Arsenal Cosplay: Research

The first step to any cosplay is research. Arsenal/Roy Harper has been on "Arrow" from Season 1-3. Luckily, Roy doesn't seem to change up his uniform from season to season (unlike Oliver) so there wasn't any confusion as to whether a reference photo was from Season 1 or Season 3.

Click to Pin!

I've compiled many reference photos for you here. These were especially helpful for getting the details of the cosplay just right, like how many knives he had, which side each holster was on, etc.



*Please note that I do not own these photos. Unfortunately, I do not have links to the original sources but most are from Pinterest and Google images*

As mentioned earlier, Roy has a lot of pieces to his suit. He is named Arsenal after all. To break it down, here is a list of all his accessory items:

• a utility belt with three pouches on the right side
• a long knife in a sheath on the left side of the belt
• 2 knives in a sheath (overlapping each other) on the back of the belt
• 2 thigh holsters, supported by 2 top straps (attached to the belt) and 2 straps on the thigh (with buckles). The left holster has 7 tiny arrows and the right has 4 knives
• 2 calf holsters, each supported by two straps (with buckles) holding a black baton with white/silver tops each
• a mask
• black leather gloves
• a backpack-style quiver, supported by an "x" shaped backing
• bow and arrows

And that's just the accessories! Let's not forget his jacket, shoes, and pants. All the accessories I am making by hand. The jacket and shoes were bought and altered and the pants were bought and unaltered.

The next step would be to sketch out each piece and deciding how you're going to make it. I dissected different elements of the photos and labeled what each part would be made out of.

My sketch for Arsenal's costume

My sketch for Arsenal's holsters

My sketch for Arsenal's quiver and back straps

As you can see, I labeled which parts would be leather, which parts would be foam, and other materials I would need. You'll make several trips to your craft stores throughout the cosplay-making process, so don't stress about not getting everything on your list on your first trip.

In addition to all of this, I looked at several blog posts and YouTube videos on different cosplay techniques. I haven't found any Arsenal specific tutorials, so maybe I'll be the first! These tutorials I found really helped out on how to use foam (something I've never used for cosplay before), how to make weapons (again something I've never done), and how to keep your paint job from scratching off (ModPodge!!!).  Here is a list of some helpful tutorials, while not specific to Arsenal, had some good ideas and tips. Most of these are on working with foam.

How to make craft foam look like leather

How to Cosplay... Turning Craft Foam Into Leather  

Fake Leather with Craft Foam

 Wonder Woman Foam Corset How-To

Walkthrough: Build Your Own Vacuum Former

How I made my - Lightning Returns - boot armor
Captain America Belt Build Tutorial

Lastly, while it's important to have an accurate cosplay, functionality is just as important. Having a quiver on your back and a bow in your hand makes it pretty difficult to carry a backpack full of your con essentials (keep a look out for a future post on that). Thus, in my thinking and sketching process, I tried to think of how I can make this cosplay functional for what I need. Before making your cosplay, think about how you can use your costume to its full potential. For example, Roy has pouches on his belt so I made them larger, secure, and functional so I could place small items in them. My quiver is large and will only be holding arrows, so I can place program books and smaller posters in it without them falling out. Think about your needs and the elements in your cosplay and how you can use them to your advantage.

Hopefully this will help you with your own Arsenal or any other cosplay research. My next post will be on buyable items for Arsenal's costume so stay tuned!