Ratchet "Hyperflux Armor" PART 3: Wrench and Accessories

Ratchet's wrench is his primary weapon.  It turns bolts, breaks boxes, and smashes skulls.  My focus when designing the wrench was 40% form, 20% function, 40% durability, and 15% wreckless abandon.  After halloween my son will most likely be swinging this around for several months so it would be nice if it didn't fall apart on november 1st.  That being said, I also didn't want to just cut a wrench shape out of foam and paint it, or just slap together a bunch of pvc and paint it...So, I did both.


Please check out the first three installments of the costume which has taken me several months to make due to buget constraints.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Ratchet-Hyperflux-Armor-Costume-Part-1-Helmet/
https://www.instructables.com/id/Ratchet-Hyperfulx-Armor-Costume-Part-2-Body-Arm/
https://www.instructables.com/id/Ratchet-Hyperflux-Armor-Costume-PART-21-Clank/

First, I had to scale the wrench for my son's body...which I think I did horribly.

After scaling, I whipped up a few patterns to make the wrench head and handle.  These will be cut out of foam workshop pads.  Its hard to tell but there are two sizes for the wrench head.  The small size will be sandwiched between two larger sizes to form a channel in the middle.  After cutting out the foam I "laminated" three layers together by slathering them with glue, placing a piece of wood on top of them and weighting it with about 50 pounds of paint and steel, and leaving it to dry for a few days.  Once the glue was dry I put a quick coat of wood glue on the foam to seal it so that when I spray paint it the paint won't just get sucked up in the pores.

I had most of the pvc I needed for the handle in the garage already.  The only part I bought was the special tee in the middle that has a semi-clear section that will be important later.  In the part of the handle where the hand guard is going I notched out part of the pvc to help conceal the power supply for some EL wire to come later.

I taped off the translucent parts of the pvc fittings and gave all the parts a couple quick coats of metallic silver paint.  After the paint dried I fished the EL wire through all of the parts to prepare to glue it all together.  I didn't think i would be able to get the EL wire through it all once it was together.

Starting from the end of the EL wire and working backwards I super glued it in place in the channle I created in the middle of the wrench.

I could have just settled for a silver metalic wrench but I wanted to go whole hog and come as close as I could to the inspiration piece.  Using some thin foam sheets I added some details.  Its hard to tell in these pictures, but the EL wire shines through the transluscent part really well in the dark.  Also, if you are viewing the wrench from the front or back and not edge on, there is a cool aura created by the EL wire that is hidden in the channle.

I have a psychological aversion to costumes with tails, however, since Ratchet indeed has a tail it was necessary to make one.  This part is a little half-assed.  I got some bargain fabric, rolled it up and bunched some at the end.  Its all held together with fabric glue.

To complete the ensemble I bought some cheap black gloves.

This completes my Ratchet "Hyperflux Armor" series.  I doubt anyone will try to remake this same costume, but a lot of what I get out of the ibles I read are the process by which people create things and the materials they use.  I hope some of the techniques I used in this series will inspire someone.