Introduction: Splatoon Aerospray, Costume Prop

About: Avid Splatoon player!

This is a prop for an Inkling costume. It's a perfect prop for trick-or-treating to fill up with candy!

Inklings are the video game characters from the Nintendo WiiU game called Splatoon. In the game, you play as squid/kid character on a team of 4 to try and cover the ground in an arena with the most ink to win a match. Inklings use ink weapons to cover the ground and splat the opposing team which sends them back to the spawn point - allowing you more time to cover the ground. It's super fun, i highly recommend it! For our Inkling costumes we decided on: ink weapon, ink tank, and a hat for the tentacles.

Regular clothes would do for us as in the game you can buy fairly regular clothes for your outfit: sneakers, boots, t-shirts, coats, various hats, we just picked from our regular clothes for likely Inkling wear.

The AEROSPRAY is a low pressure-high volume ink weapon to spat your opponents up close or paint lots of ground quickly.

I decided i could make a quick one these with PVC pipe. Sorry not a lot of pictures, i was in a hurry making these, ink tanks, a roller, a charger, and an aerospray for Halloween (look for other instructables soon!).

[update, ok, not soon, it's been 6 years since that 2015 halloween, but better late than never! -SS]

[This is the fifth of 5 Splatoon props i made for the kids (and me) back in 2015. It was fun reminiscing about how i even made all 5 of these (well 7 since i made 3 ink tanks too) to be ready for that epic Halloween!

Supplies

PARTS: I'm guessing these are the sizes as it's been 5 years since i made these. I pretty much pulled a whole bunch of parts down and played around with fitting them together just sitting in the ACE-Do-It-Center PVC section!

  • 1 - 1" 3 part PVC coupler with knurled knob middle section for back end;
  • 1 - 1 1/2" 3 part PVC coupler with knurled knob middle section for front;
  • 1 - 2" 3 part PVC coupler with knurled knob middle section for front;
  • 2 - 1" 3 way connector with 45°, 1 for handle, 1 for reservoir;
  • 1 - 1" to 1 1/2" coupler (1 piece with wrench flats) - this is for the back end knurled coupler to main pipe;
  • 1 - 1" to 2" coupler (1 piece with wrench flats) - this is for the front end knurled couplers to main pipe;
  • 2 caps for back end and handle with cable;
  • 1 - 1" plug for reservoir;
  • Adams peanut butter jar from Costco;
  • 12" x 12" piece of plexiglass;
  • about 1' piece of a 2"x4";
  • eye hook;
  • 2" bolt and nut;
  • about 18" of coaxial cable and cable ends

TOOLS:

  • oscillating saw;
  • jig saw;
  • drill & drill bits;
  • heat gun;
  • wood glue;
  • bench belt sander;
  • coaxial cable end tools;

SUPPLIES:

  • sand paper;
  • wood filler;
  • gold spray paint;
  • PVC glue;
  • wood screws, flat & finishing washers;
  • clear printable sticker stock.

Step 1: Assemble PVC Parts

Once you have all the parts, it's the jigsaw puzzle of putting them all together. As with my other props (also on Instructable), use a screen capture of the Aerospray and an architect's ruler to measure out your dimensions for deciding how big to cut all your parts.

  • cut your 4 pieces of 1" PVC for the BACK, MIDDLE, FRONT, and HANDLE;
  • Since the PVC couplers are a larger diameter than the pipe they are joining, i got a few pieces of the next bigger size of PVC to make 'sleeves' so the finished center section looks like a single smooth part.
    • cut 4 sleeves cut both for length - taking into account how much of the smaller pipe fits inside the couplers, which is about 1" on either side or 2" shorter than the part they are going over;
    • cut the sleeves length-wise so they can expand to fit over the 1" PVC;
  • Dry fit all the parts together, make adjustments on your sleeves to make sure everything fits tight front to back.
  • PVC cement all your part together, let dry;
    • NOTE: make sure the front PVC pipe coupler (with wrench flats) to first front 3-part coupler has the bottom wrench flat horizontal to bottom of prop as this is where the support (wood) piece will be connected to Aerospray;
  • use wood filler to fill-in the gaps of the sleeves, and once dry, sand smooth.

Step 2: Assemble/make Accessory Parts: Support Piece, Trigger, Shield, Reservoir

The support part is made from a trimmed down 2x4;

  • trim for width and length;
  • trim the cut outs with a jig saw,
    • NOTE: the front cut out takes off enough materials so that the back part of support is flush against the main part of Aerospray and the front part rest on the wrench flat of the front coupler;
  • sand smooth on bench belt sander using the radius of the end of belt to make curves nice and smooth;
  • Shield part: cut out a piece of plexiglass with a slight curve (made using your heat gun) in it in the shape of a teardrop;
    • sand the edges smooth then secure shield to the front of the support with wood screws and flat washers for support;
  • Secure the support to the bottom of the Aerospray main pipe with 3 wood screws and finishing washers;
  • Trigger is made from the left overs from cutting out the support;
    • there are 2 sides and the middle part, screw the side to the middle and use the belt sander's curved ends to shape the piece into a nice looking finger trigger;
    • drill an eye bolt to the top of the Aerospray, fit trigger onto main body and secure with a bolt and nut that goes through the top ends of the trigger and the eye bolt.
  • Reservoir is simply the painted peanut butter jar with a hole cut in the bottom middle;

Step 3: Paint & Final Touches

Paint everything gold (Aerospray RG) or silver (Aerospray MG) depending on your preference.

  • assemble the cable:
    • drill holes in the PVC caps;
    • insert your coaxial cable through both caps and secure the coaxial cable ends;
    • PVC cement the caps in place;
  • secure the reservoir with PVC plug;
    • print out an AMMO KNIGHTS logo on clear sticker stock;
    • cut out and secure to the the right side of reservoir.

Step 4: Splat It Up!

The cable acts as a handy shoulder strap when you're tired of carrying it.

These were fun builds and the kids (big and small!) had fun being Inklings!

Halloween Contest

Participated in the
Halloween Contest