Here's How One 'Mad Max' Cosplayer Made an Amazing Furiosa Arm
Cosplayer Jack Gabriel crafted this Imperator Furiosa costume, including a prosthetic arm, in just three days.
Within a week of Mad Max: Fury Road opening in theaters, Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron) had already become a cosplayer favorite. Countless fans have posted pictures of themselves in Furiosa makeup and clothes. But those doing a head-to-toe cosplay have to contend with a major sartorial challenge: her arm.
A look at Furiosa’s arm in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (Warner Bros.)
In the film, the rebellious warrior is missing her left arm, and her prosthetic is an elaborate costume piece that appears to be constructed out of various metallic found objects. Right now, there are very few DIY examples to be found online. Nevertheless, Jack, a 19-year-old art student from the UK, managed to design and construct the Furiosa costume above in just three days. Jack spoke to Yahoo Movies via email to explain how the look was put together.
A closer look at Jack’s custom-built prosthetic arm.
Rather than being daunted by the prosthetic, “I chose Furiosa specifically because I liked the challenge of creating the arm,” Jack told us. After looking at reference photos (like this one), Jack attempted to craft the prosthetic hand using Worbla, a thermoplastic modeling material. But after half a day of work, it became apparent that this was a dead end: The stiffness of the material made arm movement impossible, and the costume piece was extremely difficult to get on and off. Jack then switched to foam, carving out individual pieces and gluing them together to form a glove. (Since the Furiosa prosthetic has only four fingers, Jack designed the glove so that the wearer’s fingers fit into four sections.)
The glove in progress. All the pieces were cut from foam and glued together.
The three remaining pieces of the prosthetic were crafted from Worbla and found materials, including pen casings, aluminum tubing, wire, and belts. “All of these pieces then had to be primed with three to five layers of wood glue, primed black, sprayed silver, and then aged with acrylic paint to give them a worn-metal effect,” Jack explained.
The forearm piece is made partly from pen casings, painted to look like metal.
Jack completed the Furiosa costume — which also included a custom-made skull belt, waist harness, and cotton shirt — in time to debut the look at the MCM London Comic Con in May. Watch the video below to see the full Furiosa at the 1:37 mark.
Next up, Jack plans to tackle another Mad Max: Fury Road character: Nux the “war boy” (played by Nicholas Hoult). For more of Jack’s characters, visit the Jack Gabriel Cosplay Tumblr.
Image credit: Jack Gabriel Cosplay
