My Intro to Prop Building

Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert!

You've been warned...

Six months ago I came across this photo of a complete "Big Daddy" costume from the game Bioshock. I was stunned, this thing was awesome! It was surreal to see an actual photo of something from a video game that looked so realistic. Not long after that I found a similar photo of a gun from the Fallout 3 game. Turns out both of these projected were created by the same person Harrison Kirx (aka Volpin Props).

This guy is a genius. He is able to build props that look like they were made for big budget Hollywood movies from material you can find at your local hardware store. He is so good at what he does he takes commissions for props and build them for people. You want the Portal gun from the game Portal, he can build it. The laser rifle from Fallout 3? Yeah, he has one of those. How about Link's sword and shield form Twilight Princess? You guessed it, he built it. He also documents the process very thoroughly. Recently, he completed a replica helmet from the band Daft Punk... and no, he will not make you one so don't bother asking.

I am an artist/creative person and it has been about seven years since I have created a piece of art that wasn't digital. I was very excited to build something that was three dimensional and I could hold in my hands. I started working on a few prop replicas of my own a few hours here and there when I had the time to spare and now that I have a few completed I will be doing a blog post for each. Stay tuned!

Here are a handful of links to various prop building sites that I visit regularly:

Volpin Props
Blind Squirrel Props
featherweightcosplay.com
paperkraft.blogspot.com
therpf.com
BioWeapons.com
405th.com
cosplay.com