Cosplay Tail

March 30, 2024March 30, 2024 Lutin

Please note, this material is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guide on how to create the designs. Please read our disclaimer.

One thing we have always been jealous of is tails. Cats and dogs flaunt them as they strut around waving them in the air. So when making our dragon costume, we wanted a moving tail that seemed alive. Not a dead tail but one that had a personality of its own.

We searched through our past builds and thought the joint work on our little wooden robots would do the job. We also so some cool designs on the web like this one.

Parts needed to build a cosplay, wooden, flexible tail.

This build just needed some wood, bolts, wood glue, rubber bands and lots of duct tape.

sistering two wooden dowels

Since we wanted the tail segments to interlocked we glued two pieces of 2 X2 wooden dowels together. Be careful not to put too much wooden glue- it just needs a thin coat. Give it two days to dry; you don’t want it to come apart when you start cutting.

Measure out the segments carefully. You can vary the lengths depending one what look you are going for. We went with four inches length on the top part and one inch slots on the backside.

Here is a view of the final design. Each segment will have the same “hat” shape.

Each hat will fit together in an alternation pattern. We tried making the segment in “z-shape” but it did not move as organically as the “hat-shape”.

After carefully measuring, we used our trusty drill press to make the holes. Try to make a tight fit for the bolts. If the holes are too big the tail may stick over time as the bolt cuts into the wood.

Now it is time to assemble! It fits together like puzzle pieces. Make sure to put bees wax on the segments to protect the wood.

Now on to the belt for the tail. To create a base for the tail we used cardboard and high grade duct tape. An earlier build with standard duct tape did not last very long. First cut out a piece of cardboard about 5 by 8 to help guide you as you “weave” the duct tape. The cardboard does not provide any real support but just helps you remember the shape. The bigger the base, the more stable the tail will be.

Weave strips of duct tape alternating between vertical and horizontal directions. You want to use several layer, enough that it can support the tail.

Next careful cut four slits in the base for the belts. We recommend two belts but one top belt can work depending on your custom. We used camping stapes for the belts with fast release clips to making taking the tail on and off easy. Here is another design that we borrowed element from.

Next punch two holes in the base for the bolts to secure the L-braces. The L-braces will attach the tail to the belt. Use big washers when attaching the L-braces to prevent them from twisting into the duct-tape.

Now, attached the tail using four wood screws. Use small screw and drill guide holes; you do not want to split the wood.

Top view of a cosplay, wooden, flexible tail.

Finally, add two rubber bands at the base to give it some life and your tail is ready to be flaunted!

Back of a cosplay, wooden, flexible tail.

Here is a back view showing how the base looks when completed.

Two cosplay, wooden, flexible tails side by side.

Here are both tails completed!

Happy Creating!

Making Mandrake Roots

September 10, 2023October 7, 2023 Lutin

Inspired by the character Professor Sprout (from Harry Potter) and this wonderful article, we set out to make our mandrake root for Halloween.

Please note, this material is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guide on how to create the designs.

Please read our disclaimer.

Mandrake roots are a mythical plant that has a root that looks like a person. They scream when they get pulled out of the ground, and hearing the screams can knock you out, or even kill you. They are featured in Harry Potter, but were invented before that. For more information, go to the article above.

For our mandrake roots, we used a type of foam-like clay called Foam-Mo. Foam-mo is really useful for making organic details like plants and animals. It air-drys and can be painted, but has to be sprayed with a plastic spray, or else it will disintegrate. We recommend using several layers of the under-coat spray for maximum protection. We painted the mandrakes with acrylic paint.

DIY mandrake root

Make sure to use a nonporous surface for a build table or the Foam-Mo will stick to it once it dries. We used old cutting boards.

To make the mandrakes, we made ovals for the head and body, and tubes for the legs. We also rolled out thinner tubes for the tree branches and flattened small diamond shapes for the leaves. We used a pencil to made the lines in the leaves and to make the eyes, lines on the body, and the mouth. Remember, no two mandrakes are the same, so make them all slightly different.

Foam-mo is pretty delicate, so we needed to be careful when attaching stuff. To make it hold it’s shape, we used stuff to prop up the mandrake roots while they were drying. to make the edged look like roots, we gently pulled out thin strands of Foam-Mo at the end of all of the limbs.

After the Foam-Mo dries, we sprayed it with a plastic spray and painted it with acrylic paint. We painted them all slightly different shades of brown and green.

Please DO NOT water your mandrake, even if they tell you to! They are definitely not waterproof.

Happy creating!

The Making of the Hand of Glory

July 9, 2023July 9, 2023 Lutin

Inspired by Harry Potter, we made our own Hand of Glory out of Foam-Mo and paint for Halloween.

Please note, this material is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guide on how to create the designs. Please read our disclaimer.

Foam-Mo is a foamy clay that we use for many of our projects. It is great for making organic stuff like plants and animals. After it dries, you spray it with a plastic coating to make it last longer. You can paint over the plastic coating.

For our first attempts, We used our own hands as a model to make them, but we felt like they didn’t look very much like magical objects. They were also very flat and 2d looking, not like the real hand of glory at all.

For our final hand of glory, we made the fingers more long and skinny to make it both more realistic and creepy. To get the shape, we rested it over a bowl to dry. We also added more texture to make it look more like dry skin instead of making it smooth. We also defined the knuckles more to make it more creepy. like it is trying to grab you. We also added more of a wrist to make it more like it is in the movie, and so we could easily mount it.

Once we finished the hand, we made a wooden stand for it to be mounted on. We stained it and sanded it to make it look distressed, and made a wooden plaque. We attached the Hand of Glory to the stand by screwing it in.

DIY hand of glory — The completed Hand of Glory

This is it completed! It is a great addition to our Halloween decoration cabinet, just don’t touch it, unless you want it to grab you.

Happy Creating!

The Making of George the Mummy

February 11, 2023July 9, 2023 Lutin

We wanted to give people a scare on Halloween and was inspired by a visit to Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum so we set out to make our own mummy, George the mummy (he got too curious).

Please note, this material is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guide on how to create the designs. Please read our disclaimer.

For the mummy, we used:

A roll of burlap fabric
Lots of brown shipping paper
Chicken wire
Aluminum fense wire
5 1/4×1/4X 5 Wood
Twine
nuts and bolts.

We needed it to be pretty light so we didn’t use a lot of wood and padded the skeleton with lots of shipping paper. We had been storing the shipping paper for years and had bags of it in a closet for just such a project. It is perfect because it looks like old dried skin!

We wanted George to be flexible so we could place him through out the house and even take him on car trips.

This is one of the joints that we made. George is fully articulate but not powered like our robots.

We cut small pieces of the wood off to make it more rounded then sanded the edges to get a clean joint. Since these joints would not be seen we used only rough grade sandpaper.

We drilled holes in the joints so that we could put them together. To drill the holes we clamped the two pieces together to assure the holes would align.

We used a rubber washer between the two pieces so George would not be too wobbly. After screwing the bolts down we crimped end to make sure they would not come undone after George was finished.

We used chicken wire to start making the shape of the head. The chicken wire was so sharp so we had to be extra careful not to cut ourselves. Best to let a parent do this part. One trick we used was to warp the end pieces in duck tape to make them less pocky.

We molded the head into shape. We recomend wearing thick gardening gloves because the chicken wire is very sharp.

We wrapped it in paper to make it less sharp and because the paper looks like dry skin. The paper alos helps makes the linbs more circlular.

The head fully wrapped in paper.

We secured the paper by tightly wrapping it in twine. we used twine because it is strong, but also because it is the same color as the paper, so if a little shows it would blend in with the paper.

We wrapped it up in burlap after we finished securing the paper. We did several layers so it wouldn’t come off and towards the end split the burlap into multiple strips

After the head was done it was on to the rest of the body. The wooden skeleton we made as simple ae possible and used bolts and bolts with crimp washers to make sure it would not come loose after the wrapping for completed.

Now assemble the skeleton and wrap the body in the same fashion as the head. Wrapping the hands and feet proved to be very hard, and we ended up not making wooden fingers, we just wrapped the arm and secured the ends.

Here is the completed skeleton fully covered in paper and tied together with twine. We needed to remove the final wrapping from the head in order to better integrate it to the body. Also, we tried using left over hand from out Hand of Glory project but in the end, they did not look as real as we want.

Now you can see George out of the workshop! We originally tried to make him be able to stand up on his own, but that would mean either making the body weirdly small or making the feet gigantic. We ended up attaching him to a lamp post instead.

In this photo, George is sitting on a stationary bicycle. This shows off how George’s limbs can move and that he can be detached from the lamppost. It also shows that George is about the same size as a normal human, which makes him more realistic and creepy.

In this video, George is taking down Christmas decorations with Number Three, showing off how well he stands and how much he enjoys wearing hats. He is also sturdy enough to hold Christmas tree ornaments without his arm bending.

Happy Creating!