It’s time to talk about the gauntlet.

So picture the scene: I have been waiting for a year to see Avengers Endgame. In some ways I’d been waiting for this movie since I first saw Iron Man in 2008. The whole year I was trying not to speculate and guess what was going to happen. I’ve tried to not watch trailers, since I was going to see it no matter what. I caught a couple pictures, by accident, but other than the white team up suits I didn’t see much. I wait until the weekend post premiere to see it and manage to avoid spoilers on the internet.

I’m in the theater, one of my small local theaters which has thin walls, but my movie is going to be the loudest anyway. There’s a pretty good crowd, but there’s only about 4 people in my row 3/4 of the way to the back.

I am shocked by the time jump, but liked the plot device. I enjoy the Bruce Hulk combo, and Scott’s time travel banter. I like Morgan. I can see why Clint has changed. I cry over Black Widow. And then they create the gauntlet. The Iron Man/Hulk/Nano gauntlet to take the strength of the infinity stones to make another snap. It’s a great team up of all the sciencey people of Marvel!

And then the “twist.” Thanos comes back to the future from the future past, and wants the stones, so he blows up the Avenger’s HQ. And suddenly, the person who has possession of the gauntlet is the least powered person on the team. Clint Barton.

In the MCU, he’s survived on wits, on archery skills, and on hand to hand combat. But he doesn’t have a super suit that flies or shrinks. He doesn’t have sorcery or superpowers. He’s just a guy. A guy with skills, but just a guy.

That was the image that stuck with me when I left the theater. Sure, I cheered over the “We’ve got this” moment, I cried over Tony, I was heartened by the win, and was pleased by the dance. But a guy playing keep-away with a seemingly unbeatable alien. That’s what stuck.

So when I realized I could go to DragonCon in August, I decided to make a Hawkeye/Ronin costume and carry around a gauntlet to recreate that moment. It’s maybe two minutes of the story, and probably only 30 seconds of screen time total. But that’s what DragonCon is for! Recreating beloved moments, and someone will get it.

Even before making the costume, I knew I needed to make the gauntlet, and I knew that would take the longest time, mostly for drying and waiting and mistakes.

Foam was new to me. I found my local Harbor Freight and bought the two different types of floor mats they had, and used both for the costume, but only the thinner rolled one for the gauntlet.

I found this awesome 3D Pepakura model for the gauntlet from MasterMod, and printed off a cardstock copy so I could test out the size and how it fit together. Cutting those pieces nearly broke me, and I hadn’t even gotten to the foam yet.

Deciding to size up a bit, I printed out a new copy, and set to work cutting the foam. I was using a couple of fresh X-acto blade, and was still having trouble, so next time I’ll follow suggestions to use a scalpel.

I would cut out some pieces, and glue some pieces, and cut some pieces and glue some pieces. At the time I was living in a townhouse where I only had one room for both living and crafting, so I didn’t have the space to cut and arrange all the pieces at once.

Contact glue was my weapon of choice for assembly, and boy is it smelly and sticky like mis-made caramel sauce. The stick, not the smell. Something I didn’t consider until it was too late was that the edges of the foam should probably have a specific angle in order to fit together properly. Oops!

Also, don’t let the can of contact glue fall over and spill into the bottom of a bookcase. I got lucky, and the carpet underneath the case wasn’t affected, but it could’ve been disastrous. And eternally smelly.

Cut and glue and cut and glue and cut and glue.

Okay, so then it was assembled and I needed to get a move on, as DragonCon was coming up quick.

Plastidip and North Carolina humidity in August doesn’t work well together.

Average spray paint is actually worse.

Masking off tacky spray paint and mildly tacky Plastidip is less than ideal.

So I grunged it up with some black and brown acrylics.

The jewels. Those were a treat. I found them in a grab bag of rhinestone jewels at Michael’s. I spent about 20 minutes sitting on the floor of the young craft kit section one night after a work shift making sure that I had the correct colors and shapes if I was going to spend 15 dollars after a coupon on a bag of jewels I might never use afterward. Massaging a bag of craft jewels 15 minutes before closing is… not a pretty look.

I think I used contact cement to attach them, then used some kind of puffy paint (craft supply hoarding for the win!) to really cement them in.

For the inside, I decided to keep my super glue, and my wallet inside the glove, which would mean that I needed a pocket inside.

I found some scraps from the Merida skirt, made a zippered pouch, then glued in the pouch and some lining to black out the inside of the glove.

And that rounded out my Nano Gauntlet! It now graces my curio cabinet in a tribute to Ironman.