Arkham Asylum Harley Quinn Gun

So last summer I got to play the BEST batman video game ever made.   I'm of course talking about batman Arkham Asylum.  That game made you feel like batman.  My wife who doesn't not care for video games was watching me play one night and I did a really cool move in the game and she asked me " How did you do that?" without wasting a second I replied " I'm batman."  in my best christian bale growl voice.  Of course she laughed at me and replied   " No, not batman a dork who is playing batman."  Which is pretty much dead on but, oh well I had fun.

So after being engrossed in this game I went scrolling through the Internet looking for design pictures of all the characters and was actually thinking of cosplaying as Bane cause he was pretty cool in this game and I wanted a challenge.  It never worked out because I went ahead and did a Subject Delta cosplay which I will show pictures of here later.  Anyways I was Anime Boston this year and saw the best looking Harley Quinn from the video game I had ever seen.  She was dead on and had a perfect costume.  The only thing I thought she had missing which, in reality she didn't because Harley never had a gun in the video game but she did in this concept art, was her gun.  here's a picture.

So I knew this cosplayer would be at Connecticon, a anime convention in Connecticut so on a whim I went ahead and made the gun so I could get a picture of her with it and then she could have it afterwards.  SO of course being the procrastinator that I am I waited until about 5 days before the convention and then got started. 

I used 1/2 inch MDF board for the handle and base of the gun.  I used 1/4 inch MDF for the grips and I used 2 inch PVC pipe for the barrel.  I also used some hot glue and some craft foam for the rest of it.  It was a pretty quick process and went like this. 

Pretty simple I crosshatched the grip with a saw because it's pretty darn easy and just adds that little extra to a simple prop like this.  Now I really wanted to go ahead and put the groves in the cylinder of the gun like in the concept drawing but again I ran out of time.  So I just went ahead and  did the shapes out of comic book boards and painted them a lighter shade of the gun.  SO basically the next step I did was give it a coat of primer and then I sanded down any rough edges I didn't see or feel before.  It was at that point I found I wasn't too happy with the top of the gun it looked real rough.  So I went ahead and put some bondo on it to smooth out the top and make it rounder.  So of course some more sanding and then another coat of primer and some more sanding after that with another coat of primer on that section and I was happy enough to go with the final paint job.  Sorry no pics of this stage I was too lazy to bring the camera down to the dungeon to take pics.

SO I went ahead and used a dark metallic grey spray paint for the gun.  It was dark just like the concept pics and it had that nice little metallic shine to it.  For the lighter parts i used a brushed aluminum colored spray paint.  So with 2 coats of paint for each color I was ready to put the acrylic sealant on it.  4 coats of that and I was happy with the gun.  I actually put the also coat of sealant on it the night before the convention so I don't have any pics of it until we were in the hotel room at the convention so here they are.

Not my best work but it was fun and it only took a Little of my time.  I really have to start planning my time  little better so I have enough time to fix the parts of the process that I think is going to work and then does not in any way, shape, or form and then I have to figure out how to make it work and fix my mistakes.


So after trudging around the convention Saturday night in my Subject Delta costume I spotted the Harley Quinn cosplayer. I was lucky enough to get back to my room and get the gun so I could take a picture of it with her.  She was very gracious enough to take a couple pictures with the prop.  It's a weird request but it is a convention and weird requests are usually part of the norm.  So here is a pic of the best Batman Arkum Asylum cosplayer out there and my so-so prop.

So as you can see she is a dead on Harley Quinn, and I thank her for posing with my prop and she deserves all the praise out there for her cosplay.  She nailed it.

"Soap" Mactavish Knife

So being the bad dad that I am my son has watched me play modern warfare 2 a couple of times.  This is about the time he got his Mohawk which he still is sporting to this day.  He saw "soap" Mactavish in the Brazilian mission and said he had the same hair as him.  Well the little light bulb went on in my head and I thought what better than to have him go as a mini "soap" mactavish and I could go as a juggernaut and he would have a blast killing me at the conventions.  I figured this would be an easy cosplay for him.  Boy was I wrong.  Nobody makes tactical vests in kids sizes and nobody makes fake knives in kids sizes anymore.. I mean I could have bought a crappy rubber knife but I kind of take pride in authenticity in my cosplay projects so it was off to the drawing board and down to my dungeon to make his knife as well as everything else.

So the modern warfare 2 tactical knife is based off of a black hawk tatang knife  here is a picture.

So That is the real version and here is what it looks like in the game.

So the video game knife looks a lot like the real life version  except for the handle looks more like a gun  hand grip texture and the knife blade looks like it is serrated near the hilt of the knife.  So I the real measurement of the knife is around 13.5 inches long.  Well I ad to shrink that down in half for my sons hand so he has a 6.5 inch black hawk tatang knife.  So I broke out the MDF board and got started.  here is the first progress pic.

 So basically I took 1/4 inch MDF board and made a full tang knife, meaning that the blade is one piece and runs down the handle as well.  Next I cut the handles out of 1/4 MDF and glued it to the knife .  After that I pre drilled the screw holes for the screw heads that would be added later.  To get the crosscut marks on the handle I went old school and broke out the handsaw and just did a little crosshatch sawing.  Pretty simple.  For the blade I just got out my hand sander and went to town.  near the end I broke out the belt sander and used it like a sharpening stone to help get the edges down better.  At the end I broke out the 220 grit sand paper and smoothed it all out.  Now the primer coat.

I have learned through the many props that I have done that a quick coat or two of primer paint helps out immensely.  It also helps with the sanding.  As you can see I still have some rough edges hear and there.  Time to break out the 220 grit sandpaper again and sand away.  Next step  finish painting.

So the black for this is just a flat black.  All the black hawk tatangs I saw had a flat black finish.  For my own benefit I scrapped in the serrated edge look.  I did this as a reference and to also give the impression of a slight serrated look and feel.  Next step more paint.

So I added the gray part to the top of the blade and also added grey for the serrated part just like in the game.  I also noticed that the screw heads in the vido game knife were not straight on so I made sure to have them the same way in this version.  Also you can't see it but there is four coats of clear acrylic seal on this knife.  i found that sealing it with acrylic spray really helps with the accidental droppings and banging that go on with props.  Don't be shy using the spray, the more coats the less easier it chips.  So basically that was the easy part of my son's soap costume.  Next up was the tactical vest.

All in all this knife took about 2 hours total in work time, not counting glue and paint drying time.

  You can't really see the knife in this picture but he is stabbing me in the neck.  Look at that smile on his face.  he is thoroughly enjoying it.

The only time he put it down was to play some Mario kart on the Nintendo Wii.  The boy LOVES his video games just like his dad.

Atomic Robo Lightning Gun

So if you haven't read Atomic Robo by Brian Clevinger &  Scott Wegener then you don't know what you are missing.  These two fine gentlemen have crafted an awesome epic that everyone should read and then tell everyone they know to read it as well.  Now I fell in love with this version of the lightning gun.  It was on the cover of  vol 3 # 2 to the right  is my reference for it.  Now you have to admit that is a pretty sweet gun. 



So I figured I need to make it.  The best thing was that the artists have attended a couple conventions that I go to on a regular basis and to show my appreciation for their creation I wanted to present them with this bad ass gun..  Well I was swamped on doing stuff for my kids and myself for Anime Boston so there was no time to get it done for April.  I had to finish another set of costumes for me and the kids for Connecticon and unfortunately Connectiocn did not have a detailed list of who was going to be at the con until the last minute.  I believe I had 8 days to make this gun.  Unfortunately for me I had another gun to make 3 costumes to finish and of those 8 days I was stuck down in Baltimore for 3 of them for my company's annual training institute.  So between everything that was happening I was able to get it done.  Oh yeah my son decided that he wanted his Rex star wars trooper costume to be a Lego version 3 days before the con So I had to get that done as well. 

Anyways unfortunately I don't have any progress pictures of this gun getting done.  I was literally hot gluing and spraying on clear coat finishes the night before the con.  But here is what I made it out of, PVC pipe, MDF board, ends of a broken hose, hose repair kit, army green canvas, a brass handle, decorative brass corner pieces, a twisty knob, craft foam, a small knob, and 2 buttons.  As well as some blood, sweat, tears, some mild profanity and a big smile when it was done. 

Now I like the way it turned out but I wish I had more time with it.  So I will call this one of my middle of the road props.  It's not a quick down and dirty one and it's unfortunately not a polished one, so it's right down the middle.

  

So like I said I'm happy with it.  It came out pretty nice and I was able to present it to Brian and Scott at Connecticon and they both seemed to like it a lot.  I gotta say the smile on their faces made my day. 

The one thing I did not think of was 2 guys 1 gun....... no let's not go there.  So since Brian had to fly back home and there is no way this was going to make it on the plane Scott got to take custody of it.  But I did ask Brian to pick out his favorite weapon from the series and he did.  So it is in the works as we speak.  This one is gonna be pretty awesome.  I'm already psyched to be working on it. 

Again I want to thank Brian and Scott for their wonderful creation Atomic Robo.  It's guys like this that drag me back into the comic book world with their must read creations and the fact that they are pretty cool guys to talk to is a added extra bonus.