Introduction: Mass Effect Coffee Mug

By
About: I like sewing and crafts,and trying new things. I'm vegetarian and always looking for new recipes. My cat's name is Mirko and likes to be in the centre of things, so you will see him in several of my instruc…

I have been playing a lot Mass Effect lately and I noticed the same coffee mug throughout the game.  You can see several lying around the Normandy and on human colonies, stations and labs.  If you haven't noticed it, it is actually on the load screen of Mass Effect 3.  Suggestible as I am I wanted coffee and a mug like that every time I saw it in the games. 

The coffee was easy, but to have a mug like that would require a bit of work. I couldn't find a mug with such a tiny handle so it is not as accurate a replica as I would like.  To make it more interesting I embellished it with an N7 logo on the side (I imagine Commander Shepard should have a mug N7on it!).  I also added the Paragon symbol on the inside bottom of the mug (+2 Paragon Points for finishing your coffee).

Step 1: What You Will Need

  • Clean white coffee mug
  • Pebleo Porcelain 150 paint (food safe paint) in blue, brownish-black and red
  • Paint brushes and sponge
  • Oven
  • Painters tape
  • Scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Utility knife
  • Print out of N7 and Renegade or Paragon Logos

Step 2: Tape It Up

To get my mug to look like the one in the game, I masked off the top inch and a half of the mug so that it will remain white.  I debated what to do with the handle, whether to paint part of it black to make up for the fact that it doesn't look like the one in the game but decided it would just look weird that way.  So I masked off the handle too.

Step 3: N7 Logo

I wanted the N7 logo on the black portion of the mug.  I positioned it so that the logo was facing me while I drank my coffee (I am right handed) optionally I could have place the logo on both sides. 
  • To mask off the area for the logo I placed some tape over the area. 
  • I printed the logo template and cut it out. 
  • I then glued it to the tape with a glue stick. 
  • With a utility knife I trimmed the tape around the logo, then peeled off the paper template before painting.

Step 4: Paragon Logo

  • To create the Paragon logo on the inside bottom of the mug, I placed tape down on a cutting mat, laid the logo over top and cut out the blue area inside the logo (to create a stencil). 
  • I then traced a circle around the logo.
  •   I then masked off the inside edge of the mug and placed the tape with the logo in the centre.

Step 5: Paint

  • I started off painting the inside of the mug with the blue paint. 
  • I then painted the outside with black, I needed two coats to cover it evenly. 
  • Once the paint had dried, I peeled off the tape around the top of the mug and sponged on more black paint just above the top edge of the painted area. 
  • I then peeled off the tape of the N7 logo and added red paint to the triangular area of the logo.

Step 6: Clean It Up and Bake

After removing the rest of the tape, I noticed the paint bled through in some areas such as the handle and the logo wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be.  The paint can be scraped off with a knife and for larger areas a kitchen scrubby worked well.  The paint instructions require you to wait 24 hours before you bake.  The  next day I placed the mug in the oven first, I then set the oven to 150C (300F) and let it bake for 35 minutes.  After the time was up, I turned off the oven, leaving the mug inside and to cool slowly.

Game.Life 4 Contest

Participated in the
Game.Life 4 Contest