Hi I’m Moonkitty and I have a serious BioShock addiction. I probably mentioned that in my other blog about my previous cosplay from the game 🙂 Bioshock Splicer

Infinite,the 3rd game in the series,may well be my favorite. The story line is very different from the first two games and then comes full circle. It is brilliant.

“Will the circle be unbroken??”

The game itself hosts some spectacular characters and baddies but I looked to Burial At Sea and the reemergence of Splicers for my most recent cosplay. Leadhead Splicers in the expansion may well be creeper than the ones we see in the earlier games. I really was digging the mask on this one on the lady below here sooo I decided to recreate it.

I usually challenge myself to $20 cosplay,if you haven’t seen my other blog posts,BUT for this…I challenged myself to basically a closet cosplay. I wanted to see if I could do it on no budget at all. So many people think cosplay takes SO much money. It doesn’t have to! I did indeed make it on a $0 budget from things I already had. In this blog,I’ll also show you pricing for the items if I had to purchase them.

First off…The Mask:

Crucial element…it’s almost the whole character. There are so many ways you can accomplish it. You can paper mache the whole thing or you can do what I did and cut a mask I already had in two pieces,utilizing the half I wanted. I hear people complaining about the price of mod podge…DON’T USE MOD PODGE. Use .50 Elmers glue and some water. It’s the same thing for this project. I use the tin foil to put it in bc after I’m done for the day I can close that up and it doesn’t dry up overnight.

We are going to cover over the eye whole and make the mask smooth. I cut the strings from the back of this one to reuse later. Once we make it smooth then it’s time to cut it into the shape you want. After that we are going to draw a cartoon type eye to cut out and paste on top. AND then undo what we did by making the mask look paper mache-ed…like she made the thing out of vanity and craziness.

It doesn’t matter at this point that it looks like you pasted the eye…we are going to rough it up. Using the photo of the splicers mask I wadded up more paper mache and placed it on the mask. Coloring on the rest of the mask is easy. It’s supposed to look weird anyhow.

Next up we are just forming the mask. layers are good. Shape the mask into it’s basic shape then have fun. After we age it…no matter what you’ve done…it looks great. For basic weathering I just wanted to discolor it so that it wasn’t copy paper white. For that I used some watercolors in yellow and white but you could just use yellow and white acrylic paints and water.

After that add on more effects in dark color paints. Using them around the edges looks great..gives a burned effect. Go wild..it just needs to look old. I left my eye white though bc it seemed to still be pristine in the photos from the game. Then add the strings back to the backside. I used Elmers as a base them hot glued all over that and it held up.

So if you don’t have ANY of these items on hand then the mask will run you:

1.)Base itself: Nothing if you make it from paper mache. Anywhere from .99-$5.00 if you buy on in store. 2.) Colored pencils…crayons…for “makeup” depending on brand .99- $5.00 3.) Paint ( I used yellow/white/brown/black) Acrylic paints run .50 a piece or cheaper. $2 for this. 4.) Elmer’s glue for mod podge .50 5.) Paper of any kind (newspaper,copy paper). Anyone has access to free paper. So in purchased material this part of the cosplay runs : Low end:$4.50 and High end : $12.50

The Gun: I will tell you that me and the gun did not get along AT ALL. Since I’m doing this on a $0 budget I couldn’t buy a new piece so I dug into my commission collection and found something vaguely similar to the Hand Cannon used in game. Now the problem was that I couldn’t use permanent parts bc everything would need to come back off.

Using black,silver,gun-metal,brown and gold paint…me and this gun danced around for three days. I was shooting for an overexaggerated version to look intense in photos.

I won’t go into what didn’t work but each time it sucked it led me closer to what I wanted…which was to square off the roundness. I ended up doing this by organizing cardboard around the silencer then paper mache-ing a ruler to make the new barrel. I painted this as best I could to match the gun in-game.

The painters tape didn’t help at all. Paints I used. The gun metal and metallic gold worked best At first I had two box shapes,the large to cover the silencer and a smaller one under it. I ended up taking this off and organizing the squared off silencer part into two sections using the ruler.

After you’ve added the detail parts and distressed this to your liking,hopefully you are close to something you like. I feel like I did pretty darn good with what I had! haha. If you’re using this at a con you may want to do a lot more to it but I’m using this in a photo shoot so I knew what I could get away with.

So if you’re buying all the parts I used:

1.)Nerf gun: I thrift these for anywhere from .99-$7 2.)Paint: Brown,Gun Metal,Silver,Gold….$2 3.)A ruler: .99 4.)Cardboard….use a cereal box or something. You shouldn’t have to buy this.

Low End: $3.50 and High end: $9.50

The Dress:

Simple and funnn. You need a dress,maybe you have this…maybe you thrift it…something cheap you can jack up. Rips are wonderful,make sure you cut the hem and fray it out. I used charcoal and water and then spray blood.

Cost to you if you purchase items :

1.) Dress: Thrift this,don’t pay more than $7. I paid $3 for this one at some point. 2.) Charcoal: If you don’t have a fireplace (which I do) then you can buy it for $3.99 at Michael’s…or use something use. 3.) Spray Blood: My favorite kind…. $7.99 Party City. BUT you don’t have to use this. There are cheaper options.

Total: Low end: $12 and High end: $19.99

Added accessories : Fake pearls,garter belt/ripped stockings/makeup/goodwill shoes/slip

1.) Makeup I’ve had forever. Basically just a blue for my other eye and bright blush for my cheek. I took black makeup and sponged it around my face then overused the lipstick outside of my lips. I’ll bet you already have this stuff. 2.) Shoes: Thrift these,no more than $5 if you don’t already have them. 3.) Hose/garter: Garters aren’t necessary. Hose I liked bc they looked wrecked. Buy some cheap ones ,no more than $5,and call it a day after you wreck um! 4.) Necklace: Walmart has cheap pearls always. $5 tops 5.) Slip: I used a vintage lace top slip underneath,not necessary but I loved the look when I added blood. I don’t recommend buying one for this but maybe using an old bra that you can get dirty or a lace top tank top if you have such. Yes I put spray blood on a vintage slip. AND every drop came out with a clorox bleach pen. #magical. Total pricing for cosplay : Low End: $35. High End: $56.99 – estimation with you having to buy most pieces. I’m willing to bet most people have a lot of these items already though!

In the end I rose to the challenge and made my cosplay using no money at all. I wanted to buy a new gun each day I worked on this one haha. BUT I think it looks great on camera.

Image by Kenneth A Kivett Photography, on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Kenneth-A-Kivett-Photography-215756471782938/?fref=ts

It’s better than I ever imagined and we had a super fun shoot 🙂 I love having creative people in my life who also dig on weird things!

That’s all for now! Happy creating!