On the Sunday before Halloween weekend I went to the go-karting track with some friends. It's unrelated but I did win first place in the 'slow' group, quite happy about that considering it was my first time at that track! This did lead to a discussion about Halloween and future cosplay plans with my friends. I didn't have anything planned for this year and was planning to re-use one of my older cosplays. But then I remembered I'd been watching the One Piece live action show, and I enjoyed Mr 3 in it.
So now I had a plan. And just under a week to implement it. This look was a lot more simple than most of my cosplay designs, but there were still a few problems I had to solve (and also my amazing Mom who helped out with sewing the custom vest <3 ).
Tools
- 3D Printer
- Sewing Machine
- Pliers
- Scissors
- Hair clips, Hair iron (for helping work with the wig)
- File (sanding the 3D printed parts)
Materials
- Printer Filament (I used petg but most standard plastics should work fine)
- Black hair wig (get a cheap one, it will be permanently modified in the process)
- Epoxy glue
- Fabric
- Thread
- Velcro
- Stuffing
Note: most of these materials were sourced from online storefronts. I didn't buy anything particularly fancy and everything should be pretty available at a local supermarket as well.
Hair
The hair was a combination of two parts. The wig, and the number 3 topper. I was planning on modelling the 3 myself, but I happened to find that someone had already done the hard work for me! 3dmartos on makerworld has a headband with the 3 hairstyle I needed (found here). So it was a simple matter of firing up my 3D printer and checking the part would work.
The much harder part was figuring out how to get the whole wig to work, considering I would have to pull the hair of a normal wig up to look like it had been tied up into the 3 at the top of his head. I am no expert in working with hair, so I went with the only method I knew: using epoxy to hold up the short hair of the wig. It's messy, and doesn't look the greatest. But under my time crunch it would have to do.
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| Final wig design |
Glasses
This is where I had to put more work in. Although there were some paid models online, none quite fit exactly what I envisioned for the glasses, so I decided to make the model myself. I used a new-to-me 3D CAD program called FreeCAD. I decided to move to this program since it's a FOSS tool and I will always be a huge supporter of more free tools out in the world. Despite the UI and tools taking a little bit to learn, it is a very powerful modelling tool and I highly recommend checking it out! There are also a decent number of beginner tutorials for it found on sites like youtube.
My original plan for projecting the design of the glasses onto a curved surface fell through. Not for lack of ability, it was a fun side project learning how to get flat designs onto curved surfaces, but I realized that it would be impractical for a 3D printed part and would require a lot of supports. The final design was a simple flat glasses shape along with some hinged temple arms.
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| Completed Solid Model Assembly |
I'm only sharing the final design but I did have to re-create the model a couple times. Mostly due to the fact that I was still learning how to use FreeCAD and assigning too many extrusions or similar to parts of the model that might change (which would in turn break the other parts). Once I fixed my workflow I had a model I was happy with, and one that I could adjust without fear of braking any dependent parts. Now to print it all out.
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| PrusaSlicer Print Setup |
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| Parts Pulled from the Printer |
The printing and assembly was relatively simple. With a heated bed I had no issues with any of my long pieces warping and the only part that needed a supportive brim were the pins. I could have used some Metal wire or other straight item as a pin, but I just wanted the work done at this point so I figured plastic pins would do just fine anyways. Assembly was done by roughing up any contact points with a file and then applying epoxy to bond everything together.
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| 3D Printed Parts Final Fit Test |
Clothes
There's not a lot I can personally say on this end of the project. It was ultimately my Mom who ended up sewing the custom vest together I have to hand it to her that she did a great job! We bought some blue and white striped fabric and she used a vest pattern as the base. The ruffle is actually covering a velcro strip that is used to take the whole piece on and off. The poofy neck cuff was held up by some stuffing.
For the rest of the look: I used a store-bought bow-tie, then borrowed my Dad's pants since I didn't have the correct colour myself, and finished off with some simple black shoes.
Final Thoughts
For a project completed in under a week, I can't complain. Again, huge shoutout to my Mom who helped out by making the vest on such short notice! I had lots of fun out with my friends and seeing all the trick-or-treaters about. Considering cosplay is a bit of a less popular choice on a night like Halloween (compared to something like an anime convetion), I'm still proud to admit that 3 people ended up recognizing me that night!
