Splatoon Krak-On Roller, Costume Prop

This is a prop for a Splatoon Inkling costume.

Inklings are the video game characters from the Nintendo WiiU game called Splatoon (now Splatoon 2 for the Nintendo Switch). In the game, you play as squid/kid character on a team of 4 to try and cover the ground in an arena with the most ink to win a match. Inklings use ink weapons to cover the ground and splat the opposing team which sends them back to the spawn point - allowing you more time to cover the ground. It's super fun, i highly recommend it!

• For our Inkling costumes we decided on: ink weapon, ink tank, and a hat for the tentacles.
• Regular clothes would do for us as in the game you can buy fairly regular clothes for your outfit: sneakers, boots, t-shirts, coats, various hats, we just picked from our regular clothes for likely Inkling wear.

The Krak-on Roller does in the game exactly as it sounds, rolls ink all over the ground just like a giant sized roller brush for house painting. It is a big paint roller with an ink reservoir and a hinged lower section for folding up straight to carry over you shoulder easier. I decided i could make one with PVC pipe/fittings and hardware store items. Sorry not a lot of pictures in process, i was in a hurry making these: slosher bucket (perfect for halloween candy, see other intractable for it), ink tanks, a roller, a charger, and an aerospray for Halloween (look for other instructables soon!)

[update, ok, not soon, it's been 6 years since that 2015 halloween, but better late than never! -SS]

Parts needed:

• 1" PVC pipe for handle and roller section
• 6" diameter sonotube concrete form for roller
• 2 - PVC end caps for handle connection and roller end
• 1 - PVC coupler with wrench flats for end of handle
• 2 - huge 3" diameter washers with 1" hole for roller ends
• 2 - knurled knobs and associated ~4" bolt and washer for securing the hinge
• 3/4" thick hardwood for hinge parts
• 3/4" plywood for roller ends
• 1 - orange juice bottle for reservior
• wood screw for joining hinge parts
• bolts and nuts for securing handle and reservoir to hinge part
• light green duck tape
• spray paint: plastic primer, clear coat, medium green for handles, light green for hinge, orange for hinge and reservoir
• sharpies for Krak-on logoTools suggested:
• several quarts of medium to fine sand

Suggested Tools:

• Oscillating saw for cutting PVC;
• Heat gun, for bending PVC;
• Leather gloves and contractor knee pads for handling hot PVC pipe;
• Sand Paper & Table sander;

I printed out some screen shots of the roller and used an architect's scale to estimate the lengths and sizes of material i needed.

Using the architect's ruler, i would measure on the print out with the various scales (mine has 11 different inch scales) and compare measurement to real work items (ie: broom handles, etc). for this, i settled on the 3/32" & 3/16" scale.
This is so the end product didn't look too big or too small for an actual human child!

This is the first PVC I've bent and it's super easy. This is for the lower big bend of PVC pipe for the roller support section - if you bend more than you need for the roller you can use the left over for the upper handle:

• Start by prepping your PVC: I didn't bother cutting my pipe first. If you're short on space to handle the long pipe while bending, or short on sand, You can cut your pipe if you want, just measure the length of your roller tube + the bend and 1/2 again for the section that connects to the hinge and add a tad more. Also, don't bother sanding off the printed letters on the pipe, you'll be sanding them off later.
  • masking tape one end of your pipe;
  • Fill the pipe with sand (I have a kids' sand box, so, i have plenty) then tape the other end;
    • The sand keeps the pipe from crimping while bending, plus acts as heat retention so you have more bending time;
  • Measure the amount of length you need to bend (if you haven't cut to length already) and mark with tape;

• Feel the heat!
  • Get your forming paint can, gloves and knee pads, heat gun.
    • I used a quart paint can as the form to bend the PVC pipe around;
    • Also get a few pieces of thin scrap wood to keep your pipe off the floor if you're worried about your floor (my shop is concrete, so, i wasn't).
  • Using you heat gun on it's highest setting (mine goes to 1200°F), Start heating your pipe along the length of pipe you marked and intend to bend.
  • use a fairly slow movement with occasional pipe rotation/rolling on your scrap wood or floor;
  • You want to heat all the way around and along your length, so, when you start the bending part you can quickly bend from one end to the other and not take so long to reheat sections that need more heat as you bend along the length;
  • It takes 5-10 minutes to get the pipe hot and pliable, so be patient. Don't worry if you slightly brown the pipe while heating, you'll be sanding that off along with the printing later;
• Get Bending:
  • When your pipe starts to be pliable, focus your heat on the outside part of the section you intend o start bending and inside of to-bend against your form;
  • Hold one end down with your knee and start bending around the can;
    • just keep bending down your length;
    • adding heat as you go, as it won't bend if too cool.
    • As you can't roll the pipe to heat both sides, try to get the inside of the bend;
  • the pipe will want to slightly spring back until it cools a bit; So, hold it in shape or tape it it to itself across the gap between sides, ensuring the sections are parallel.
  • Once cooled, remove the tape and empty the sand out.
• Repeat bending on another piece of pipe for the handle section, i used a 2x4 scrap for the "form" as it didn't need a sweeping curve.
  • complete the 2 bends ensuring the fore and aft sections are parallel when done.

The hinge is made up of 2 main parts: 1) side that the handle and ink reservoir connect (here orange color, T-shaped)); and 2) side the roller is attached (lime green color, U-shaped); then they are connected together with the big knobs.

• Based on my measurements, rough cut out the 2 parts of the Handle side and 3 parts of the Roller side from 3/4" hardwood;
  
  • Handle side: set the orange juice bottle cap and PVC cap on the handle side blanks to check your size, shape and location of the T-piece and caps, and adjust shapes with jigsaw and sanding;
    • make sure to leave a little extra material on the U-shaped piece as you will dry fit it with the roller section to make sure you have full range of motion to "fold" the roller when not in use;
    • with 3 wood screws, fasten the T-piece to the shield shaped "base";
  • Roller side: Use roller side hinge to make perfect crimp in your lower handle to secure lower handle to roller side hinge:
    • fasten one of the U-shaped pieces to the square one with 3 wood screws;
    • find the center of both sides of the PVC based on the length of your sonotube roller,
    • Heat gun heat the center spot on the short side of your long curved roller PVC section until soft;
    • and then squish the PVC in the roller side hinge L on bottom and loose piece on top.
    • now attach the loose wood piece to the others

Roller = sonotube;

End Caps = hand painted using Krak-on squid design, blanks made from 1/2" plywood using the sonotube as template. the end caps should fit snug INSIDE the end of sonotube. Note: a big washer is used to hold roller on so the design does not need to be painted all the way to the middle of circle.

Orange spray paint, as i wanted the inkling ink color orange, if you want a different ink color, paint your roller & orange juice bottle that color:

• roller;
• orange juice bottle, primer first;
• handle side of hinge;
• big washers for roller end caps

Medium Green:

• PVC handles, primer first
• PVC end caps: 1 for handle side of hinge, 1 for outside end of roller, 1 for inside end of roller with top cut off, primer first

Lime Green:

• roller side of hinge;
• PVC coupler with hex flats, primer first;
• 2 - knurled knobs, primer first;

Clear coat: i top coated with clear coat most pieces to protect the paint.

Handle side of hinge:

• Through bolt the PVC cap to the handle side of hinge as this is structural;
• Screw the orange juice bottle lid to same side as the PVC cap;
• PVC cement the PVC handle into the PVC cap;
• PVC cement the PVC couple to end of handle;
• attach the orange juice bottle; NOTE lime-green duck tape stripe;

Roller side of hinge:

• Apply lime-green duck tape to the end of roller PVC before thru-bolting the roller PVC to the roller side of hinge;

Assemble the Hinge!

• Put the orange and lime-green side together and secure with bolt and 2 - knurled knobs;

Roller:

• wood glue discs into end of sonotube, wait to dry;
• Dry fit roller by:
  • putting PVC cap with top cut off on PVC roller pipe, orange washer, roller assembly, end orange washer, then uncut PVC cap.
  • Mark where inside cut cap is so it can be PVC cemented in place, disassemble and cement the cut off cap in place with PVC cement;
  • reassemble and PVC cement outside cap in place;

It rolls and folds at the hinge!

it's a tad heavy and the PVC roller section is springy, but it looks great!

That was a fun build and the kids had fun being Inklings!