Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Sailor Cosmos Staff Tutorial




Materials
·         ¾” x 5’ CPVC pipe
·         Darice 100mm plastic ball
·         Darice 60mm plastic ball
·         Two 11/4”/31.8mm Doll Head/Knob [Wood Ball]
·         One 11/2”/38.1mm Doll Head/Knob [Wood Ball]
·         One Wood Ball [larger than 11/2”/38.1mm, size is your preference]
·         One bag of Metallic Crinkle
·         Merry Mini’s 3D Star Ornament [I bought four, three to be used on the costume itself]
·         Two Bead Landing 8”/20.3cm Glass Pearls
·         Two 9” x  12” Fun Foam ¼” thick
·         One 12 oz. can of Gloss
·         *Two  3 oz. can of Gloss White
·         One 2fl.oz. of White Acrylic Paint
·         One 2fl.oz. of Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint
·         Hot Glue Gun
·         Krazy Glue
·          
*There is only one shown in the picture because I had originally bought one can. However, you could still slightly see the text on the pipe after the can was used so I bought a second can and added more coats to completely cover the text.

Spray paint the CPVC pipe white using the Gloss White can.  Spray on as many coats as needed [let the pipe dry sometimes before spraying more coats] until the text on the CPVC pipe is completely covered and no longer visible in the slightest.  Once the pipe is dry, spray it with the Gloss.  Wait for it to dry before spraying it once more with the gloss.  Make sure you have everything completely covered with the gloss, if not, go over it once more until you’re satisfied.
While waiting for the staff to dry, start on the rest of the staff!



Paint two 11/4”/31.8mm wood balls white.
Paint one 11/2”/38.1mm and the slightly larger wood ball metallic Gold.
*In this picture it’s hard to tell, but it’s easier to see in a picture later, but I decided before adding these to the staff that it would look best with two of the smaller balls rather than only one of them.  I do not have pictures of these.
Wait about ten minutes for the balls to dry before adding another coat.



On the plastic balls, remove the knob on the top.  Cut this really carefully, giving tiny cuts to one side of the knob, and go back and forth between each sides until it either snaps or is loose enough to cut off.  If there is a little extra that you can’t cut off, don’t worry, it will be covered by glue later.



Stuff the big ball with the Metallic Crinkle.  This may take a little while because it’s annoying to shove it all in there.  Make sure when you close the ball, you line up the spot where you cut off the knob.



Open the small ball and in one half, put a dab of glue in between where you cut the knob.  Place the 3D star inside – make sure one of the tips is in the glue [this is to make sure it doesn’t move around as much] and hold it until it is dried.  Do not put the Metallic Crinkle in this one!  Again, make sure when you close the ball, you line up the spot where you cut off the knob. 



Glue the two plastic balls together where you cut off the knobs.  Hold together until dried.  Reinforce with krazy glue.



In Adobe Photoshop, I outlined one of the wings on Cosmos’ staff and enlarged it to make a printable life-size version.  I cut out the pattern, taped it to the fun foam and cut.  I repeated the same step for the other wing.





Putting the wings aside, take four pearls, each a different size, and hot glued them together along the contour of the big ball and repeate this step to make another set of pearls. 



Once the pearls were dry, place them along the bottom edge of the wings, trace the curve and cut out the curve on the wings. 



Hot glue the pearls to the foam wings and then attached them to the big ball once dried.



Going back to the gold and white balls painted earlier, place the white ball down on its flat side, put a dab of glue from the hot glue gun on the top center and place the corresponding gold bar on top.

·         The 11/4”/31.8mm white ball to the 11/2”/38.1mm gold ball.
·         The 11/4”/31.8mm white ball to the larger gold ball.

*In this picture it’s easier to see, but I decided before adding these to the staff that it would look best with two of the smaller balls rather than only one of them.  I do not have pictures of these.



Once the CPVC pipe is completely dried and glossed, it is now time to assemble the staff.  Taking the large gold and small white balls, hot glue the big gold ball to one end of the staff.  Hold until dried.



Next, hot glue the other set of gold and white balls to the staff topper [the one with the wings on it].  Glue the gold ball directly in between the wings on the bottom of the ball.  Hold until dry. 



Lastly, hot glue the white ball to the staff and hold until dry.

Now that your staff is complete, go back and add glue of your preference to reinforce anything weak [such as the wings and the ball with the star on top].
Also, to your preference, you may add feathers to the wings.  I will be doing this eventually when I order feathers, and when I do, I will be updating this tutorial to include how to add the feathers.

Enjoy your Sailor Cosmos staff!


Total time for staff thus far: 5 hours