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To make sure the nail doesn't collapse in on itself during proper use, I filled the inside with expanding foam. This kept the inside rigid and helped the gluing process afterwards. Just don't overfill the nail, expanding foam has its name for a reason. It can take over an hour for it to reach its maximum size. When tying up anything I tried to do minimal damage to any of the props as I thought all the props were super cool on their own and if I ever wanted to display them I didn't want them damaged. So here's what I did to tie up all the accessories. Before making the belt I recommend making your own paper template to the rough shape of the one seen in the first image, before making any cuts. This way you'll know the belt fits and the shape won't be wildly off of what you want. Once you have your template I recommend folding the fabric in half and using only half your template, this way you'll get symmetrical cuts and the whole thing will be a consistent size. After the belt has been cut I took a strip of the fur from the leftover fur I had from the cape and glued it in a thin line around the entirety of the belt. (Makes it look more warriorish).
That would probably be easier to gather than building this thing. The Hollow Knight's helmet is one of the most iconic pieces of the character which is why the most effort has to go into it. So here we go... With the whole helmet assembled we need to make sure to cut out the eyes. I couldn't figure out how to cut the eye holes when I modelled the helmet so you'll have to do it post print. This can be done with a Dremel or like I did, being VERY CAREFUL with a razor blade. It's okay to leave a bit of material around the edge you only need enough cut to see through. And we will cover all this up with fabric in the next step You may have realised that the print already has a texture. But if you are like me and had a bunch of print errors or have holes in your print or not all the parts line up correctly then you can add an extra layer of texture. And I recommend doing this even if your print came out flawless because of how simple it is to apply extra texture.
Step 10:
This is the longer style with the engravings on it. It is much easier to make at the cost of being very flimsy and making it very hard to bend over. However you can get this to your exact body shape with a hair dryer which is a pretty big plus. Printing isn't overly difficult once you have the whole digital aspect of the print finished. I had my nail printed into 5 smaller pieces that printed over the course of a week. Just make sure to monitor the prints and keep a steady flow of filament in the printers to make sure you don't need to restart a print. When I printed the nail I used 0% infill which saved on filament costs but caused more print errors so be careful!
Glue your diamond-shaped cardboard piece on top, then attach the corresponding foam piece. Remember to have the hole for your dowel rod already cut. Fill in the edges with hot glue and cover edges with duct tape if desired. The mothwing cloak is the item I got the most use out of in the game so I thought I'd pay it some justice. The cape overall is very simple just some cloth, fur and hot glue (Because I can't sew).
Assemble your 4 cardboard triangles by gluing them with hot glue along the edges. Reinforce with duct tape.
Once your helmet has dried, spray it with 1-2 coats of Plasti-Dip. If you would like a smoother finish, sand down some of the rough edges between coats. Allow the Plasti-Dip to dry completely, then cover your helmet in a coating of Mod Podge. Once the Mod Podge has dried, complete your helmet by spraying it with white spray paint. Ok so first off most of this project involves 3D Printing, which can take a long time. Especially if you have to make most the models from scratch. However I've saved you the effort and gathered all the models I made/used in the making of this costume. So you will need them all before we start. As for gluing I used hot glue on the bottom of the inside of each chunk so that it was touching only the expanding foam to keep the sword together and then used super glue around the seams to reinforce the bond and make sure that the sword wouldn't break if the expanding foam ripped. Also since I printed the tip at 0% infill and expanding foam struggled to fit inside I applied a liberal amount of superglue on the tip to prevent it from breaking. Finally we begin the actual prop making of the project! The Nail is the first part of the project I built and is the origin of my spiral into madness. It is the sword that the Hollow Knight uses thought the game and it progressively gets upgraded throughout. I thought this model would look really good and the realistic damage that the model has really helped the vibe of the overall costume that I had no idea I was about to make I will also mention in this step that you should 3D print out the stamp for the "wax seal" It's a very simple file with no supports and minimal detail needed.Once everything is painted the stamp has to be glued onto the map. First roll up the map and glue the underside so that it stays rolled up. Then we need to attach the stamp, I found if you heat up the stamp with a hair dryer it bends to the shape of the paper better. I just used some hot glue to keep it attached, and with that you have your map. I added a bit of "Web Rope" as a flourish using a simple knot and some hot glue. This will help to secure the map to the belt later. The next alteration that you can make is gluing some "Web Rope" in strips around the arms where the arm armor goes. This is so you don't have to tie the actual armor onto the costume when putting it on as well as adding more general detail. To attach the "Web Rope" I used hot glue on one end and wrapped it around loose enough so that my arm could still slip out. And then used hot glue to secure the other end. Make sure to protect your arm under the morph suit when doing this. You can put a sheet of baking paper under the morph suit to prevent glue burns when attaching the "Web Rope".
This armor piece gets it's own step because it one of the last pieces I made so it has some variation in methods as I wanted to test something new. For the horns they are a little thin and are one of the areas people like to grab the most. So to ensure they don't snap off when you walk into a door frame because you forget you are wearing them (*Cough* *Cough*) you can fill them with expanding foam. Once the expanding foam fully expands you can duct tape the holes shut and move onto the next step. After goofing off in blender I made the helmet as "bugy" and realistic as I could. And when the helmet was finished I knew I had something great on my hands. That's when the obsession started. Cue Four and a half months later and my obsession came to a culmination of a full suit of armor with all the accessories I could think of. And now I'm here to share my journey so I feel justified spending all that time on a costume.Place your dowel rod into the hole and glue it in place. Wrap your dowel rod with duct tape and spray your finished structure with Plasti-Dip. The wax seal is a bit deceptive because it's not actually made of wax. I tried making the seal using real wax but every time I'd pull the wax off of the stamp it would crumble, so I found an alternative method. The way we are going to make a durable wax stamp is take a sheet of baking paper (I used a smooth metal surface in the photos it has the same effect just needs a little prying) and put a ton of hot glue onto the sheet. Next stamp the 3D printed stamp into the hot glue, holding it there until it dries. Once dried you can peel the hot glue off of the stamp and you'll be left with a faux wax stamp. Create the Knight’s nail by cutting 4 identical triangles about 4” wide and 30” long and 2 equally long strips about 1 inch wide. (A perfect resource for making the nail is by seeing if your local Joann’s or other fabric shop has an empty bolt used for apparel fabric that they can give you. Apparel fabric bolts are the perfect size and shape.) For the top of the nail, cut a diamond-like shape out of your cardboard with a hole in the middle for your dowel rod to go through. Cut these same shapes out of your foam. Wrap the remainder of the dowel rod (your handle, essentially) with generous amounts of duct tape to close the slit and keep everything in place. Finish up your structure by covering any loose or rough areas with duct tape. Cover your needle with 1-2 layers of Plasti-Dip, then spray with silver spray paint. Lastly, tie your white paracord through the hole of your oval piece (the “eye” of your needle) to act as your silk rope.
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