Green Lantern Ring (from Pvc)

With the first season of lanterns almost over I wanted a green lantern ring for myself too. Now I have been a fan of Hal Jordan for over a decade but still haven’t found a reasonably priced GL ring that I liked - maybe I wasn’t brave enough to be chosen :(

So being a fan of superheroes and making stuff out of scraps, I decided to make the prop myself out of readily available items. I have gone for a comical look for the ring and not the ones you’ve seen in the movie or the show.

Reminder: this doesn’t have to look perfect, it’s to hold a piece of work you made and be proud of it. Be free to make your own changes.

For this project you’ll need a few items listed down below.

1. ½ inch or ¾ inch pvc pipe depending upon how big you want the ring to be. You’ll only need about an inch of it, so if possible, try to get small scrap pieces to save on the cost of the build.
2. If you didn’t get a precut piece, you will need some type of saw to cut the pipe to your width.
3. A sharp craft knife or some kind or scalpel to carve the ring into a rough shape.
4. A metal flat file to give the ring a more accurate shape.
5. I had the previous three tools in my Swiss army knife so you could get one which has the tools you need.
6. Sandpaper of about 120 grit to give it a smooth finish.
7. Some form of epoxy putty (like m-seal).
8. Green acrylic paint: I mixed a few to get the desired colour shown below.
9. Glow in the dark powder.
10. Clear nail polish.
11. A paintbrush, palette, pen, pencil, paper, scissors, toothpick, a small bottle cap, a circle stencil.

Take your ¾or ½ inch pvc pipe and cut it to about 3/4^th inch in length, an inch if you need more working space and aren’t confident with a saw or a knife.

Try cutting it straight down but if it gets slanted try making slight adjustments and fine cutting it till you get your desired shape. This just has to be a rough cut, as all the sanding will be done at the end.

Draw a circle as wide as the width of the ring and add two parallel lines around the pipe cutout. This will be your main ring shape. Don’t make it too thin or else you risk weakening the structure as there is a lot of sanding later on. Keep the circle on top and draw two lines at 90 degrees from the top as shown in the picture. From the edge of the circle, draw a smooth curve down to these lines to give the ring a realistic taper. Refer the videos give below.

Now either use the saw very carefully to cut the rough shape out or use a knife to carve it away little by little until you get close enough. I used a mix of both. Be very careful here as it’s easy to carve more later but not possible to add material after over carving. Try to get the top as close to a circle as possible. Then use a metal file to clean the edges as they can be sharp to work with. Use the sandpaper to slightly flatten the top circular part of the ring a little.

Put the pro-circle or the circle stencil above the circular part of the ring and find the closest one that matches the outer circumference. Outline that on a paper, take the next smallest size available and draw this inside the main circle. The goal here is to get a thin strip of a ringlike shape so then the epoxy putty can be cut and shaped in this form to go directly on the ring. You can use coins or anything available, I found it easier to eyeball it.

Now mix two-part epoxy putty little by little because believe me you’ll require less than you think you do and whatever’s left also eventually turns to waste because it takes time to shape it and the leftover part will be rock hard by that time.

Sand the part of the ring where the details are going to be added nicely so the putty has something to grip to. Then shape the small portion of putty into the ring like shape discussed earlier and place it on the flattish circular part of the ring. With a wet light hand, taper the edges of the putty ring to blend in with the body of the actual ring. This doesn’t need to be too perfect as everything will be sanded later. Make sure that the putty ring has a slight height to it as it creates the depth. Only proceed forward after this has cured completely.

Mark an estimate center point of the circle. Now draw a diameter like line passing through the center of the circular part parallel to the body of the ring. Draw the green lantern symbol in the center which is just one circle and two parallel lines in the same direction as the body of the ring. Refer the image above for the GL logo. Preferably, don’t just draw it as a line diagram, give the lines some width as well, to account for the width of the putty.

Again, mix the two-part epoxy in very small amounts as this part is the most time taking part for me personally. The middle circle of the logo was a bit tough to do so what I did was cut out the outer circle and then use a hole punch or an x-acto knife, anything sharp and thin to cut out the inner part. This took a lot of time to get right. Once satisfied, place it carefully where you drew the logo and shape it lightly with your hand to match it. Let it cure.

With another mixing of epoxy in small amounts, cut two small thin strips about as long as the width of the inner logo circle ring shape done before this. The width should be consistent with the width of the logo circle for better aesthetics. Line it carefully parallel to each other and put it down on the flattish part of the ring body and shape it with the x-acto knife to be as close to each other as possible. The reason to not use your fingers is at this stage the epoxy is drying so it’ll stick to your fingers ruining the texture or completely coming off the ring body. Let it dry and cure completely. Give everything a light sand before the next step.

This step is completely subjective in colour as there are so many iterations of the green lantern there is no one fixed colour of the ring. I mixed a few greens shown above and a teeny amount of yellow to get the colour right for me. I would strongly suggest using acrylic paints over here as it sticks better to the pvc, dries fast and honestly look nice. Paint the body of the ring and the epoxy putty part but not the lower part of the emblem, that should remain white. After the first coat has dried give it one to two more layers of, letting each one dry before the next, for a cleaner look. Even if you do get some paint on the base of the emblem no worries as it can easily be scraped out later. Don’t forget to paint the inside part of the ring too (where your finger goes). Keep the paint covered or misty so it dosen't dry up while painting multiple layers.

The reason I’m not painting the inside of the emblem base white even though it would look more professional or clean is that it is such a small space to work with that using a paintbrush, toothpick or anything almost certainly results in white paint getting on the epoxy raised body of the ring or the symbol itself. Repainting that green can then put green paint onto the white part, and it turns into a big fuss. What I did after realizing this is just scrape the bottom of the emblem base with an x-acto knife to give it a clean white look as pvc is white itself. Let everything dry completely before moving forward and you can use a hair dryer to speed up this process.

If you want to make a Star Sapphire, Blue Lantern, Sinestro Corps (yellow), or Red Lantern ring instead, choose your paint colour accordingly.

Proceed only if you’re making the glow in the dark version or skip to the next. Also recommended to wear gloves as glow in the dark powder mixed with clear nail polish can be very messy to work with. Do lay down scrap or news paper to protect your workbench/desk.

Take a small bottle cap or anything similar to mix a little glow in the dark powder and clear nail polish in. Preferably something disposable because after it has dried the nail polish is very hard to get off. Put a little powder in and pour the clear nail polish little by little until you get a slimy or viscous liquid like consistency. Mix with a toothpick and then use that to insert the glow in the dark paste into the grooves of the emblem, like middle of the circle and between the raised edges and the middle logo. Make sure to put evenly until its level with the emblem. Use the toothpick to ensure that it has no air bubbles otherwise that will be a dark spot while glowing in the dark. If you get a bit on the body or the emblem or any part, scrape or wipe it off immediately or after it hardens, it gets way harder. Let it dry for about 24 hours as even though nail polish dries quickly, adding the powder makes it longer to dry completely. Don’t touch it with your hands during this time as the fingerprints can be embedded in the layer.

If paint has been scraped of or smudges somewhere, repaint that part and anything that requires fixing, now’s the time.

Then proceed with giving the whole ring including the body, the inner or the inside part, the emblem, the top dried part of the glow in the dark 2-3 top coats of clear nail polish to give it a nice shine and protect it from falls or rough handling, it also protects the paint from wearing off due to repeated putting the ring on and off your finger.

1. Gloves are recommended as almost all parts of this project can be messy and fingerprints on either the putty, the paint, or the nail polish is not ideal.
2. Be careful with the saw and knives as it a small jerk or slip can cause various injuries. Better to be safe and slow than sorry.
3. Sand all the edges thoroughly as not only does it look smoother and better but the chances of you getting cut by the raw pvc also reduces.
4. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes as almost all of them can be fixed in some way or the other, just have fun and enjoy the process
5. You can either save up the putty for your next project or try making a ring holder, something like a finger maybe, just an idea.
6. After completing the glow in the dark step, remember to clean your desk with the light turned off as the glow in the dark powder gets everywhere and its easier to see and clean that in the dark.

You can wear this with your green lantern costume if you have or just as an accessory. Happy Halloween to those reading around then and before I go, do remember, “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power… green lanterns light”