Mechromancer Gaige (Borderlands 2) Build for PAX Prime 2013 (Updated 6/02)

[Queadlunn]

For PAX 2013 my significant other (user Quiptorium) and I are building a Gaige costume. This will be a log of our build.
I'll be handling most of the props and my girlfriend will be doing most of the fabric and wig work. For those who don't know the character or game here's an image of Gaige:



In preparation for the build we gathered as much information about the character model as we could from various online sources, print, and we even took dozens of screenshots of the in-game model. So far it's turned out this was invaluable to get a few of the details right.

Here are the few components we've gotten a good start on:


Choker- This was mostly scratch-built from leather sheet, machine nuts and some plastic toy screws from Goodwill.


Necklace- The original idea was to use shell casings for her necklace, but that changed after we looked at her in-game model. The finished necklace is electrical wire and square and hex machine nuts filled with JB weld to get the hole size right.


Class Mod Lunchbox- This was a great find; Quiptorium found a card game that came packaged in a mini lunchbox from Goodwill. So far I've gotten it modified with a new handle, (useless) hinges and false latches. We just need to rip the in-game texture for the Legendary Mechromancer class mod and print it on vinyl sticker material then seal and weather the hell out of it.


Piston (this hangs from one of her belts)- Still in progress. This is going to be mostly scratch-built from styrene and Bondo with a few metal parts for detail.


Gaige's Left Arm- This is going to be the biggest part that I'm going to work on. I've gotten designs done for it so far and have gotten the forearm base piece heat-formed and some basic surfacing done. I'm likely going to split all of the hard sections of the arm in two and join them with elastic to give a bit of flexibility so it's fairly comfortable to wear.

Even though we have some 5 months or so to do this build, as well as a related build if we have the time, it's still a great deal of work to do for both of us. Hopefully we'll keep this thread updated fairly regularly when we get more work done.

We'll see you all soon!

(Incoming post from Quiptorium)

 

[Quiptorium]

Re: Mechromancer Gaige (Borderlands 2) Build for PAX Prime 2013

Hi, Quiptorium here! As said by Queadlunn, I'll be handling the costume and wing. I'm a novice seamstress and this is my first time working with a wig, so it'll be a fun experience.

This was the starting wig (Magnum style wig from Arda Wigs, color pumpkin) before any modifying.

With wefts for the pigtails sewn in. This was my first time working with a wig so there was plenty of trial and error in placing the wefts.

And... then I forgot to take pictures in all the steps in between. But to get the pigtails to stand up, I built up a layer of glue until it was solid and would stand up on its own. The fabric wraps are fabric wrapped around a short length of PVC pipe and held together by the metal strapping, bolt, and nut. The wig still needs some styling and the metal needs a bit of weathering, but I'm happy with how it is so far.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

 

[Queadlunn]

Re: Mechromancer Gaige (Borderlands 2) Build for PAX Prime 2013

We've got a bit of an update, the Class Mod lunchbox has just been completed.

I started off today by taking a screenshot of the class mod in the game (the actual texture is too low res) and printed it out. Then I traced over it with a few markers to sharpen the image up a bit. Once done I printed it on vinyl sticker material.

We then got the stickers cut out and applied to the lunchbox. This did take a bit of fiddling with.

Lastly we weathered the hell out of the lunchbox with acrylic (iso based) paint, added the duck tape and small sticker details and reassembled it.

We're pretty happy with how this turned out. 3 things completed for the build now, out of a few dozen...

 

[Queadlunn]

Re: Mechromancer Gaige (Borderlands 2) Build for PAX Prime 2013 (Updated 3/12)

I've gotten the shotgun roughly built. The 'scope', grip and much of the stock will be wrapped in scrap cloth harvested from some old pants. So far the only major mods I've done is adding the ejection port to the receiver assembly and added the tube magazine and barrel/magazine shroud plates on which I will paint the shark-tooth pattern on.
I'll be adding more styrene plating and other detail to the gun before I start painting it. One main thing is that I need to cover and/or remove the branding on the gun.

There's been other progress on the build overall; the wig, vest and arm are constantly being worked on. We'll have more updates when things get far enough along.

 

[TymanRoach]

Re: Mechromancer Gaige (Borderlands 2) Build for PAX Prime 2013

Nice props!

 

[Queadlunn]

Hurrah! We've both gone through an interesting few months. Both of us have new jobs and we've moved to a different state but we're back to work on the build.




So far we've gotten work started or finished on many of the costume's components. New to this thread are the t-shirt and vest which Quiptorium has done a wonderful job on and the machine chain belt. The t-shirt has been modified to have one sleeve off the shoulder, black trim with bias tape, and the skull is painted on the front. The vest has been made completely from scratch and is near complete with just the leather pieces to be attached. The belt is made of foam with the vault emblem made from ABS and styrene.




The shotgun has gotten a lot of work now, I'd say it's about 85% complete since I still have to weather it to hell. I've put a lot of styrene down on the receiver section of it to kind of mask that it's a nerf gun (hiding the branding and the like) and tried to bandit it up. It's been an interesting process since I don't have to be all that careful about the paint reacting with previous layers or dinging it up.




The Bandit 'MIRV' grenade. This one was a night project Quiptorium did an amazing job on. The upper-right image is scanned from the artbook and she used that as the principle design to work off of. We really hope this thing doesn't cause any issues at PAX...




A progress collage of the vault emblem buckle from the chain belt. Simple ABS base with styrene cut and applied to it. We used textured ABS which gave it the look of molded brass plates from industrial equipment.


We still have a lot of work to go for PAX but with how much we've gotten done in the past two weeks we are quite hopeful about it. If we can give a month or so to a side project to go with Gaige it'll be awesome.