STRUCK FIRST: Azumii as K/DA Akali!

Photo by Shashin Cosplay

Struck First gives you a first look at a cosplay just as it's been debuted/had its first photoshoot. Cosplayers have been kind enough to let me have a first crack at analyzing the cosplay by providing me with brand new pictures.

When Riot Games released the K-Pop like music video titled K/DA, cosplayers lost their dang minds. Featuring several prominent female champions from the game, it emulated catchy lyrics, dance moves and stellar animation. Azumii wanted to take a crack at Akali's look in the game which featured designs only appearing under UV light. As such, she and I are collaborating for the final post of the year in sharing bits and details that went into creating the cosplay as a whole. Breaking it down to its basics, Akali's K/DA outfit consists of a snapback, a bandanna covering her mouth, pants (booty shorts in the lewd version) and a small tank top. There's also the signature jacket where lots of the UV markings come into play in some of the final shots.

Starting off, Azumii flat out says that the jacket was her favorite part to make for this cosplay. Utilizing a hoodie pattern she made back in college, she transferred the pattern onto several different fabric types. Quick side note: I'm mostly paraphrasing some of the steps that Azumii wrote up. I'll have a link to her full post down at the end of this piece! Once the fabrics were completed and pinned up, she then cut out the dragon design she had custom printed which is shown on the back of Akali's jacket. A gold trim for the jacket was done out of metallic spandex and interfacing.

To make the completed jacket light up, Azumii went to town with glow in the dark paint as well as black light specific paints. The green detailing on the sleeves were done with the former paint. The aforementioned dragon that was printed was then covered in thin layers of the black light paint. Metal details were done with airbrushed gold paint onto some foam. For the pants, Azumii used a pattern she previously used and spandex for the material. Metallic gold was used for the pant leg inseam. One of the legs was then cut off for the half pants/half shorts style.

The tube top was done in white spandex and sewn together. When that was all finalized, it was then covered in a little black light paint. As I mentioned at the start, Akali's hat in this design was done with a simple snapback and a stencil pattern she created in Photoshop. This was for the stars seen underneath the rim. The KDA was cut and transferred onto Worbla before being hit with gold paint.

The wig has some crazy spikes extending out the back and Azumii mentions she had a very difficult time with creating it. Using aluminum foil as the base she was able to successfully recreate it and HOLY SMOKES IS IT RAD! The shade of red is just absolutely gorgeous. Various accessories were also added in like the gold triangle earrings, a choker and belt pouch. The shoes were done with strips of foam being placed on a base pair from Amazon. Then pained wait and glued on to form the detail lines. In her write up, Azumii just places black light paint on EVERYTHING! For her weapons, Azumii made a small dagger and a mini scythe which I'll leave you guys to read about at the end!

All the photos do a fantastic job showing off the paint used to create those glow in the dark effects. Azumii also lent me a few lewd shots :3 so you guys have a taste of the kind of content she has for her higher tiers on Patreon! Check out all the shots and WIP pics I got sent from her!

Photo by Shashin Cosplay

Photo by Shashin Cosplay

Photo by Shashin Cosplay

Azumii is a very dear friend to me and a SUPERBLY talented cosplayer. Supporting her on Patreon is lots of fun and I love seeing whatever updates she puts out for the tier I'm a part of. If you want even more details about K/DA Akali, the write up to her blog post is below here as well! This marks my final piece for 2018, I'll have a special year in review post set for the last day of the year. Mostly lots of stats and top 5/10 most viewed posts I had and what not. THANKS GUYS!
https://www.patreon.com/Azumii/
Making of K/DA Akali
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