RWBY Cosplay: Ruby Rose Guide Part 2

Hey everyone! I’m back with another cosplay project and another break down of how I created it. Let’s dig into how I turned this…

…into this:

Making Crescent Rose—Ruby’s sniper-scythe—is the biggest prop project I’ve ever undertaken. Previous to this, I’d only made a druid staff out of a long tree branch and a staff and dagger set for my San cosplay (from Princess Mononoke). Fortunately for me, I found an amazing tutorial by Hero Tetsuro that helped me tremendously. First of all, I decided to make the pieces out of PVC foam board, 1mm and 3mm thick (depending on what piece I was creating). I ordered the foam board on Amazon, but I’m sure there are other places you can get it, too.

As a guide, I used Hero Tetsuro’s wonderful actual-size reference sheets to the pole and scythe portions of Crescent Rose. After printing them out, I began tracing the pieces out on the PVC foam board.

Cutting all of the pieces for both the upper and lower sections of the weapon was very time consuming (and a bit painful, I’ll admit) because I cut everything out with an X-acto knife. The 3mm board was a little tough to cut, and I went through a few different blades because of that. But I wanted sturdy pieces for my prop, so that’s just the way it went.

Once I had all the pieces cut, I sanded away the rough edges and laid them out the way they needed to fit together. Then I began the process of gluing them together. The way I cut out each portion was so they would fit together like puzzle pieces. Some people prefer an overlapping method; just do what’s best for you.

I used Gorilla Glue so there would be less risk of having the pieces come apart. Unfortunately, Gorilla Glue takes awhile to dry, so I had to use clamps/my own hands to hold segments in place for at least 30 minutes before the glue set enough to hold. Let’s just say I used a lot of books as anchors so that I wouldn’t have to painstakingly hold pieces at funny angles (which made using clamps nearly impossible).

The hardest part of the project was attaching pieces for the scythe head since many of them varied in size and shape. Making the pole of the scythe was a bit easier since it involving gluing (mostly) in a straight line. I connected the pole pieces—left and right sides—with glue before connecting them to a broom handle.

The reason I chose to use a shop broom for Crescent Rose is because the top of it has a handy screw-in connector piece on which I mounted the scythe portion. Making the pole and the scythe separate pieces makes it much easier to transport and store. So if you choose this method, you’ll want to cut off all the bristles and trim the broom topper to just the joint piece (where the pole screws into the broom head). I used a hacksaw to cut away the excess broom base.

Once I super-glued the left and right faces of Crescent Rose’s pole (or sniper rifle, if you want to get technical), I had to fill in the gaps with more PVC foam board. Before that, though, I glued small pieces of cardboard into the gaps between the left and right faces as a means to give the interior more stability. I also added these card board “fins” to the inside of the scythe as well.

It really makes a difference and you’ll decrease the risk of something breaking/collapsing from the inside. But it is time consuming.

Once that was finished, I cut the 1mm foam board into pieces that would cover what was still visible of the broom handle. Again, time consuming work, but once the glue was applied it was more a matter of waiting for each piece to dry.

Once everything was glued together, it was time to start painting. I bought red and black, of course, but I also bought a light silver primer/paint to use as a base coat. Using the primer help hide the glue marks, and since I got a light silver color, it was already the proper shade for Crescent Rose’s blades.

The majority of the painting I did was spray-based, but for the finer details, I used acrylic red and black. The two varieties blended pretty well together, although you can still see the difference if you look closely.

This post serves as only a minimal guide, so if you want a more in-depth tutorial, definitely check out Hero Tetsuro’s guide. If you have questions or comments about Crescent Rose, feel free to leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.

You can find me on Twitter (@alishabmarie) and blogging about Arrow, Gotham, and board games over on Three If By Space.net.

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