Dirk Strider; Glasses Mach Two

The first pair of glasses I made for my Dirk Strider cosplay looked fantastic. Unfortunately, they only survived about four days before snapping perfectly in half.

I know I’m not any kind of expert on making cosplay props or anything, but I figured I’d put this out there, as an option for other people. 

The first pair was made out of fairly thin Plexiglas which I cut using the “score and bend” method, which took a ridiculously long time and was not as precise as I wanted it to be. 

I used this method of dying Plexiglas and let it soak for about five days. It did nothing. They were not even tinted. I don’t know if I messed up the instructions somehow or if the particular Plexiglas I was using was not the type intended for this guide. 

I then painted them with India Ink, making them entirely opaque, which defeated the purpose of using the clear glass in the first place, after trying and failing to make glass paint work. 

I’ve just finished my second pair which I think will last quite a bit longer. 

Okay so this is card stock, cut into a strip. It’s the heavy duty stuff, used for cue cards on television shows. And there is my India Ink, which will murder a paint brush if you’re not careful. 

I cut out my shape, which was traced around my last (broken) glasses, but it’s really a simple shape. Try cutting it out of normal paper and holding it up over your eyes to see how big it needs to be to fit your face if you’re not sure. Then I did a thin coat of grey copic marker to see if I could color it nicely with that. I couldn’t. So I covered it in India Ink!

Then I got a pair of glasses from the store and unscrewed all the little screws and stole the arms off of the lenses. 

Next we glue them on. In this picture you may or may not notice that I am using tacky glue, which sucks. I later pulled them gently off and reapplied the arms using Loctite Super Glue which is my favorite glue ever. 

You will kind of have to guess with where to place the arms. I usually place one arm, glue it on, and hold the glasses up to my face to determine where the other arm should be so that it fits to my face. 

And then you let them dry. Et voila, c’est GLASSES. So this is Glasses Mach Two. Still can’t see through them, but this time they give enough when pressed against my nose that they won’t break. They might crinkle and bend a little, but if that happens, it won’t be very noticeable at all.