Even an expert painter would have trouble leaving a smooth coat if their brushes were garbage. You need to make sure you have the proper gear before you begin painting your prop! Here are some of the basic tools that you’ll need:
Brushes
For Glue (low-quality)
You’ll go through these fast, so don’t spend a lot of money on them.
● A thin-tipped brush
● A medium-tipped brush
● A fat-tipped brush
For Sealant (low to moderate quality)
Since sealants harden, these brushes will also need to be replaced at some point. Don’t overspend.
● A thin-tipped brush
● A medium-tipped brush
● A fat-tipped brush
For Paint (high-quality)
● A thin-tipped brush
● A medium-tipped brush
Everything Else
Primer
This is 100%, irrefutably, totally, non-negotiably crucial to painting. You don’t use primer, your project looks bad. End of story.
Sand paper
You’ll need this for sanding out bumps in the primer.
Palette
It doesn’t have to be fancy. Anything that won’t disintegrate and taint your colors will do.
Gloves
Smock/Apron/Old Clothes
Protective Covers for Your Work Area
Waterproof Sealant
If you don’t use this, than you paint job will bleed, run, and look generally gross.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that there aren’t any specific tools listed here. That’s because there are as many kinds of paints as their are materials for construction! This is a checklist to follow when you start painting any kind of project, whether it’s in wood, fabric, Wonderflex, paper mache…you get the idea.
So back when me and my team decided on Pshycho pass Cosplay I thought that it was no way ever that I was gonna bother with putting lights in my dominator. But then we decided to work on them all together when they visited and with three more or less smart people, we would make it work. And it did, and looks great.
So first of I made a mock up back in may after we first decided to make them, just cause I though it would be easy to make something passable. And it was. I used EVA och craft foam that I traced from a pattern of the dominator that I printed.
This mock up was used a lot as a test subject and it was with a heavy heart that I threw it away afterwards.
We cut out two each of the eva foam base, a left and a right side.
We cut out the parts where the light was going to shine through, and also in differens to my mock we did the trigger separately to put on in the middle in the cardboard. We also carved in the eva foam to make space for the lights and cables.
We painted white where the light was gonna be to make it look better.
Here the different parts of the craft foam is shown better, this is Akanes dominator(I used only black foam) it is taped on to make sure it fits right. Before this we sanded the edges of the eva foam to make it more “round”.
This is the front and most detailed part of the gun, I cut the lines with an exacto knife thought a pattern made of baking paper and the holes I cut with a belt hole maker. We had a piece of worbla and eva foam under this foam when cutting it out so that we sure would get clean holes.
I am sure you can see the difference of the pieces above, the top one I heated up with a heat gun, doing that makes the edges of the cuts “curl” and make them stand out more. The numbers that would later come on I wrote with a thin black pen.
The white foam is 7mm and the black 5 if I can recall right. We placed out small nails and evened it out with wood filler and sanding before painting the first time
We used 12 lights in total, 5 on each side and 2 that for the middle.
After finishing the sides and the leds we cut out plastic for the windows where the light were gonna be seen and sanded them to diffuse the light.
The top windows where put in place when putting it together and taped over when painted (I used matt black spray paint). The rounded window is transparant worbla and the other is from a picture frame.
This part and the part at the handle with dotted lights we painted a thin plastic black and drilled different sized holes in it.
it was placed over the sanded window but under the foam
After gluing the sides and the middle cardboard together we used wall filler to make it into one piece, sanded and repeated a few times this filler was very easy to sand, I’ve only used gesso in the past but will now change to wall or wood filler.
Here it was mostly done, the dominator logo was put there separately afterwards.
The trigger was made of the 7mm foam, made stronger with wood filler and fastened with tooth picks in the cardboard and glue.
The last part was the hatch for the batteries, we wanted them to be easily accessible and went with magnets. But they where expansive so I only put the magnets on the dominator and a magnetic patch on the hatch, which also helped stabilize it.
The lights where not so visible outside in the sun, but inside in was seen and in the second pic we where in a basement, but most pics were too blurry.
I am starting to get done with my Sweet Autumn cosplay and this is all the armor pieces I have made for it (except the spine I forgot in this photo). It is many pieces and, since I had before this never made armor or worked with worbla, a huge challenge.
I have really learned a lot through all the time I spend on it and all the errors and remakes I have made.
REX, Sweet’s rapid-fire missile cannon, is finally done. It is really big and quite heavy for me but I am pretty happy with it. It is a mix between the concept art version and the in-game version.
I have repainted the mechanical hand four times so I am very happy to be done with it. The fingers can move but if I would make it again I would have made it a bit different.
All the armor is fastened to the bodysuit with magnets, snap fasteners, velcro and ribbons. The first time I primed everything I was in a real hurry and used a polyester putty primer that totally ruined the whole armor, so in the end I had to try to save it and I ended up with the result I have today, but that error took me months of work and I really regret not taking the time to do more research and try first on a separate piece.
The shoes are the one piece I really don’t like. I was stupid enough to use plastic on the inside which makes it really really warm to wear them, but it is to late to fix it and the rest of the cosplay is not so warm so that is something at least.
The backpack was one of the pieces I had to remake after I accidentally melted the plastic inside it and totally deformed the worbla. I was also the hardest part to fastened to the suit since it does not have any visible straps or simular. The solution to the problem was a harness with a plate of worbla were magnets was fastened. I wear the harness under the bodysuit and that way I can fastened the backpack directly to my back.
Through the time I have worked with the armor pieces I have learned tons and I have really gotten better at working with worbla. I am not super happy with the end result but for being the first armor I have made I suppose it is good enough.
DOOD I did some pretty great work last night getting the first sewn draft together! Wanted to test the stabilizer and figure out how I wanted to sew the entire thing together before doing a full test with the pleather. After doing my math on my craftfoam draft to know what to cut, I prepped with heavy craft interfacing as my liner, and then linen as my outside testing.
I was worried that the interfacing wouldn’t hold shape/weight as well as it could, but I also did a double test with stitching down the fabric excess which really helped keep the box shape. When I do it in full I’ll most likely use contact cement to hold it down versus sewing it because hand stitching will take 5ever. One nice technique I used that I picked up from doing corsets was using a blunt needle to weave between the interfacing and the linen shell, to make sure it holds tight. I’ll prob add some excess fabric glue as a JIC in the final product to hold it all together, but it makes sure the seams are lined up.
One more piece goes over as the total shell, but I wont be making it for this draft. I think I’m simply ready to test a belt method, and then make my own pack!
In tandem with Bloomerumi getting her Prinny Bloom ready, I asked to see if I could work with her to make Prinny packs! This weekend I did my first draft of the pack for sizing- first with poster board, and then craft foam. These packs will also be for sale once I’ve finalized my drafts!
Figuring out the sizing was interesting as I wanted to try out multiple sizes and strapped them to the belt. Whats interesting is the pack changes friggen design from pic to pic so I’m doing a sort of combined estimate. The final package will be lined with heavy interfacing, full vinyl leather, an embroidered skull over a magnetic purse snap, and lined with multiple options for fun.
The idea is that I could offer three different sizes for people who may want to order a Prinny Pack: the Fanny, the Pack, and the TOTE!
Final touches getting done for Eternal con this weekend. Took the time to prime and spray paint the two worbla pieces for a base coat, and will be weathering it today. Meanwhile I did my third take at these fucking arrows and tried rit-dying the feathers. While the dark green really loved going much lower than I wanted, overall the ombre look of them looks really clean! I was able to finish one last night by adding some embroidery floss to the top and bottom for a much cleaner look.
As I’m bringing this costume to Eternalcon this weekend with @blackiechuu, I’m doing some final touches onto the costume. The first was fixing the wig to keep it from flopping. Inside I have a small bit of worbla around some wooden skewers that stab into the paint roller that keeps that wound up tight. Now no more flopping!
Next was finishing touches to the quiver. The metal bits are being done with craft foam and worbla, with some ‘grommets’ on top in the form of googly eyes. I don’t like the sound of the eyes, so I used a knife to cut them out. The hot glue though would melt the inside of the eye, so a little chunk of craft foam helps keep it solid and also from compacting too easily. All that’s left is to prime and paint the sucker. I also will be not sanding it to keep the ‘rough’ metal finish that’s on the quiver initially.
I recently finished up my Rainfell Keyblade for my Aqua cosplay and I absolutely adore the results. The metallic paints I found were just perfect for this prop! Now I just have to make the Kingdom Key W for my Anti Aqua cosplay, hehe.
If you’d like one for yourself, I’m selling painted resin copies of this exact same keyblade! You can get them from my Etsy shop; Syrupbit
I once made the Twilight Princess Master Sword and Hylian Shield. This year I was finally able to add the Breath of the Wild version to my portfolio. Hope to be able to make all the different versions one day!
Want one of these yourself or maybe a different version of the Master Sword and Hylian Shield? That’s certainly possible! You can get them from my Etsy shop; Syrupbit
I actually made most of this costume back in 2016, but only was able to wear it early 2017 and had a proper photoshoot of it in the Summer. Even so, I still like this cosplay a lot. It’s surprisingly comfy and I learned a lot of it. Used a lot of different materials like wool to make all the fur pieces and casted my own latex for the ‘skin’ pieces!
This is already my third Monster Hunter cosplay and it for sure ain’t the last <3
Be sure to check out my super amazing Kirin sister (the regular Kirin armor) Liza from Team Paraluna
