Fishbones has honestly, always been the easier of the two main weapons for Jinx. I don't struggle as hard with the rocket launcher as much as I do with the mini-gun. But I told myself, I was going to improve on my craft and create my cosplays as fully as I can each month. So I started off with Fishbones and went up in difficulty for the project.
I started off with a 3 foot piece of PVC pipe. I believe it was the 3" diameter, but you can do what size makes you happy. I used 10 mm foam, 6mm, and 2mm. I started with the easiest part of Fishbones and worked my way to the head. It is absolutely imperative that you make sure you look at your reference photos CONSTANTLY. I made a few mistakes that luckily, I was able to fix pretty quickly. I took a circle of 6mm foam the size of the pipe and glued it to the back end of the pipe, I measured around the circle about where I wanted the "exhaust pipe" and cut that. It was for Fishbones that I bought a legit utility knife, so I knew I was cooking with fire. It was $9 and came with 5 extra blades, so hopefully I'll be set for the next few projects.
I glued the exhaust piece on, then went to measuring the circumference of the pipe, and how long I wanted the back piece. Make sure you cut the first one, glue it on, then measure again for the second piece that covers that. The piece that covers the first is shorter, so make sure you remember that. I had an ugly seam that showed, but made sure to put it on the bottom so that I could go back and fix it later. I used contact cement for this whole project, but you can use hot glue, it just won't be as effective.
I repeated the steps for the second set of stacked foam, this time, being shorter with both pieces, and reversing where it was even. (The back piece has a shorter top strip that faces forward, while the middle piece has the shorter top facing the back piece.) I had another ugly seam (I can't cut straight to save my life.) and would also fix that later. For the piece right behind the head, I wrapped the pipe, then I stacked 4 or 5 squares of foam on the top and bottom for the (I don't even know what to call it.) I used 2mm foam, but probably should have used 6mm. Cut out four circles for your "nuts" and glue those on the flaps, closer towards the body of Fishbones. Finish off the main piece with another circle on the front end of the body and take a piece of 2mm foam, creating a circle for the rocket to go through. You should have something like this:
Then we move onto the detailing. I started with the grip, cutting out 4 pieces of 6mm EVA foam, glued them together, and dremeled it to round the edges. Then I cut out the shoulder rest, making it kind of a B shape, also gluing and then dremeling. I took this opportunity while I was dremmeling to round the edges of the base, since it's not just cut and dry shapes. I then glued the grip on the front and cut a hole where the shoulder rest would go for extra support and cemented that in.
Time for the head. I do plan on going back and redoing the head before I have my photoshoot, but if you're like me and still learning foamsmithing, this method is easiest. I worked on the bottom jaw, since that was easier of the two halves. I cut out the bottom base of the jaw, then measured around, so that I would have an accurate length for the teeth. In the future, I would not do this out of 2mm foam, but possibly 6mm. I cemented those two pieces together, then cut out more circles for the "nuts". To get the lines in both the nuts and the body, I used my wood burning tool. Please remember that it gets very hot, very fast, and that burning foam puts off not-so-good fumes. Once that was finished, I added on little strips of 2mm foam on the ugly seams so that I could make it look like it was welded. You can also use spackle. I used thumb tacks and glued those in to make sure they stayed.
For the top of the head, I took 4 pieces of 6mm foam (in the future, I would probably use 3 10mm pieces) and made a kind of pyramid, then dremeled it to make a slight slope. I burned an X for one of the eyes, and created the teeth using the same system I did for the bottom teeth. I cemented the top and bottom jaws to the body, and let it cure for a few hours before plasti-dipping it. I did two layers of that, then spray painted the whole thing silver.
After I sprayed it silver, I went ham on the paints. I used acrylic, and made sure to let each layer fully dry before painting the next one. I took a sponge and black, silver, and white paints, and sponged it on to make it look more like a hammered steel. Then I painted in the details and sealed it in with spray sealant. Fishbones weighs about 5 pounds, which is lighter than my first ever Fishbones, which weighed 15 (But was made out of cardboard and solid PVC pipe). The foam really takes a lot of weight out of it. I really hope this tutorial helped you and even continues to help you for any of your prop gun builds. I can't wait to show you Pow Pow! That post is going to be very photo heavy, so be prepared!
If you enjoyed my tutorial, and want to show your appreciation, you can send me a ko-fi! It's only $3 and shows me that I'm doing a good job! www.ko-fi.com/seifernoir Thank you so much.