Things I Have Learned While Cosplay Prop Building

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. So my birthday Saturday wasn't as bad as I anticipated, it was actually quite nice. I had a terrible week last week with a tidal wave of issues/disappointment hence why I didn't have hope for it.

My makeup was on point! I dressed up because why the hell not? I like looking my best on my birthday.

I spent the day with my boyfriend. We went downtown and he bought me froyo 💜.

Nick's creation

 We went to some of the shops including looking around the local bookstore. We then watched a Harry Potter movie and enjoyed each other's company. My mom got me a really nice (and delicious) cake and things to make cocktails.

I would count it as a good one, despite being low key. Despite not getting many physical gifts/things I wanted I was happy and it didn't matter. I had a nice day, I got to get out of the house and did something fun. The day was drama free and I have a wonderful boyfriend that adores me 💜. That's what I truly wanted this year.

Anyway, on with my point of post today. I built my very first cosplay prop, it is the axe bass for Marceline the vampire queen from Adventure Time. It took me about a month to build and man did I put a lot of work into it! I learned a lot though and I'm really proud of it!

First I'll discuss a little about how I made it. I made this prop from construction foam. I removed the coating from both sides of the foam. I drew rough square shapes for the pieces I needed to get the dimensions I needed; then drew the shapes freehand and cut them out. Next I sanded the foam down as much as I could to make it as smooth and nice as possible and I added the scratches and missing chunks.

I used Mod Podge to seal in the foam, this I learned to do from a few different blogs on prop making. It is really important to seal the foam! Not only doesn't seal it and make it stronger/less damage prone, but it also gives you a smoother and nicer base to paint on. I did 3 or 4 coats all over - make sure to coat every piece until you feel you have enough coverage. From there I used Gorilla Glue to attack the neck to the base of the bass.

Then I used acrylic paint to paint everything. For the small details I used metallic silver paint. The knobs on the bass are soda bottle caps I painted and glued on. After painting I attached and glued the small pieces on, including the strings.

At this point, use a clear acrylic spray paint all over the front and back to seal in and protect the paint. It also adds a nice finish. I always use Krylon's spray paint for my various projects. With this particular one I used a satin finish so that the finish wasn't matte but wasn't crazy glossy.

 The strings were a bitch to get glued on; I completely recommend using a stretchy string. I used alight silver colored sort of nylon string from the beading isle in the crafts section of Walmart. Bonus: If you attach the strings correctly, when plucked they will sound like an actual bass.

Being a bit of a perfectionist, this wasn't the easiest project and was accompanied by many frustrations. I spent about as month working on this and put so much time into it. I learned so many things in the process that I definitely need to remember the next time I build a prop; this knowledge I pass onto you lovely readers in hope that you learn from my mistakes.

What I learned:

• Don't pick foam with fiberglass - This was my biggest problem. My grandfather gave me the foam to work with so I didn't have to go buy it. It was the perfect thickness. When I started to remove the cardboard coating I realized that my hands stung. On closer inspection the cardboard coating had fiberglass embedded in it. It was a bit painful to remove and difficult to clean up. 

• Draw a template first - Don't freehand like I did! Draw a template on paper, tape it to the foam then cut the pieces out. If you freehand it you will end up with some lopsided pieces like I did

• Have extra pieces of foam - In case you make mistakes. I over sanded and miscut some pieces and didn't have a backup.

• Use Gorilla Glue - I cannot recommend this enough. This is a very starting glue that will bond very well, if you use Gorilla Glue you don't have to worry about your prop falling apart. 

• Don't get Gorilla Glue on you - It's really really hard to get off of your hands. 

• Don't use too much Gorilla Glue - Gorilla Glue expands as it dries, so only use a little bit. It is a bit hard and takes a while to sand down extra glue once it sets. Gorilla Glue dries quite hard. 

• Carve/sand foam outside - This stuff is really annoying to clean up. The dust gets everywhere! I found myself vacuuming like crazy. I didn't do it outside initially becasuse 1. It was really hot outside at the time and 2. My eyes are sensitive to sunlight and I was not comfortable working with a razor while wearing sunglasses.

• Have a few different types of sand paper - Some pieces will need more abrasiveness to sand down smoothly, others need it to be extra fine. 

• Be sure to seal in all foam - Seriously don't miss a single spot. It makes a huge difference.

• Add a top coat - It will seal in all of your hard work, protect it and just make it look better.

• Do all top coat before adding strings - I had missed as few spots and didn't notice until after I attached the strings. I used tape to cover the strings...but the tape became stuck. Long story short I stretched the strings out trying to remove the tape and had to go through a lot to get them to the correct tightness.

• Wait until all base painting is done before you add a top coat - If you don't you really end up wasting top coat.

• Be gentle while removing coating - When removing the initial coating from the foam, be careful. I just ripped mine off which left a bunch of dents in the surface of the foam. Some I couldn't totally sand out. Luckily Marceline's bass has s beat up look to it and I was able to paint on a scuffed effect to camoflage the dents. 

• Research! - Do lots and lots of research before starting. Figure out all of the supplies you will need and what methods to use.

• Have many reference photos - I used a plethora of reference pictures from the show, cosplayers and building tutorials. It helped so much. I cannot tell you enough to get the app cosplanner and pay for the premium upgrade. It is really worth it! Everything will be in one place.

• Buy paint rather than mix it - This I learned when painting the neck. It can be very difficult to match an exact shade if you mix it yourself. You're better off just buying all of the colors you'll need. You can get small bottles of acrylic paint for under $1 at Walmart. 

There are probably more things I could include, but there are what currently come to mind. Hope this helps! I am going to do my best to chronicle my journey through making cosplays and readying myself for this convention so stay tuned!

Xoxo

Heather Zombie 💜