Making a Mechanical Hand with Printed Chain Mail and Cheap Gloves
Don’t let the prospect of an expensive build stop you from pursuing your cosplay goals and dreams — not when you can almost always find a cheaper alternative. Case in point: Instructables user djmunsettled has dressed as S-Mart Ash from Army of Darkness before and decided to add to the ensemble with a chain mail glove to stand in for Ash’s metal gauntlet. He did so using a pair of black work gloves from the Dollar Tree, a chain mail effect achieved by iron transferring the design onto a black t-shirt, and EVA foam painted with a metallic finish.
The chain mail solution is especially creative. Djmunsettled used a photo of a chain mail glove and manipulated it to fill an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. After printing the design and transferring it the tee, this is how he attached the fabric to the gloves (you can see a photo below):
I cut the mail into two strips and wrapped the fabric around each finger and cut the pieces to length. Original I had bought stretchable fabric glue and was going to glue the pieces of fabric on top the glove and pin them in place, but Mister Impatient that I am, I ended up just spraying the glove with Locktite spray cement, then spraying the individual pieces with spray cement and then wrapping each individual finger, wearing the right glove on my left hand and doing all of the work with just my right hand. Tricky, but doable.
Read more and get links to patterns at Instructables.
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