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Cosplay Scaling and You

Hey guys, so I’m gonna delve a little bit into my process of planning a cosplay. Something that I think is pretty important and can be often overlooked is scaling your cosplay or prop to fit you. There are lot’s of methods on how to do this, but I’ll be sharing mine. 

*For this example, I’m going to show you how I scaled my Holy Blade (from Sailor Moon) for my Serenity cosplay.

Things you’ll need:

measuring tape

a ruler or yardstick

calculator (optional)

paper and pen/pencil

reference images

Step 1:

First, you’re of course going to want reference images of what you want to scale to fit your size. Obviously in the case of your prop you want as many close up shots for detail as possible. However, I’m going to stress that you look for an image with either your character holding the prop, or if you can somehow manage, a side by side image of your character and their prop. 

(Images like these are incredibly helpful)

Step 2: 

Next, you’re going to want to measure the distance from the top of your head to your chin. For this example, I’m going to be saying the measurement came out to 10”. Keep your measurement written down somewhere so you don’t forget it later.

Now, using your measuring tape again, measure your characters head. Let’s say Sailor Venus’ head was 1” from her chin to the top of her head.

This means, that our conversion rate is 10” to every 1” we measure in our reference image.

Let’s say the Holy Blade measures roughly 4 1/2”, that means our sword should be 45”.

However, in my case those extra 10” would have made this ridiculous to carry around the convention floor. So in some cases you might find an accurate sized prop might be too large to work with. That’s fine, just fudge a little! 

You can apply this method to scale out things other then props too. Things like wings, dress trains, tails, and other cosplay parts can be broken down with this method.I hope this was helpful, and good luck cosplaying!