Phased
Active Member
Hey all!
I'm planning on doing an Old Luke Skywalker (re: Eps 7 & 8) jedi robes outfit for cons Still being mostly new to cosplay and prop making, I decided to learn some new things by crafting my own "working" bionic hand since I haven't seen anything that is pre-made and affordable without commissioning it from someone.
Originally, I was planning on gluing some painted foam parts to a glove, but that started to get too bulky to look good; I remembered a friend of mine used to have a Terminator 2 toy T-1000 hand that would grip things when a trigger-handle was grasped tightly. I looked around and found something similar -- and better! -- for only $12. It's much shorter in length than the T2 version, which I'm hoping to be perfect for hiding up my sleeve to pull the finger flexing trigger.
This is still a work in progress as of this writing, but I'm hoping to have it finished in the next week or so once some other plastic parts arrive. The overall cost (excluding cost of craft tools -- paint, brushes, x-acto knife set, hot knife set, heat gun, hot glue gun, etc) is around $15 for the foam, mini beads, and the toy. I think overall time spent so far has been about 8 - 12 hrs, which doesn't include drying times.
Components:
- "Space Robot Claw Grab Toy"
- one sheet of 2mm black foam
- 48-count 2mm beads
- medical bandage plastic clips
- elastic hair bands - white, grey, or black are best unless you want to paint them
- thin plastic string or other thin length of wire (white, black or grey or paint them as such)
- acrylic paints: flat grey (spray paint), metallic black, metallic gunmetal, metallic tin, white
- Plasti Dip
(stock toy hand and photo reference)
I started by cutting out a piece for the back of the hand, along with strips for each finger segment, varying in length and thickness after measuring between the faux rivets on the toy. I also did a couple of strips for the side of the hand. I'm not going to worry about the thumb or palm of the hand, nor the other parts of the fingers. In the movie, Luke's fingers have plates on each side but even with thinner foam it would take up too much space to look good. I'm opting more for general look & feel than picture perfect replica.
Once I had everything cut out, everything received a burst from the heat gun to help create a better surface for the Plasi Dip to stick to and shape the foam as needed. afterwards, I used four micro beads per finger segment plate to create the bumps (rivets?) that can be seen on each one and glued them in place with Elmer's glue. A lot of fans had spotted in the trailer that Luke's hand still bore the blaster damage from RotJ, so I opted to include that, which I recreated using a soldering iron and creating a center point then just lightly dragging out and away from it and varying the burn depth for a bit of texture. I then switched to a hot knife (re: wood burning kit with a blade attachment) to mark up the foam with a bit more wear & tear damage, but went a bit too overboard. Most of that should get covered up later after I attach some other parts. Wire and hair bands were cut to size so that they'll run under the ends of the foam, but still have enough slack so they don't get yanked out from the tension when flexing the fingers. Screws holes on the toy were covered with foam circles and glued in place. A round hole punch works wonders for getting those nicely shaped.
(initial sizing of the foam pieces, followed by the primary work on damage and rivets glued in place; wiring is just for appearance and not for final placement)
Next step was the painting... Plasti Dip went on first. This being my first-ever foam project, I learned quickly from various youtube videos that it's a MUST for any painted foam project. I allowed that to dry overnight before applying a base level coat of grey. That, too, dried overnight. On the third night I did an "ink wash" (to borrow a term from my miniature painting days) to weather everything with a mix of black, a hint of gun metal, and enough water to thin the paint down. Al the foam pieces received a liberal brushing, enough to darken the look and to soak into the cuts and dents. The toy hand also received a coating, which really made the plastic on the fingers look metallic from a normal standing view distance. [note: I was also working on a foam buckle, which is also in the photos, for Luke's belt. it received a base of tin paint rather than grey and a lighter wash of thinned black]
(base layer paint and wash of paint to weather things)
The wash only took about 30 mins or less to dry, so I switched to a sponge brush and dabbed on a light amount of gun metal paint to all of the foam pieces, then rubbed it around with a smaller brush. I wanted just a super thin coat to help cover over any base grey spots and darker areas from the black wash. I let that dry -- also another 30 or so minutes -- then did the same thing again but with the tin paint. After that dried, I took a tip of a flathead screwdriver and pressed it into a few areas of the finger segments and other areas to get a few more dents and dings. For the side of the hand pieces, i smooshed them together a bit to create wrinkles and dents. Afterwards, I went back and added a bit more black wash to the damaged areas with a small tipped brush to really make them stand out. Once that was dry, I used a drybrush method of a white & tin mix to create highlights on the damaged areas and edges.
(first pass on paint and drybrushing for detail; toy hand is shown pre-weathering job)
That's where things stand at the moment. I'll be cutting and painting the medical clips over the next couple of days to create knuckle pieces right below each finger. They have two holes in each end, which I'll thread the hair bands through (two for each) to really make it look like an intended purpose. Again, not movie replica style going on, but riffing on a theme can be as good or better than the original at times, and I think this will look rather impressive rather than going for identical design. The thinner wires are going to be painted gun metal then glued down between each finger segment, also two on each much like one of the above photos with the non-painted foam pieces in their expected places.
I'll post more photos next week as I get more done.
I hope this helps anyone who was looking for something like this, or inspires people to work on a similar project. If I can do this as a first-time foam crafting effort, then anyone can do it!
YouTube is a great source for tutorials (especially Zonbi's channel), and I cannot stress highly enough to research the work and materials before working on things.
Cheers!
I'm planning on doing an Old Luke Skywalker (re: Eps 7 & 8) jedi robes outfit for cons Still being mostly new to cosplay and prop making, I decided to learn some new things by crafting my own "working" bionic hand since I haven't seen anything that is pre-made and affordable without commissioning it from someone.
Originally, I was planning on gluing some painted foam parts to a glove, but that started to get too bulky to look good; I remembered a friend of mine used to have a Terminator 2 toy T-1000 hand that would grip things when a trigger-handle was grasped tightly. I looked around and found something similar -- and better! -- for only $12. It's much shorter in length than the T2 version, which I'm hoping to be perfect for hiding up my sleeve to pull the finger flexing trigger.
This is still a work in progress as of this writing, but I'm hoping to have it finished in the next week or so once some other plastic parts arrive. The overall cost (excluding cost of craft tools -- paint, brushes, x-acto knife set, hot knife set, heat gun, hot glue gun, etc) is around $15 for the foam, mini beads, and the toy. I think overall time spent so far has been about 8 - 12 hrs, which doesn't include drying times.
Components:
- "Space Robot Claw Grab Toy"
- one sheet of 2mm black foam
- 48-count 2mm beads
- medical bandage plastic clips
- elastic hair bands - white, grey, or black are best unless you want to paint them
- thin plastic string or other thin length of wire (white, black or grey or paint them as such)
- acrylic paints: flat grey (spray paint), metallic black, metallic gunmetal, metallic tin, white
- Plasti Dip
(stock toy hand and photo reference)
I started by cutting out a piece for the back of the hand, along with strips for each finger segment, varying in length and thickness after measuring between the faux rivets on the toy. I also did a couple of strips for the side of the hand. I'm not going to worry about the thumb or palm of the hand, nor the other parts of the fingers. In the movie, Luke's fingers have plates on each side but even with thinner foam it would take up too much space to look good. I'm opting more for general look & feel than picture perfect replica.
Once I had everything cut out, everything received a burst from the heat gun to help create a better surface for the Plasi Dip to stick to and shape the foam as needed. afterwards, I used four micro beads per finger segment plate to create the bumps (rivets?) that can be seen on each one and glued them in place with Elmer's glue. A lot of fans had spotted in the trailer that Luke's hand still bore the blaster damage from RotJ, so I opted to include that, which I recreated using a soldering iron and creating a center point then just lightly dragging out and away from it and varying the burn depth for a bit of texture. I then switched to a hot knife (re: wood burning kit with a blade attachment) to mark up the foam with a bit more wear & tear damage, but went a bit too overboard. Most of that should get covered up later after I attach some other parts. Wire and hair bands were cut to size so that they'll run under the ends of the foam, but still have enough slack so they don't get yanked out from the tension when flexing the fingers. Screws holes on the toy were covered with foam circles and glued in place. A round hole punch works wonders for getting those nicely shaped.
(initial sizing of the foam pieces, followed by the primary work on damage and rivets glued in place; wiring is just for appearance and not for final placement)
Next step was the painting... Plasti Dip went on first. This being my first-ever foam project, I learned quickly from various youtube videos that it's a MUST for any painted foam project. I allowed that to dry overnight before applying a base level coat of grey. That, too, dried overnight. On the third night I did an "ink wash" (to borrow a term from my miniature painting days) to weather everything with a mix of black, a hint of gun metal, and enough water to thin the paint down. Al the foam pieces received a liberal brushing, enough to darken the look and to soak into the cuts and dents. The toy hand also received a coating, which really made the plastic on the fingers look metallic from a normal standing view distance. [note: I was also working on a foam buckle, which is also in the photos, for Luke's belt. it received a base of tin paint rather than grey and a lighter wash of thinned black]
(base layer paint and wash of paint to weather things)
The wash only took about 30 mins or less to dry, so I switched to a sponge brush and dabbed on a light amount of gun metal paint to all of the foam pieces, then rubbed it around with a smaller brush. I wanted just a super thin coat to help cover over any base grey spots and darker areas from the black wash. I let that dry -- also another 30 or so minutes -- then did the same thing again but with the tin paint. After that dried, I took a tip of a flathead screwdriver and pressed it into a few areas of the finger segments and other areas to get a few more dents and dings. For the side of the hand pieces, i smooshed them together a bit to create wrinkles and dents. Afterwards, I went back and added a bit more black wash to the damaged areas with a small tipped brush to really make them stand out. Once that was dry, I used a drybrush method of a white & tin mix to create highlights on the damaged areas and edges.
(first pass on paint and drybrushing for detail; toy hand is shown pre-weathering job)
That's where things stand at the moment. I'll be cutting and painting the medical clips over the next couple of days to create knuckle pieces right below each finger. They have two holes in each end, which I'll thread the hair bands through (two for each) to really make it look like an intended purpose. Again, not movie replica style going on, but riffing on a theme can be as good or better than the original at times, and I think this will look rather impressive rather than going for identical design. The thinner wires are going to be painted gun metal then glued down between each finger segment, also two on each much like one of the above photos with the non-painted foam pieces in their expected places.
I'll post more photos next week as I get more done.
I hope this helps anyone who was looking for something like this, or inspires people to work on a similar project. If I can do this as a first-time foam crafting effort, then anyone can do it!
YouTube is a great source for tutorials (especially Zonbi's channel), and I cannot stress highly enough to research the work and materials before working on things.Cheers!
Attachments
Last edited:
