Arishok Costume & Weapon

For the shoulder pads, you simply need to get some old canisters like these whey protein containers. Peel off the label and cut the canister along the dotted lines to form the general shape of the pad as I’ve shown in the picture. Then, get some red fabric and cut it into long, wide strips that can be hot-glued onto the surface of the canister. For best adhesion, roughly sand the surface of the plastic. Next, hot-glue one strip at a time in a sideways pattern along the surface of the plastic. Finally, use white paint and a small paint brush to sketch the design as shown in white.

The horns are made of crafters’ foam. Sculpt it into the correct shape and then cover it with fiberglass resin and sheets. After it hardens overnight, clip off extra material with scissors. Then Bondo the surface and let it harden. After it hardens, power-sand the surface and you will have a cool-looking horn.

Final touches of the wearable costume include thrift-store dark pants, black boots, and a red sash tied around the waist. I also bought fake leather, tied it around my waist, stapled it to fit my form, and then cut out sections of material to make it look like the pant-covers the Arishok has. I had my girlfriend use lipstick to paint my chest with the Arishok’s tattoo design.

Arishok uses two weapons and I only had time to make one. I started with a dowel rod of appropriate length, then cut foam-core to form a foundation for the blade. I used snips to cut out sheet aluminum in the shape of the blade. These were then cement-glued to either side of the foam-core scaffold. Then I liberally applied cement glue in between the overlapping metal edges and all over the sword edges to “soften” the edges. The handle had fabric glued over it, and the hilt was also made of foam.