Wolverine's Claws: Cheap Diy Prop. X-men Origins Costume.

So Im subscribed to indy-mogul on youtube, and they recently did a tutorial on how to build wolverine-claw-props simular to the ones used in the movies:

I imediatly started building my own claws, and here they are!!!





I modified the design a bit with my own. Instead of plexi-glas, I used PVC pipe, heated and warped flat. Once flat, the material is ALOT easier to cut and sand than plexi-glass, so you dont have to be so delicate with it while cutting and drilling. I also illiminated the armature wire and handle by extending the claws to a single mounting bolt. This can be done with pvc, and not plexi-glass, because you can heat and warp the PVC to give the claws the 'tapered' effect (wider at the tip than at the base) Anyways, here are some progress pictures:


heating the pvc. (I cut a slit accross the top before sticking it in the oven)

after 20 minuts at 300 degrees, the plastic has the consistancy of thick tire rubber.

you only have about a 2-minut 'working time' before the plastic cools and sets. It will lock whatever shape its in at the time.

I used floor tile to compress and flatten the peice while it cooled. The tile also allows it to cool slower than it would if it was open to the air, which helps the plastic to not be brittle later.

TADA!!! Cheap sheets of plastic!!! A sheet of plexiglass this size would be around $10. A 10' peice of PVC will make about 8 of these for a dollar each.

Once done, you know the drill. Trace a card-board cut-out of your desired claw shape, and cut them out!

Strait claws after being bolted together.

This is after the outer claws were heated at the base with a lighter and 'warped' outward while still pliable. You can see the burn marks.

So far, they are un-painted. I still have a bit of sanding work to be done, and I might have to re-make one of the claws, as the first claw I attempted got shorter than the rest from lack of practice. There is also a slight 'moon' on one of the edges... I hope to have them finished in time for the X-men Origins premere. Hope you enjoyed! And happy forging!!!

Very nice use of PVC plastic. I could see a lot of uses with that method and the layered Pepakura rifle files. One question though, does the PVC smell much when you are heating it up?

EDIT: Here is an example of a sliced file. I'm not sure if what other kinds are available. http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15997

Those look really good. I was thinking what if you did the zombie bite of the scar prop at the end of the claws so it looks like they broke through your skin.

Very nice indeed. I'm going to have to give PVC a shot. Thanks for sharing.

Yttrium said:

One question though, does the PVC smell much when you are heating it up?

Click to expand...

Not if you do it right. The first peice I ever did started smoking, melting... and yeah, stunk up the house. That was when I got the peice flat by heating it to death... which I dont recomend. This last batch I did went relatively flawless. I had a couple windows open for safe measure, but all in all my polution was negligable.

As for anyone interested about his proccess:
When you heat PVC, it shrinks. In making the claws, I lost about 1" off the starting length of the tube. Its not an exact science... but with experiance it gets easier to plan ahead. Here's the first thing I ever made with the proccess:

The middle peice got over-cooked, and turned a shade of orange. This piece ended up being very brittle and broke in 3 places after a while. Because I heated them so much, each peice has grill marks down them, and they are not truely perfectly flat. The matieral loss on this project was about 3" due to the over-heat.

Shorter spurts of heating (20 minuts) at lower temperatures (300 deg) make for much better results. Fumes from burnt pvc CAN be dangerous though, so always allow for decent ventalation, and set it on foil or other tray to keep the metal from burning the plastic directly.

And finally, GET PERMISION TO USE THE OVEN!!!! Letting everyone know what your up to, and when, is also good practice. You dont want anyone cooking food at the same time your heating up PVC...

I'll also point out, that the maximum size of each sheet is compleetly dependant on the size of your oven. you'll probrbaly never get a peice larger than 1.5' X 2'. Thats why I made my mono-fin in 3 sections. actually... the articulating design worked out pretty good...

thats really good. me and 2 other friends are going to all go and see this movie soon

could u post a template for the claw plz?

What did you use to cut the pvc?

Here's the claw template I used, with tape and hand referances.

The template was 100% from scratch, but I used the basic size of most replica wolverine props: 12" overall, 8" blade

I used a simple jigsaw to cut my pvc, both in slicing the tube in half, and cutting out the claws. I used a dremel tool to 'sharpen' the claws individually. (blade curves I used are shown on the template)

One thing to be careful with heating pvc in your home oven is the fact that while there might not be much smell it's still releasing chemicals which get trapped in your oven. I'm sure it's ok if you're only doing it every once in a while, but if you do it a lot it'd be worth getting some kind of heating alternative.

Dancin_Fool said:

One thing to be careful with heating pvc in your home oven is the fact that while there might not be much smell it's still releasing chemicals which get trapped in your oven. I'm sure it's ok if you're only doing it every once in a while, but if you do it a lot it'd be worth getting some kind of heating alternative.

Click to expand...

Its still not as bad as cooking EASY OFF in the oven to clean it.

thnx for the template helps alot!

Anytime dude. I hope to see your version soon! Loved the Rorscach costume you wore to Watchmen btw.

UPDATE

Last-minut finished the claws and wore them to the 12:01AM showing. Movie was slightly less than spectacular, but it was still awsome!






and some more 'costume-shots'


Hope you all Enjoyed!!!

Thanks very much for posting this Balthezar, I've been meaning to make a set of these for a while now. They look great, well done.

I like your design better than what was shown in the demo video.

Off topic: Now you got me hooked on that Indy Mogul guy. lol He's an excellent film maker.

Watched this about a dozen times since yesterday, heh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIJvECLL5NY

A little trick I devised when working with PVC.... get a very large pot full of water, bring it to a boil either on the stove or on a grill. Dip the PVC in it for 30 seconds to a minute and you can bend away. I can't say that I have ever noticed the PVC shrinking (though it might of slightly) and it has never released any fumes.

Using water as a heating medium also prevents overheating and burning.