How to make a Winter Soldier arm or whatever

(detail photo by the illustrious Mr. Snow of tofuSnow cosplay photography!)

So at StarFest this weekend I was wearing my new Winter Soldier cosplay and I had a few people ask me how I made my arm because they’re working on their own Bucky cosplays and the arm is pretty freaking intimidating tbh. I was tempted to just tell them to use this tutorial because it’s really great and it’s what I used as the foundation of my work. However, I think I did a few things differently and I think it might help people to have some progress photos so people kind of know what to expect along the way. I’m putting this all behind a Read More because it’s going to be long and image heavy so please bear with me. Also, this is only going to be a walkthrough of the arm build, if you have any questions about the rest of my costume that’s cool just send me an ask and I’ll try and answer it. The only other things I made were the mask (not pictured, because I hate it and I’m making another), the harness thing, and the jacket. The rest is all army/navy store stuff. Okay, without further ado:

So the first thing I did was to wrap my arm in plastic wrap (like saran wrap, like for food) and then over that I got David to wrap my arm in masking tape.

(sorry my bathroom is really dirty ew but this picture was really just for me originally so…)

Okay so after that I just cut up the inside of it with scissors and I had a mold of my arm. I stuffed it with plastic shopping bags because I have like ten million of them in my pantry and taped it back up and this was what I was left with:

It’s a little bit creepy to have an exact replica of your left arm sitting on your dining room table, just saying.

So after that the next step was to put like three coats of wood glue on it. The original tutorial uses PVA glue and I don’t know it might be really great but the only PVA glue I found was for book binding and was super expensive and I’ve used wood glue to seal craft foam before so I figured it would work. I was right, it’s great stuff. It also turns this really gross amber color when it’s dry so you don’t have to do any weird guessing games with it.

It’s wet in this picture. So it doesn’t look like this when it’s ready. Or something. Anyway, I’m going to level with you right now and tell you that the more often you sand this thing the happier you are going to be in the long run. This project could really just be called sanding, sanding, and more sanding, because that’s all I felt like I was doing. But the fewer lumps you have from the first few coats the easier it’s going to be as you progress. I left a few lumps and depressions in the first couple of coats and I had to do some fairly major spackling towards the end.

Okay next step is the actual sculpting part for the upper arm. This was the scariest part for me but it is REALLY NOT SCARY AT ALL. It’s super easy. All it is, is putting a very thick layer of wood glue and water putty over the form. I REALLY did not know what I was doing at first with this and I mixed the water putty up like normal and just added some wood glue to it. I don’t really recommend doing it that way. The best way to get the right consistency, that I discovered after awhile, is just to put a bunch of wood glue in a bowl or something and then slowly add the water putty powder until you get a nice thick tacky texture. You want it to be kind of like cookie dough consistency so it has some substance to it or you will be at this a really long time and have some really messed up stuff happening with it. I didn’t get any photos of this part, but after there’s a pretty thick layer of this stuff (thick enough that you can put in the grooves without cutting all the way through the arm) SAND IT and then put a couple of coats of wood glue on.

At this point I also wrapped the forearm in Worbla. If you’ve never worked with Worbla before (I hadn’t) be aware that this stuff gets insanely flexible when it’s hot. I think I was expecting it to still have a little bit of resistance but it basically had the texture of a fruit roll-up and then I got some creases and bubbles in it. I filled them with more of the wood glue/putty mixture but you can maybe avoid this if you know what you’re doing with the Worbla.

Honestly at this point I just kept building up layers of wood glue and sanding in between the layers until I felt like it was thick enough for me to start carving. I put a few layers of wood glue over the Worbla part as well, to thicken it and because Worbla has a really weird sort of grainy texture and I needed to get rid of that.

Anyway, once the thickness was nice and the whole thing was good and smooth it was time to start carving in the machine plates. I drew it all on with pencil first so I could erase and mess with it, and I used this image for reference:

After that, I used a deep etching bit on my dremel to carve in grooves in the shape of the machine plates. I don’t think I got a good shot of this step on the lower arm but I did them at basically the same time.

Obviously it looks gross as hell at this point and needed a lot of refining. This is by far the most boring part of the process but one of the most important. First, I sanded it again. Then, I went over every single one of the grooves with a needle file for what felt like about twenty years until I felt satisfied with the texture and the finish. This is pretty much the last step before painting so now is when the sanding game gets serious. Sand it forever until you feel like your arm is going to fall off because unless the surface is totally smooth it’s not going to look shiny enough. Also, if you think the paint is going to cover up any imperfections, you are so so wrong. It doesn’t. I learned this the hard way, don’t let it happen to you! XD

So there are a few steps here that I didn’t photograph because tbh I got excited and carried away. But now is when I separated the upper arm from the forearm and cut down the inside of the whole thing to take out the stuffing. I used the cutting wheel on my dremel and just went really slow and traced some of the lines I drew on earlier. Then I tried it on and figured out where it needed to be cut so I could actually move my arm and trimmed it until I had the shape/size I wanted. Then I painted both pieces with black primer and waited for it to dry.

The hard parts are over now! Yay! Time for just the magic parts! :) Unfortunately this is also where my photos get really sparse because I was putting the finishing touches on this the morning Starfest started…

Before doing the chrome paint I put in some strips of elastic in both the upper arm and lower arm to help hold everything in place. I just hot glued it in with a high heat glue gun. It’s a pretty tricky process and there is no secret to doing it so just be careful and don’t burn yourself…

Spraypainting with chrome is kind of weird for a few reasons. One thing I should say is that I don’t always wear a respirator if I’m spraypainting outside, but with the chrome paint I would not recommend not wearing a respirator no matter whether you’re inside or outside. It is some seriously gross shit. Also, the silver dust gets all over everything so don’t wear your favorite shoes when you’re painting, either. Eye protection is also a very good idea. I took apart a couple of wire hangers and threaded them through the pieces so I could hang and spray them. I also sprayed the sleeve of my compression shirt but don’t do that because it all just rubbed off and now I have to make a lamé sleeve and glove but what can I say I was short on time. The chrome paint I used is Krylon Metallic but I don’t necessarily recommend it. It really isn’t as shiny as I would ideally like it to be, and as previously stated, it’s gross. I hear the Rustoleum chrome paint is pretty rad but I haven’t used it.

After it dried I painted in the grooves with very watered down black acrylic paint to define them. The next thing was the star and I really regret that I didn’t get any photos of this part. Basically I made the stencil out of masking tape. I put like a bunch of overlapping strips down on my cutting mat, printed out a 3 inch across 5 pointed star, and put that down and cut it out of the tape with an exacto knife. Then I used another plastic grocery bag to mask off the rest of it and sprayed it with model paint. The color I used, because I think it worked out really perfect, is Testors in metal flake red. The outline was just done with black acrylic paint and a steady hand. You could probably just use a sharpie too though tbh.

Anyway, I hope this info helps someone make something they really like. I definitely don’t think there is anything wrong with just making something out of cardboard or bodypaint or fabric or whatever, but I just wanted something I would be happy with personally and I hope this helps other people make what they like best as well!!! ^^

The final step is to destroy your enemies, of course. Or friends. Friends work too.

(this is the place where I originally said to send me asks with your questions. Honestly, I am not on tumblr often enough to be much help with this anymore, and I have since remade this project once and I’m thinking about doing it again. I still stand by this tutorial as a cheap and effective way to do this project, but I have moved on to doing more armor projects and this is not how I would do this now. You are still welcome to send me asks of course, I just can’t promise to answer them in a timely manner. Sorry!!! ^^)