Here's a little explanation about how I made my new favorite prop: the Rainbow Smash from Fortnite.

This was made in 1 day and 1 night of work for PAX West 2018! I had to sacrifice quality and several details because of time constraints, but overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out. I usually hate working with foam, and I don't have much experience with it, but I really enjoyed this build, and didn't find it to be too difficult!

The rest of the costume was made by me from foam and Spirit Halloween.

Photo by Journeys in Color

Step 1: Materials

Everything here was purchased in local greater Seattle area stores - some of these things can be found cheaper online, I just didn't have time to wait!

Also keep in mind that you can substitute everything here for similar items - this is just a list of what I personally used!

Foam Floor Mats: I used approximately 5 floor mats to make this. You can find them a many different places, like Home Depot, Costco, etc. Just make sure there's only a pattern on one side. You can also buy nicer foam at places like TnT Cosplay Supply!

2mm Craft Foam: I used 3 sheets of these for the detail work on the head.

Contact Cement: To glue everything together.

3/4" PVC Pipe: Mine is approximately 4' tall, and goes completely inside of the head. For reference, I am about 5'4".

Plasti Dip: To seal the foam.

Black Sharpie

Giant Googly Eyes

Clear Coat Spray

Kwik Seal: To fill in the lines in the foam.

Acrylic Paint: To paint the entire thing. These are the colors I used:

Apple Barrel Bright Green
Apple Barrel Real Yellow
Appel Barrel Flag Red
Apple Barrel Neon Pink
Ceramcoat White
Ceramcoat Sparkle Glaze
Ceramcoat Tahiti Blue
Craft Essentials Dark Purple
Deco Art Champagne Gold

Step 2: Safety First!

Remember to use proper protection when handling foam and contact cement! Wear eye protection, respirators, and dust masks.

Step 3: Cut Base Pieces

Cut 2 head pieces, 2 mane pieces, 2 ears, and rectangles to go onto every segment on the head.

The mouth area is made of many small rectangles, and the long spaces are strips of foam with cuts where it needs to bend the most.

Step 4: Assemble Head

The is the order I glued things together, using contact cement:

Attach all the mouth pieces to one side of the head
Attach the other side of the head
Attach the longer strips of foam to the top and bottom
Glue the mane pieces together
Attach the mane to the head
Attach the ears to the head

I forgot to photograph this, but I also filled in the bottom of the head with two pieces of floor mat stacked together.

Step 5: Fill Seams

I used kwik seal and water to fill in the seams where the foam pieces attached!

Step 6: Attach Details

I patterned and cut all the pieces for the harness and rings, cut them out of foam, and glued them onto each side!

The mouth piece is just 3 pieces of foam cut at angles, attached together, and glued in.

The horn is a cone of thin craft foam glued and attached to the head.

Step 7: Seal and Paint

I used Plasti Dip to seal the whole head, and covered it all with a base layer of paint. My BIGGEST regret with this project was not using white as the base coat - it made painting the main and details ridiculously hard.

I used acrylics for the whole head, and sharpie for the detail lines. I also covered the rainbow in sparkle glaze, which looks really cool in the sun!

The highlights were done by mixing white paint with the colors I already used in that area, and they really bring the prop to life.

I forgot to take photos of this, but I just used a couple layers of the same acrylic paints on the PVC pipe. The pipe just fits into the base and isn't actually glued in.

And don't forget the googly eyes! I glued them down with super glue.