Aliens Contest Entry: Xenomorph Pool Noodle
I've been a fan of the Alien franchise for years. It's been a dream to one day cosplay the Xenomorph Queen from the Aliens movie. So I did it.... just a little differently.
I wanted to build something powerful, scary, and challenged the idea of 'monster' or 'alien'. So I essentially built an armored swimsuit!
I asked Jakescribbles for help figuring out a gijinka based design that would represent the Xenomorph Queen without it explicitly being the alien itself.
The cosplay took me about 2 months to build. I worked on it non-stop!
I made EVERYTHING FROM SCRATCH (yes I sewn the swimsuit too!)
Probably inhaled a lot of foam dust... *opps... ALWAYS WEAR A MASK WHEN DREMELING FOAM*
One of the pieces I am most proud of is the tail.
It's essentially a pool noodle with over 150 individually dremeled foam spinal spikes!
The tail was the most tedious test of endurance ever.
Fun fact.... the tail floats!
LINK TO VIDEO:
https://www.facebook.com/LMcosplays/videos/1768953203191301/
The headpiece was also extremely interesting to build considering its size. By the way its a lot lighter than you expect because its 90% FOAM!
I used EVA foam as a base then stacked up layers to help form the basic shapes. Then I went back with foam clay to blend any hard edges.
The claws with the strange strappy gloves were also an interesting build.
*I did totally sew a bunch of elastic straps to a zipper and called that a glove base before building armor pieces out of thermoplastics to put on top of it*
Claws themselves are layered worbla heated together.
*Also if you look super closely you can see the very small details on the arm pieces (see the piping which is actually cable organizers) (also see the 3 bone looking pieces on my hand to represent organic material as opposed to the mechanical piping... a concept that HR Giger had in a lot of his work).
I am a sucker for small details - so of course the silver fangs had to be part of my original Xenomorph Queen look. Additionally I had to design a makeup style that would be fitting for a Xeno Queen so I choose to stick with a dark smokey look with sharp wings.
Looking back on the build process of this cosplay - I would say that this costume was just as challenging as a fully covered costume such as my Skyrim Nightingale (which shows no skin). Despite this being a swimsuit - the cosplay had its own unique challenges and learning experiences. The tail was an endurance run in how long it took to create. The headpiece was a balancing act of weight distribution as during the entire build I had to make sure it stayed as light as possible despite its large figure. I had to figure out the best way to make the costume safe to wear in a pool.
Wearing the costume itself took a lot of energy and confidence in my own body.
Although in the end this has been my dream cosplay...
Putting on this cosplay gives me a sense of power and accomplishment. I really do feel like the Xenomorph Queen when I have it on.
More of my work can be found here
https://www.facebook.com/LMcosplays
I wanted to build something powerful, scary, and challenged the idea of 'monster' or 'alien'. So I essentially built an armored swimsuit!
I asked Jakescribbles for help figuring out a gijinka based design that would represent the Xenomorph Queen without it explicitly being the alien itself.
The cosplay took me about 2 months to build. I worked on it non-stop!
I made EVERYTHING FROM SCRATCH (yes I sewn the swimsuit too!)
Probably inhaled a lot of foam dust... *opps... ALWAYS WEAR A MASK WHEN DREMELING FOAM*
One of the pieces I am most proud of is the tail.
It's essentially a pool noodle with over 150 individually dremeled foam spinal spikes!
The tail was the most tedious test of endurance ever.
Fun fact.... the tail floats!
LINK TO VIDEO:
https://www.facebook.com/LMcosplays/videos/1768953203191301/
The headpiece was also extremely interesting to build considering its size. By the way its a lot lighter than you expect because its 90% FOAM!
I used EVA foam as a base then stacked up layers to help form the basic shapes. Then I went back with foam clay to blend any hard edges.
The claws with the strange strappy gloves were also an interesting build.
*I did totally sew a bunch of elastic straps to a zipper and called that a glove base before building armor pieces out of thermoplastics to put on top of it*
Claws themselves are layered worbla heated together.
*Also if you look super closely you can see the very small details on the arm pieces (see the piping which is actually cable organizers) (also see the 3 bone looking pieces on my hand to represent organic material as opposed to the mechanical piping... a concept that HR Giger had in a lot of his work).
I am a sucker for small details - so of course the silver fangs had to be part of my original Xenomorph Queen look. Additionally I had to design a makeup style that would be fitting for a Xeno Queen so I choose to stick with a dark smokey look with sharp wings.
Looking back on the build process of this cosplay - I would say that this costume was just as challenging as a fully covered costume such as my Skyrim Nightingale (which shows no skin). Despite this being a swimsuit - the cosplay had its own unique challenges and learning experiences. The tail was an endurance run in how long it took to create. The headpiece was a balancing act of weight distribution as during the entire build I had to make sure it stayed as light as possible despite its large figure. I had to figure out the best way to make the costume safe to wear in a pool.
Wearing the costume itself took a lot of energy and confidence in my own body.
Although in the end this has been my dream cosplay...
Putting on this cosplay gives me a sense of power and accomplishment. I really do feel like the Xenomorph Queen when I have it on.
More of my work can be found here
https://www.facebook.com/LMcosplays
4
Comments
Greets
/Chris