Cardboard Weaponry – The Flamethrower
My obsession with cardboard replicas of weapons is an odd one. Sadly, as the walls close in and I run out of space to put all my weapons, it seems that my future cardboard weapon exploits will fall towards smaller weapons, mostly secondary weapons. Why? Because I made a flamethrower and it’s taking up way too much room right now.
The cardboard Flamethrower is probably the most oxymoronic weapon I’ve made. A replica flamethrower made out of an incredibly flammable material. Seriously, cardboard is cool to set on fire and it glows nicely if it’s coated in plastic… don’t try that at home though. I have a fire extinguisher and buckets of water. The best thing about this though is that the Flamethrower is much closer to being the correct size.
The reason why I made the Flamethrower is because this year, I’m going to Cyprus Comicon as BLU Pyro, because then I can still be fat and ugly and it doesn’t matter. I fucking HATED the shitty costume I had last year. I didn’t want to go as Malzahar and was basically forced into going as “something feminine”. Fuck everyone, this year I’m going as one of the least feminine things possible. A Flamethrower is big and a pain in the ass to carry, but really, you’re not the Pyro if you don’t have a flamethrower. I also have a Shotgun and a Detonator, but no melee.
Making the Flamethrower though was a lot easier than I expected. It all started with some long cardboard tubes, the sort you get from wrapping paper. From there, it’s mostly just adding more tubes until you get the shape you want. The petrol-dispenser handle was made the same way I made the cardboard shotgun I showed you a while back, but I had to later redo that part since it didn’t have enough support and rather awkwardly bent.
The hardest bit though was the big gas canister underneath. Took me a while to work out what to use to make that. There was NO WAY I’d get an actual real gas canister, empty or not, because those things weigh a ton (well, about 5KG) when empty. The original plan was to make it out of cardboard but inspiration struck when I found a perfectly shaped plastic container in the super market. Attaching the canister was also pretty easy, I got some wire coat hangers and and a ton of hot glue to stick everything together.
The greatest thing about this Flamethrower though? The big plastic canister, I specifically glued it on in such a way that it can still be opened. Which means I can put things inside the canister and carry it around with me. It’s a little awkward to screw back on, but it’ll be handy. All the addons for my Pyro costume contain extra space, actually. As well as the canister, I’ve got my little pouch on my belt, and my Pyro backpack is made from an old handbag which I re-purposed. The handbag can also be opened and I can store stuff in that too.
There’s also one little addition. Like the Medi Gun, the Flamethrower lights up. This isn’t so fancy though, it’s just an LED tealight that I’ve secured in place with some wire. Still looks cool though.
Honestly, it’s up there with my best TF2 weapon replicas. I’m really pleased with how it came out.
