Divadellarte - She-Ra - 6th June 2015

Sword

Ok, so I'll admit it now: the sword was made my by fiancé. At some point, I'll get him to do an entry explaining how he made it properly, but this is is as I understand it.

The hilt is a bicycle handlebar, with some plastic piping used to form the core of the blade. He covered it with expanding foam, used a craft knife to shape it, and then covered it with wall-filler, to fill any gaps and smooth out the surface. He used a craft knife to shape the design in the hilt and the gem setting, then we coated it in two or three layers of silver acrylic (poster) paint. The handlebar would be difficult to paint, given it was textured, so I just coated it in a layer of silver duct tape. We've used clear worbla filled with resin for the stone. It's just drying before I paint it, then we'll hotglue it into place on either side of the hilt.

Here's a picture of the sword as it started out (bike handle and pipe); completely filled, smoothed out and with the detail sculpted; with the first layer of paint; and finally, complete except for the gem.