Just made a page about how I create sword molds (with pictures!) – check it out here.
Cost effective sword molds
May 14
Finished!
May 7
Finally finished painting the Great Fairy’s Sword from Legend of Zelda. This thing is massive – 50″ long, 10″ wide, and is pretty heavy.
I made the source 3D model based on reference art from Majora’s Mask, Soul Calibur 2, and fan art. I then carved it using my CNC, smoothed and finished the master, and made a mold from Smooth-On’s Mold Max Stroke brush-on silicone. I created a mold jacket from plaster wrap for support, with metal rods for extra strength because of the length. I then brushed Smooth Cast 321 plastic onto the mold jacket as well, to seal it and strengthen it further.
The cast was made in Smooth Cast 320 plastic in two halves, which were bonded together with a steel rod down the center. To ensure the bond between the halves and the steel was strong, I also drilled small holes into the blade and hilt, injected more Smooth Cast 321 plastic, and effectively rotocast the plastic onto the inside. Finally, small imperfections were filled with Bondo.
The blade was painted with a primer coat, then airbrushed with various acrylic colors including metallic pearlized purple, metallic green, pearlized white, metallic black, and metallic ruby red in various mixtures. The entire prop was then coated with Rustoleum automotive clear coat and Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell wax.
Dangerous markings
Feb 26
Whenever I have leftover plastic from whatever I’m doing, I try to dump it into existing molds until they’re full, since otherwise it just hardens in the mixing cup and is wasted. Since I use a few different dyes in the plastic resin, this also means I get daggers and swords which look to me like insects with markings saying “stay away”…
Shiny swords
Feb 16
I had a question on how I made my swords shiny, like this (which has other issues):
This is an insulation foam carving, coated with 3 coats of Smooth Cast 320 plastic, wet sanded, then coated with one extra coat of plastic. After that, I painted it with Rustoleum gray primer, and sanded it to 1000 grit wet sandpaper. Then I painted it with Rustoleum gloss black automotive paint, and finally coated it with Velspar “brilliant metallic” silver paint. I have not yet coated it with gloss coating, since this item has other problems, but when I do such coatings, I use hand painted gloss coat, as spray painted gloss coat will dull the silvery/chrome finish.
Hope this helps anyone who is making similar items!
Happy New Year!
Dec 31
Well, 2011 was quite the wild ride. It was my first year completely as a contract worker (rather than salaried, as I’ve been in the past), as well as the first year I worked two jobs (since one wasn’t paying). I let myself get out of shape far more than I should have, but I’m starting to reverse that trend.
Highlights of the year:
- Walking home with a heavy car battery when my car died
- Decided to buy a 3D printer to work with my prop making ideas
- Tried all sorts of ideas for making silicone molds, most of which failed
- Figured out that my 3D carver was skewed for at least a year or two, resulting in bad carvings (and a few bad molds)
- Started learning how to use an airbrush
And plans for next year:
- Get back in shape, I hope
- Make a bunch of cosplay props for people
- Finally quit one of my jobs
- Finish some armor!
Hope everyone out there has a safe and happy New Year’s. Stay safe, use a designated driver, a cab, the tipsy tow service, or whatever else you can to stay off the roads if you’ve been drinking.
Post in progress as I complete this prop… photos and details behind the cut.
What is it with Uggs?
Dec 14
Why do I daily get at least 7 spams on here about Ugg boots? I’ll never understand spam bots…
Just needs some slight cleanup, then it’s ready for a mold…
Apparently the router melted some hot glue, which melted foam, picked up the foam bits, let them re-solidify into a disc, which then cut way more than the 1/8″ of the router bit would normally… first it carved the right side, but when it moved to the left it picked up the extra material, as seen in the first two pictures. The result? A whole bunch of cut away details that should’ve remained in the final picture…
On the plus side, I’ve improved the carving program since that carving, so it will be faster to re-create it.
Well, that’s new
Nov 14
Christian spam in my comments.. that’s certainly different. Plenty of viagra, mortgage, enhancing Google results, porn, and just about every other type of spam, but today was the first time I’d seen Christian spam trying to convert me / my readers. I wonder if this is a step up or a step down… and it’s deleted, just like all other spam I get.
