Building Tri-Hard

Hello, all you Trident Fans (now known as Tri-Hards, but I figured that may get a little confusing after a while on this post)! I know it's been a hot minute since we've posted anything here, but I figured it was time, what with the anniversary of this particular build having just passed.

What build is that, you ask? Well, if you know Trident Productions at all, you know that one of my first cosplays (and the one I was most known for starting out) is Neptune Vasilias from RWBY. Neptune has a gun that turns into both a gun and a gundao. I built that weapon, known as Tri-Hard, in gun form. And today, I'm going to show you how I did it.

Now, as with any prop build, the first step is to do your research. In my case, this was done by watching every single second that this weapon was on screen on repeat, as well as pulling up various images online for reference. I think I downloaded at least 20 different pictures on my old tablet to use. You might say I was obsessed, but you know? A little bit of obsession isn't necessarily bad in this case.

Sketch of Tri-Hard

After I had stared at the gun for countless hours, I then attempted to get a rough estimate of size and do a drawing of the weapon. As a basis for size, I actually used the canon measurements of the MA5C Assault Rifle that appeared in Halo 3, and wouldn't you know it, it was the perfect size once I put it to full scale.

Time to Scale it Up!

After doing the small, very rough sketch of the gun, it was time to scale it up. I got some foamcore and started to draw. For those who don't know, foamcore is foam board, with paper on either side, generally used to mount pictures. I actually picked up a couple tri-fold presentation boards, which is the same thing, and used that as the basis for the whole build. They are cheap and can be found at pretty much any office supply or hobby store, in addition to most big box stores too. In addition, they are easily cut up and take well to most paints, as well as hot glue.

Using a clear ruler to make sure my lines were the right size and lined up, I drafted the full size sketch and then cut it out using an Xacto knife. As I would later find out while building Crescent Rose, these blades are incredibly sharp, so I HIGHLY recommend cutting on a cutting mat and never cut toward yourself in any way. That said, once the initial full scale sketch was free of the board, I duplicated it by tracing it onto a second foamcore sheet. But not before having a little fun.

Some would call this done, but not me

The next step was to turn the two flat halves of the gun into a three dimensional prop weapon. To accomplish this, I essentially created a box with the foamcore. I cut out individual pieces of the boards and made walls along all the outside edges of the form, as well as some internal structures to make sure the middle was properly supported and didn't collapse. I also built out some more structures on the outside of the gun to further enhance the look, such as the rounded bits on the stock of the gun, as well as the structures on the sides.

Internal structure being built

Before I ever started to build, I knew without a doubt that I wanted this prop to have a gimmick, so to speak. As this was my first prop weapon, I didn't think I'd be able to accomplish any sort of transformation, so I decided that I wanted to make the gun light up, preferably when the 'trigger' was pulled. I had very limited electronics knowledge going into this, so I had to do more research. Back to the internet I went, looking up wiring diagrams and schematics for switches. Thankfully, I was able to get a lot of what I needed at local stores, but some things, such as the LED pod that was used to light it all up, had to be sourced from online retailers. I'll post links to where I got everything online at the end of the write-up.

Internal wiring: complete

After getting all my materials in, I got back to work. I ran wire from the trigger button I installed in the grip (in the proper position, as opposed to the side of the gun like I originally decided for some reason) to the battery pack I set up, to the LED pod. After everything was wired up, I gave the trigger a squeeze and practically blinded myself. The LEDs were incredibly bright. In addition, the light didn't really look like it should through the sides of the gun. I had to come up with a way to diffuse the light, and after another brief internet search, I had my answer.

Test 'firing' of the gun

Barrel laid in place

I ended up buying a polycarbonate plastic rod that was cut to the length I needed. I scuffed the surface slightly with some fine grit sandpaper and placed that in front of the LED pod. Testing the trigger a second time gave me the result I wanted. And as an added bonus, the diffusion altered the color of the light just enough to bring it from a green-teal to more of a lighter blue-teal, which brought it more in line with the canon weapon.

Once all the wiring was solidified and finalized, it was time to take the halves of the gun and make it one solid piece. This was accomplished, like most things, with a bit of glue and a lot of patience. I had to work fast to get the glue down on the edges of all the internal structures and get the second half down before the glue cooled and hardened. I almost had it complete, though there were a few spots where I had to scrape dried glue off and place it back down again, as there was just too much surface area to cover in one fell swoop. I would recommend doing this sort of project, at least this step, in a room that is somewhat warm. Thinking back on the build, I had my central air set to the same temp year round, and had I turned the heat up slightly, it would have allowed the glue to stay fluid a bit longer, but hindsight is always 20/20.

Now, before I get too much farther into this, I do want to bring attention to two smaller gimmicks that I built into the gun as I was going. The first was an ammo magazine that was held on by magnets, as well as a magnet box that I would wear on a belt on my back to allow for the gun to rest on my back, with no visible attachment points. The magazine was easy enough to accomplish, as when I build them, I just stuck a magnet inside both the magazine and where they would sit inside the gun as well. I built multiples, so that I'd have spares and the opportunity to swap them on video if I were ever to do a CMV. I only have the one left at this point, but it was a pretty good idea.

Test of the magnet mount

The magnet box/strap combo for the mount was a decent enough idea in theory. Basically, it was a small box filled with magnets that slipped on a belt I wore bandolier style under my shirt and jacket. On the side of the gun, I'd cut the excess foam from the inside and placed more magnets underneath, so there was nothing visible on the surface of the gun. Then, when the gun was placed on my back over my jacket, it would stay in place. It did work, but after a few accidents when Tri-Hard was knocked off my back at a con causing the gun to break, I would end up scrapping it in the future.

I did eventually add a metal plate to the outside of the magnet box to strengthen the magnetic bond a little, but the weight of the gun was just too much to overcome the shear (sideways) strength of the magnets I had. I may revisit this at some point, but I'll very likely need much bigger, stronger magnets and that just isn't worth it right now for me.

Back to the build. After turning the gun into a single solid piece, it was time to start prepping it all for paint. At the time, I hadn't really thought of using Plastidip as a surface prep, so in lieu of that, I actually went back to elementary school art class and broke out the paper mâché. Why I decided on this, I don't really remember. However, looking back at it now, it wasn't necessarily the worst thing in the world. It did add a bit more rigidity to the gun as a whole, at the sacrifice of a fully smooth surface. Regardless, I did a few layers of that and then spray painted the whole thing back to white to serve as the base.

First paint job (mostly) finished

Following that, I did attempt to use an airbrush to paint the gun silver, adding another first to this build, as I'd never used an airbrush before. Mel, the co-founder of Trident had recently got me an airbrush as a gift, and I decided, "why not?" I placed down templates for the pieces of the gun that needed to stay white, and went to work painting the whole thing. Unfortunately, due to the low power of the compressor I had initially, the sprayer didn't have enough pressure to reliably push the paint out, so it did end up being a bit splotchy initially. I was satisfied enough at the time, but this would be rectified later.

The gun was complete, and would have its con debut at RTX 2017. You remember me mentioning that the gun had broken at a con? This is the one. Part of the front of the gun snapped off, due to it being essentially foam and paper, and the internal wiring had been damaged due to the batteries yanking on the wires when the gun impacted the ground. So, the following spring, I decided to refurbish the gun, so to speak.

So shiny

I cut the side of the gun off so I could re-run the wires and adjust the battery mounts so they didn't move as much within the gun. After reattaching the side, I realized that the cuts I made were somewhat noticeable, so I decided to repaint the gun. I surprisingly had the foresight to keep the templates I used to do the designs on the sides of the gun, which made the whole thing a lot easier. For the refurb, I opted to use Plastidip on the whole thing. I figured the rubberized coating would further strengthen everything, as well as somewhat waterproof it, just in case something were to happen and I get rained on or something.

Signed by Gray and Kerry

This ended up making the paint job look incredible, and I brought Tri-Hard back to RTX 2018 for a follow up appearance, as it were. The new paint job made the entire thing stand out so much more, due to the silver being much more metallic compared to the original airbrush paint job, and the fact that everything was rubberized meant that on those inevitable drops to the floor (though not due to the magnet strap, as I did scrap that), the whole thing had a bit of shock absorption. I even got it signed by the voice for Neptune himself, Kerry Shawcross, as well as Gray Haddock, who also worked on RWBY.

This refurbishment ended up being the last time I would work on this particular prop, and it has since been semi-retired, along with my Neptune cosplay. Both will eventually make a return to the con scene, but I have plans for Tri-Hard 2.0 to be built at some point, and I think I may know how to make it transform in at least one way (gun to trident), if not into all three forms. Either way, for a prop for a cosplay that would give us our name, I'd say it turned out pretty well, wouldn't you?

Gray, BubblyWaffo, Myself and Kerry at RTX 2018

The next cosplay write-up I will be doing will also involve Neptune, but will be talking about his leg armor, which was the first bit of cosplay armor I'd ever built.

Until then, hope everyone has a great week!

 

-Stephen

Magnets purchased from K&J Magnetics

Polycarbonate Rod for barrel from ePlastics

LED pod, heatsink and driver from LEDSupply

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