Naka

Series: Kantai Collection

First worn: A-Kon 28, Fort Worth, TX

Awards won: Runner-up, Masters Division, A-Kon 28 Costume Contest

Photography credit: Obsidian and Blush (http://www.obsidianandblush.com)

Continuing my tradition of cosplaying things that are not commonly cosplayed or are unfairly maligned, I created a costume of Naka from Kantai Collection.  As she is the most common construction result (construction of ships in the game gives random results), she is often scrapped and up until last year, was not a common ship to use because her stats were inferior to her sisters (Jintsuu and Sendai).  After changes in the game involving submarine attacks, Naka became one of the most desired ships to use for this purpose.

For this costume, I chose Naka’s second remodel, where she literally is a cross between a ship and an idol singer.  This costume is made of cotton sateen.  The main challenge in this costume sewing-wise is the fact that her skirt has to be extremely poofy, and it has to be done without the help of a petticoat.  To accomplish this, Naka’s two skirts are actually three circle skirts attached end-to-end, and the hem of the skirt and the lining are done with horsehair braid.

The other challenge in this outfit is Naka’s riggings, which are quite substantial.  The guns, the seaplane launcher, the searchlight, and the torpedo launcher (whose model was already mostly done from Samidare’s version), were all 3D printed using PLA.  The structures used to hold all the guns to my body are made from ABS for greater strength, and then they were further coated with epoxy resin to prevent delamination.

Picture courtesy of Yatta-Tachi (http://yattatachi.com)

The boot covers were made of foam and linen laminated together.  This created something that looked grey, and yet something that I can sew and not have to carve out foam.

I’d like to give kudos to Keith Blackard and Jeffrey Tang for being my handlers that Saturday when I wore it at A-Kon.  Without them, I would have probably ended up having to apologize a lot for crashing into people.