This part is about stabilizing, assembly, and detail. I made this crossbow in a way that it will be Con ready first, then screen accurate. First, the piece of wood I mentioned last time that you painted needs to be hot glued onto the stock on the underside of the grip.
Using a hair dryer or a heat gun, heat the 4 arm pieces and bend.
Glue the center/extender piece to the front of the crossbow. Glue two of the arms together with the circular piece. Repeat with the other two pieces.
Glue the arms to the extender/center piece.
Now, while gluing the arms of the crossbow on, I realized they were very structurally weak. So I cut two more pieces of wood, 11/2X3X1/4″ to put there. Paint it first, then hot glue it on.
Now, glue the handle/foot bar one the bottom part near the arms. It glues to the underside of the crossbow.
The string part is tricky. Thankfully I had a crossbow nearby to reference. First, form a loop and tie it off. Measurement is going to be to your liking. I used 5″ pulled taught. Cut the loop in the middle.
Hot glue ends to either side of wheel piece.
Now, it needs to be pulled over to the other wheel to wrap around it. I decided to go through the grip hole since I didn’t make a hole for the string. You can do whatever looks best to you. I also strung the string backwards on this next part, but once finished you can’t tell. I hot glued the string to the underside of the wheel and glued it around to the top. It’s supposed to go to the top down to the underside.
Now, string over to the other side, crossing over the top of the stock. Your line should be over the bolt groove. Repeat gluing to the wheel. Bring the string back through the grip and tie a loop and cut it like you did in the beginning. Glue to either side of wheel.
Now, hot glue the string in place at the top and inside the grip.
Be careful while stringing that you don’t string it too tight. Unfortunately, foam is weak. I noticed that I couldn’t get the string tight because the arms would simply bend. So, I took 2 12″ long 3/16″ dowel rods and painted those black.
Once painted and dry, I then hot glued one of the rods to the stock near the grip string, and to the arm near the wheel in order to help support the arms and make the string taut. Repeat on other side.
The crossbow is now Con ready. Now, for the bolts. And don’t worry, I will be coming back to the crossbow later for a more screen accurate look.
In part two, you painted the bolts black and painted the feathers white and neon green. Also, you painted a notch in the end of the bolts. Now, you need to glue the feathers on. I eye balled where to start my first feather. It’s approximately 2-3mm from the end. Make sure you pay attention to the notch. Start with your neon green feather.
The neon green feather needs to be perpendicular to the notch. Now, glue the white feathers on. I eyeballed it instead of measuring. They need to be approximately equidistant from each other.
Now your bolts are done. Instead of making a quiver, I bought a $5 cheap one from Amazon. Put your bolts in the quiver, then glue it to your stock. The below picture is where I put it, you can use your own judgment and personal preference on where you put yours.
Now, screen accuracy! Daryl’s bow has splotchy white paint and black insets. To make the insets, I used regular craft foam. I drew the insets onto the crossbow stock in chalk, then used paper to trace the shapes I liked and cut them out. I then used the paper stencils to trace and cut the pieces out of foam.
Remember that you need two of each, and I recommend numbering them so they don’t get mixed up. Now, do the glue wash (8 coats) and paint black (2 coats) on both sides. Also, he has a scope mount, but no scope. Trace it in chalk on your foam. I used two pieces for thickness. Hot glue together, sand, glue wash, and paint as above.
Next, the stock. Daryl’s crossbow has a white splatter painting on it. If you are not pressed for time (like I was), I highly recommend doing to splatter paint on the stock before gluing everything together. If you are pressed for time and do it after, you will have to do touch up painting like I did. I simply got a medium/large paint brush, dipped it in white acrylic paint, then used my finger to splatter it onto the stock. You can see in the first image my chalk outlines. I attempted to draw the splatter part, but didn’t like it. Make sure you wash this off your stock with a damp washcloth.
Do multiple coats until you are happy with the effect.
Now, do touch ups. If you did your stock separately, you won’t have as many touch ups as I did, but you will still have some. Places the glue dried white, where you cut your cord, etc. Once everything is painted black, hot glue your insets and scope mount.
The last step is to attach your strap. I used a spare one I had from an old duffel bag. Hot glue your O (or D) rings to the correct area. Snap your strap on.
And you’re done! I don’t have my strap attached yet because I want to make sure the O rings are good an set before doing so.
This is my very first foam prop, and I’m very happy with my results. Hope you have just as much luck putting yours together! Until next time, cosplay on!
If you have any questions, comments, or requests, leave a comment below.
Anna Stasia Cosplay 