Springfield was a really interesting project.
There was a lot of new stuff I had to learn or figure out. Every time I think something will be easy and that I already know how to do it, I get proven wrong and end up crying a little while trying to figure out how this would actually work in real life.

I got lucky with the gun, since there was a fully buildable Springfield model available to download and print. So there wasn’t much work needed on my side. The only difficult part was figuring out how to assemble it. In hindsight, it didn’t even need to be detachable — great that I can take it apart, but after the struggle of building it, there is no way I will ever do that again.
The specific springs I needed were expensive too, because I needed a weird size that didn’t come in a combo box, so I had to order them all separately.
For the paint job, I wanted to create a realistic wood look. Finding tutorials was easy, but finding the right products was difficult since I’m in Germany and most tutorials were from the US.
I went to a local hardware store and explained what I was looking for, but sadly they didn’t really know the products from the tutorials and couldn’t help much besides saying, “This probably won’t work.”
I ended up buying products that roughly matched the descriptions and tested them. They worked, but I didn’t like the colors, so I still ended up importing the original products in the end — lmao.

The sewing part was probably the easiest.
I kind of cheated with the pants by just using seamless leggings. The rest are latex / leather stockings that I made, plus some easy boot covers.
The satin folds in the front of the jacket caused me some stress, since they were tiny strips I had to sew together, and my sewing machine kept eating them — hungry little fella.
The collar also made me nervous because I wanted to add a 3D piece on top of it and was worried it would be too heavy, but it ended up being pretty sturdy.

The most difficult part was figuring out how to mount the panels to the hips and legs, since they float in the front. At first, we wanted everything 100% attached, but quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to squeeze myself into it. So the options were making it wider or making the handles detachable.
We decided to make them detachable. Figuring out the right angle, how to attach the screws, making everything fit together, and keeping it symmetrical was pretty hard, but we made it work.
Once I was in the cosplay, pee breaks were basically “oh god, please unscrew me.”

The wig was also pretty new territory for me. I had never made a helmet wig before, but I didn’t want everything glued down since I’m not a big fan of that look. Since she has twin tails, I used a lace front piece as a parting section and sewed that in. It looks much more natural, and I’m really happy with the result of my first helmet wig.

Overall, I had a lot of fun making her, and I’m really happy with how she turned out. :)