So I’m working on a Borderlands 2 costume and I need a grenade to go with it. I love Maliwan colors and the transfusion grenades are pretty helpful so I thought I’d try my hand at making a transfusion grenade!
Here’s what they look like:
Pretty simple shape, but I like the hexagon pattern on the more rare ones better:
This one has the pattern I like, but it has some extra fiddly bits that I don’t feel like making. It has a curved spherical surface, some metallic bits, and it lights up, so it’ll look pretty cool on my costume. Let’s get started!
I traced the 3d model in Illustrator and figured out what I need for shapes:
Pretty straight forward. You’ll need the spherical shape, a base, and 3 thin sections. I used MDF for the shapes and found an 8″ acrylic dome to use for the spherical parts:
The curvature of the parts I cut out are a bit rounder than I’d like. If I wanted it closer to the in-game model, I would have had to use a larger sphere, like a 12 or 16 inch sphere. Anyway, this is what I had on hand, and these domes are pretty common and can be bought at places like Home Depot and Lowes fairly cheap.
I cut out the round shapes with a Rotozip bit that I put in my drill press. Cuts fast and smooth. BUY A DRILL PRESS if you don’t have one already!!! I use mine for sanding, milling, and the usual drilling.
The edges are a little wonky because of the cutting angle of the bit. You want to make sure you’re keeping the bit perpendicular to the plastic of the globe, otherwise you end up with thin and thick spots in the cut.
I cut the rest of the parts out of 1/4″ thick MDF with the scroll saw and cleaned them up with the disc sander and a Dremel.
Here you can see all the parts test fit. I didn’t like how think the parts on the left and right of the round part were, they need to be a lot thinner than 1/4″.
Since I’m using MDF, I need to coat it with a latex based paint to seal it so that it doesn’t absorb all the spraypaint. I also switched out some MDF parts for .060 styrene since it’s much thinner.
That looks better! The next thing you’ll want to do is prep the round shapes. You want the light to glow through the L shape, but not the rest of the dome, so you’ll want to mask off the L shape and put a coat of black primer over it. I also added a coat of chrome so that it looks metallic through my graphics.
Now for the graphics. You can draw your details on, or paint them or whatever, but I made some custom graphics in Illustrator and printed them on a clear vinyl:
It’s a pain in the but to try to get vinyl to lay smooth on a curved surface, but the results are pretty good! Since I only need the front half of the grenade, I drilled a hole in the back and mounted an LED tea light for my light source:
I also decided that I didn’t like the chrome spraypaint and put a metallic tape over the bits that are supposed to be metal:
So that’s about it! All I need to do now is attach it to my costume and it’s ready to go! Overall, it took less than a day to make, minimal tools, and minimal supplies. Cheap, fast, and easy!
