Two Week Prop Challenge: Part 2

The much anticipated conclusion is finally here, now that Tekko has come & gone and the magnanimous sharkzooka has been successfully finished and given to a good home.

When last we saw our dear Fishbones, the construction had been completed, but the whole thing was black and therefore not terribly interesting.

So in the past I've tended to paint a lot of my props pretty flat, which does sometimes work out alright, but I decided it was time to introduce some more dynamic painting to my props!
It all relies on the idea of using gradients to accentuate the shapes. You can find plenty of tutorials on pinterest and other places. I used the prop and armor painting tutorial on Kamui Cosplay. As you may remember from my wings post a couple of weeks ago, I used her cosplay lighting book to great success (I also used this new-found knowledge on this particular prop as you'll see later. She has a number of other tutorial books so I got her painting one and I'm very happy with what I learned.
It all starts with a dark base ans layering in the lighter color a little bit at a time so you get a smooth gradient. You can see it here with both the red in the eyes and the blue of the head.

As you can see from the picture above, it really makes the shapes and layers stand out.
Once the painting was done, the last few details had to be added: the leather strap around the middle, the eyes, and the lighting. Now the lighting was a bit tricky to figure out the best method. The red inside the barrel was simple, but the eyes looked weird with just the lights behind the translucent plastic. So what I did was put the lights to the front of the eyes pointing back to the tapered end, put a layer of aluminum foil behind it to reflect the light forward and out of the eyes. The last step was covering the whole top of the mouth with a piece of black foam to protect the lighting elements and make it so you can't see all the random pieces inside the mouth. Sorry about my total failure at taking any useful photos of the last few steps... I was moving as fast as possible to get this done in time for the convention!

It's coming to get youuuuuu!

Now that the beast was done, the best part was yet to come!

Tekko was a blast on its own, but delivering this baby was definitely a highlight. As soon as she saw it, Jinx flipped out! I always enjoy hearing back from people I've made stuff for, whether it's cosplay pieces, life counters, ties, or any of the other random stuff I make. It's really the excitement of the people I' making things for that gives me the most joy when it comes to crafting for folks, and the response I got to Fishbones was fantastic. I think this photo I took of Jinx and her new rocket launcher pretty much sums up the emotions that were going on at the time.

I'm pretty sure I was making the same face from the other side of the camera.

In true Jinx fashion, she started having hilarious conversations with Fshbones.

While I was a bit sad to see it go, the ecstatic reaction I got was definitely worth the parting sorrow. There's no real contest, this is definitely the coolest thing I've constructed to date! But hey, that just means there will be more fun challenges in my future!

I'll be posting the post-Tekko review in a day or two once I've sorted through my photos, and hopefully get some pictures from my dear friend with whom I spent the weekend as he's got most of the new photos of us on his camera.

Until next time, lovelies!

The Two Week Prop Challenge: Part 1

If anyone had ever told me I'd be trying to make an oversized prop for someone in only two weeks, I probably would have just started laughing maniacally and just dismissed them. However, when a friend of a friend asked me to do just that, I decided it was worth taking up the challenge. Now to be fair, I did just end my job working at Joann Fabrics at the end of last week (which I've already felt the intense pain of not being able to use my employee discount any more), so I'd have significantly more time & energy to work on my prop commissions; had this not been the case, I likely would not have even considered it. Coupled with the fact that I'd have no solid income otherwise over the two weeks leading up to Tekko, I said "What the hell (or something along those lines)."

And just what was I asked to make? Well that's the best part! I got asked to make a rocket launcher in the shape of a shark. HOW THE HELL COULD I TURN DOWN THE CHANCE TO MAKE A SHARKZOOKA?!?

I don't even play this game but I want to make one of these for myself!

This absurd weapon comes from League of Legends (which my friend Josh keeps pestering my to play and I keep reminding him that my computer want to kill itself when I watch Netflix so I can't imagine the game would run smoothly... Also how could I make this thing in two weeks if I was playing that game?). Its name is appropriately "Fishbones" and is wielded by a character named Jinx, who I understand is kind of a poster child for the game, and is also more than a little bit nuts. All the more reason to blow people to smithereens with a giant shark.

Well, needless to say, this was a first in my propmaking career from both a scale and a design standpoint, so I got to work figuring out how I was going to construct this thing.

It all started with a mailing tube, that thanks to our good friend Matt, I just happen to have lying around after having the lovely lithograph that was gifted to us in it framed. Also, quite fortunately, a few weeks before I left I got that lovely blue cup from work. It was a promotional type thing for the new All-Access Aisle and it fit pretty perfectly on the end so voila! instant rocket tube.

See look, isn't is pretty? Wee love you Matt <3

Next there were all of the interesting rounded blue plates that were suspended from the inner tube. The most logical materials to use for those were cardboard & craft foam: carboard for the base layer to help keep the curve around the barrel and give it some rigidity, then the craft foam to give a nice smooth outer layer and add to the thickness of the plates. 

The raised edges around all of the plates were also done with foam.

The jaw pieces are a bit more interesting of shapes, but are made in the same way as the other pieces.

It definitely took some time to get all of the individual pieces finished, because there are a lot more of them than it seems at first glance! But eventually I managed to get all of them put together, primed, sealed, and all of that other good stuff. The white pieces (including the rectangular ones attached to the tube) are all foamcore board. I've been using foamcore a lot and I love it because it's pretty east to cut with a knife, you can put putty on the ends of it to seal off and solidify the foam, which you can then sand so it's nice and smooth! It can also be beveled nicely so I used it for the teeth, the handle, the shoulder rest, and all of the fins!

Once all of the individual pieces parts were ready, it was time to glue the whole thing together, which was no small task. The end result is this beauty right here:

I realize there's some weird stuff hanging off and the mod podge on the tail is still drying so it's not the cleanest picture ever, but I was just so excited it was all in one piece!
Also, yes I did in fact cut that box up specifically to serve as a stand for this gun. It's certainly not fragile, but it doesn't really sit easily anywhere with all those pointy bits sticking out everywhere so I needed something that would keep it still (this should also come in handy on my drive to Pittsburgh next weekend for the convention).

This is all the work I got done in week one, but obviously it's not finished, there's no paint yet! That part is probably the most time consuming but I'll be spending most of my waking hours this coming week toiling away at it, and probably watching several movies/TV shows as I do. If anyone has any good suggestions, leave me a comment or send me your idea by clicking on the little envelope up in the top right corner! The only stipulation is it has to be in English cause I can't paint and read subtitles at the same time.

Thanks for checking in and I hope you're all as excited as I am to see this thing finished! Next week (either pre- or post-con) I'll be following up with Part 2, but in the mean time, au reservoir, my dahlings!