Guest post today from Raptor Dad.
This year Kate is going to be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween, but neither Raptor Mama nor I wanted her playing to stereotypes. She’s getting a beautiful cape courtesy of her Mom, but I wanted to bring something a little different to her costume. Instead of going as the damsel in distress that must be saved by the woodcutter, Kate will be fully empowered to take on any and all hostile woodland creatures…even Mr. Big Bad himself.
Getting started: we got Kate a basket at Michael’s and defensive armament at Target. The basket is almost perfect, but the gun needs a lot of work.
Tools:
File (nail file, jeweler’s file, anything small)
Sandpaper (nothing too rough, 150 grit or higher)
Black spray paint
Acrylic paint based on the color scheme you want to achieve
The first step was removing the Nerf branding with file and sandpaper.
I added a few gouges and took off some bits to make the gun look weathered as well. Next spray paint the entire thing a base coat of black. I forget to snap a pick of this step, but it’s pretty self explanatory. Next using a deep umber and titanium white, I dry brushed the whole surface. This gives the gun a nice weathered look.
Next I used gold acrylic ink to add metallic detail to accents. I also used some varnish and sienna paint to make the handle a bit more wood like.
To finish it off, I used red paint to name the gun “Wolfsbane”, and added some black wolf heads, in the same way WWII fighter pilots would mark their kills on the side of their planes.
I added a few of the heads to the basket, just to keep the theme going!
It was a fun project that only took about three hours start to finish, and it adds a whole other layer of narrative to Kate’s costume. I couldn’t be much more pleased.