Best way to convince an anime nerd that he is a skinny weakling: have him create an anime weapon and try to use it/carry it in the real world.
Nate, would you please explain to us all what is going on here.
Homemade Wolfwood's CrossPunisher gun from Trigun. Cosplay GOLD. (Cheyenne)
Date: 2010-05-02, 8:24AM MDT
Reply to:
sale-3w79w-1720567370@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
That's right, look no further, anime fan.
A few years back, I want to NDK (Nan Desu Kan, an anime convention) in Denver, and with my awesome craftmanship, I had planned on making Wolfwood's crosspunisher so I could cosplay as him. If you've seen the anime, you know the CrossPunisher is a big metal cross that opens up and has a rocket launcher built into it.
This fact made me happen upon a small snafu: I am a thin weakling.
So, I made the cross out of things I deemed liftable: PVC tubing, styrofoam, a wooden circular handle (for the skull in the intersecting parts) and duct tape.
Yes. Duct tape.
I carved the slats of styrofoam into what I could shape into a cross, and took some PVC tubing and bored holes into a PVC gasket to attach the tubes into to give it shape and weight. I carved out half-circle tunnels into the styrofoam slats, applied them onto the PVC tubing, and duct taped the hell out of it. In the center piece, we carved two pieces of wood into a skull shape to look like the handle, and we gorilla glued the sucker into place, so it's not going anywhere.
Then, I coated it in duct tape, because A) Duct tape is not metal, therefore liftable by skinny people such as myself and B) Duct tape at least sort of looks like metal.
After that, it was all aesthetics. I bored in some screws to give it an industrial look, I put some wood slats on there to make it resemble the cross used in the anime/manga, I bored circles into the machine gun part to make it look like, well, a machine gun.
It was a SMASH hit at NDK. I was stopped nearly every two minutes or so for photos. It was incredible.
Is it cheaply made? I wouldn't say so, really. Did I work my ass off on it still? Sure did. This was about a month long process. Overall, I was pleased, but still cautious, so I had a friend tailor me the shroud. You know what I'm talking about, the white cloth with all the belts that goes over it? Well, belts are expensive, so I used more duct tape to look like belts, and what's cool about the shroud is it fits somewhat loosely over the cross, and has a zipper for quick, easy access. So you can tie one of your own belts around it and carry it like Wolfwood did, or you can unzip that sucker and attack the neighborhood dogs with it. It's really up to you.
Basically, what I want is for someone to come take this off my hands. I'd like to make a little cash on it since I worked nonstop for a month on it, however, so I'll say I'm looking for at least $50. I'll give it to the best offer to email me and pick it up.
Thanks for checking it out!
-James
