Cardboard to Cosplay: Making Arcane - Jinx's Pistol

Globally, about 72 million tons of cardboard is created each year. In the U.S, around 66% of cardboard is recycled but, that still leaves around 34% that is not recycled. Cardboard can take anywhere from two months to five or more years to decompose, especially when (as is so often), it has a wax coating.

I believe that we crafters can play our part in reducing the lifespan of cardboard in the environment. Cardboard is a material that can have so many lives after its intended use, especially in the world of Costumes and Cosplay. In this Instructable, I want to show you how to make Jinx's pistol from Arcane, as well as give you the blueprint to make any other prop with cardboard. Not only will you create something with carboard that would have otherwise been thrown away, but the bits and scraps that are thrown away will hopefully be small enough that their impact is small.

I hope you enjoy :)

1. Old Cardboard
2. Hot glue
3. Scrap paper
4. Glue
5. Water
6. A paint brush and bowl
7. Sandpaper
8. Paint
9. Black Marker

There are a few methods that I used when making this gun.

1. Take each dimension with a grain of salt. Get as close as you can to the dimension but don't worry if it is not perfect.
2. In order to make a cardboard cutout to the desired width, I cut out the shape multiple times and glued it together until it was around the correct width. For example, if you need a cylinder that's 2 cm wide and 3 cm high, you can cut out multiple 2 cm circles and stack/glue them until the desired height is reached.
3. I used corrugated cardboard that you will find in pretty much any box for objects that had a larger width and wrapped it in thin cardboard such as the ones used for cereal boxes so that the outside was smooth. I also used the thin cardboard to make smaller details such as the bar on the gun.

First, I drew the object on my tablet. Your drawing doesn't need to be perfect; it just needs to represent the basic shapes of the object without any details. Try to break it into simple shapes such as cylinders, squares, and rectangles. These are the components that you will make from cardboards and use to create your object. Also, determine how large or small you want your finished products and estimate the dimensions of each component.

If you are following this tutorial to make the Jinx's pistol, I have already done this step for you. Each component in the picture above is labeled from a - z. For now, ignore the rounded part of the gun where I drew an exclamation mark. Above, I also showed a prototype that I made.

Now, glue each of your individual components together. Above, I showed a labeled diagram as well as pictures of how I glued everything together.

In the picture above, I forgot component "o" and added it later which I showed in the last picture.

Cut out two strips of cardboard and glue them onto the back of the gun as shown above. Next, stuff if with scrap paper.

For this step, you will need two containers (one with water and another with a 50-50 mixture of glue and water), Elmers Glue, Water, a paint brush and scrap paper. Tear your sheets of scrap paper (if you end up needing more paper later, you can repeat this step) into small and medium pieces and place them into the water, allowing it to soak. Pour water on the shredded paper and let it soak. Place a paintbrush in the diluted glue.

Take one sheet of paper from the bowl and pat it dry on a paper towel. Spread glue onto the back of the sheet and paste it onto the cardboard gun. Repeat this until the entire gun is covered. When the gun has fully dried, use sandpaper to smooth the surface. If after sanding, you need to apply more paper, do so.

Now it's time to add the small details (trigger, spikes...).

Spikes (Picture A):

1. Draw a 2cm diameter circle on thin cardboard and cut it out.
2. Cut a line from the edge of the circle to the center.
3. Fold the edge that you cut until it meets the edge of the circle and forms a spiked shape. Glue it in place.
4. Cut off the excess like shown above.
5. Repeat two times until you have three spikes.

Trigger (Picture B):

1. Sketch the dimensions shown above on cardboard and cut it out.
2. The width should be 0.5 cm.

Detail 1: (Picture C):

1. Cut out a strip about 2.5 cm wide and at least 4 cm long.
2. Roll the strip at an angle so that the opening at the top is 1 cm wide and the bottom is about 0.7 cm wide.
3. Glue the cylinder so that it stays together and cut off the excess.
4. Use scissors to trim the top and bottom so that it is flat.
5. Glue the top side to a flat piece of cardboard and cut around it.

Detail 2:

1. Place the gun from the previous step on cardboard and trace the back of the gun.
2. Draw the shape from the above picture and cut it out. Make it 0.5 cm thick.
3. Cut out a strip of cardboard with a width of 0.6 cm.
4. Wrap the strip around the top of what you made earlier as shown above.
5. Trim the excess off, leaving about 1.5 cm coming from the edge.
6. Fold the hanging 1.5 cm strip in half and glue it in place.

Diamonds

1. Draw diamonds about 1.5 cm wide, 2.5 cm long, and 0.2 cm thick.
2. Repeat until you have eight.

Bar details:

1. Draw the three shapes shown above, cut them out and make each of them 0.7 cm thick.
2. Cut out a thin strip of cardboard about 15.2 cm long and 0.6 cm wide. Measure 0.7 cm from either edge and bend the cardboard along that measurement.
3. Cut out a thin strip of cardboard with the dimensions 5.7 cm long and 0.6 cm wide. Measure 1.3 cm from both sides and bend the cardboard along both measurements.

Add the details made in the previous step as shown in the pictures above. I labeled them to make it as clear as possible.

Repeat step four and paper mache over all of the details that you glued to the gun in the last step. Instead of assembling the entire thing with the smaller details, I broke it up into two pieces so that it would be easier to paper mache in places that would have been harder to reach otherwise.

Time for the extra fun part - painting!!! Follow the pictures above but don't be afraid to take your own creative liberties.

The main colors that I used are:

1. Combination of blue and grey for the barrel (Gouache)
2. Black (Gouache)
3. A mixture of grey and lavender for the spikes (Gouache)
4. Light blue (Gouache)
5. Dark gray (Gouache)
6. Brown (Gouache)
7. Pink (Gouache)
8. Gold (Acrylic)

For the handle, I cut a thick strip of thin cardboard, crumbled it, and wrapped it around the handle.

Finally, I used a black marker to draw the doodle of a shark.

"You feel it? That buzzing behind your eyes? Because you know, in a moment, it could all go poow! Best feeling in the world, kid" - Jinx