WIP: Gordon Freeman's crowbar

Hi,

EDIT: The piece is finished, scroll down

as part of the Half Life costume I'm currently building (still in the resining phase ...) I also need suitable prop to carry, which is obviously the crowbar, and I'd like to share the progress here.

Now why building a crowbar when I could buy it instead? Three quick reasons, first, the weight. I don't want to carry around two and a half kilos (yeah, I'm from Germany, I don't know how many pounds that is) all day. Second, I don't think I could go to a comic con or so with an actual crowbar. Just a guess... Third, I'd like to gain some experience with resin, putty, sanding, painting and so on, and with the crowbar, it's not that I've destroyed ten hours of pepping when I do something wrong.

Ok, I decided to make the crowbar using massive fiberglass putty. I don't know the name but it's like Bondo stuffed with glass fibers. I guess that is what you call mudglass? Well it's muddy and it has glass, so...
This stuff gets really really hard. But I cannot pour it into a mould or something cause it's so pasty. So I thought I squeeze the putty into a rack which I've made from cardboard.

Here's the lower part. I've used the shape from a picture and scaled it up.



The putty goes on TOP of this shape, kinda like this:

You also see that I was quite accurate with upscaling the image



On top of this comes kind of a "plate" on which the putty is applied.



Here's a zoom up of the upper piece.



This plate is now surrounded by "walls", to hold the putty:


So now there is a "tunnel" for the putty, but it's still rectangular, so I applied acrylic inside and smoothed it with a hexagonal scraper. I want the crowbar to be hexadonal in diameter, not perfectly round. Well the scraper is actually half a hexagon, as the upper part will stick out and will be shaped by me applying the putty. The paper and the acrylic can be torn off once the cast is hard. So heres the final "mould":



You can kinda see the half-hexagonal "rack" for the putty.


Ok, next is applying the putty into the shape. I have used a lot, almost 600grams (again, no idea how many ounces those are...). As the stuff hardens quite fast, I used three rounds. Here's the filled thing:

As you can see, I wasn't quite able to shape the upper half nicely with my scrapers, but I hope I can sand them down to a hexagonal profile.

Finally, after the putty has hardened, I tore the cardboard-and-acrylic-mould from the cast, which pretty much looks already crowbar-like:



Now the part which was in the mould (here the upper part) Is much more smoother and hexagonal, but I really hope I can sand the rest down and/or fill stuff up with normal Bondo.

And this thing seems unbreakable, I mean I've not tried to open crates with it, but I cannot bend it at all!??!

Ok, that is it for now, I'd appreciate any comments, and I hope I have some more pictures soon.


Greetings from Germany!

bump

I like it! A very memorable weapon in gaming history.

That looks excellent. I'm actually surprised how rigid it is with no internal support structure (wire, thin pipe, etc).

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. thumbsup

Looks good, considering the materials you're using.

If I may ask, why did you not just purchase a real crowbar and then mold it using either plaster of paris or a silicone rubber?

Alot of prop makers do stuff like this: Volpin used silicone rubber and casting resins to make a bunch of wingnuts for his Big Daddy suit.

...yes, I'm also surprised as to how rigid the material gets. But there is definitively no internal support in it.

Slukaj, I thought of molding a real crowbar, but I did not like their shape much. The top part is differently curved. At least in the hardware shops I looked, I only found this shape:



Wouldn't be a precise replica

Looks like a good way to "get your feet wet", and your techniques look sound.
Very nice work so far!

ok, short update...

I applied a first layer of bondo on the piece. Actually, my first bondo/sanding job :cool! Obviously it sucks cause the surface is far from nice. But at least I managed to get the profile into a nice hexagon. I guess it needs at least two more bondoing sessions before I can even think of priming :lol

many greetings from Germany!

im workin on some hl2 props myself so far ive got one MK3A2 done and a whole resistance guy outfit done, im planning on making a short film based off the half life story

cool, I'm also building the HEV suit. So all we need are a few combines and some more extras that are willing to play the zombies !??!

... second layer of bondo done. Doesn't look any different :-(

ok, that's a reeeally long due update! That whole time I could work on it just in tiny bits, but this week I could make some serious progress! The first silver coat is on!

Ok, but first things first, here's the piece right before priming, after numerous sessions of sanding.



And a bit closer, from its oh so familiar ingame position...



I spare you the priming and jump right to the first silver coat.





You can see that there are still some small dents and holes which I could have corrected but what the hell.... Also, it is not supposed to be a brand new crowbar, so a few marks are acceptable I think. After all, Gordon found it lying around in Black Mesa, he did not unpack it from its original wrapping...

So the piece is already very shiny, but I hope things get even more metallic after applying some silver rub'n buff on it. Next steps, the red handle-area and weathering....

Greetings from Germany!

HAHA thats amazing

from the last pic, i couldnt tell its not a real crowbar

Definitely looks the part. I'm impressed at your skill with shaping.

I admit, the prospect of a hyper-lightweight fibreglass version is appealing. Especially for conventions.

Here's mine, for comparison. These are both carbon steel.





I have a third one which is identical to the one posted above (HL2 color scheme) but with a more accurate shape and properly-proportioned-red stripe. No pics of it though...

Hi forum!

I am proud to announce that I am done! A couple of days ago I sprayed the red area in the middle. Of course I wanted to have it weathered so I added plenty of toothpaste on the edges. It might have been a little much but I am still quite happy. The silver part has been polished with some silver rub'n buff. That stuff is fantasic! In retrospect, I wouldn't have needed that silver ground layer, the rub'n buff would have covered just about any other color.

Finally I applied some black acrylic paint for the weathering. The whole piece weighs about one and a half pound (23ounces). So there it goes... I hope you like it!









Greetings from Germany