WIP (not quite) Wednesday: MOBA Edition

Hello again folks! Mikey here, trying his best to keep to the plan he put forward last week. And we'll be starting things off simple, because I'm going on vacation this week and don't have a ton of time to lollygag around. So this week, I'm bringing you some WIPs from my current collection of commissions! (all of which come from MOBAs, no less!)

First is a set of weapons from the giant lion, Rengar, from League of Legends.

I've been working on both the big, spiky sword, as well as the claw blades on his left arm.

I decided to use MDF for the base on all of it, so I started by patterning out the blades. Once the patterns were transferrred, I used my jigsaw to cut them out.

Here are the patterns for the blades (along with the engine sword I built. You'll get to see that later.

To connect the two small blades, I used a chunk of dowel rod and screwed them on, then wood glued everything to make sure it stayed together.

As you can see here, for the small gauntlet blades, I beveled the MDF directly using my Dremel tool with a sanding bit. Since they were so small it seemed silly to add an extra layer, just to bevel it. For the big sword, however, I added some layers of foam core board, and did the wide bevel on those.

As per usual, all of the exposed foam was spackled & sanded smooth. For the gauntlet part that the arm blades would attach to, I weapped strips of worbla around 2mm craft foam, and shaped it so it would take the approrpiate curve to be worn as a gauntlet. It also has holes so it can be laced up along the bottom. I also attached the blades themselves with a strip of worbla, heated and stretched over the piece of dowel between the two blades, and mushed into the worbla on the gauntlet.

From here, all that was left was to put a bunch of layers of mod podge on everything and then start painting! That's the step I'm currently on, but they should be done pretty soon after I get back from my vacation.

The next weapon I'm working on is one a lot of folks should recognize, considering how popular this game has been.

That's right, I get to make Symmetra's photon projector. Honetly, I'm super pumped about this project because it should look awesome when it's done, and of course it's going to light up! The other nice thing is that Kamui Cosplay made an amazing one of these (but let's be real, all of her props are phenomenal), and has a tutorial of how she made the gun.

While I built the base of the gun a bit differently (namely, mine is hollow), and lit it in a slightly different way, it was super useful to see how she put it together. Also, the arms will end up being built more or less the same, so that'll be helpful ^_^

As always, I started by patterning out the base (which naturally I didn't take a photo of). I cut the base out of cereal boxes and wrapped it in worbla, the result of which you can see here:

The detail over the glowing part is also worbla, wrapped around craft foam. For the blue panels where the light will come through, I took toploader car protectors which I have a ton of because Magic: the Gathering. The blue is actually just blue plastic shopping bags I cut up, wrapped around a card-sized piece of clear plastic, and inserted into the card protector.

I then began to build the barrel of the gun which, in common fashion for me, is made out of trash and scraps of things I have leftover from other projects. I started with the cap from a baby bottle (left over from my Adam Syringe) which I used for the actual end of the barrel because I could make a small disc of the blue translucent setup and screw the top on to keep it in place. The next chunk is part of a wire spool that I had lying around (which I wrapped with a piece of craft foam so it wouldn't glow when the light was on), the thick disc is a piece of MDF that came as some sort of packaging for something and I decided to keep it (because I am a pack rat and  this junk comes in handy sometimes). Lastly, there's a piece of aquarium tubing (left over from my Dr. Who lightsaber) what is attached to the back. I cut slits in the aquarium tubing to snugly hold my light, and because it's transparent, the single light actually makes the front and both side panels glow, all together.

Don't even ask me how I came up with this method because I have no idea what my brain did to come up with it.

Now that I had the lighting mechanism put together, it was time to build the rest of the gun base, which I used more cereal box wrapped in worbla to build.

Here you can see it with the pattern pieces. The aquarium tubing fits through that hole on the front.

You can just barely see in the photo, but there's a large opening on the inside curve here. that lines up with the end of the aquarium tubing so that you can putt the little light out to turn it on/off. When it's finished, there will be a piece of craft foam that covers the hole, and will most likely be attached by velcro.

Here you can see everything with the light inside.

The last part that I've put together is the handle, which it two layers of EVA foam glued together. As you can see I still need to sand it so it's not oddly textured like that, and then that will also be covered in worbla. Then I'll just have to make the arms and paint!

The last project, which I haven't actually started yet as I'm waiting on a few more measurements first, is also an Overwatch commission. This one is for a few armor pieces for Imp Mercy. Specifically I'm making the hip tassets and the leg armor.

I'll be making them using the same method I used for Leo's armor: worbla over craft foam. Also, I get to light the little purple panels on the hip pieces so that'll be fun.

And that's all for this week! I'm working on two new posts for you guys:
First is a tutorial-ish post on how I made my engine sword from FFXV (which I haven't posted anything about it on here, though I did post some progress photos on Twitter/FB). 
Second will be my first installment of "Materials Monday" where I talk about some of my favorite crafting materials, how to use them, what they're good for, etc. The first material on the list is foam board! I'm hoping to have that together for next Monday so stay tuned!

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!