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Building Bitzer

A 20-post collection

Almost there!

The dress arrived, yesterday! And it looks GORGEOUS!

If I ever order another one [my size has gone down since January, when I ordered this one] I will be sure to include my arm girth because these sleeves are more than a little snug when I bend my arms.

[Shown here: some blur of the dress just after it arrived]

You might not be able to see, but it has POCKETS! They're covered by the corset when I'm in costume, but who the fuck cares! POCKETS! In a DRESS!

[Shown here: Bathroom photo of me with the dress on]

I plan on having a popped collar because (a) it looks cool and (b) I don't have to put so much makeup on down the back of my neck. I will have to put more down the front because that top button is sheer discomfort.

If you want photos with me on the day, give me time to do the top button up because it does look better that way.

I did promise the Powers that, should my dress arrive in time, I would work as Bitzer in local cons to raise money to combat leukaemia. To that end, I shall be working with MeMum to make a better pair of bloomers [thanks to the corset and the dress, they need to be longer in the leg and shorter in the butt] because the way I wear them now, they feel like hobbles and they don't show up under the dress. Dang. AND on another prop that I sheer didn't have time or room for. Only a few people know about 'Pobbit' right now, but when I get around, they will.

I will deal for now, because there is fuck all I can do about it this close to takeoff.

Also - three petticoats is too many for the flare in this dress. Two is just right. I shall have a spare for if something disastrous happens to one of the two that I wear.

I have worked with a file and some tea on the edges of the "photo" prop to age it up and make it look like it's been knocking around a basement and repeatedly handled by a dippy robot for 100+ years. I'm rather pleased with the results.

And today, I shall be headed to the shops to get $40 worth of potential bribes for any Americans I may be hitching a ride with. I shall have $20 worth of Minties and Jaffas [Polly Waffles have been discontinued, sadly] and $20 worth of dollar coins because, apparently, Americans love them.

The lollies will travel with the cosplay and the dollars will go in my carry-on. Belt and braces.

After that, I only have to worry about the last-minute things, like toothbrushes, daily meds, and chargers. Fortune working in my favour, Bitzer will be toddling around Tucson and having the time of her mechanical life.

More lessons learned

Post makeup lesson one: I should have applied vaseline.

It's the little things that "everyone knows" that trip a body up. In this case, "everyone knows" to put vaseline on body hair before applying sticky stuff.

Not I, said the mouse.

Following the usual thing-making, I shall be posting pics of my horrible face again. Be warned.

[Shown here: reassembled clock]

Beloved drilled some holes and we re-screwed in the embellishments. The bell will be pointing towards my rear, so people will

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Tests and Finessing

Be prepared. This blog contains images that some may find disturbing.

That's right, gentle readers. I finally got my keister in gear and did a makeup test.

But first - a little about what we're doing with the clock.

[Shown here: clock bits]

First, we took off the bell and the two brass feet so we could remove those weird little bracer things. They'd just get in the way.

[Shown here: Red clock insert and belt clips]

This is the result of

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Zip ties and superglue solve lots of problems

...but not the one where I have to spend a lot of money to keep breathing.

Beloved and I restocked my medication stores, yesterday. It was quite the shopping list:

  • Ventolin nebules
  • Atrovent nebules
  • Magnesium tablets
  • Olive leaf extract tablets [I refuse to take the liquid, it is gut-wrenchingly gross]
  • Vitamin C
  • Probiotics
  • Cough syrup of the expectorant variety
  • Herbal anti-anxiety stuff

And a few items of sundry miscellany that were neither here or there. Now... how much would you expect to

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Asthma Games I Play (and other business)

I want it to be understood that a shortness of breath is something of a default state for me. Asthma creeps up on me by slow increments that are nearly invisible. I should be checking my nails for blueness, but if I do so regularly, I don't notice how much blue has crept up on me.

So I play really odd games like:

  • Is it a cough or a tickle?
  • How shallow is my breathing?
  • Do I really need my medicine or
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A cup of vegemite, a hug, and a good lie down...

Way back in the bad old days when procreation was all the justification needed to keep people from being equal... And Bex was known as an effective painkiller and not an addictive substance... the panacea of the time was "A cup of tea, a Bex, and a good lie down."

Well, I need a panacea that works because I'm now panicking about really minor things. As well as battling some asthma from Hades.

And no, dear Americans, I do not eat Australia's

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Aaaaaaahhhh...

Packing just got ten thousand percent easier. Turns out a discussion about luggage got me crosswired into thinking I could only take a carry-on-sized suitcase for all of my convention needs.

Now that I'm packing a proper-sized suitcase, all is well and I am much more relaxed about getting things together than I was, yesterday.

I'm up to the Unneccessary props, now. Things like "Maman's" photograph and the hip crank. I don't really need them for Bitzer's little routines because I've figured

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Coming together!

I have some prednisone to help combat the bad asthma I've got. I should be done with it in six days, and back to what passes for normal before then.

The inside of the mask has a few more coats to go before it's prosthetic-ready. Naked paper maché is a thirsty material.

And as for the heart...

[Shown here: heart base with the springs inserted]

The final assembly is ludicrously easy, compared to the rest of it.

I got rid of the

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Getting there S-L-O-W-L-Y

There is fun times to be happening today. But first, the costume checklist:

  • [ ] Dress
  • [X] Striped Hose
  • [X] Corset
  • [X] Shoes
  • [ ] Petticoats
  • [ ] Gloves
  • [X] Hat
  • [X] Wig
  • [ ] Makeups
  • [X] Makeup accessories
  • [X] Bloomers
  • [X] Functioning Heart
  • [X] Rose-enhanced Mask

Yes, dear readers, I finally figured out how to do Bitzer's Rosy Cheek(tm) and Beloved and I conquered the Arduino programming for the sparking lights in the heart.

Check out this test video:

We've finessed the code since this test run, but

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Progress with technology

Stand back and brace your routers, it's a PHOTOBLOG!

That's right, dear readers, I have done some things. First of which was shopping for a shoes, and some other bits and bobs that cost a lot of money. [Donate today and you can fund this author having food to eat during WWWC5!]

But first, the twiddly bits:

[Shown here: two Adafruit(tm) circuit boards, six 7-micropixel LED 'flowers' and two rechargeable battery packs]

These were ordered by post. The wires, wire strippers,

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This photo set actually covers months of dithering. I got the crackle coat on very quickly. I needed two coats of base paint because the...

This photo set actually covers months of dithering.

I got the crackle coat on very quickly. I needed two coats of base paint because the first coat dried too grey for my liking.

Then the mask sat in my craft room for months while I pondered my next step.

It was only after I found a couple more spare masks at the dollar shop that I felt confident enough to actually cut.

You need GOOD scissors if you’re going to

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Flashy things! This is a nifty little disco lamp [not so little, actually, it’s about the size of a cat] available at the dollar shops...

Flashy things!

This is a nifty little disco lamp [not so little, actually, it’s about the size of a cat] available at the dollar shops for less than $30.

It took me a while to find a screwdriver long enough to take it apart, and then even longer to find the tiny little screws at the handle.

After weeks of procrastination, I was able to get the dimmer switch off. Tweezers got under the switch cover and the pliers got

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Building Bitzer part 9 Owing to the enormous setback of a broken clicker plus the fact that N-O-B-O-D-Y is selling friction-powered machine...

Building Bitzer part 9

Owing to the enormous setback of a broken clicker plus the fact that N-O-B-O-D-Y is selling friction-powered machine guns any more… I’m working on the mask appliance and the heart once more.

I decided to test and see if lamp black would work with the crackle top coat [Thanks to Masters, the only place that had what I was looking for!]. It didn’t, by the way.

The best results were achieved with the

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Building Bitzer part 8 This interesting little gizmo is a Clicker. That’s my official name for it. dakhur tore down a rattling toy...

Building Bitzer part 8

This interesting little gizmo is a Clicker. That’s my official name for it.

dakhur tore down a rattling toy gun, and a couple of non-functioning toy cars to build this nifty little device.

It’s up to me to figure out how to make it work. And I have the gear-sense of a dead whelk. I have gears, thanks to a secret cache of asthma medication thingies [I know, so technical] and only the vaguest

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