You mentioned that you're using spray paint on the suits now? What kind? I'm a-waitin' my lycra suit anxiously, and I have a month to complete my own Midna costume before con time. Any tips on how to get this painted would be gratefully accepted, as you're the person I've based my costume construction on most. This is a fantastic cosplay, and I hope I can do it justice. I just need help. The whole notion of painting it is making me anxious. (It's black, for the record).

Aleze replied on 06-01-2011 at 01:23 AM: I used Rustolium . . . seems to stick to anything. Best method I know is to have a close friend paint it while it's on you or if you have time make a body-model like the furries do and paint it yourself. I'm not sure how you'd block it out with spray paint. I would recommend making a trip to the fabric store to get a sample of the same kind of lycra you intend to use. Then paint it with the paint you plan to use. Then abuse it: stretch and bend it and see if it sticks. Btw, don't know if I've mentioned, but I now use the head of the bodysuit as a wig cap now. This requires cutting a hole for my face and having the fabric end where my neck and chin meet (the transition is hidden there). requires a bit of sewing to make the neck of the suit narrower and usually sewing around the ears to narrow the opening.

More info:

Being loose in the waist is the case with all of the zentai suits, I think. The two suits that I've used both came too large in the same area in the back. I made them form-fitting with darts on either side of the zipper. To do this, I put the suit on inside-out and had a friend put pins in for me to form the darts. Then I machine sewed the darts. I don't know a lot about sewing, but the suit I did for my last costume kept ripping on the darts I put in whenever I bent over, so I hand sewed over the machine sewing using an "overcast stitch" (I just looked up the name online) and that held really well. You do cut out the fabric from where you make the darts for it to fit properly, btw. I cut it out after I make the darts because I'm afraid of messing up. There are lots of tutorials about darting online.

But darting like this to bring in the waist makes the suit much less comfortable. My Midna suit was the spandex with the shiny coating, so it isn't as stretchy, and once I put the darts in, there wasn't enough give to allow me to sit down. I also have a suit made with normal spandex for my dreanei costume. That's the one where my darts kept ripping. Once I did do the hand sewing on it, it was really comfortable and I could sit, bend, whatever. But, the zipper didn't go down very far on that one, so it was a real struggle to get the suit on or off over my ample rear. I had reached the absolute limit of how narrow the waist could be. Actually, my sewing wasn't real strait at first, and the zipper kept coming apart at one spot where it was too tight. I had to take that part of the dart out and redo it. The zipper on the Midna suit is stronger, so zipper strength does vary from suit to suit.

So I'm thinking of replicating this entire costume but I have a couple of questions.

Did you spray paint the white part or did you use craft paint for the entire thing? And how "frequent" were the touch-ups? How many times did you relayer or redo the paint?

Also, how long did the fused shadow and bodysuit take you, separately? I'm sixteen years old and I'm doing this for a halloween costume party, and I will be extremely disappointed in myself if I don't get this costume to look as good as yours.

These are kind of vague questions but I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to do this cheaply and efficiently.

Aleze replied on 10-10-2010 at 09:28 PM: I used craft paint, not spray paint. But I now spray paint bodysuits for costumes and it sticks better, but I don't know how you'd use spray paint for precise lines like this. I only wore the costume 3 days. I touched-up the green paint after the second day, and would do more touch-ups if I were to wear it again. The fused shadow took me a while . . . I'm not sure, but more than a few weeks. It is a sculpture, and if you've ever attempted a detailed sculpture, you know that it does take a while. Plus, the glue takes days to dry. The body suit took less time, but still more than a few hours. I did have to alter it to make it fit. I think that would have difficulty replicating the costume in a few weeks.

Oh my, i hope you still check these after so long!
Did you start with a black or white body suit? im having trouble on which to go with. I was thinking white since it would be easier to put the black over . Thanks. n_n

Aleze replied on 08-26-2010 at 08:13 PM: I started with a black bodysuit because I was afraid the white might be translucent.

Thanks for the compliments, emllru Yeah, it's a pretty old costume by now, so not too surprising that people don't comment on it anymore.

It does look rubber-like. That's because it has some shiny coating over the regular spandex. I don't know what the coating is, but here's another image of what mine looked like before I painted it: http://cgi.ebay.com/Lycra-zentai-coated-Latex-Catsuit-shiny-black-all_W0QQitemZ170337982262QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27a8ef5736&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A2%7C294%3A50

My gosh, you get some kinky stuff when you search for "zentai" on eBay.

I'm actually working on a new costume using a body suit. And the body suit I started with is plain, non-shiny spandex. I'm using spray paint and it's working great. Doesn't flake at all. But it definitely doesn't have the rubbery look of my Midna suit.

Wow, the last comment was last year. o-o;

Anyway, I don't mean to be a bother, but I just have a quick question. u_u;
I'm planning to cosplay Aqua from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World this Summer, and she also requires one of these full body suits.
I've read everything about how to paint them and whatnot, so I know what I'm gonna do there.
It's just... I'm unsure about what material the suit is, therefor unsure about which exact suit I should get.
Was it the typical spandex material, then you painted over it with the black and white paint? Or was it a specific suit with that "shiny coating" you mentioned on another photo comment?
I'm wondering because your suit looks more... Rubber like(?) and that's the exact effect I need for Aqua.

Sorry that this kinda came outta nowhere!

(Great job by the way, all your photos and the whole costume are amazing. ;3)

where did you get your sentai suit from cause i want to cosplay this next year may and i want to start early

Calico(url=http://www.cosplay.com/member/32477/) did a far more professional job in constructing her bodysuit. She dyed it. I would recommend asking her for details if you want to use this method.

So, if you wanted to spend more money on the costume, what would you use for the body instead?

I want to cosplay as Midna but you said there were problems with the paint sticking and other things.

wow, that's amazing~
i've been maning to make a Midna cosplay like this, but it's kind of hard >.<
...
scratch that, it's REALLY hard~
the spandex outfit has to be a certain material or it'll look crappy or the paint will fall off~
*cries in corner of woe*

anyhows, you look lovely in the cosplay~
great job!
lot's of details in it too!

Oh hey, I found paint for spandex online: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1829-AA.shtml?lnav=paints.html

Looks promising. Especially for the green lines. Might be too glossy for the black and white parts though.

You're welcome. ^^

Just out of curiousity... Would you maybe be willing to do another fused shadow on commission? (Feel free to say no, of course...)

Yep, It's acrylic. Thanks for the compliments

By craft paint, do you mean acrylic paint or something else?

Btw, you make the best Midna I've seen... The fused shadow you did is GORGEOUS and perfectly proportioned. ^^ The whole costume is just awesome.

Cool, that is very helpful. I'll ask a couple of my friends to help me with mine, then. (: Thank you!

Oh, yeah, you can't just paint it with it off and expect the lines to be in the right places. I initially painted all the lines while wearing the suit. I painted the front an arms myself and had one of my friends and my boyfriend paint the back and legs. I'm afraid that they weren't very good at it and I wasn't very nice to them. I had to redo several lines, taking them out with nail polish remover and redrawing them. Plus I went over all the lines to make the edges neat.

Painting the suit definitely will not yield the best results. Although if you are going to paint it I hear that furries make dummies that match their own measurements in order to work on body suits, so you could look into that.

I just have one more question about this...

How did you know where to place the markings exactly, without painting the suit while wearing it?