#bow tutorial

This bow is actually my favourite cosplay prop I’ve ever made, so I’m actually so so stoked to talk about it, and also probably destroy all your preconceptions about its construction.

I made it the night before the con on a whim (I realised that I was missing a primary weapon and being a Sniper without a primary weapon just felt silly) so I had to make do exclusively with the materials I had on hand. Therefore, at its core, the bow is a metal ruler held in a bow-like shape by a piece of a ps2 controller cord. I had to rebuy the ruler later, because I do need it for work lol.

Okay, but it still looks so accurate, right? How did this happen?

Basically, I had 3 requirements for this particular prop, 1. It had to be as close to its in-game look, 2. It had to appear functional (as in, the arms had to be flexible, not the string) and 3. It had to be safe, completely unable to actually launch an arrow. I really wanted to be able to do the “ready to shoot” pose without being a potential hazard. By some divine miracle, my 1 meter metal ruler (as seen on pic 1) was exactly the right length and width to be the base of the whole construction, and by being a flexible sheet of metal it solved problem 2 (functional bendable arms). It also gave the whole bow nice weight, like, you hold it in your hand and it feels like a real thing.

Pic 2.↓ So here’s the base of the construction: I wrapped the ruler in paper painter’s tape and connected the ends with a piece of clear tape, to work out a good shape for the bow.

Pic 3.↓ I believe this was the blueprint I was using for the measurements of the whole thing. My bow is slightly larger (I believe the official height is around 99cm and mine is 1,06m, but it’s close enough. My main aim was to get the proportions right.

You can also notice that I gave up on trying to match the exact thickness of the arms (in the reference the bow goes visibly thinner towards the middle). I decided it wasn’t worth it to try to build bulk on the arms, it probably wouldn’t look good and then it would most likely mess with the functionality I so much wanted. So I just allowed the thickness of the ruler (+the wrap) to be the final one and redesigned the end bits slightly so it would all make sense.

And I do think it was for the best, the bow works great and you really need to look at the ref and my bow side by side to notice the changes!

Pic 4.↓ The inside construction of the bow, the way the bowstring (aforementioned ps2 controller cord) attaches to the arms is really super basic, I just created this very sturdy D shape I could use as a base for further sculpting.

Pic 5.↓ The ends of the bow are the biggest lie in this whole construction. Each is made of two separate shapes carved from very hard insulation foam (the kind that you buy in giant sheets in a construction store). They are the exact width of the ruler, so once it’s sandwiched between them and wrapped in more painter’s tape, it looks like it’s one solid shape. As a bonus, this whole foam sandwich further secures the bowstring. Then I wrapped it in scraps of pleather leftover from making the vest.

I believe I got the shapes from laying the D shaped bow base on a piece of paper and then figuring out what would be a good shape for the ends. At this point game accuracy was more of a general direction, the main point was to have the pieces of foam structurally sound enough to not break when I try to attach them, and to form a pleasing bow-like general shape

Pic 6,7.↓ The middle piece is then another piece of foam cut to shape, wrapped in pleather, decorated with thin craft foam and hot glued to the middle of the construction and then secured with isolation tape (honestly, the scrappy aesthetics of TF2 weapons were a godsend here, I could just wrap stuff in tape and it would look right). For little touches of authenticity I used actual metal nails and screws I had laying around to secure any stray bits of pleather or craft foam in place.

Pic 8,9,10.↓ To create the impression that the bowstring attaches to the arms with those little loops I crafted fake loops of the same cord and taped them in place so they can pretend they have a function and also hide the real construction. You can still see the bowstring disappear inside the arm, but you have to look pretty close!

Pic 11,12.↓ And then the wood look is just a bit of clever paint job and weathering on top of the painter’s tape wrapped around the ruler. Another little blessing was that the tape warped slightly in response to wet acrylic paint, which created a surprisingly believable, slightly bumpy wood texture.

I believe that’s it for the bow! It really isn’t that complicated of a prop (I literally made it from scratch in the span of a few hours), mostly just clever cosplay engineering and a lot of luck with the materials. Ah, and the ps2 controller cord was used 1. because it was thick enough to show in pictures and 2. It was the only bowstring material I tried that was unable to shoot an arrow. Every other string I tested launched it at least a few meters forward…

Now, the arrows (pic 13).↓ I was really pressed for time, so I made only 1 full arrow, the rest were just sticks with feathers, no heads, since they would be stuck inside the quiver the whole time anyway. My main objectives here were 1. They have to be sturdy and impossible to break, 2. Comfortable to hold, won’t stain my skin or my costume and 3. Incapable of causing any real damage

They are made out of black pvc pipes cut to length and spray painted brown (I didn't want to detail the “wood” to avoid potential staining problems). 

Also ignore the brown tape on the main arrow. It's a recent addition, I put it there to cover some stray bits of glue after I had to detach a smissmass ornament. Since I’m now using this bow as a reference piece for my job, I need it to handle as comfortably as possible.

Pic 14.↓ The feathers are cut from thin white craft foam, painted and hot glued to the shaft (not the most secure way tbh, smooth pvc hates hot glue, you should find a better solution for this or at least sand the pvc to make it rougher). Then the backs of the arrows (behind the feathers, the parts you’d hold while shooting) are wrapped in black isolation tape, both for game accuracy and for increased comfort when holding.

Pic 15.↓ Then the arrowhead is also basically just a foam sandwich over the end of the arrow. It bends like crazy and I would love to make it from something more solid, but as I said, safety was very important for me here. 

The arrows are super lightweight and mostly comfortable to handle. The main problem with them is that due to how big the feathers are, they catch on each other inside the quiver, they are weighed back which causes them to fall out, and then the dumb feathers also like to detach themselves from the shafts. My advice is to tape the arrows you’re not going to use to the inside of your quiver, and then only keep the one intended for posing loose, so you can always reach for it comfortably. I made my main arrow longer than the other ones, so I would always know which one to grab even without looking.

As for the quiver (pic 16↓)... It was the last prop I made, it was already morning, I had to catch a train in like 2 hours. So it was a shoddy job, not very functional and I was not satisfied with it at all. It’s also the only piece of this whole cosplay I have since dismantled and thrown out, because it was so bad and unwieldy and also got crushed into unusability at some point. A whole mess.

Saying all this, I still believe my main idea was sound, it’s just the lack of time for proper fittings that doomed this particular piece. So I’ll still take time to explain how it worked (and what could be done better).

Pic 17.🡩 It’s made of 6 separate cardboard panels, each separately covered with pleather. Then the panels were sewn together to form the boxy shape of the quiver. The pleather was of course painted to get that weathered look. 

Since the panels were sewn and not glued, the whole thing was kinda wobbly and really wanted to fold onto itself, so I stuffed the whole bottom with plastic bags for additional support. It also provided me with something I could stick my fake arrows into, to keep them in place. 

The main problem with this thing was the strap I used to put it on me. I really wanted a (functional) buckle in front, so I opted to use a real leather belt I thrifted some time before. The belt was threaded through the holes I cut in the back panel and secured with lots of hot glue. Now, because of the lack of time, I didn’t do proper fittings, and it turned out that the belt should be attached at a different angle and much higher towards the top of the panel to avoid having it just turn over horizontally, spilling the arrows everywhere. Once I attached it to the top edge of the panel with a clip, it got better at holding its position. (pic 18)↓

It still didn't want to hold its shape very much though, and it bunched my vest, which looked kinda ugly.. So I think what could be improved is maybe gluing the whole construction instead of sewing it, or using thicker cardboard as a base? Or maybe just eva foam in the first place? And then finding a way to attach it to the top part of the vest, so the belt could be looser, therefore leaving the vest in its proper shape. It really is something that requires a bit of workshopping without an impending deadline and a sleepless night…

STEP 1: SKETCH THAT MOFO. I tend to free hand all my designs, but if you look hard enough on the interwebz you can probably find a real pattern. 

STEP 2: MAKE SURE THE THING IS THE RIGHT SIZE. This is important!!! You cannot just take measurements from another person, the weapon must be proportional to you! If you are very tall or very short, your weapon is going to look weird if you make it using cannonical dimensions...if you can find them at all. 

STEP 3: STRUCTURAL SUPPORT. I used cardboard and a wooden dowel. Take note of the size of the cardboard; it's about a inch-ish smaller than the pattern on all sides. This is so I have room to build up.

STEP 4: PAPER AND TAPE. This part you can use anything, really. I decided to use balled up paper and masking tape. This is just to make the basic shape. You will want this part to be as light as possible, as the steps later on will add heavier components. 

STEP 5: PAPER MACHE. This step is just to harden the shape you created with the paper and tape. Don't worry about bumps and shit, it's going to be messy and that's ok. 

STEP 6. WOOD FILLER, SANDING, MOD PODGE. Cover that fucker with wood filler. Just all over. Everywhere. Build up the shapes if they didn't form from the paper mache. Then sand it down to be nice and smooth. (repeat as necessary) When you are happy with the shape, cover it with a couple layers of mod podge to protect it.

STEP 7: WORBLAAA. Using the pattern you made earlier, cut out the shapes in foam and cover them in worbla. If you have gaps between the base and the worbla just fill it with more wood filler, or hot glue, or paper....whatever. Then seal it with whatever you want, I used mod podge again. (I wanted a wood-like texture so I took advantage of the brushstrokes you get with mod podge and made sure to only brush horizontally)(if you don't want this texture I would use something better than mod podge) 

STEP 8: PAINT THAT BITCH. I used a spray paint primer to start and then hand painted the rest. All acrylic paint. Then more mod podge as a top coat.

STEP 9: ROCK THAT BOW. It's heavy as shit and very awkward but it looks good in pictures, and that's all that really matters :P