Bioshock Spider Splicer Cosplay

Safety Warning:

I do not advise using plaster directly on the skin. Plaster can be dangerous to use directly on your skin due to the exothermic reaction it undergoes while setting. The heat produced from this reaction can exceed the temperature that may cause skin damage, resulting in potentially serious burns. To avoid injury, do not apply plaster directly onto skin. Use a substitute when available (like a face cast for example) or use a barrier between the plaster and your skin. Do not apply plaster strips in thick coats on skin, even when a barrier is used. If skin feels irritated, remove immediately.

The Mask

The base of the mask was made with plaster wrap cut into small strips. I applied a generous layer of Vaseline to my face as a barrier between my skin and the plaster strips; this keeps the plaster from damaging the skin and getting caught on hairs. A thin layer of the plaster strips was applied to make the basic shape of the mask. The plaster strips dried fairly quickly, and the base of the mask was removed.

The shape of the ears were cut out of craft foam; I left extra foam at the bottom for attachment later. I then curved with a heat gun and covered in plaster strips, leaving the extra foam bare. I curved them a little more than I wanted because the plaster will flatten them a bit due to it's weight. I used hot glue to hold them in place, cut the excess foam, then attached using plaster strips.

I secured the edges by covering with plaster strips and made the details using rolled up plaster strips. I smoothed the surface of the mask by covering with plaster of paris. This allowed me to sand the mask and achieve a very smooth finish, but also added quite a bit of weight to the mask. After sanded, the mask was sealed and painted with acrylic paints and splattered with some fake blood.

I salvaged an elastic from the bottom of my dress, and attached it the same way I attached the foam ears. I also added some foam to the inside of the mask where it pressed on my face (mostly the nose).

Pros: The mask is very sturdy and durable.

Cons: Its quite heavy and since the ears are so tall it adds a bit of pressure on the nose. Adding foam to the inside helps.

The Dress

For the dress, I bought one that I liked at a local thrift store. It had an elastic at the bottom

and I really didn't like the way it looked so I seam ripped the bottom of the dress and removed it. I tattered the ends and added some cuts to the dress. I then soaked it in very thinly watered down yellow and brown acrylic paint to weather it. After letting the paints soak in a bit I rinsed it out and dried the dress. I then focused the on the tattered ends with watered down brown acrylics and let dry. I mixed up some brown and red paint and splattered it on the dress, and focused a bunch around the cuts, adding some more concentrated colour and black.

This dress was not meant to be accurate to those worn in the game.

The Hooks

To make my hooks I drew basic hook and handle shapes on insulation foam board, keeping the size wider than needed. After cutting these out I traced the shapes to make a total of 6 hooks and handles. I glued 3 pieces of each together using contact cement (the contact cement did melt the foam a little, but not badly). When set, I carved the hooks to the basic shape with a utility knife then smoothed with sandpaper.

At this point I realized I forgot to make a sturdy point of attachment. I attached with tooth picks and contact cement, but this wasn't really enough. When set, I sprayed the hooks with Plasti Dip (I used FlexiDip first but it did not set well on the foam), and gave it a metalic gray (steel) base-coat. Good practice would have been to let all this dry before continuing to paint, but I was in a hurry, so a pressed on to the rust. I painted the hooks using brown, red, and yellow acrylic paint to make them look old and rusty. I had many spots on the hooks that were not smooth due to carving too quickly, parts of the foam that had melted from the glue, and uneven spots from the FlexiDip. I darkened the low points of these areas, and focused most of the rust around them to make them look less like mistakes, and more like old damaged, rusted metal. It was sealed with a couple layers of clear coat.

After that, I wrapped some fabric around the spot where the hooks and handles attached and glued it down to help hold them together. Fake blood was added to stabby-stabby points and splattered over the rest. These were not the best props, but they were a huge upgrade to the first hooks I made.

Extras

The first pair of hooks I made using a foam board base and tried using plaster strips and plaster of paris to give it more stability and smooth it out (like the mask). Unfortunately, the plaster cracked and chipped. I was unhappy with the overall shape of the hooks being more like a sickle than a meat hook anyway, so I remade them.

I also Made a pipe for my Sister In-Law who was also splicer cosplaying with me. I cut a piece of PVC pipe to 1.5 feet and attached a bend using PVC cement. I added details using craft foam, smootheing seams with silicone and sharpening edges with bondo. I spray painted a copper / bronze base coat then added a rust effect using red, brown, yellow and black acrylic paint. I added some dimension by adding highlights and lowlights using silver and black acrylic paint and clear coated it when dry. I was very sparse on the highlights but added lots of lowlights, and kept the rust concentrated where dirt and moisture would accumulate.

#Cosplay #Bioshock #Splicer