Tvayumat
Well-Known Member
I, like many others it seems, have become enthralled with this new re-imagining of the Green Arrow. I started off building the bow and have since started working on a costume to go with. Feel free to follow along, comment, or ask any questions!
--==The Bow==--
As I watched season one the first time, the prop that kept jumping out at me every time it got camera time was his bow.
With that in mind, after the information surfaced here on the RPF that the base bow had been found (and was affordable) I went ahead and ordered one!
The Ragim Matrix Jr. 48" bow arrived at my door just about the same time pinder91 was starting "The Definitive CW Arrow Thread". Any remaining doubt was expelled as soon as I had it in hand. This is *the* bow, limbs and all.
The Definitive thread is a wonderful resource, and helped me identify all the nautical fittings I needed to order.
1 pair 6" Sea-Dog polished brass strap hinge
1 6" Sea-Sog stainless steel straight chock
With these parts ordered I set to work removing the red lacquer finish from the bow riser. It was slow going at first when I was using 60 grit by hand, but after I remembered how rough the finished item was going to look anyway, I switched to a dremel with a sanding barrel attachment. Results were yielded much quicker.
At this point I ordered myself a woodburning pen to burn the mysterious symbols into the bow, and while I was waiting fabricated up some kid, drunk, and con-safe replacement bow limbs out of fiberglass and some epoxy putty.
It was mostly an experiment making flexible things out of fiberglass mat, and it worked out pretty well. It has barely any tension but still looks the part and can be fully drawn safely in a crowd of drunks or elbow-height children.
While waiting for things to arrive I experimented with weathering and staining the wood. Several failed experiments using vinegar/steel wool and sanding the riser back down *did* give me some fairly believable wear marks in any case.
After trying a lot of complicated answers, I decided to go for the ultimate shortcut and use Minwax combination wood stain and finish. Since it is an oil based stain, I wanted to do all my burning in advance, lest I immolate my new bow.
The following images are what I used to copy the symbols from the most direct high res pictures I could find. The remaining panel I did freehand, but by the time you do these ones you will recognize the repeated patterns enough to freehand this stuff, trust me.
I sized these images to the actual size of my riser, printed them out, and used carbon transfer paper to move the pattern on to the wood.
For the woodburning, all I can advise is go slow. The standard wedge shaped burning tip makes a very sharp line, so I switched to a slightly rounded stylus tip and that seemed to look more like the texture of the symbols from his bow.
This is a good project for a first timer like me, because if your burning is a little uneven in areas it just adds to the flavor! (I also snuck my initials in to one of the panels as a signature)
In the above image on the right you can also see some of the areas where I was testing the Minwax "Classic American" stain that I ended up using.
With the woodburning done, I stained the riser and, once it had set, applied sandpaper to a number of areas to lighten the stain unevenly and get a good weathered effect.
---=== Strap Hinges ===---
The Hood's bow has three pieces of 6" brass strap hinge attached to it. One is strapped down to the riser as an arrow rest, and it has a single brass hinge loop in the center. Two more hold the limbs to the riser, and are the opposite hinge plate as the arrow rest.
All three pieces can be acquired by purchasing ONE PAIR of the Seadog 6" polished brass strap hinge. In fact, you'll have one extra arrow rest piece when you're done.
I made this diagram to show how to get the hinges apart. Cutting was done with a Dremel rotary tool w/ metal cutting disc and a hand drill. Any time I was drilling these pieces I clamped the plate between two blocks of wood in a vice.
Cut the central pin on either side of the center piece and separate the two hinge plates. Tap out the loose sections of the pin and drill out the remaining solid section of the pin.
With the hinge pieces separated, I cleaned them up and picked out the arrow rest I wanted to use.
After choosing good locations for the arrow rest and chock, I glued the rest in place with a few dots of Titebond II, and once it wasn't moving around I set about tying it to the riser with Tandy brand artificial sinew, de-waxed in acetone.
In the above image you can also see the mods needed for the bow limb strap hinge pieces.
In order to fit the 8mm screw hole, the hole closest to the hinge pin itself needs to be widened by drill. I used a 5/16" standard bit.
The other trick was fabricating the screws shown above. I was totally unable to source 8mm metric brass cap nuts locally, so I got a pair that were 5/16" standard, filled them with JB weld, and basically screwed them tight to an 8mm threaded rod until the threads crossed and meshed.
---=== Painting the chock ===---
After a good deal of back and forth discussion with pinder91, I landed on buying the Seadog 6" stainless straight chock and painting it to match the one on the SDCC bow as close as possible.
Here is a picture of the bare stainless chock being positioned. Note that I used a pocket knife to gouge a little "pocket" for the tip of the chock to rest in.
So I...
- Roughed the surface with 150 grit
- Painted the whole thing with a light coat of Rust-oleum bright metallic brass
- Applied strategic scrapes through to the steel
- Washed the entire thing a few times with varying amounts of brown ink
and got...
Not *totally* pleased with the final outcome, but it's pretty good, and I plan on revisiting this piece later.
---=== Bowstring ===---
I noticed early on that some of the only green that appears on the bow is actually on the bowstring itself.
View attachment arrow-green-arrow-10.JPGView attachment arrow-green-arrow-07.JPG
So I started looking in to buying a custom bowstring, learned a bunch of nomenclature I didn't know before, and landed on a very simple answer:
Painting the string makes WAY more sense than buying a custom one.
With that in mind, I chose Angelus brand green leather/vinyl paint for the body of the string, mostly because I wanted to be sure the paint would dry strong and flex with the string when drawn. The finish turned out just about perfect for me.
The thread in the middle of the string and on the ends is a nylon cord wrap of some kind, so brown fabric paint was used.
The small, black marker (I believe placed as a way to quickly nock the arrow without looking) I did in a small length of black hemp cord that I superglued in place.
If I were making this as an actual bow that I wanted to fire, I probably would go to a little more effort on the bowstring.
Time is growing short, and thankfully the bow is complete for the most part. I picked up the Brooks antique brown bar tape, thinking I was being clever, but now after going through an extensive acetone weathering process on this stuff I'm pretty sure pinder91 is right about it being the honey colored tape. Oh well, I plan on revisiting the details later on, and I have more stuff to build!
Finished the leather wrap and threw down two more sinew wraps. Fairly pleased with the look for now.
--==The City Costume==--
I absolutely love the costumes in "Arrow". Honestly, I'd do them all if I could, but I get ahead of myself. One step at a time!
I'm taking this build slow and financially cautious. After my last costuming adventure with Dredd 3D the costuming budget is tight.
On December 30 I ordered the Arrow costume available on Amazon from Janecosplay. Made of faux leather, apparently made to your measurements, and looking to be a decent facsimile of all the important parts of the city costume for only $160, I figured that as a worst case scenario it could serve as a patterning base for my own work. The turnaround time was only 14 days from placing the order to the package arriving at my door.
Normally I would be *very* reluctant to order an entire costume sight unseen on the internet, but it had nine glowing reviews and the price was right.
The costume itself is, I would say, worth the money. Most of the major details are a little "off" but they are decidedly present, some smaller details are unfortunately missing. The material is a bit darker than I'd like, but that could be fixed with vinyl paint, and since I intend to use this as a base for upgrading to leather in the future, it doesn't bother me in the short term.
After all, Dallas Sci Fi Expo is in only a month, and I need an Arrow costume to wear!
As for the measurements, they actually did a pretty decent job of hitting the numbers I gave them. The sleeves and pant legs are both long and a little baggy, but that is nothing that can't be fixed with a sewing machine.
After a thorough inspection, my list of mods to get done in the short term are:
- Shorten legs and sleeves
- Tighten legs and sleeves
- Replace velcro waist closure with a proper hook
- Dull down vinyl shine
- Install suspender anchors
- Install foot loops (these make tucking into boots SO much easier)
The costume also included a hood, which is pretty good, sturdy, made of a decent material, but unfortunately quite small. You'd have to have a tiny head for this thing to fit. With that in mind I'll be making a new hood using the one sent as a general base with some modifications toward accuracy.
It also included back, hip, and arm quivers but they are woefully inadequate. Floppy constructions of stitched black vinyl.
The good news is that the belts for the back and hip quivers are perfectly serviceable, so I'll be recycling them.
--==The Bow==--
As I watched season one the first time, the prop that kept jumping out at me every time it got camera time was his bow.
With that in mind, after the information surfaced here on the RPF that the base bow had been found (and was affordable) I went ahead and ordered one!
The Ragim Matrix Jr. 48" bow arrived at my door just about the same time pinder91 was starting "The Definitive CW Arrow Thread". Any remaining doubt was expelled as soon as I had it in hand. This is *the* bow, limbs and all.
The Definitive thread is a wonderful resource, and helped me identify all the nautical fittings I needed to order.
1 pair 6" Sea-Dog polished brass strap hinge
1 6" Sea-Sog stainless steel straight chock
With these parts ordered I set to work removing the red lacquer finish from the bow riser. It was slow going at first when I was using 60 grit by hand, but after I remembered how rough the finished item was going to look anyway, I switched to a dremel with a sanding barrel attachment. Results were yielded much quicker.
At this point I ordered myself a woodburning pen to burn the mysterious symbols into the bow, and while I was waiting fabricated up some kid, drunk, and con-safe replacement bow limbs out of fiberglass and some epoxy putty.
It was mostly an experiment making flexible things out of fiberglass mat, and it worked out pretty well. It has barely any tension but still looks the part and can be fully drawn safely in a crowd of drunks or elbow-height children.
While waiting for things to arrive I experimented with weathering and staining the wood. Several failed experiments using vinegar/steel wool and sanding the riser back down *did* give me some fairly believable wear marks in any case.
After trying a lot of complicated answers, I decided to go for the ultimate shortcut and use Minwax combination wood stain and finish. Since it is an oil based stain, I wanted to do all my burning in advance, lest I immolate my new bow.
The following images are what I used to copy the symbols from the most direct high res pictures I could find. The remaining panel I did freehand, but by the time you do these ones you will recognize the repeated patterns enough to freehand this stuff, trust me.
I sized these images to the actual size of my riser, printed them out, and used carbon transfer paper to move the pattern on to the wood.
For the woodburning, all I can advise is go slow. The standard wedge shaped burning tip makes a very sharp line, so I switched to a slightly rounded stylus tip and that seemed to look more like the texture of the symbols from his bow.
This is a good project for a first timer like me, because if your burning is a little uneven in areas it just adds to the flavor! (I also snuck my initials in to one of the panels as a signature)
In the above image on the right you can also see some of the areas where I was testing the Minwax "Classic American" stain that I ended up using.
With the woodburning done, I stained the riser and, once it had set, applied sandpaper to a number of areas to lighten the stain unevenly and get a good weathered effect.
---=== Strap Hinges ===---
The Hood's bow has three pieces of 6" brass strap hinge attached to it. One is strapped down to the riser as an arrow rest, and it has a single brass hinge loop in the center. Two more hold the limbs to the riser, and are the opposite hinge plate as the arrow rest.
All three pieces can be acquired by purchasing ONE PAIR of the Seadog 6" polished brass strap hinge. In fact, you'll have one extra arrow rest piece when you're done.
I made this diagram to show how to get the hinges apart. Cutting was done with a Dremel rotary tool w/ metal cutting disc and a hand drill. Any time I was drilling these pieces I clamped the plate between two blocks of wood in a vice.
Cut the central pin on either side of the center piece and separate the two hinge plates. Tap out the loose sections of the pin and drill out the remaining solid section of the pin.
With the hinge pieces separated, I cleaned them up and picked out the arrow rest I wanted to use.
After choosing good locations for the arrow rest and chock, I glued the rest in place with a few dots of Titebond II, and once it wasn't moving around I set about tying it to the riser with Tandy brand artificial sinew, de-waxed in acetone.
In the above image you can also see the mods needed for the bow limb strap hinge pieces.
In order to fit the 8mm screw hole, the hole closest to the hinge pin itself needs to be widened by drill. I used a 5/16" standard bit.
The other trick was fabricating the screws shown above. I was totally unable to source 8mm metric brass cap nuts locally, so I got a pair that were 5/16" standard, filled them with JB weld, and basically screwed them tight to an 8mm threaded rod until the threads crossed and meshed.
---=== Painting the chock ===---
After a good deal of back and forth discussion with pinder91, I landed on buying the Seadog 6" stainless straight chock and painting it to match the one on the SDCC bow as close as possible.
Here is a picture of the bare stainless chock being positioned. Note that I used a pocket knife to gouge a little "pocket" for the tip of the chock to rest in.
So I...
- Roughed the surface with 150 grit
- Painted the whole thing with a light coat of Rust-oleum bright metallic brass
- Applied strategic scrapes through to the steel
- Washed the entire thing a few times with varying amounts of brown ink
and got...
Not *totally* pleased with the final outcome, but it's pretty good, and I plan on revisiting this piece later.
---=== Bowstring ===---
I noticed early on that some of the only green that appears on the bow is actually on the bowstring itself.
View attachment arrow-green-arrow-10.JPGView attachment arrow-green-arrow-07.JPG
So I started looking in to buying a custom bowstring, learned a bunch of nomenclature I didn't know before, and landed on a very simple answer:
Painting the string makes WAY more sense than buying a custom one.
With that in mind, I chose Angelus brand green leather/vinyl paint for the body of the string, mostly because I wanted to be sure the paint would dry strong and flex with the string when drawn. The finish turned out just about perfect for me.
The thread in the middle of the string and on the ends is a nylon cord wrap of some kind, so brown fabric paint was used.
The small, black marker (I believe placed as a way to quickly nock the arrow without looking) I did in a small length of black hemp cord that I superglued in place.
If I were making this as an actual bow that I wanted to fire, I probably would go to a little more effort on the bowstring.
Time is growing short, and thankfully the bow is complete for the most part. I picked up the Brooks antique brown bar tape, thinking I was being clever, but now after going through an extensive acetone weathering process on this stuff I'm pretty sure pinder91 is right about it being the honey colored tape. Oh well, I plan on revisiting the details later on, and I have more stuff to build!
Finished the leather wrap and threw down two more sinew wraps. Fairly pleased with the look for now.
--==The City Costume==--
I absolutely love the costumes in "Arrow". Honestly, I'd do them all if I could, but I get ahead of myself. One step at a time!
I'm taking this build slow and financially cautious. After my last costuming adventure with Dredd 3D the costuming budget is tight.
On December 30 I ordered the Arrow costume available on Amazon from Janecosplay. Made of faux leather, apparently made to your measurements, and looking to be a decent facsimile of all the important parts of the city costume for only $160, I figured that as a worst case scenario it could serve as a patterning base for my own work. The turnaround time was only 14 days from placing the order to the package arriving at my door.
Normally I would be *very* reluctant to order an entire costume sight unseen on the internet, but it had nine glowing reviews and the price was right.
The costume itself is, I would say, worth the money. Most of the major details are a little "off" but they are decidedly present, some smaller details are unfortunately missing. The material is a bit darker than I'd like, but that could be fixed with vinyl paint, and since I intend to use this as a base for upgrading to leather in the future, it doesn't bother me in the short term.
After all, Dallas Sci Fi Expo is in only a month, and I need an Arrow costume to wear!
As for the measurements, they actually did a pretty decent job of hitting the numbers I gave them. The sleeves and pant legs are both long and a little baggy, but that is nothing that can't be fixed with a sewing machine.
After a thorough inspection, my list of mods to get done in the short term are:
- Shorten legs and sleeves
- Tighten legs and sleeves
- Replace velcro waist closure with a proper hook
- Dull down vinyl shine
- Install suspender anchors
- Install foot loops (these make tucking into boots SO much easier)
The costume also included a hood, which is pretty good, sturdy, made of a decent material, but unfortunately quite small. You'd have to have a tiny head for this thing to fit. With that in mind I'll be making a new hood using the one sent as a general base with some modifications toward accuracy.
It also included back, hip, and arm quivers but they are woefully inadequate. Floppy constructions of stitched black vinyl.
The good news is that the belts for the back and hip quivers are perfectly serviceable, so I'll be recycling them.
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