Sammy Lawrence Axe Tutorial (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

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If you’ve been following along with our Bendy and the Ink Machine costume series, you have seen my tutorial on our Sammy Lawrence costume. A major game prop that Sammy uses is his axe. Now, my son has learned that I LIVE for making props (last year I learned how to use EVA foam to make props and it was a game changer!) so he knew this axe was going to be part of the deal. I knew it would be an easy build and take very few materials, so I told him I could absolutely build it. Here’s list of materials I used:
*EVA foam
*Plasti Dip
*Air dry modeling clay
*Craft paint
*Hot glue gun
*Mod Podge
*Cardboard
*Utility knife (and extra blades)
*Belt sander

First things first, make a template out of the cardboard. You can easily find an image with an online search and free hand your design from there. I wanted it to be more 3 dimensional, so make sure to also make templates of the top, middle, and lower squares.

Once you have all your template pieces cut out, trace it onto your EVA foam boards. Be sure you flip your template over to make the back side. Tip- if you notice that your blade is pulling at the foam and not making nice, straight cuts, change your blade! A dull blade will pull at the foam and ruin your cuts, so changing your blade often will make sure you keep making those nice straight lines.

Once you have all of your pieces cut, use your hot glue gun to piece all the layers together. Be sure you layer them with the smooth sides out! As long as you flipped your templates for the second set of foam pieces you should be good. After you get everything glued together, sand down your edges. I prefer to use my belt sander for this, because this piece has a lot of long straight lines it works great and is so much faster than using a Dremel.

Even after a good sanding, you will still be able to see all the seams along the edge of the axe. A tip I picked up last year was to use air dry modeling clay to fill in those seams. It can be finicky to work with, so I keep a small bowl of water handy so I can moisten my hands as I work. This helps make the clay a little more pliable and easier to smooth down. After you let it dry overnight, use some sand paper to hand sand down the clay and make your edges really smooth. I failed to remember this step, so mine has that nice homemade look to it. Lucky for me, a mom made Halloween costume is allowed to look…homemade. Once you are happy with how it looks, spray it with a few layers of Plasti Dip, allowing it to fully dry between coats. This will help weather proof your axe, and since I opted for the black Plasti Dip, it cut my paint time in half.

After the Plasti Dip is dried, you can start painting all the yellow and details. This I just free handed off of images I had seen of the axe. When your paint is dry on all sides, cover your axe with a layer of Mod Podge. This will help protect your paint and add a nice sheen to your finished product. That’s it! SO easy, and it will really step up your costume game. Plus, my son keeps all of his props to play with through the year, so they serve double duty.