The two masks shown here are replicas of the remarkably creepy party masks worn by the inhabitants of the underwater city Rapture in Bioshock. Both masks have been painted to emulate the look of decaying and cracking paper maché, dirty with the filth of being worn for years longer than they were ever meant to [...]
This remarkably thick sword is eight individually cold cast urethane resin components with a thin aluminum powder coating. The aluminum coating allows this piece to be buffed like real metal and simulate a metallic effect without the need for paint or a chemical chroming process. The finished blade is 32″ long from pommel to tip [...]
Built for costuming as well as display, this piece was constructed to be lightweight as well as robust while still remaining as faithful as possible to the source material of the game. The finished shield weighs less than 3lbs. The crackled paintjob on this piece was the result of a very unfortunate painting accident which [...]
Created in about three days as an accessory to a costume, this piece had to be made simple, light, but also durable enough to withstand a four day convention packed with 40,000 people. The final piece weighs only 2.5lbs and weathered the crowds of Dragon*Con 2012 wonderfully. After its costume duties were finished, the shield [...]
Completed as both a collectable piece and slated to be showcased in the web series Nuka Break, the Terrible Shotgun is a unique weapon from the Fallout universe, and one of the most deadly at close range. This replica uses mostly metal parts; the barrel and heat shield are aluminum, as well as the trigger [...]
Made as a costume accessory for a convention, this piece had to emulate the look of real metal as accurately as possible but still be “convention safe.” All parts are resin cast, using aluminum powder and billet polish in order to get a reflective metallic shine to the axe head, neck and pommel.The finished piece [...]
Commissioned for Dragon*Con 2012, this helmet was built to accommodate and accent the owner’s beard first and foremost. Originally the client had wanted the Iron Helmet from Skyrim, but changed his mind to the piece seen here in favor of the large upturned horns and scrollwork. Like the Female Ancient Nord Helmet, this piece was [...]
With the first Destructoid.com helmet having seen over three years of rigorous use since it was constructed, the guys behind Destructoid reached out to see about getting a replacement made. A lot of lessons were learned from the first iteration, and the new helmet was constructed to be the lightest and most comfortable mascot head [...]
Created to benefit the Make-a-Wish foundation, this helmet is one of 50 that were distributed to artists and companies around the world as part of an exhibit to be shown at Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando. All 50 helmets were cast from a screen-used copy of Boba Fett’s helmet, and artists were encouraged to [...]
Taken on as a personal project, the Ancient Nord helmet was a welcome deviation from the mechanical angles of guns and the exacting precision of chrome DJ helmets. This helmet exists in the game Skyrim as a relic from a time passed, neglected and abandoned in a tomb for a few hundred years. Rust effects [...]
This armor is created mostly from sintra and vacuumformed styrene. Special care was taken to keep the visual aesthetic of the armor that is shown in the anime and manga series, while avoiding the unfortunate “football player” effect that large shoulder armor can often have on a costume. The final armor was spattered with purple [...]
Created for costuming purposes, this giant sword needed to be able to withstand the rigors of convention use while also being lightweight enough to be held with one hand. The bulk of the piece is made up of foam skinned in resin, while a solid resin tip makes sure the end of the blade isn’t [...]
The Gravity Gun was built for the annual Penny Arcade Child’s Play charity dinner in 2011. The finished piece is constructed from over 200 laser cut parts and features 109 LEDs which pulse in a random pattern to give the illuminated sections the same variable glow seen in the game. The final gun rests on [...]
This massive bludgeon was built as a costuming piece, and therefore needed to be as lightweight as possible. By making the hammer head from hollow foamed PVC, the result is a piece nearly 3 feet long from hammer head to pommel, yet it weighs only 8lbs. Natural wood and leather elements were used for the [...]
The most electronics-heavy project to date, the Thomas helmet sports nearly 400 LEDs and twelve circuitboards. The 8×40 display matrix in the visor is capable of scrolling text and patterns and can be controlled by a custom iPhone app which updates the display wirelessly. The result of four months of build and design time, the [...]
Originally built to showcase Mass Effect 3 at Bioware’s booth for San Diego Comic Con 2011, this rifle was eventually re-created eleven times for various other promotional events and offers. Two rifles were distributed as prizes for GameStop manager’s conferences, an additional four were built as part of Mass Effect 3 pre-release marketing as prizes [...]
Built for display at the VALVe offices in Seattle, this Portal Gun features an embedded potato GLaDOS speared onto one of the barrel prongs. The gun itself has been modified from V1 with new decals and a heavier weathering job as it is seen in Portal 2. GLaDOS has five LEDs embedded into her “eye” [...]
Far too thick to actually cut anything, Cassandra’s short sword is still a fairly intricate build. Completed in about a week, the finished piece is both lightweight and durable. In order to comply with convention safety guidelines, the blade and handle are both made from wood, while other parts of the sword are cast in [...]
A continuation of Cassandra’s arsenal from Soul Calibur IV, the Nemea shield was built with weight and durability in mind. This piece would need to be able to both withstand the abuse that a convention can dish out to props and accessories, but also be lightweight enough to be carried around all day without wearing [...]
Originally sculpted out of a very heavy epoxy clay, these pauldrons were hollow cast in urethane resin in order to be as lightweight as possible. The arm cuff is tightly fitted to the wearer’s arm and held in place with a friction fit so no additional strapping or harness is needed in order to wear [...]
The second Portal Gun was created for the annual Penny Arcade Child’s Play charity dinner in 2010. This new project featured the same illumination as my original piece, but was constructed from all cast plastic parts and also featured sound effects for firing both orange and blue portals, as well as “startup” and “shutdown” sounds. [...]
Constructed from vacuum-formed styrene, these parts were created to compliment the Guy and Thomas Daft Punk helmet projects I have completed over the years. The styrene used in their construction allows them to be very lightweight and durable, restricting no hand movement at all when worn. Click here for the Daft Punk Handplates design and [...]
Built as a showcase piece for New York Comic Con 2010, the Bolt Pistol was completed in nine days. The finished pistol was displayed at the “Ultramarines” booth where convention attendees could pose wielding the weapon in front of a green screen for a souvenir photo. Over the course of the convention the pistol was [...]
In a reverse from most costuming, the suit was created as a complement to the M8 Avenger assault rifle project instead of the rifle being made to complement the armor. Created in a speed building frenzy to showcase at Dragon*Con 2010, the Mass Effect N7 armor was completed in a week using mostly foam floor [...]
Created from scrap materials over the span of roughly one month, the M8 Avenger Assault Rifle from Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 was constructed with economy in mind. As a personal challenge, its creation was bound to a self-imposed budget of “as little as possible.” The end result required only $28 in out-of-pocket expenses. Red LEDs [...]
The Daft Punk Helmet, a tribute to Guy Manuel de Homem Christo’s signature headpiece, was an intricate and complex project that spanned nearly a year and a half in creation. The final product is a combination of resin casting, mold-making, sculpting, PCB layout design, computer programming, and many other processes. Illumination is controlled through a [...]
The Light Staff from Final Fantasy XI contains several found objects (such as a repurposed pool cue for the longer base and a gazing globe up top), but the ornate head began as a free form clay sculpt. Cast as separate halves in resin, the upper staff head is designed to unscrew from the main [...]
The Force-a-Nature, a popular weapon from Valve’s online multiplayer title Team Fortress 2, is a colossal sawed-off shotgun featuring 7” barrels that discharge 4ga rounds. In keeping with the cell-shaded and colorful art style of the source material, no weathering was applied to the finished piece. The barrels and breach chamber lock in place magnetically [...]
The AER9 Laser Rifle was a commission piece built for Bethesda Softworks, the studio behind the hit game Fallout 3.
The Little Sister Syringe and Big Daddy Suit, both from 2K Studio’s Bioshock, were created as personal projects in 2009. While the syringe uses mostly found objects as its base, the bouncer Big Daddy suit was a custom scratchbuild from the ground-up that took nearly two full months to complete. The suit is designed to [...]
Created as a limited, exclusive run of eleven for the playerbase of Final Fantasy XI, the Kraken Club is a solid resin cast with a steel spine measuring about 24” long. Ten of the eleven replicas produced were hand-painted in the scheme shown at right, while the eleventh (shown in the gallery below) was finished [...]
Created in about two months, the Portal Gun is a copy of the main implement used in VALVe Studio’s 2007 release, Portal. As one of my first major projects, it helped spark my appreciation for props and replica design. This project was revisited twice more before the final version was completed in April of 2011. [...]
Mr. Destructoid is the mascot of gaming blog Destructoid.com and alter-ego of its founder, Yanier Gonzalez. The helmet had to be capable of withstanding international transportation, multiple appearances at annual conventions, and the occasional Destructoid office party. With those uses in mind, it was designed to be as ironically indestructible as possible. To date, this [...]
