Skyrim Hunting Bow - Done. Next up, Ebony

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• May 29, 2013

• #1

This is something I've wanted to do for the past year or so, basically choosing a reference (which I had already decided to be Skyrim), setting a time frame and then creating as many pieces from the reference as possible in the given time. I'm going to start with the bows as I nearly always play as Thief/Assassin characters, but if I've got them done by the end of the summer, then I'll move onto something else.

From the "base" bows I've discarded the Long Bow and Imperial Bow. The Hunting, Orcish, Dwarven, Elven, Glass, Ebony and Daedric are what I'm aiming for.

I've started with the Hunting Bow, although finding a piece of wood large enough to make it as a solid piece was proving difficult, not even taking into account the fact I don't own a bandsaw or a scrollsaw, so cutting it would have been a nightmare. Instead, I took a few pieces of whitewood and sandwiched them together. Luckily, the Hunting bow has a leather wrap around the grip, so I was able to make the limbs separately.

I'm gonna learn a few things with this, mainly casting, which I've never done before, so I'm looking forward to it.

Here's where it's at at the moment, gives an idea of what I'm trying to describe. Also, the strips are very obvious due to the grain, but I dunno, I like it.

 

Last edited: Jul 2, 2013

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• May 29, 2013

• #2

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

Got the other limb shaped and connected the 2 with a couple of bits of 6mm MDF. Round the grip under where the leather will be needs some filler, but as a basic shape it's looking good. Obviously needs rounded off and I haven't started the nocks yet (that's where the casting comes in :unsure)

Giggling like a schoolgirl when I took this :lol

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jun 2, 2013

• #3

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

So, the limbs have been rounded, although the area of the grip has not. I've ordered some actual hide for the grip and given that I've never worked with it before, I want to wait and see how well it will stretch and sit around different shapes first before I settle on a final grip shape

Started on the string nocks too. I'll be casting these so to start with I squished a blob of milliput over the end that to my eye was slightly smaller, pulled it off to get a nice negative and sanded the other end down to match.

Stupidly, I didn't take any photos of the next step I took, but essentially I decided I needed a bit more support for the nocks. There is very little flex in the bow, however there is enough to string it, and I do want the string under a bit of tension. So I drilled a hole through the centre of my milliput blob and used it as a guide to drill 2 matching holes in either end of the limbs. Then I glued a piece of 5mm tube into the hole in the milliput and bingo, a bit of extra support plus a guide to ensure both nocks sit correctly.

After that it was just a case of building up the general shape of the nock and sanding it roughly to shape.

(I'm obviously no bow expert so if I'm misusing the term "nock" I'm sorry. The 2 black marks on the milliput are where the actual nock will be, but I have no idea what that entire section is called)

 

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jangoD2

New Member

• Jun 2, 2013

• #4

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

wow these are great man love to see more

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jun 10, 2013

• #5

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

Bit more done. The wood got a coat of oak wood stain, not exactly correct in terms of a wood you'd make a bow from but it was a colour I felt matched the game version fairly well. The grip got done too, simply a piece of hide glued into place. I have flat leather cord to do the lacing, but I'm leaving that as a final job to tie the whole thing together (pun intended)

 

JPH

Sr Member

• Jun 10, 2013

• #6

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

very elegant...all that to shoot someone in the knee ;p

 

kwalsh0000

Sr Member

• Jun 10, 2013

• #7

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

I used to make props like that.....then I took an arrow to the knee.....
....
....I'll get my coat.

Very sleek work!

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jun 11, 2013

• #8

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

JPH said:

very elegant...all that to shoot someone in the knee ;p

Click to expand...

kwalsh0000 said:

I used to make props like that.....then I took an arrow to the knee.....
....
....I'll get my coat.

Very sleek work!

Click to expand...

Thanks guys

I really should have seen that joke coming to be fair

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jun 28, 2013

• #9

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

Ok, so I got my first taste of casting using silicone moulds, and it didn't quite go to plan. With the first effort I made a stupid mistake and miscalculated the amount of resin, and the two subsequent ones ended up with some pretty bad bubbling. I could have kept going until I had two good pulls but I ended up having a bit of a brainwave, so.....

....two pretty bad pulls became two rust eaten pieces!

I had originally planned on actually lacing the grip properly but after some close inspection of the render, I felt it would look better flush, so I just glued the lacing into place. The ends of the leather got wrapped with some embroidery thread just to tidy them up (plus some of the images I found actually had that)

So the actual bow part is finished. Just need the string now, which brings me onto a question. Does anybody know how to actually make a bowstring? I'm not looking for something strong enough to fire an arrow, just the method of how to tie and wrap it so it looks right

Sorry for this photo, it's awful. I'm looking into making a large light tent, something I really need

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jul 1, 2013

• #10

Re: CynderBloc's Summer-long Skyrim spree. First up - Hunting Bow

Shameless bump. I hate doing it but I could really use the help if anyone knows anything about bowstrings. I found a few different methods of doing it but I'm really not sure which would fit the world style better.

I'm looking for a medieval age method if that helps

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jul 2, 2013

• #11

Ok, I just picked one of the stringing methods I found and went with that.

So she's done!

I had a lot of fun doing this one, simple yet elegant. I was just going to move through them in the order you can access them in the game, which would have meant Orcish was next, but peer pressure and all that means I'm jumping to Ebony (with a little surprise project inbetween)

 

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Denton

New Member

• Jul 2, 2013

• #12

Wow! That looks fantastic, never would have thought you could make a realistic version from the game with methods like that(this casting thing has me scared). My hats off to you on this one and I'm very much looking forward to seeing your next one :thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jul 5, 2013

• #13

Denton said:

Wow! That looks fantastic, never would have thought you could make a realistic version from the game with methods like that(this casting thing has me scared). My hats off to you on this one and I'm very much looking forward to seeing your next one :thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

Cheers

Casting isn't too bad, although I have to admit I was a bit worried as I'd only ever made single use plaster moulds, never silicone ones (and it's bloody expensive!). As it turned out, I actually prefer the rust eaten look, so all's well

 

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fevereon

Active Member

• Jul 5, 2013

• #14

Very lovely! Do you plan to weather the grip in the middle? A little case of the dirties would really unite the whole piece together!

Looking forward to seeing your Ebony bow!

 

MAAZ

Well-Known Member

• Jul 5, 2013

• #15

Great Job on This!!!

 

Siliconsmith

New Member

• Jul 5, 2013

• #16

Looks great! Nice woodworking skills

What method did you end up using for the bowstring, and is this considered "con safe" and all?

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Jul 6, 2013

• #17

fevereon said:

Very lovely! Do you plan to weather the grip in the middle? A little case of the dirties would really unite the whole piece together!

Looking forward to seeing your Ebony bow!

Click to expand...

I wasn't planning on it, I picked that section of leather because the darker shade in the middle almost looks like a sweat stain from a hand. Although now that you've mentioned it, with the ends being rusted, it does seem out of place.

I'll just rub some damp dirt over it, been trying to keep "fake" weathering away from this one. Even the rust is real rust

eurekaeureka said:

Great Job on This!!!

Click to expand...

Siliconsmith said:

Looks great! Nice woodworking skills

What method did you end up using for the bowstring, and is this considered "con safe" and all?

Click to expand...

Thank you both very much.

As for the bowstring, I ended up taking this method: How to Make a Simple Bow String (with Pictures) - wikiHow and modifying the knot points to try and match the in-game render (as it doesn't have knots)

Con safe, I would like to say yes, but then again I've never been to one and I've heard some ridiculous stories of health and safety mad cons. Unfortunately in this day and age accidents don't happen due to health and safety and greedy lawyers.

It is very inflexible, drawing the string about 4 inches was enough for me, any more and either the string or limbs would have snapped. So it could probably fire an arrow about 10 ft, but with absolutely nowhere near enough force to injure anyone.

 

nukeproof

New Member

• Jul 11, 2013

• #18

that looks really awesome well done!

 

xdmray

Well-Known Member

• Oct 10, 2013

• #19

absolutely beautiful work on this. You said you were going to work on the rest of the bows. I am really interested in seeing what you do with the orc bow. I am putting together the orc quill right now and have been researching ways to make the bow. your work has given me some ideas.

 

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CynderBloc

Active Member

• Oct 11, 2013

• #20

xdmray said:

absolutely beautiful work on this. You said you were going to work on the rest of the bows. I am really interested in seeing what you do with the orc bow. I am putting together the orc quill right now and have been researching ways to make the bow. your work has given me some ideas.

Click to expand...

Cheers,

Yep, still planning on doing all of them, but I'm still working on the Ebony. I decided to go back to Uni so that's kinda sapped a lot of my time recently.

The Orc bow was the one that really intrigued me too. It being the only one that isn't symmetrical automatically doubles the workload