Skyhook

One of the main weapons that Booker uses in Bioshock Infinite is the Skyhook, a spinning hook used to travel the Columbia skylines and for short range combat.

It's not a necessity, but I felt it would be important to have it as part of a Booker Dewitt cosplay, especially since he carries it throughout the entirety of the game.

Ranging from $100 to $400 on Ebay and Amazon, there is an official replica version of the Skyhook.  It can spin and move just like it does in the game, and it would be an amazing thing to have, just... I don't really have that amount of money to spare...

So, I decided I could try and tackle it myself.  I've never built a prop before this, but I thought it would be a great time to try.

I started by building a quick sketch of the Skyhook.  I studied a lot of pictures and watched a couple of videos before drawing out the different layers and pieces I'd need to build this. When I had a design I liked, I moved on to drawing out the pieces in real-size on paper.  Once I had a pattern I liked, I was ready to start assembling everything.

Of all the materials I could have used for this, I decided to opt for foam board.  It's a cheap material that can easily be bought at the dollar store. I bought a total of 5 pieces, not entirely sure how many I'd need.  In the end I only needed 2.  For some detailing pieces, I used some regular craft foam, but the majority of it was cut out of the foam board.  I cut out all the pieces using an X-acto knife which took a lot of energy and work, but it was definitely worth it!

The next step was gluing everything together.  I used a combination of hot glue, some craft glue that I don't remember what it's called, and wood glue.

For the hook part, I wanted to make it spin as well just like the official replica and the one in the game.  My dad helped me with that by using one of my sewing pins and sticking it into the foam and then the hook spins around that.

Once everything was attached, the next step was to seal all the foam in with Mod Podge, and then to paint everything.

I used silver spray paint as the base and then went over everything with black acrylic paint to weather it a little, add dimension, and make it look more like metal. And I'm quite happy with the end result.  For some sections, I used gold and brown acrylic paint to look like rust and copper.

For the brown handle?? section in the back of the skyhook, I painted over brown craft foam using a mix of black, brown, and gold paint in streaks kinda to give a wood grain effect.  I'm honestly so happy with how that looked because it came out looking really realistic!

For the straps that are supposed to hold your arm in place or something like that, I used strips of fake leather/vinyl that I had, glued over craft foam to keep it sturdy. 

Overall, I'm really happy with this project.  I'm super happy about the fact that it can spin, and I'm amazed that I was able to make a realistic looking Skyhook for a total of $2 instead of having to pay $400 for a replica prop.

I can't say that mine is the most perfect thing in the world, there are flaws, it's slightly too big in some areas, but it's pretty good.  It took a lot of work, I spent several hours and days working on it.

Also foam board isn't necessarily the best material to work with as it breaks easily, it's a bit flimsy, and it's hard to cut sometimes, but I'm glad I made it out of foam board because the Skyhook is nice and lightweight.








For fun, I filmed a quickie little video of the Skyhook in action for you guys to enjoy. :)

I hope you guys enjoyed this long post about how I built the Skyhook, and please be on the lookout for a future post on the Booker Dewitt cosplay I made for my brother. :D