Making of Magnet Headphones

Sunday, April 25, 2010

My Finished Cosplay photos

This weekend, I am pretty free ^^ compared to the last few weeks of hell. So I decided to (finally) make the magnet headphone for my Luka Megurine cosplay! Now if you recall, I posted this picture before. This is how the headphones are supposed to look like:

There are actually a whole lot of versions, just depends on how you like it. At first, I wanted to just use an existing headphone and modify it. But the ones I got from my bro were too thick, and had these cables which he told me not to cut off. So I decided to just make the headphones from scratch.

Materials used:

used headband
styrofoam block
black cards
blue/green card
wires
gouache
acrylic paint
wood glue
double tape
lace sticker
normal paper glue
giant scissors
cutter
scalpel
cutting mat
and any other tools

I started with cutting out the basic round shape from this gigantic styrofoam block. Honestly don't ask how I did it. It was as thick as my A-maths book from high school. My cutter died in the process, and I cut myself twice + bruises from using the metallic ruler to saw (yes, frikin SAW) the styrofoam. It wasn't a very pretty process. I recommend just buying a thin styrofoam board (feels idiotic for not doing exactly that).

Next I cut some wires and just pierce them through the styrofoam block. Be careful not to let the wire go out.

Next I took my used headband (which I didn't really like anyway) and pasted double tape all over the top. Then I stuck black card over it and folded it at the bottom. Mine's pretty rough. It's actually better to use fabric but since I couldn't be bothered, yeah.

Oh and don't cover the bottom, since you need that part to keep the headband stuck to your hair (wig). Also keep that in mind when you buy a headband, don't buy one that's smooth at the bottom.

I took even more wires and made the pink intertwine thingy. Mine's not neat at all... Hahhaa. Wires are annoying. I painted them pink using gouache.

Then I cut out 4 round circles on black card and pasted them on the styrofoam. I also painted the sides black using lovely acrylic. The wire for the microphone was also painted black, and I covered the mic with black paper. Black black black.

Next is the fun (but hell) part. I printed out the butterfly template from Fenlaf from deviantart. Bless him. Anyway I printed it on tracing paper, then stuck the tracing paper to a black a4 paper. I just used a scalpel and traced everything to cut out the black outline for the wings. You can do it whichever method you want really.

When one is done, just use it as the template for the other wings since the tracing paper is too flimsy.

A lot of time n backbreaking focus brings you: 4 butterfly wings =)

Then all you have to do is stick one wing on either side of the blue card. Make sure the blue card you buy has colour on both sides or it will make your life more complicated. Initially I wanted to use coloured transparencies but couldn't find them anywhere in Melbourne (fail).

Now you have the pretty wings, stick it to the styrofoam using wood glue (you can use pva or whatever - your choice, just don't use normal paper glue).

Tadaaa. Oh and I also added some blue to the mic, and a black circle above it. Your preference.

Next you have to be careful with this step. Stick the wings to the headband. Quadruple check the angle and height of the wings you want. Nothing's worse than going this far and then realising the speakers don't align with your ears and it's already permanently stuck. Crucial, crucial.

Glue everything with wood glue.

And now to the detailing. I cut out a blue ring and pasted it on the speakers.

Next I printed out the speaker template from sesshy-kun from deviantart. Yay everything's in the internet! ^^ Printed on tracing paper again, for the opaque effect. Up to you, really. This is just my preference. I used double tape to stick the pattern on.