Baby Smaug Cosplay
Velma Rippstein
www.facebook.com/velmaripp
I used the hot wire tools (I have the Crafters Deluxe 4-In-1 Kit) to create a baby Smaug costume – it made no sense to do adult Smaug since he wouldn’t even fit into the building! I figured I was a good “fresh hatching??? size.
First, I glued the foam all together, roughed out the basic shape, carved the more exact shape, added texture and then scaled outlines.
Then I hollowed out the inside so it wouldn’t be as heavy and added a bicycle helmet inside. Then I covered the whole thing in Bounce and All Purpose Foam Coat (It has endured abuse pretty well!) and painted it!
At one point I carved too far into it. So I had to build it back up one thin layer of Styrofoam at a time, which was hard because it was a good portion of the right side of his face. Definitely move slowly to avoid having to do that! If you do have to do it, you just get a really thin layer of foam and you have to add the glue to it and pin it in place till it’s secure, and then you add another layer as well slowly and surely. I don’t think it’d work as well with regular Styrofoam, but it worked great for the pink foam.
I later fleshed out the rest of the costume, and used the hot wire tools to shape the chest scales and the wing bones as well. The wing bones were pipe insulation. You had to layer it up in different areas using the process I described above as well. I also carved out all of the horns going down the back which you can see below.
I also used the carving tools to make The Black Arrow from The Hobbit as well – I used the carving tools to get the basic shape and to strengthen it, then I glued the PVC pipe inside. I also used foam that was carved out on the fetch side and made holes in it to hot glue in the bristles which I then painted to look like metal.
