The Patriot Balm

Using just a little bit of trash and some paint, you can make a nifty cosplay accessory for any occasion and for almost any genre.

When you have a strange hobby like mine, there is a tendency to see potential value in everything. Even your trash.

I must caution you at this point. Hoarding is a very bad habit. try to do everything you can to avoid it. Or some day, you might find it difficult to move through your own house.

One day, while replacing my air fresheners, I noticed that if I put the 2 different caps together it made a familiar shape.

First, you need the right kinda trash. In this case, it's the lids we're interested in. Next we'll need the lid from another container.

A peanut butter lid or even this Temptations lid will work pretty good. This will get the 4 fins needed to guide our Patriot Balm.

Be sure to use a Scotch-Brite pad to rough up the plastic before priming and painting.

After cutting 4 slots for the fins I drilled a hole in the center of the bottom cap. I figured I could just easily fill it with a little expanding foam through that center hole. I WAS WRONG. It made a tremendous, sticky mess.

I would suggest to fill each side up, cut out the excess and hot glue them together.

Hiding the seem with a little putty.

Added a tank tread from an old model I had. Seemed to work well. Then began masking and painting.

To finally end up with this finished product. They're pretty durable filled with the expanding foam and make a pretty good addition to any cosplay you might have in mind.