Modifying A Black Widow Cosplay In Partnership With Party City

Plexi Cosplay for Cosplay Central

Upgrade #1: Utility Belt and Wrist Shooters

This costume conveniently comes with 3D pieces such as the utility belt and wrist shooters. These are durable but also could use a serious paint upgrade. Similarly, the foam that these pieces are made of are packaged in a way that can cause wrinkles, but this is an easy fix as well.

First, aim your heat gun on the lowest setting on all of the yellow sections. Heat applied to foam will expand the pores and smooth out a lot of the wrinkles from packaging.

Second, pull out your gold paint as well as a large round bristle brush and brush gold on all parts that are yellow, as the movie shows a gold metal for these sections versus the yellow of the costume in this package.

To add more depth, use a small brush to paint in black on all of the recessed edges, and then lightly swipe the bristle brush over the top to smooth out any sharp lines created in the creases. This helps create a smooth paint transition into the darker recesses of the pieces.

I also did a lighter gold (or gold mixed with white) lightly brushed on the very highest parts of the wrist shooters and the edges of the belt pieces for more depth.

Repaint any black detail lines on the belt that may have been covered with your gold paint, and you’ve got a more metallic set of utility belt pieces and wrist shooters that are more realistic for this costume.

Upgrade #2: Foam Upper Vest Holster

At the top of the torso in the bodysuit is a vest holster printed on the suit itself. In the movie, this is a separate overlaying piece, and we can easily recreate this piece with a little costume trickery.

Rather than remake the entire vest holster, the goal is to simply make the front part of the vest out of foam and glue it to the bodysuit.

Place your bodysuit on a lightbox and use tracing paper to trace one of the sides of the vest holster. You only need to trace one, as the other side is simply a mirror (you flip the pattern over when cutting out foam for the opposing side).

Cut the pattern out and trace it onto your foam. Then, carve the pattern out of foam, and point a heat gun at the foam for a few seconds to close the pores of the foam for easier painting.

Before gluing to your bodysuit, use silver, black, and white paints to recreate the details of the holster. I just used the image printed on the bodysuit as my reference and did my best to recreate the details.

Once dried, apply fabric adhesive to the bodysuit and then press your foam pattern pieces onto the glue. Allow to fully dry (and keep in mind that this bodysuit must always be handwashed and not put into a washing machine).

Finishing Touches

After all pieces are dried, you can also spray a satin varnish on the foam to seal in your paint job. This will help keep it from chipping or flaking off.

Then, suit up and let others *ahem* MARVEL at your upgraded Black Widow costume this Halloween!

Want to recreate your own Black Widow cosplay? Get 15% off your entire online purchase at Party City with the code: YooBooCosplay (expires 10/31)