(Dark Fantasy) Hollow Knight Cosplay

"No cost too great. No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering. Born of God and Void. You shall seal the blinding light that plagues their dreams. You are the Vessel. You are the Hollow Knight."

With a quote like that from the game Hollow Knight I felt inspired and knew I needed to pay the game justice in something I create. Having a 3D printer I thought I would recreate the sword from the game, once I had that I wasn't satisfied though. Soon after I gave 3d modelling a tried to model a helmet I could wear of the Hollow knight, to go with the sword. But after each try the proportions would look just off or something felt out of place and everything looked too organic. That's when I realised that cartoony wasn't for me so I said..

"Screw it lets make this dark souls"

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.

So anyways to get started we are going to need some materials...

Tools

• 3D Printer (Almost impossible without it)
• Hot Glue Gun (And so so many Hot Glue Sticks)
• Various Paintbrushes (Big, Small, and Everything in between)
• The 3D models of the Armor + Accessories

Programs

• CURA (Or any 3D print slicing program)
• 3D builder (For cutting up my poorly optimised 3D models for smaller 3D printers like mine)

Materials

• 3D Printer Filament (Your Choice I alternate colors every now and then but mainly stick to PLA or PLA+. During the project I went through about 3-5 kgs)
• Acrylics Paints (Mainly Blacks, Blues, Browns, Whites, and some Water to water them down later. Some higher quality Greens, Copper, Bronze paints are good for detail too)
• Spray Paint (Blacks, Greys, and White mainly, though you can use others)
• Bandage Roll (Not like a Band-aid the proper Bandages you'd use to wrap a bad cut)
• Expanding Foam (I only really used half a can but it's important)
• Spackling (It's the stuff you use to fill small cracks in your walls. I easily used over a 500g bottle during the project.)
• Black See-Through Fabric (You don't need much its for the eyes in the helmet. The fabric I used is like the stuff under some furniture though I'm sure there's better fabric)
• Cheese Cloth (I used a very small amount and you can get it for cheap at some supermarkets)
• Grey Non See-Though Fabric (This is used for the cape so get a 2m piece. I'm 6' 6" and that was enough to reach the floor for me)
• Faux Fur (Totally Subjective, though it should be a black or at least a dark grey. This goes around the neck part 1m was more than enough. Though I recommend you don't cheap out on this, get the John Snow's Cape type of fur and not the cheap stuff like I did)
• Elastic (1-2m should do depending on how much you need certain parts to stretch)
• Velcro (Get this! Will help the entire thing not fall apart while wearing it)
• Eva Foam mats (Adds padding to chest plate only 1 mat is really needed though they are sold in packs of 4)
• Faux Leathery Material (Save yourself the effort get it in black, mine came in brown and it did not help)
• Black Morph suit (Very important or else you look like a fool. Detachable head part optional)
• Black Morph Suit Gloves (Optional)
• Printer Paper (For template making and maps)

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.

Models

- All my models can be found from the thingiverse link below. They contain all the Armor, The Helmet, Monomon the Teacher's mask, + some accessories. (I also have the files for the Lumifly lantern in there it's not necessary and I don't go over how I made it because I scrapped the idea but uploaded the model anyways)

Link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5420914

- The model for the Pure Nail was made by João Desager on Sketchfab It's very small when imported to CURA but is perfect when scaled up. The link can be found below

Link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/hollow-knight-pure-nail-5ff6de0de67d498987a0c8cc534dee03

- Finally the 3D model used for the gaunlets was taken from a model posted on thingiverse by Azumetrics the thingiverse page is in the link below.

Link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5448376

For my printing of the parts I used an FDM printer. This should be fairly obvious for people who know already about 3D printers but I feel I should still mention it. Since my printer is an FDM printer I use the slicing program called CURA, in CURA I use the default printer settings for my printer (An Ender 3 Pro) but some print settings I tweaked a bit to save on time/filament during certain parts. Below are the settings and explanations for why they may alternate.

CURA Settings

The basic settings I use for printing vary but the factors that are important are:

Infill: 4-20% (If very thin parts like the sword or helmet are being printed then print with 100% otherwise print to what you have filament for, obviously the higher infill the stronger the model)

Layer Line: 0.2-0.08mm (It fluctuates depending on the detail, how long you are willing to wait, and the amount of support you want to use. Typically 0.2mm if its low detail and little support like the chest plate and 0.08mm if it's detail is marginally higher but you don't want tons of supports)

Supports: Yes (I used tree supports because they used less filament and are easier to take out)

Walls: 2-3 (I used 3 wall layers for thin parts like the helmet or the sword and 2 layers for thicker parts like the chest plate and leg armor)

Print Speed: 50 mm/s (detail isn't a high priority if we treat the bigger parts with sanding)

Slicing to fit on Smaller Printers

Having a smaller printer can be tough especially when printing something as big as a helmet, so here is how you can slice a model into smaller chucks for programs like CURA.

1.) Open 3D builder (Should come pre-installed on most windows computers)

2.) Import model by clicking open when the program boots up, then select the model you want to slice into smaller pieces. Then confirm import of model at the top

3.) Click on the model then click Edit and then Split. A green bar will appear that will cut the model in half

4.) Before moving the bar click on "Keep both" at the top of the screen

5.) Now move the bar up and down and rotate on the axis until you have a cut you are happy with

6.) Click Split to confirm the split and the model will but cut into smaller chunks

7.) Make sure to delete one half then save the file as an stl. Once you have saved you can hit ctrl + z to restore the half you deleted. Then just delete the half you saved and save the other half.

8.) Now you have 2 stl. files that contain smaller chucks of the model. I recommend using a numbering system or putting the files in folders so you don't forget which file is which as it can get confusing at times.

You can repeat these steps on already sliced models to cut them into even smaller pieces. I had about 8 pieces on just the one style of chestplate alone. But you can cut as many pieces as you printer may require.

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

Printing

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!

Assembly

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.

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.

After gluing I applied Spackle around the outside of the sword. This allowed for the gaps in the sword to be filled and when sanded after drying the sword looked like once piece. Now the sword is ready for painting

The whole process of painting massive props like this is much easier than people think. The whole process can be put into three general steps. Which is good people because it makes it easier for me to summarise ;)

Base Coat

A base coat has to be thick especially with the nail because you'll be waving it around for photos or wearing it on your hip or holding it a lot. For my base coat I used some painter/primer silver spray paint (Just the cheap stuff you can get from your local hardware store). And coated the nail 7-8 times. However when using spray paint you shouldn't spray on a coat super thick as it may glob up in certain areas and totally ruin the effect you want. So it's best just to stick to thin coats.

Washes

Washes are made when you water down paints and run them over a surface. The thicker the wash the more that's left when you wipe it off. The idea is that the watered down paint runs into the cracks of a surface and when you dab off the wash with a paper towel the watered down paint will dry in the cracks just like years of grime would with an actual weapon. However I found that you can increase or decrease the effect the more of less you water down your paints. For instance if you dip your paintbrush in some water then smear paint all over something and dab it off it leaves the color's residue. This is good for pieces like the nail that may be rusted over time. And as you can see in the photos I did this process all over with black and brown paints making sure to dab it all off after being applied. If you dab your wash off with a paper towel and there is no paint being left behind you may have watered down your paint too much or maybe you are wiping instead of dabbing (Tapping a paper towel repeatedly) too hard. Try watering down your paint a bit less or dab a bit softer. Remember do not wipe the paint off or it will leave smear marks.

Dry Brush

A dry brush is a much more subtle addition to a paint job. It basically makes the edges look more worn out. If you have a hard time visualising this, look at painted furniture, you will see that the corners or the edges may be a bit lighter or show the original material underneath. This is because it is an area with high amounts of contact and wore away over time. We can simulate this effect with paint. The first step is to get some silver paint on a brush. Then wipe off almost all the paint on the brush on a paper towel. You will know you wiped enough off when barely any paint is coming off the brush any more. Then wipe the brush on any raised edge. The little bit of silver will paint over the washes and make it look like those edges are worn from being in contact the most. A bit of subtle storytelling and a cool paint technique for any armor or weapons.

"Soul of Wyrm. Soul of Root. Heart of Void"

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...

Printing

The Hollow Knight's (Who I will from here on out be referring to as the knight) helmet is one of the largest pieces to print out of the whole project. This also make's it one of the pricier parts since it requires a lot of filament, however I'm cheap so of course I found a way around this. When printing I set the model to a layer height of 0.08mm this means minimal supports are generated. As well the entire mask is very thin. Which adds to breathability at the expense of nearly breaking if you drop it. But hey, its cheaper to reinforce the inside than print way more helmet. The same general rules apply for the helmet as the nail. Keep an eye on filament make sure it doesn't run out, Make sure the print doesn't fail mid way (If there are small gaps they won't matter and I'll explain why in a second), and finally make sure to keep an eye as each part is printing. I nearly had a bug get stuck inside one of my prints.

Assembly

Assembly is rather simple as you just need to hot glue each part to the others. There's no tabs or really any room to do this so you need to put hot glue on the thin lines in between each part and then hold the two pieces together until the hot glue dries. Once the glue is dry you can apply a liberal amount of hot glue on the inner seam to ensure the parts stay together. Do this for all parts of the helmet. You may have more or less parts depending on how big/small you made your parts to fit on your printer.

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.

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

Texture

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.

The trick to adding texture to the helmet is the Spackle, this is why I used so much of it. All you have to do is get a massive glob on your finger then dab it all over the helmet. Now no matter how bad the urge is do not smear it you want the prickly texture. And when it dries do not sand it, if you put too much on in one area you can try sanding that down to reapply but otherwise don't sand the Spackle down. Even if it's a bit too "pokey" for your liking I'll explain why that's good in the painting step.

Who doesn't love painting right? Well get used to it because we aren't even a quarter of the way there, and trust me there's a lot more to go. Luckily the helmet follows the same basic principles that the nail did when it comes to painting.

Base Coat

A white base coat is super important as it helps to protect the spackle from the washes as spackle gets all soggy and ruined when in direct contact with water. That's why we want to put as many layers between the wash and the spackle as possible. So make sure to use about 4-5 coats of white spray paint over the entire helmet to ensure that it won't get too water damaged. If you are feeling a bit daring you can add a little bit of grey or silver though I didn't do this at the time because I wanted the helmet to look like the "cartoony" kind of bone especially that color, even though the helmet looks like something out of Elden ring.

Washes

In this step you need to be a lot more careful not to overdo it with the washes. While with the nail it was fine to hardly water down the paints at all you need to use like 70% water to 30% paint. This is because because of the spackle there is much more room for the paint to seep down into and hide. Which can tint the overall helmet a much darker shade. As well I wouldn't recommend any paints for a wash besides maybe a brown as it may overwhelm the white color. Remember though if you screw up this step you can always wait for the wash to dry and then re-spray the helmet to start over.

Dry Brush

Dry brush is vital especially if you went a little overboard in the washes department. Make sure to dry brush every area of the helmet with a bone white as the raised area of the spackle will catch it while the washes will stay in the lower areas of the spackle.

Adding The Eyes

The eyes are the window into the soul. Does the knight have a soul? Guess not. Regardless they are a vital part of the overall costume as they are big and cartoony providing a perfect way to see. So that you want to do is take a piece of paper and try and trace a pattern for the size of the eye hole. This may take a few attempts but when you have it just the right size you can cut the pattern onto the see through material and use got glue around the edges to cover the eye holes. If the fabric doesn't perfectly cover the eyes you can touch it up a bit with some black paint.

Elastic Bands

I don't show this in the photos but believe me they are there. Just hot glue some elastic on the inside of the helmet to make sure the whole thing stays snug around your head when walking around. You would hate for it to fall off if you walk into an aforementioned door frame.

So in making the costume I needed a reason for the armor to stick to me without people immediately assuming I glued it to the morph suit or I used Velcro. So the trick is to make this "Web Rope". You may know this stuff better as that spooky fabric you get at Halloween but much thicker because it comes from a bandage roll. To turn a bandage roll into "Web Rope" you first need to stretch out the roll until the bandage is about to tear. This will make it thinner and more uneven. Next you can take the whole bandage and soak it in some black water. This stuff is 98% water 2% black paint. You really don't want the paint to turn the bandage black just a general greyish color. Once the bandage is all grungy from the water you can hang it out to dry and rip small pieces off when you need to make "Web Rope".

Ok so for the this and the next step I grouped a lot of the armor pieces together because even though they are all wildly different in design they all follow roughly the same prep and paint steps which are as follows

Printing

This is going to be the longest part of this step for most of the parts I used 100% infill because they are all so thin. Make sure to keep a close eye on all theses parts while they print. The only one that differs from all of these is the mantis claw and the shoulder armor. The mantis claw is printed at 20% infill and needs minimal attention because even if it needs touching up with spackle it is so uneven and lumpy that it doesn't matter it just adds to the effect. Next are the shoulder armor pieces. A closer eye needs to be kept on them while they print as they are a major thing everyone sees, and they have a smooth texture so mistakes are harder to hide. Make sure there are no major print errors for these parts and you should be fine.

Assembly

Assembly for all the parts follows the same basic principles which are: Glue along the lines, Reinforce the back of each seam, Apple spackle to the front to cover the seams, Sand down the spackle. However this next part is exclusive to a few particular pieced of armor. For pieces like the wrist and leg armor you should take a hair dryer and heat up the plastic enough so that it bends but not to where the plastic feels like it's about to snap. Then keep it in place around your arm or legs so that it will fit you perfectly. This is how I was able to keep the arm pieces on without Velcro for a long time. As well the leg armor require some "Web Rope" that we made from the previous step to be glued to it in the 4 corners, I recommend using thin strips of "Web Rope" as it looks better. This will also help us to apply the armor when we put it on as well as add reason to how its able to stay attached. Now with assembly all finished we can move onto painting.

The steps to paint all this armor is mostly the same so I'll try not to go into too much detail here. Though I do go over an alternate technique for a base coat which will be referenced later you can find a more in-depth explanation for washes and Dry brushing on step 4.

Base Coat

For the previous steps I used white or silver spray paint, but to paint the other armor I tried something new. I start with a base coat of black paint on most of the armor pieces, then dry brush a silver all over the black except this time it was a much stronger dry brush to the point of it barely even being dry brushing. I put a thin amount of paint on the brush and got in every crevasse of every armor piece until the whole thing gave off a grungy silver effect. This saved from having to do a black wash in the future.

Washes

Even though the base coat alleviated the need for a black wash a brown wash is still needed to show off a rusty sort of effect in most of the armor pieces. You can choose how hard you want your wash to be. For the shoulder pieces I used a lighter wash than the arm pieces. Though its totally subjective how you treat each piece

Dry Brush

While a silver dry brush isn't necessary as we are painting straight up silver armor we can add some gunk to the armor to show it's worn down. I chose to do this with some greens, bronzes, and coppers. I used these in a light amount in certain areas of the armor dry brushing in a spinning motion on one area of the armor to leave a sort of splat mark. Just make sure not to go too overboard a few spots here and there are perfect and it's not necessary on every armor piece

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.

Assembly

Very similar to most other armor pieces except this piece is much thicker I used around 10% infill to make sure it wouldn't split. Once you have both parts you can use hot glue to fuse them together and reinforce the back. Once joined together I heated the back of the armor with a blowtorch. Since the armour is so thick the heat didn't reach the front and I could leave an indent in the shape of my leg on the armor. I wanted these pieces to look like bug shells so that's why I wanted the thickness quality to stay consistent throughout. Once you have the armor heat shaped you can apply spackle to the seam on the front, sand that down, and then get ready to paint.

Painting

Painting follows a very similar method to when we painted the nail. Coat the whole thing in a base coat of silver spray paint, add washes of brown and blacks. However this time we don't add any dry brushing or detail colors like the the other armor pieces instead we are going to be adding something to the back.

The Back

The back of the upper leg armor is going to have some fabric on it. This fabric is just cheesecloth stained using the same method of staining as the "Web Rope". We then cut a square of it and glue it to the back of the armor piece. Make sure to leave some hanging off the edge. Once you have it glued down we can tear up the overhanging fabric using a razor blade. I just went in downward slicing motions on the fabric leaving cuts and tattering it. But be careful making fast cuts with sharp knives as you can cut yourself rather easily. Once you have the fabric tattered and glued down we're just going to add some "Web Rope" to tie it to ourselves, this helps when it comes to putting the costume on. We'll also add some Velcro to the back to help attaching later.

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).

The Cape Base

I recommend standing up and wrapping the cape around your shoulders. Mark by your feet where you want to cut the cape but don't use scissors. Instead we are going to lay the fabric onto of a piece of wood you don't mind getting destroyed and then using the back of a hammer to cut the fabric. Repeatedly smash the back of the hammer into the fabric along the line you want to cut. This will tatter the fabric making it look torn over time. And if you don't want to be hammering a piece of cloth for an hour you can always rip the fabric after you've hammered for a bit.

Cape Fur

The Mothwing cloak in game I always pictured as having a fuzzy neck part so that's what I did. Here's the thing though, when you do this don't cheap out of fur. Get the flowing black kind and not the bargain bin kind that I have. It's the only regret I have with this cosplay. Moving on however you can cut a square of the fur and use hot glue to secure the fur in place. You can even fold the fur onto the inside of the cape to make sure it won't come off too easily if the glue fails.

The next part is to treat the cape's fur. To make it look worn and as if it's gone through battle I tested a few treatment options on some strips of fur. Painting Black, Brown, and using hair gel. I found a combination of Black paint and hair gel gave the fur that rough battle worn texture I was looking for.

Securing the Cape

Finally to secure the cape I used hot clue across the middle. But the position had to be right I needed the cape to be covering one shoulder while leaving the other more exposed, you can do this by folding the top of the cape in different positions until it's right. Once covered hot glue any folds you made and the middle part.

So when it came to making this costume I had done multiple iterations of some parts. One of these parts being the Chestplate. I thought both were great each having their pros and cons and I'll go into each below. (When I cover how each was made I'm not going to cover assembly and painting techniques as they follow the same techniques for assembling and painting metal armor as mentioned in previous steps)

Style 1

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.

Style 2

This is the shorter style it is easier for the initial chestplate however there are some under armor parts you will need to make in conjunction to not make the chest area look so empty. This style is thicker at the expense of it not being able to be heated to your body shape. But I do think it is the better style just for the ability to be able to bend over.

This first style of chestplate is much larger than the other type meaning the chestplate has to be split into multiple smaller parts. I split mine into 8 pieces though you can definitely do less. The chestplate is probably the thinnest of all the armor pieces I designed the chestplate with the ability to bend with heat from a hairdryer in mind. So keep that in mind while wearing it. When assembling make sure to reinforce the seams on the back and then use the hair dryer. If you don't want to get hot glue all over you when you heat the chestplate to fit it to your body you can put a baking sheet on the back of the chestplate the hot glue wont stick to that. Once you have the chestplate shaped to your body you should reinforce all weak points on the back with as much hot glue as possible (Weak points include Corners, Tips, Edges, and Seams). You should use the Spackle after you have heat formed the chestplate because if you apply it before heating it will crack and fall out of the gaps you are trying to cover. Once you have the chestplate shaped and reinforced you can paint it. When painting this chestplate I used the black drybrush technique covered in step 9, though you can use any other method of painting. Once the chestplate is painted add elastic straps to the back. Make sure you attach the elastic like a backpack, with elastic over your shoulder as well as hugging you back so it doesn't slip off while wearing it.

This style of chestplate is a lot simpler and can bit made much quicker. The basic steps of assembly stay the same, but this chestplate cannot be heat formed to fit your shape. I tried my best to design the model to fit most people but it may not fit all people it's a lot thinner in length and designed for people with a slender build like me, so keep this in mind when building. Anyway when putting the chestplate together I split the chestplate into 4 pieces which were glued together and reinforced on the back along the seams. Then the procedure remains the same until we get to painting. To paint I used the method outlined in step 4 where a base coat of silver spray paint was used. However I tried a new method of putting black watered down paint into a spray bottle and spraying it all over the chestplate. Which helped dirty it up a bit before a much harsher wash in both Black and Brown. Once the Black and brown washes were cleaned off I used a blue wash on the center chest to represent the lifeblood from the game (A detail even I struggle to remember sometimes but I still think is cool) however even though we have the chestplate printed and painted we aren't done, because this style chestplate requires some under armor...

This part is very different to the 3D printed armor we've done so far as it allows a degree of flexibility when wearing the second style of chestplate. (I designed it like this after entering a competition where I had to stay backstage for an hour with a style 1 chestplate only to realise I couldn't sit down while wearing it properly)

Building up the base

The base of the under armor is built from a chunk of an EVA foam floor mat. Initially I felt as if the floor mat was too thick so after an hour of trying I attempted to saw through the middle of the mat. It worked and left me with two pieces and this uneven texture on the foam (Perfect for some battered armor). Since the mat cut in half gave me two pieces this gave me two plates to work with. I covered the foam in some leather like fabric and left extra fabric to cover my back (If you can wrap it around your waist and there is a little gap on your back that's the perfect amount of material) Then just hot glue the fabric to the foam.

Painting

Painting the under armor isn't overly difficult. To start use a base coat of black and then drybrush a coat of silver on top (Like in step 9). I found that if you wrinkle the fabric by scrunching it up makes the silver stick to the raised edges of the fabric more and brings more attention to those details making the armor look more imperfect.

Attaching the Armor

Luckily the armor isn't overly difficult to attach. At the back where the fabric ends you can glue a small bit of elastic, and on that elastic add some Velcro. This makes it so if you stretch and your back moves the Velcro won't snap immediately allowing for more flexibility when the elastic stretches.

Finally we are going to attach the the 3D printed chestplate to the leather armor by adding a strip of glue to the top of the under armor and overlapping the chestplate. If you want added security you can add superglue to the back to make sure the chestplate sticks. Though the hot glue should be able to manage it always helps.

To be honest I don't have photos of the painting process of this mask but it came out so well I had to talk about it here. The mask is printed to be big enough to barely fit in my hand. It's painted with a white spray paint as a base coat, black wash, brown wash, and then to finish it off I used some regular black paint in the eyes. This step isn't overly complicated but I do also use the mask in a later step so it would be weird to not explain it's existence here.

Along with the mask of Monomon the Teacher I wanted to add a couple other details to the hunter's belt (Which is coming up) from the game. One easy item that I thought would work well was a map from the in game cartographer Cornifer. It's simple and a nice touch.

Assembly

Assembly of the map itself is rather simple. Take 3 sheets of paper and glue them together, preferably with something like Elmer's glue. I had none on me so I just smeared hot glue all over the back of the papers, which left this lumpy texture when dried.

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.

The "Wax" Seal

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.

Some Tips: If the hot keeps sticking to your stamp even when dried you can try adding a little bit of melted butter to the surface of the stamp. Just be careful it doesn't slip when the glue is drying. Also if you are too afraid you might accidentally touch the hot glue you can glue down a stick to the end of the stamp to prevent burns when holding the stamp still.

Painting

To paint the paper is rather simple just a couple coats of watered down yellow's and browns across the page to make it look old. You can add wrinkles to the paper by rolling it up into a ball and dry brush the wrinkles to add more detail to the paper.

For the stamp I just went with a basic coat of purple paint and a white drybrush to show off some of the details. A wash is very optional but do it if you want!

Post Paint assembly

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.

(Fun Fact: Those details that are on the stamp are from a real life map of the game sent by Fangamer its a replica of Cornifer's stamp!)

This belt is used to tie together all the oddities and references, and it's rather simple. I used the image of a template I found online as a guide (No there was not a printable version it is literally just the image I worked off of).

Assembly

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).

I do want to briefly mention painting, I don't paint the belt as it didn't look how I wanted it too on my test pieces seen in image 8. However you should totally feel free to paint the belt however you see fit. I did however add a little hair gel to the fur on the belt and you can add paint to that too like in step 11.

Once the belt is painted (or not) it is time to add these little ropes bridges (using the "Web Rope"). I just thread one end through a hole I made in the fabric with a screwdriver and then tied a knot on the other end so the fabric wouldn't go all the way through. Thread it through three more holes and you have these "Web Rope" "bridges" you can hang things off of which I'll go into in the next step.

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.

Tying up everything

To start I'll cover Monomon the Teacher's mask. I used a long strip of "Web Rope" and split it into pieces. I tried to have all the pieces of the "Web Rope" meet at the back where I could tie them together, However if I could not tie a piece of "Web Rope" then I would hot glue it down. I did not paint the back of the mask so it didn't matter where I put hot glue. I just tried to keep it minimal in case the mask spun around on my hip while I wore it. Make sure to keep the rope spread randomly on the front of the mask, and don't worry about covering the back. I aimed to not cover the eyes but cover areas like the forehead instead. If the rope keeps slipping, use a little bit of hot glue to keep it in place, it shouldn't damage the mask severely if you decide to remove the rope later. Once you have the mask tied up try to have a little bit of "Web Rope" left at the top. We will use a simple knot to keep the mask tied to the little "Web Rope" bridges on the belt. Keep it tied up and make sure it's tight, reinforce the knot with hot/super glue if necessary and you should have the mask tied up to the Hunter's belt.

Now for the Mantis claw I found the best way to get this attached to the belt was to drill a Very Small hole in the bottom of the claw. This allowed for me to feed rope through the opening. You can then tie a knot of the end to make sure the "Web Rope" doesn't slip back through and tie the other end of the "Web Rope" to the belt. (If you leave enough slack in the rope you can hold it for photos).

Finally for Cornifer's map I mentioned it briefly that I tied a rope around the map, this rope tied around the map is what we'll use to secure the map to the belt. You can use a basic knot to tie to one of the "Web Rope" bridges on the belt. I recommend keeping the map on the same level as the mantis claw on the belt or higher as I personally feel it looks better though that's entirely subjective. (You can also keep some slack in the "Web Rope" so you can hold this for photos as well.

Probably one of the more tedious parts (Just from the sheer number of pieces, it was actually pretty simple to make) have got to be the gauntlets. They look great but are time consuming to make. They will however limit your movement in your hands so if you plan on using them for something like a Halloween party I'll talk about a method to make using your hands a bit more manageable later on.

Printing

Printing is a rather simple process just very time consuming. You need (2x) middle parts for each finger (1x) the pinkie and (0x) for the thumb, You need (5x) finger tips one for each finger, you'll also need a main hand part, and a thumb cover part, and then multiply that all by 2 because you'll need a set for each hand. Just use 20% infill and 0.2 layer height. It's not about quality but quantity with each piece. I'd try and fit maybe 5-6 pieces on your build plate per print so it will take multiple prints to fit everything. But once it's all printed you can rip off any supports and move to fitting.

Fitting

Fitting is a difficult process, most parts won't fit your hand perfectly, this is because you need to fit each piece for where it needs to go on your hand. For instance the part that covers your knuckles needs to be heated to fit the shape of your hand. And so does each finger piece, and each finger tip, and so on. Its time consuming but you need to heat each piece with a hair dryer and wrap it around your hand while it cools. It will set into shape and leave a perfectly fitting glove at the end. If you want to speed up the heat fitting process you can use a blow torch but it's much more dangerous and may leave bubbles in your print. (I did this and the heat smoothed out some layer lines and the bubbles look intended even though they are not. However your results may vary and using a blowtorch is still very dangerous).

Painting

Thankfully painting is one of the easier parts of all of this. To save time I used a silver spray paint base coat and a mix of black and brown washes. I stuck mainly to black washes for most pieces but singled out some pieces with a strong brown wash which when dried looked perfect for a rusty effect.

Remember how I said you really don't get much mobility in these gauntlets? Well you'll really get to see now. I mentioned in the supplies section a pair of black morph suit gloves were optional. This is because you COULD attach the gauntlet pieces to the actual base morph suit. But if you want to be able to actually hold more than a charm in your hands you should attach the gauntlets to some morph suit gloves. They should be made of the same material as the suit so they'll blend right in when you wear the suit. And luckily mine go up my arms and the seam is hidden by the upper arm armor. If you can't find a pair of morph suit gloves any black gloves will do, and trust me when I say it's worth it. Plus it lessens the risk of accidentally spilling glue on your morph suit.

Attachment

Ok now for the hard part, here is the trick I recommend since the glue will travel through the seams of either the morph suit or your gloves I recommend wearing a pair of cheap gardening gloves underneath the gloves you are gluing each piece too. This will prevent burns all over your hands. Another tip is organising/labelling each piece of the gauntlet before you glue it on so you don't attach the wrong piece permanently because hot glue is hard to get out of fabric. Once you have everything ready put hot glue on the underside of each gauntlet piece and attach to the place it's meant to be on the glove (A test fit with tape prior to gluing is recommended). As you are gluing each piece keep checking you can still move your hand check your fingers can still move up and down and your thumb can still articulate. Your movement may be limited but you should still be able to make a fist shape. Once you have it all glued down take your glove off and put it back on to make sure everything is fine and you are happy with your work.

Now for this costume I bought a black morph suit. In particular I got one of those ones with the mask instead of the fully attached body. This made it easier to make alterations to the mask as well as letting me cover my neck when I wanted to wear just the helmet. The alterations are simple but add a lot to the storytelling of the overall costume.

Alterations

The first alteration we are going to make is cutting a hole in the face mask. Now morph suits are designed so that you can see through them when stretched but since the fabric I used to cover the eyes in the helmet obscured my face I couldn't see too well through the black see through fabric, so the solution is to cut a hole in the mask part of the morph suit. This allows more breathability as well as being able to actually see. There's no real trick to this just cut a line and mark with silver sharpie how much more you need to cut. You want to aim to have most of your face uncovered except for your chin, ears, and forehead. Make sure your face doesn't show when you have your helmet on or else that means you've cut off too much.

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".

There is one more alteration needed to be made to the morph suit but that requires it's own step...

This is probably the most important step of the whole thing. I wore the cosplay to a convention without adding Velcro, just having everything secured with the "Web Rope" and everything fell apart. So Velcro everything!

Velcro

The way you can attach each armor piece with Velcro is rather simple. Put 1-2 piece of Velcro on each piece of armor and then mark where the corresponding spot on the morph suit is in silver sharpie. Then once you have everything aligned you want to slide a piece of baking paper under the morph suit to protect yourself from glue burns as you hot glue the Velcro to the morph suit. The hot glue may still be a bit hot though the baking paper so wait a couple seconds before applying the hot glue to the morph suit. With the Velcro on the suit make sure the armor stays on when you use attach it. (Tie the "Web Rope" in conjunction with the Velcro to cause minimal movement in the armor). Take the armor for a test with the Velcro and "Web Rope" straps, walk/run around to make sure it works. If anything feels loose add more Velcro to secure it in place. Velcro is your best friend here.

And with that you're done. It's time to suit up and take on Hollownest. Make sure to keep track of your Geo and use a map if you get lost. It's going to be a long journey from here...

But for real thank you so much for reading, a lot of time was spent not only making the cosplay it's self but also writing the very instructable you just read. If you make this costume (Or literally any part of it) I would love to see photos. It justifies all the work I put into to this massive project, to see I helped people make an awesome Costume or prop. Even just a comment of support helps me justify whatever my next obsession may be, because trust me I'll be back next year with a costume bigger and better just you wait.

And with that just remember...

"You shall seal the blinding light that plagues their dreams. You are the Vessel. You are the Hollow Knight."