Archive&Future
Sr Member
Last year I was commissioned by a schoolfriend to make a sword for her cosplay of (you guessed it!) Shadow Link. Now, I'm not really into Zelda n'all, but I've been reliably informed that Shadow Link is different to Dark Link; so now that's all cleared up.
Since the project is very near completion, I thought I'd better do a write up on what's been done and what's to be done.
I also must point out, that since I'm only 16, I've been using a family friend's workshop and quite frankly he's been more into the project than I have! Basically what I'm saying is I can't take credit for all the work, but probably a good half of what you see is my input.
This is the reference I went from, and was told that the colours were to be a silver blade, yellow hilt and pommel, black leather handgrip and purple jewels.
I started by guessing the rough scale to the average human, and then sized it down a little bit as the intended client was quite short. I knocked up some figures and blueprints in Inkscape
After a few weeks, I got up to the workshop and we started the build.
The blade and handle was cut out of Parana pine, less knotty than ordinary pine and a bit tougher.
Once that was done, we attacked the shape with a combination of chisels, surforms and glass paper
..and then the other side..
Once that was sorted, we wedged two blocks of Parana pine together and roughed out the hilt shape
..and test assembly...
We then shaped out the raised...triangular..thingies...from the hilt to the blade, cut and bent an aluminium tube into an oval, and cut out the pommel piece and tapered the hilt
After a couple of months off the project due to GCSE exams, we cut out the recessed grooves in the hilt, wrapped steel wire around the grip, glued on the pommel, sanded filled, sanded and filled and finally a coat of emulsion.
Then several coats of "Montana Gold" silver spray paint, and filling some small dents and pockmarks
After more filling an smoothing, more spray and more filling and smoothing etc etc I got up to this
You can't see it in the photo, but there's still a ton of work to be done before the blade is properly smoothed out.
And finally a shot of my arm holding it
That's as far as yesterday's work, I'll be doing more work on this later as I still have some other projects to do (which I'll post here too)
Any suggestions or criticisms welcome!
Since the project is very near completion, I thought I'd better do a write up on what's been done and what's to be done.
I also must point out, that since I'm only 16, I've been using a family friend's workshop and quite frankly he's been more into the project than I have! Basically what I'm saying is I can't take credit for all the work, but probably a good half of what you see is my input.
This is the reference I went from, and was told that the colours were to be a silver blade, yellow hilt and pommel, black leather handgrip and purple jewels.
I started by guessing the rough scale to the average human, and then sized it down a little bit as the intended client was quite short. I knocked up some figures and blueprints in Inkscape
After a few weeks, I got up to the workshop and we started the build.
The blade and handle was cut out of Parana pine, less knotty than ordinary pine and a bit tougher.
Once that was done, we attacked the shape with a combination of chisels, surforms and glass paper
..and then the other side..
Once that was sorted, we wedged two blocks of Parana pine together and roughed out the hilt shape
..and test assembly...
We then shaped out the raised...triangular..thingies...from the hilt to the blade, cut and bent an aluminium tube into an oval, and cut out the pommel piece and tapered the hilt
After a couple of months off the project due to GCSE exams, we cut out the recessed grooves in the hilt, wrapped steel wire around the grip, glued on the pommel, sanded filled, sanded and filled and finally a coat of emulsion.
Then several coats of "Montana Gold" silver spray paint, and filling some small dents and pockmarks
After more filling an smoothing, more spray and more filling and smoothing etc etc I got up to this
You can't see it in the photo, but there's still a ton of work to be done before the blade is properly smoothed out.
And finally a shot of my arm holding it
That's as far as yesterday's work, I'll be doing more work on this later as I still have some other projects to do (which I'll post here too)
Any suggestions or criticisms welcome!
