Borderlands 2 Cosplay Zer0 | woollyrhinocrafts

Borderlands 2 Cosplay - Zer0

Dragon*Con 2014!

80+ hours of sewing

100+ hours of handpainting

spread out over roughly 8 months thanks to massive procrastination

Ingredients: morph suit, fosshape, some plastic buckles, felt, lots of paint, lots of time

Sword Ingredients: cardboard, polyurethane resin, acrylic, EL wire, epoxy resin, more paint

Other Ingredients: air-dry clay, assorted trash, more paint, velcro

Whew! This was a beast of a project. But listen, I only spent about $60 on materials. The beastly part was how insanely time-consuming it was. I also hate sewing. I have no explanation for this hatred, but I hate it. I even hate machine-sewing. This was mostly tedious hand-stitching though, so it was a major drag. I procrastinated a lot just due to the seemingly endless amount of sewing.

I'm by no means any sort of pro cosplayer. It's definitely just a hobby I do for funsies. My goal with this costume was to make the most badass Zer0 suit possible for as little money as possible. I always try to make use of things I have and repurpose/recycle trash and other scrap materials.

I'd originally intended to have a helmet, but there wasn't time for me to pull off such a feat. I got a full-face morph suit because I'd planned to do the Nihilism head as backup. I obviously went with the backup. I thought it would be less hot and I'd have more visibility than with a helmet anyway, but I still couldn't see a damn thing and it was still hot. lulz

If I bring out this suit again at a future con, I'd really like to remake my sword as well as do some work on how my grenade attached to my belt.

Here's how I made everything!

Step 1: Carrie the Mannequin

I'm 5'3" (too short for Zer0 for sure and I'm also a girl, but nevermind that shit) and made of nothing. I knew that if I wanted to paint the suit proportionate to my body and correctly attach the armor pieces that I'd need something shaped like me to work with. I made a good ol' duct tape mannequin of myself then attached a foam ladyhead. By *I* made I mean I had a pal cover me in duct tape then cut it off of me and I put it back together.

I made the feet two-toed and hands three-fingered like Zer0. Duh.

I named the mannequin Carrie. After Carrie White. From the Stephen King novel.

Step 2: Morph Suit, Felt, Fosshape...Sewing

I chose a gray morph suit because I thought it would be easier to do shadows rather than pull out highlights in a darker suit. I think I was right about this?

I put the suit on Carrie and used a marker to mark roughly where I'd be putting felt. I chose felt because it's cheap. I got it in gray and black and used the colors accordingly so I'd have to do less painting. I also got some fingerless gloves and I modified the fingers as well as the fingers and toes of the suit.

I made functional pockets and also bought some plastic buckles. The white parts are fosshape.

Fosshape gets really hard if you use a heat-gun. It starts off soft like felt and can be sewn easily. It was perfect for the elbow, shoulder and leg armor. I hardened it with a blow-drier on high so it would still have some flex because I was worried about getting in and out of the suit.

Step 3: Painting Forever

I used Jones Tones' Stretchable Fabric Paint, which is great. I chose to go with black gloss, white gloss, red gloss and metallic white.

The first thing I painted was the left foot then I started moving up the leg. I was working in the middle of the living room, but this became increasing difficult due to cats. I relocated to a table over a big fish tank that houses an amphiuma named Billy (for those of you wondering about that tank). If you don't know what an amphiuma is then look it up. ;)

You can click on all of these images to see larger versions.

Painting took a long, long, long time. I would have to let sections dry before I moved or flipped the mannequin, so during the drying times I worked on my props.

Step 4: The Nihilism Head

I saved the head for last. There was no room for error, you see.

Also, there were no decent pictures online for me to to use as references. I ended up having to fire up BL2 and take my actual character to a Quick Change then stand in front of my TV and take pictures. Feel free to use my pictures as references if you need 'em!

I used masking tape to block the 0 in the face then used the metallic white paint to outline and get straight lines. Then I filled in and painted the rest of the head.

The picture of the suit off of the mannequin looks like Zer0 melted, so enjoy that one.

The "collar" of the suit is made of felt with a bit of velcro in the front. I love velcro.

Zer0's Props: Sword, Shield, Grenade & Class Mods

The Sword

I made the hilt of the sword out of cardboard with a generous helping of polyurethan resin to make it super-solid. Then I covered the hilt in some black felt and handpainted all of it. The blade is clear acrlyic and the light is a string of EL wire. EL wire is fantastic and I can't wait to find an excuse to use it for something again. Acrylic is not fantastic.

This sword is a total Monet - it looks great from a distance, but up close it's totally ugh. I wanted to cut two pieces of acrylic in the shape of the blade then sandwich the wire between them. I thought I could do this at home with some tools. Wrong. I ended up having to cut many, many separate pieces of acrylic and attach them together with epoxy, which I'd never worked with before. It ended up looking extremely sloppy, imo. I'm sure I inhaled a good amount of acrylic dust in my idiotic attempt to cut it with a dremel. I also got epoxy all over myself and probably ingested a fair amount.

Using a dremel to cut acrylic resulted in the edges of the pieces looking like the rim of a margherita glass (see picture!). I had to then spend a great deal of time smoothing the edges. Everything was a disaster.

What I learned: have the dudes at the hardware store cut your acrylic, epoxy is not the same consistency as glue and does not behave like glue, so trying to use it as glue is stupid.

The Grenade: Lobbed Storm Front

I had wanted to make a glowing grenade because I love any reason to use lights, but time was running short. I ended up making this pretty basic-shaped Vladof out of yogurt containers, a toilet paper roll and some air-dry clay for the pin.

I put it all together with a lot of tacky glue then painted it with acrylic paint. I slapped on a few coats of epoxy to ensure it wouldn't fall apart and then sprayed it with matte clear coat because it was too shiny.

This proved to all be quick and painless. I wish I had made the body of the grenade a bit more stout though.

I used a strip of velcro to attach it to my belt, but the grenade is rather top-heavy due to the clay. I should have added some to the bottom portion to even out the weight. This resulted in it toppling over because my belt was made of felt. I'd maybe like to swap out the belt for something a bit more sturdy in the future in order to accommodate this rad grenade.

Yes, my trackpad exploded out of my Macbook (for anyone curious about that). No, it doesn't work anymore. Neither does the keyboard. But the computer itself is fine so I use a USB mouse and keyboard.

The Class Mods

What Zer0 with the Nihilism head, in their right mind, would be running around without a class mod?

I'm not sure what mod this is (shame on me). It's one that looked cool that I had in my backpack in the game. I liked the blood spatter and they looked nice with the default Sneaking Suit.

Making these was also quick and painless. They're just cardboard coated in epoxy, then painted and sprayed down with clear coat. I attach them again using little strips of velcro. This made them detachable and this was good for packing.

The Shield: The Cradle

Disclaimer: I didn't make this shield, but I did paint it. A friend papercrafted it then added in some plastic from a takeout lid and rigged a push light inside. Said friend also made The Bee, but it ended up being weighted super awkwardly with the light in. This was the backup.

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