take a walk out over the fields to a local cafe called The Cowshed. It's just over two miles which we managed in about 48 minutes and after a lovely coffee we headed back. A slightly different route of 2.5 miles in 52 minutes, so plenty of steps and exercise achieved this morning; almost 50 minutes of fat burning, apparently!!

Once home we were straight back out the door to stop by my dads house in the hope of seeing my brother. Glen and his family have worked hard over the last couple of weeks to clear the house of any obvious 'rubbish' and had managed to fill a skip. Today the skip was being collected and so Glen was working from there while waiting for it to be collected.

Glen was able to take me through what they have managed to do and we discussed what needs doing next. There are quite a lot of things that need new homes and I think one of my jobs over the next couple of weeks will be to catalogue what's there so we can have a better idea of what to do with it all!

Although today we did manage to bring home all my mum and dad's photo albums; there are lots to go through but my aim is to get them all digitised so that we will be able to enjoy them so much more easily. It will also mean that anyone else in the family can also have copies should they so wish.

Back home and we decided to give our Star Wars cosplay a complete try on ahead of trooping this coming weekend. Simon's stormtrooper kit fitted perfectly and it was good to have a run through to remind us of the order that it all has to go on in. I will be going as Governor Pryce from the animated TV series Rebels and thankfully I too was able to get into my imperial officer uniform although I am in desperate need of some new trousers. They have never been the most comfortable of fits (let's just say a high waist without enough length!) so I really ought to figure out a way to get a better pair.

I also took the time to go over my make-up as it is over two years since I last applied it. Thankfully I still have all the relevant colours needed and so was able to gather everything together so that I am prepared for the weekend.

And with that I will see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 47

Day 47...

And Happy Star Wars Day...May the 4th Be With You!

Sorry it had to be said and quite appropriate in this house today as most of Simon's day has been spent with the next stage of his Mandalorian helmet mold making process. He is now beginning to make the outer shell of the mold which is made from fibre glass but unfortunately he needs more fibre glass to complete the project so at the moment the outer shell is only half completed.

He's also been working on some of the detail work for the mouse droid by assembling some of the 3D printed parts.

It is five years since we got into this cosplay malarkey which all stemmed from plans for Simon's 50th birthday to go to Star Wars Celebration in July 2016. This resulted in a year spent making Mandalorian costumes for both us so that we could attend the event in style. As a result we became members of the Mandalorian Mercs and then as we attended more troops and met more like minded people we became members of Joker Squad and East Midlands Garrison.

Simon and I as Mandalorian's at Legoland Winsdor, May 2018

Over the past five years we have made lots of new friends, we have attended numerous conventions and events, we have trooped twice at Legoland Winsdor for their Star Wars Weekends, we have helped raise money for a number of charities, we have given out too many high-fives to count and made people smile. We even got to meet one of the creative forces behind the various Star Wars animation series, Dave Filoni - such a lovely guy, a fabulous experience and one that resulted in a new tattoo for me! See my post - My Disney Sleeve

Meeting Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration, July 2016

Star Wars tattoo inspired by meeting Dave Filoni

I now cosplay as one of the characters from his series Star Wars Rebels, Governor Pryce and Simon has fulfilled a life long ambition and is now a Stormtrooper.

Governor Pryce & Stormtrooper - December 2019

The Star Wars universe has opened up a whole new world to us, one where we have made new friends, helped charities and one that has become an integral part of our lives.

The rest of the day has been fairly quiet; a few odd jobs done around the house, a couple of work emails and phone calls and a little more jigsaw completed. We managed to squeeze in a quick two mile walk out this afternoon in between coats of resin and fibre glassing as well!

So all in all not a bad day...May The Force Be With You...

xx

Adventures in Cosplay

Over the last couple of years I have taken a step into the world of cosplay, more specifically the world of Star Wars cosplay!

This all came about when we were deciding what to do to celebrate Simon's 'birthday of a significant number' a few years ago. It was July/August 2015 a year before said birthday and the conversation turned to what Simon would like to do to mark the occasion and I mentioned that there was this 'Star Wars Celebration thing' in London that might be worth a look.

So we decided to book tickets for the three day event...and then a few days later came the infamous words from Simon 'well if we're going it'd be rubbish walking around in jeans and t-shirt...how about going in costume?' My response was along the lines of 'well I'm not wearing Princess Leia's brass bikini!!'

And the rest as they say is history...check out these previous posts to see what we got up to!
Star Wars Celebration
Black Thread and a Heat Gun
The Force is Strong
Looking Ahead

Since Celebration in 2016 we have joined two more costuming groups; Joker Squad and East Midlands Garrison. We have been able to troop at Legoland in Windsor in both 2017 and 2018 as part of their annual Star Wars Weekend to help raise money for a children's hospice along with lots of other conventions and events. We even turned up in costume at the pre-school I manage just before we finished for this years Summer break!

We have continued to troop as Mandalorians and Simon has been keen to keep our kits functional and upgraded. He has made special 3D printed parts to house Go-Pro cameras, updated parts as they've shown wear and tear, upgraded belt pouches and even as I type he has been upgrading the holsters for my guns!!

Simon's skill-set over the last couple of years has grown and grown; everything from 3D printing to moulding and cold casting aluminium helmets to just recently mastering leather-work. And he is loving every minute of it; he just loves the challenge of figuring something out and taking it from an idea in his head to a fully fledged and working piece of costuming. Any chance he gets to 'make something' he jumps at and nothing seems to phase him.

As we have trooped with new costuming groups whose ranks include a multitude of Star Wars characters I began to think about the possibility of taking on another costume and this time one where I didn't have to wear a helmet. As much as I love my Mandalorian costume I do miss the ability to interact with people face to face. So between Simon and I we began to muse about what to do.

The choice seemed to come down to either being a specific character or a generic officer type role. The problem with being a specific character though meant that when trooping there can only be one of that particular character, after all you can't have two Princess Leia's trooping together! And in both groups that we now belong to there are very well established members already trooping fantastically as specific characters; so if I was going to do a named character it had to be someone that wasn't already being done....so who could I do...

As it was Simon and I are both great fans of the animated series 'Star Wars Rebels' and in the series there is an Imperial Officer called Governor Arihnda Pryce.

This looked the perfect character for me to have a go at; I could be a specific character that no-one in our costuming groups was currently doing and one that would be recognised by devoted Star Wars fans.

So where to start? Now the great thing about the Star Wars world of costuming is that there are numerous groups out there offering advice and detailed information. One such place is the 501st Garrison who have a data bank of costumes containing detailed information about colours, styles, accessories in fact everything to do with a specific character. By following their data bank guidelines I knew that the costume we created would not only be correct but would 'pass' any costuming group requirements. The ethos of all costuming groups is to ensure that the costumes representing them are made to the highest quality and are as screen accurate as possible. The 501st data bank has a great set of instructions for lots of characters, Governor Pryce included, so we decided to use those as our guide.

The first thing was to source the uniform. Now neither Simon or I are seamstresses, we both dabble with material and the sewing machine but do not have the skills to construct a two-piece uniform from scratch. So off to the internet we went! We used a site called cosplaysky.co.uk who stock a multitude of movie costumes that are of a high quality but that can also be made to measure. So we found the correct Imperial Officer uniform, input my measurements and waited. A couple of weeks later and my uniform arrived, then we could start the serious business of making it resemble Governor Pryce.

First thing we tackled was the belt; we found one online and dutifully ordered it but when it arrived we realised that the buckle was not quite correct. The standard Imperial Officer belt is not the same as the one that Governor Pryce wears. In steps Simon with his 3D printing and crafting skills. He was able to produce the correct detail, attach to the buckle and then adjust the belt to match the characters.

This was how the belt looked originally

And how the belt looks after modifications

Simon was able to 3D print the centre code disk and from that he then made a cold cast aluminium version. This was then cleaned and polished and attached to the buckle which was in turn re-affixed to the belt so that a single rivet was visible to the left of the buckle.

Simon also used his 3D printing skills when it came to the 'code cylinders' that sit in the pockets of the jacket. Once the 3D model had been printed Simon was again able to cold cast in aluminium the two that I needed.

This photo shows freshly cast code cylinder and code disk

The finished code cylinders

I also needed the correct 'rank bar' to attach to my jacket. Now luckily for us we happen to know someone through our Joker Squad family who makes these. So the lovely Chris Smith was able to come up with this for me;

The next piece of the uniform required a little sewing. This was for the collar insignia; cut from some black fabric Simon was then able to create a seam around the edge using the sewing machine which gave them a 'sew-on badge' effect. I was then able to sew them onto the collar by hand (with a little help from 'wonder-web' to keep them in place).

That just left gloves, boots, hair and make-up to sort. Gloves and the wig were an easy on-line purchase.

Boots were a little more tricky as the first pair we tried were not as we hoped and had a seam running up the front which we didn't want. So back to the internet and we purchased a pair of riding boots which look so much better, although they do require a bit of wearing in!!

Wearing them around the house!!

So then it was a case of enlisting help from my good friend Jo who was able to cut the wig to match the character and then it was left to me to have a play around with the make-up!

Make-up test!

So with all this done we can now see the final results! Me as Governor Arihnda Pryce...

...right best get out there and do some trooping!