Makonde Dagger Build

The Makonde Dagger was designed by artist Jonah Lobe to commemorate 250K YouTube subscribers for Punished Props.

Bill Doran built an absolutely beautiful one in a video you can check out here, and then issued the challenge to the PropTarts to build their own. Here's what I did.

Due to work, a few conventions I was preparing new coplays for, and a vacation, I had to wait until Labor Day weekend to start work on this project. A very generous PropTart with Fusion 360 skills far beyond mine uploaded a model for the dagger onto Thingiverse. It's an excellent model and I tried slicing it but could not for the life of me get the blade to fit on my 3D printing bed. So seeing as how I probably wouldn't be able to complete a full size build anyway, I decided to make a 50% scale version because you know, it would be adorable. So I printed out the sliced parts on my Prusa I3 MK2S using MatterHackers Pro PLA filament in gold.

Baby Groot Project

Baby Groot was the scene stealer in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, and I decided to make one for a Secret Santa gift exchange!

Toy Gun Repaint in 60 Seconds

I needed a gift for a White Elephant party so I got a cheap toy gun from Five Below and repainted it. Here's a 60 second recap on how I did it.

3D Printed Justice League Batarang

I apparently really like batarangs. But who doesn't?!? I made one out of foam last year and I 3D printed one about a month ago. Now, after seeing Justice League, I felt the urge to print another one. This time, it's the latest Affleck version from Batman V Superman and Justice League. Here's the Flash asking if he can keep it.

Game of Thrones Hand of the King 3D Print Timelapse

"I drink and I print things... that's what I do..."

Go Prop Yourself - Lightsaber!!!

A few months ago, I built a lightsaber out of $20 worth of parts from the Dollar Store. This was the start of a series of monthly challenges by the PropTarts, a propmaking group I'm a part of on FaceBook. Here's the compilation video I made for that challenge.

Space Gun!

Space Gun!!! Repainting a toy gun was the latest challenge from the PropTarts, a propmaking group I'm a part of on FaceBook. I decided to use this "Space Laser Light-Up Blaster" I bought from Walmart as my base.

Chirrut Imwe Staff Build

Donnie Yen plays the badass, blind, warrior monk Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and I cosplayed as him at Emerald City Comicon. I started this cosplay by making his staff so here's how I did it.

The actual length of his staff varies throughout the movie so I decided to use this image as my reference. The overall length would be from the ground to my armpit, and the midpoint would be around where my hand is.

Mini Halo Sniper Rifle Project

I really should have spent this weekend working on a cosplay for Emerald City Comic Con, but I ended up working on this little project. It's a mini Halo sniper rifle! I started by finding an image of it (and a rocket launcher for a future build) and printing it out on card stock.

The basic premise is cutting out the image, tracing the basic shape onto foam, then building it out in layers. I used 6mm foam as a base, 3mm foam for the accents, wooden dowels for the barrel, and a pen cap & tire valve cap for the sight.

Lightsaber Build

One of the prop making groups I belong to, The PropTarts of Punished Props, put forth a challenge. Build a lightsaber using only $20 worth of materials bought from one store and only using small hand tools to build it. Above is my finished lightsaber. Below is how I built it.

So I chose Dollar Tree to purchase my stuff. I actually made two trips. The first time I went, I picked out mostly cylindrical objects without having a clear plan of what I wanted. That served to bite me in the ass because when I got home and plotted out my lightsaber, it just looked kind of boring. So I went back to Dollar Tree and purchased more items, this time picking things with textures.