007: More SoL progress

Well, today was another day of progress, but it's the best kind of progress. The kind where your vision starts to come into focus and gets really exciting. Today I crafted the blade in preparation of fiber-glassing the week of thanksgiving or a weekend soon.

Onto the pictures!

Here is the blade, roughly shaped out of EPS, or Expanded PolyStyrene. This was cheap and super lightweight. I used a super dull dremmel sanding head to shave down the EPS, which couldn't support much force for fear of snapping.

Next I covered this in masking tape. This is simply a layer of protection for the EPS as fiberglass resin will eat the EPS. I made sure to cover the whole thing with a solid layer of tape.

Here are the pieces so far. Clockwise from bottom left is the Pommel, the PVC Handle, the Crossguard, The blade (taped up), and the 1/2 in Dowel rod that runs through the sword.

Here is a picture of the Dowel rod sitting in a recess within the PVC recess.

From there the PVC will slide down into the recess. Once all the pieces are in a finished state, it will be put together permanently.

The the cross guard will slide down and it has a recess on the underside for the PVC handle part.

A pic of the recessed underside of the cross guard.

It is very exciting to see something you plan on paper start to resemble your prop in real life!

006: First test fit

Risky back again, and today was an exciting day! Today I was able to call the basic sanding/shaping done and drill open the holes for the pvc to slide into. This allowed for a quick test fit to see how it was coming along.

This sword is a two-handed sword, so I had to initially trim down the pvc a bit as I over-estimated the length.

 

Here is another reference shot for comparison.

Next up will  be the blade build, then test fit and primer.

005: Back at it!

So after a brief hiatus, I'm back at it with the Gourry SoL. The break was income induced, I need so many tools and accessories that even basic work is sometimes halted till payday. As I am a father and husband, I have to make sure bills are paid, food is on the table, and gas is in the car. Also since I am new to the prop making hobby, my supplies are sparse as of yet.

What I was missing were dremmel tips. I had a lot of sanding to do sans a belt sander. And the amount was multiple millimeters of mdf, a bit more than what i could manage by hand in a reasonable amount of time. Sure if I was perhaps more dedicated, or obsessed, I could have hand sanded it, but it honestly ended up being a case of needing the right tool for the right job.

So I was able to get the right tool today at Harbour Freight!

So without further ado, lets see the results of today's work.

 The Hilt:

The Pommel:

I may take some more off the pommel, but overall I'm pretty happy with the overall shape of both pieces. I'm especially happy since I only have a dremmel to do all of my sanding. 

I'll take tomorrow to measure out and cut the handle using 1/2" PVC. I want to use PVC so I can allow the blade's tang to slide in and get held in place with a nut and bolt. The core of the blade will be a dowel rod. 

Thanks for coming around and watching what I'm up to!

004: Deja Vu

So today I got out again, in between getting grades done for my 6th graders, and started on the hilt for the Sword of Light, henceforth known as SoL. So I restarted after learning a lot the first time through and I had better results this time.

As I mentioned last time, this go round I did not laminate them first, but am doing that after initial shaping. I'm also learning about how hard it is to get cone shapes to match...

After my day's work, I went from 3/4 in. MDF to these two pieces, laminated together at the end of the day. I am discovering and rewriting my wish list everyday. Today at the top of my list went C-clamps as I ended up holding everything I cut, drimmeled, and sanded.

Tomorrow, I'll do a lot more hand sanding with some 100 grit to finish up the shaping and I'll also be working on the crevices between the tail spikes on the hilt. They still need some love and attention. Soon it will be time to bondo and sand in a perpetual loop into infinity. And beyond.

003: A Day of Learning

So today was my first dedicated day to my first build. Boy, did I learn a lot today!

So first up, I learned just how nice it will be when I have my own shed or garage to work in. Big props to my good buddy LB3 for the backyard, but oh how nice it will be to organize my stuff!

Next I learned that my thoughts on the pre-cut laminating were a bit off. I got some functional pieces but I'm gonna take a second stab at it tomorrow with un-laminated parts. For the tools I'm using and the depths I'm cutting, separate pieces are the way to go.

Lastly, and speaking of tools, I have learned that while I have the bare minimum to do this build, it will be neither easy nor quick. I'm ok with this! This is no problem! I will persevere and this will make this build all the more sweet.

So here is a pic of pictures from today's build, and I have a lot of ideas for tomorrow's restart. And hey that's the point, right? Live and learn?

Post 002: Gourry's Sword of Light

So as I keep moving into props I have a second, concurrent project that I am working on, that has more importance than Leon's gun. I am working on Gourry's Sword of Light from the original Slayers series. Here is a screen cap.

So I tackled the blueprint in Illustrator again, though this time I had to have the wife come through and correct some all of it so I could resize the image to the appropriate proportions. Here it is after corrections.

So I picked up my half sheet of 3/4" MDF, fiberglass resin and clamps from my local hardware store and came home to accomplish the first steps of the build.

At my apartment, I have a balcony which is not my preferred work place, but as a bit of pre-work I decided to cut and laminate the MDF to the sizes I need to work on. I'll be working a lot at a good friends place this week while I'm on fall break from school.

So I cut the MDF, mixed the fiberglass resin with the hardener, and clamped it all together. I'll know in about 2 hours if it was successful or not.

 

Post 001: RE6

Hey there all, Matt here. This blog is going to be an attempt to chronicle my prop building adventures. I am literally brand new to this, so hopefully we will see growth as we move through the posts. Today I am going to talk about the initial phases of my first build! This is the H&K VP70 used by Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil 6.

 
This is not the standard H&K VP70, according to comparisons of screen shots and real life photos of the VP70.

Therefore this is a bit of a hybrid build, taking elements from both the basis of the model and the game model and trying to blend them. Here is a screen shot of the illustrator file I worked on for my blueprint.

I added the "MR" where the "HK" should be for a bit of branding. So after tinkering with illustrator for many hours, all the while being taught the basics of the program by my wife, I produced the blueprint and finally got it printed out. After printing, I decided to do a mock-up with cardboard just to check the dimensions. Mainly the height and width of the gun, not the depth. So after attaching to some spare cardboard with contact cement, I used an exacto blade and cut it out. I think it came out pretty good for trial 1.

And here is one more, in my hand, to show relative size.

Fall break is week after next, and gonna be getting my first sheet of MDF to start work on!