Fortnite Peabody Costume

Fortnite Peabody Costume - complete with Pick Axes Clanger and Bash, and back bling!

Mod Podge, wires, hot glue, fabrics, thrifted objects and things found around the house! I'll explain what I used throughout the Instuctable.

I printed out these photos of Peabody from the game and we headed out to thrift. We found this green hoodie and it felt like a sign that I could make this happen. The color was a little light, so I threw it in a bucket with Rit dye and hot water. After washed it was the perfect shade of green. I wanted to start by creating the structure of the opening in the front of the hoodie. I twisted some wire together to make sure it was strong enough to hold the shape and fed it through some slits I cut near the zipper and the hood. I secured with some needle and thread in some areas that needed support through the back of the hood and shoulders. I used fabric glue to secure the openings I had cut to make sure they didn't pull open. In one picture you'll see that he is wearing a pool noodle on his arm. I ditched that idea after some trial and error.

I love paper mache! It's a great base for a lightweight helmet or mask. I used playground balls for the smaller peas and a balloon for the large pea that would become the mask. I did a couple layers of a basic mix of Elmer's craft glue and water, then I moved on to two layers with straight hard coat Mod Podge. After adding the faces I went ahead and coated them all with Outdoor Mod Podge so he could wear this in the rain. I used it inside and out and it created a great water seal. The only downfall to the Outdoor Mod Podge is that it takes 4 weeks to fully cure. I started this project in August, so I had time for it.

This was absolutely my favorite part! I hadn't used air dry foam clay before and it was a blast! It definitely has a learning curve as far as flexibility and smoothing. I found that having a little water close by was helpful. I would lightly tap my finger and smooth the clay. I used parchment and a rolling pin to make flat sheets and they cut really well with the snap knife. The new Sharpie craft markers worked great on dry foam cay! I made the leaf around a wire anticipating that I would need that to attach to the hoodie.

I got some $1.75 foam mats at Diaso and foam knee pads at the hardware store. These worked great! I cut and hot glued the mat into a bag shape for the waist bag and cut out a wrench for the waist bag. I hot glued fabric directly to the foam for the bag and used an old belt to make the buckle detail. I forgot to get pictures while I was working on the fabric for the bag, that was a late night project. The knee pads were made by cutting with a snap knife, spray painting and hot gluing the silver knobs I found.

I love these Pea Heads! I took the balloon out of the head that would be the mask and checked for size. I started marking out for the details that I had made and decided that the mouth was the best spot for him to see through. I used a black mesh sticker and colored on the tongue. I made new teeth with foam clay and colored the black directly onto the mask. After they were all painted green, I attached the foam clay details with hot glue. Then I coated everything with the outdoor Mod Podge and set all the heads aside for 4 weeks. At the end of the four weeks I attached the bottom two peas to a chest plate thing that I crafted. I didn't end up caring for the way they looked, so I ended up sewing them directly to the shirt later on.

This was pretty fun! It was quite the hunt to find all the random things I would need to bring these guys to life. I started with Bash. I found a giant plastic water bottle and a hockey stick to serve as the base. There is also a little plastic thing that I think is for putting, a funnel, a couple bouncy balls from Dollar Tree, a mason jar lid, and more foam clay! After spray painting all the parts I cut the hockey stick and attached it to the water bottle. This was a little tricky. I had to cut the handle down with my multi tool and attach the stick with a couple allen wrench style screws into pre-drilled holes. I made the little pea faces the same way as the larger heads with paint, sharpie, foam clay and mod podge to seal. I used foam clay to make details and the Sharpie markers to add the damaged appearance. After the whole piece was dry I made the vines with foam clay. This was a tough, but fun. Once the foam touches itself it is done, you can't pull it back apart. So there were a couple times of starting over. Once I had them where I liked them, I went back in with a toothpick and enhanced the details of the vines. It worked really well to dip the toothpick in water regularly to manipulate the foam. With Clanger I did buy a foam wrench as a base, I added red foam clay for the grip and painted it silver. I painted some Ace wrap for the detail around the grip. Then attached the ball by cutting an opening, shoving the end of the wrench in and lots of glue. I finished it off with the same foam clay vines. I coated both of them fully with hard coat Mod Podge, after it was dry it was still a little sticky, so I sprayed it with the Mod Podge acrylic sealer.

I have to admit, I was worried about these dang vines. It took some trial and error before I came up with this solution. This worked perfectly! I used a couple different sizes of gap filler foam tubes, and attached them to wire using green Duck tape. It was a beast of a job, but it looked really good and he was able to wear it comfortably. I made the arms so they could go on and off like a jacket and the legs I attached to a belt. At this point I didn't have his green under clothes yet, so we were trying it on black. All the pieces were coming together!

So after I completed the costume, or at least what I thought was complete... I was challenged to make the Back Bling! So I had one day to make this happen and somehow pulled out this cute little masterpiece! I found three Christmas balls and got to work. I used all the same materials that I had been using on the costume and didn't buy anything new accept the three dollar tree Christmas balls.

One happy kid! There isn't much I love more than costume making and the joy that it brings. I hope that this Instructable inspires you to create!