Updated: Feb 17, 2018
Roadhog's Chain Hook is pretty leathal, when used correctly. But how do you go about creating it in real life?
For me, the first thing I do when looking at creating any prop is to see what has been made in the past. What worked for others? How can I spend my time creating the best prop possible? Use other people's experiences and learn from them.
Pattern If I had time, I would create all of my patterns by hand. But you know what? If I find one online, that someone has clearly put their time into and that is fit for purpose, I'm not against buying a pattern. At the end of the day, things like scale can be tricky, so if I am able to download a pattern I'm all for it. For Roadhog's hook I came across a pattern by Evil Ted. I was ablt to quickly download a pattern and get straight to crafting. The sizing was perfect and I didn't need to fuss. For $3.00, I'm not going to complain. I highly reccomed looking at his other patterns as well as his youtube videos. If you're looking to see a Master of the craft, check him out. For a link to the pattern, click here.
Materials
What should this be made from? I don't have a 3D printer, so although this works for a lot of people, I'lkl have to do it the old fashioned way with EVA foam. EVA Foam was my go-to when I was making my Tracer cosplay, so I figure I'll stick with what I know. Where do I purchase such a thing? Luckily a family member has a Costco card, so I use the interlocking EVA mats they sell. They aren't always the easiest things to use as thye only have one smooth side, but they work well for me!
So this would make up the top part of the hook. For the handle, I want something more stable, so I ehaded over to my local hardware store and bought some pipe. A quick saw down to size and voila! The perfect handle.
Here is the hook currently. I started by tracing out the Hook pattern - out of respect for Ted's work, I'm not going to post up an image of this - onto EVA foam mats. I ended up cutting out three and gluing them together with ALPHA THIXOFIX. Last Cosplay I used a glue gun, which was time consuming and, when worn in high heat, started to actually melt when I was wearing the cosplay. This time, I'm not taking any chances!
Once the glue had dried I traced the pattern back onto the hook and started hacking away at it with a craft knife. I went through a lot of blades. EVA foam seems to blunt blades extremly quickly. Once the shape started to take form I got braver with hacking more and more foam away.
As you can see, it's very rough currently. The next stage should smooth things over, when I get out the heat gun and one of my favourite materiels to work with, worbla!
Cheers Love! x
One of the more unique items Roadhog carries wih him is this Hog Gun Holster. Look at this thing! The character designers of Overwatch are simply amazing in my eyes. Its these details that make the characters so good! Now, unlike the hook I was unable to find a Pattern for this that was premade. Not only that, but when doing research there wasn't much on this item at all. He doesn't even use the gun in the holster in the game, so it's a strange accessory!
To help me see the prop clearer I loaded up the game and had a closer look of the prop on the skins area of the game. This means I could see some details which aren't visable on the image above. But for now, I needed to get the overall shape and pattern made up.
Originally I wanted to make this from faux leather, but creating the curves of the holster in fabric wouldn't have been clean and would have needed quite a few darts. Instead, I concentrated on the pattern first whilst I worked out how I was going to make the prop.
Here you can see how I did it. So, I used the old grid mehtod to try and get an acurate template made up. I think it worked pretty well! A nice easy way to create a flat pattern that should be to size, once you've worked out how big to scale it up to. To work this out I worked out roughly how big I wnated it in relation to my own body size and went from there. After creating this I decided to create the holster from foam, rather then try and sew it up. This would give it a sturdier finish and I can hopefully get all the details done nicely too.
Here you can see the two pieces cut out and slotted together to make the base of the holster. I drew around the pieces so I know exactly where the piece that lays over the top will go.
I wanted to inlay the top piece slightly so scoured around the area I wanted to cut out. I then used a craft knife to half the thickness of the foam, you can see this in the first photo, where the blade is hidden in the foam.
I then marked the back of the foam so I knew where to glue. In the third photo you can see glue in both the inlay and on the piece that slots in.
I then managed to skip ahead a bit forgetting to take photos - sorry! You can see here I have glued the pieces together, using a strip on the underside. I then added another strip on top so I can smooth it all down and get a nice curve.
I added a circular snout to the end of the holster, something that is visible in the game and not in the reference pictures that are online. You can see I have started to smooth down the edges roughly. There is also a top view so you can see all the layers used. I have a small piece slotted between near the top to make sure it keeps its shape for now. Phew! That's it for now! I'll be smoothing it down more and adding the top piece soon. Then I need to start working on the gun itself. I'm not sure if I am going to make a full gun, or just the handle. Time will tell. Seeing as there are no actual images of the gun itself, this could be tricky. However, through some research online apparently it resembles Reaper's gun? Something I need to look into more I think. Cheers Love! x
Roadhog's Chain Hook is pretty leathal, when used correctly. But how do you go about creating it in real life? For me, the first thing I do when looking at creating any prop is to see what has been made in the past. What worked for others? How can I spend my time creating the best prop possible? Use other people's experiences and learn from them. Pattern If I had time, I would create all of my patterns by hand. But you know what? If I find one online, that someone has clearly put their time into and that is fit for purpose, I'm not against buying a pattern. At the end of the day, things like scale can be tricky, so if I am able to download a pattern I'm all for it. For Roadhog's hook I came across a pattern by Evil Ted. I was ablt to quickly download a pattern and get straight to crafting. The sizing was perfect and I didn't need to fuss. For $3.00, I'm not going to complain. I highly reccomed looking at his other patterns as well as his youtube videos. If you're looking to see a Master of the craft, check him out. For a link to the pattern, click here.
Materials
What should this be made from? I don't have a 3D printer, so although this works for a lot of people, I'lkl have to do it the old fashioned way with EVA foam. EVA Foam was my go-to when I was making my Tracer cosplay, so I figure I'll stick with what I know. Where do I purchase such a thing? Luckily a family member has a Costco card, so I use the interlocking EVA mats they sell. They aren't always the easiest things to use as thye only have one smooth side, but they work well for me!
So this would make up the top part of the hook. For the handle, I want something more stable, so I ehaded over to my local hardware store and bought some pipe. A quick saw down to size and voila! The perfect handle.
Here is the hook currently. I started by tracing out the Hook pattern - out of respect for Ted's work, I'm not going to post up an image of this - onto EVA foam mats. I ended up cutting out three and gluing them together with ALPHA THIXOFIX. Last Cosplay I used a glue gun, which was time consuming and, when worn in high heat, started to actually melt when I was wearing the cosplay. This time, I'm not taking any chances!
Once the glue had dried I traced the pattern back onto the hook and started hacking away at it with a craft knife. I went through a lot of blades. EVA foam seems to blunt blades extremly quickly. Once the shape started to take form I got braver with hacking more and more foam away.
As you can see, it's very rough currently. The next stage should smooth things over, when I get out the heat gun and one of my favourite materiels to work with, worbla!
Cheers Love! x
