Ashe's Ice Bow - League of Legends

[Cobheran]

I started playing League of Legends recently and decided that I really wanted to make Ashe's bow. I used her splash artwork for the main bow design and the in game model for the smaller designs.


I made the model in Rhino 4 and exported it as a .stl file so the CAM program can translate it into code for the CNC.


I imported the .stl model into my CAM program and converted it into lines of code. The red lines are supports to keep the bow from dislodging from the wood before the mill is done cutting it out.


The model is converted into movement code, each line is represented as a line. The green blob is actually half a million lines of code.


The code is moved to the mill computer. The model is replaced with the lines of movement that the mill will take to create the model.


Since I don't know of anywhere locally that sells 1.25" MDF, I use 3/4" and 1/2" boards and glue them together




I use clamps to pinch the wood together and stand it upright to keep the edges even.


I mount the boards on the mill and drill them into the spoil board to prevent the mill from moving the wood around while it's cutting.


First rough cut on the mill! This is a cut designed to clear away material before a detail pass later on


Detail pass making things pretty!


After the finishing passes I remove the board from the mill and cut away the supporting flashing and material


I use a belt sander to sand the back of the bow until the flashing is gone and it lines up perfectly!


I had a few pieces of wood not adhere well and lost them, so I'll have to sculpt/re-cut those pieces individually. After sanding I'll prime the bow to correct errors, then smooth it out to a glass finish. Then I'm planning on making a matrix mold (which I may need some advice on since I've never actually done one) and casting the bow in Smooth-On's Crystal Clear 200. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[santiclause]

nice build so far, I wish I had a milling machine like that I have created 3d files for customers that use them and cnc, fun stuff.

 

[EyeofSauron]

is that not incredibly fragile, with such a small diameter?

 

[Cobheran]

nice build so far, I wish I had a milling machine like that I have created 3d files for customers that use them and cnc, fun stuff.

It is fun! What program do you use to build your models?

is that not incredibly fragile, with such a small diameter?

It was, which was why my very first after getting it all cut out was gluing the two halves together and filling any gaps. Were this to be the final copy I'd have routed out some channels in the middle and run some metal rods through to increase stability. However since I'm planning to make a mold of it and cast it in clear resin, my plan leans more to just getting a nice clean master over stability. That being said it's currently residing in a rarely used corner of my house because I want to handle it as little as possible when I'm not working on it (especially while drunk)


Here's a shot of the two halves glued and gap filled with apoxie sculpt.

 

[Henchmen]

Looks really good! I play league of legends a fair bit and have a bunch of pieces I want to do from the game. Can't wait to see how this turns out!

 

[santiclause]

It is fun! What program do you use to build your models?

I use a combination of Autodesk Maya, Pixologic Zbrush, and netfabb studio to convert files into files a 3d printer can read.

 

[Cobheran]

More updates on the ice bow! I've been a bit side tracked on this project but I'm finally back on it. I've just hit something of a snag and need some advice (bottom)

Halfway done with priming and sanding!


All primed and sanded with polishing underway! At this point the bow is ready for moldmaking and I've hit something of a snag. I planned on using Mold Max 40 and making a matrix mold of the piece with the bow pointing downward. Since the bow is symmetrical though, I'm wondering if it might now be better to cut it in half, since the grip is wrapped anyway, and use a threaded rod to stabilize them in place which would also allow for easy breakdown. This would also allow me to save on materials. The issue I have is that I'd really like to keep my master intact and be able to cast an entire bow at once, but the airflow issues almost entirely evaporate when casting only the half bow. So I suppose I'm asking what you guys think I should do? Halp.

 

[Cobheran]

Okay! So I figured out the mothermold bit (kind of). This was my first time using water based clay to embed the master. I don't think I've ever had such an amazingly easy time embedding. I am never, NEVER using oil based clay to do this again. Every time I've used oil based it sticks to my master and ruins the finish on the embedded half and I have to start over. Not to mention that the water based is FAR cheaper. Here's my clayed up master.


After that comes my beauty coat of mold max 40! I'm used to Crystal Clear series shrinking quite a bit during curing, so I made the reservoir absolutely huge. It's 4" in diameter and 5.5 inches deep.


I got myself some plastipaste and went to town on the first half. Then declayed it and cleaned up the master (SO EASY WITH WATER BASED) and started molding the second half. Here's the second half with the keys.


I platipasted the second half and then took the master out! I bolted the CRAP out of the thing (about 47 bolts total) and got ready to roll


I used Crystal Clear 200 and about half a drop of so strong tint for this build. I also had a big problem with my reservoir leaking into the mothermold and that resulted in my having to destroy half of it to get the piece out. fortunately the piece came out well


I was very surprised at how little cleanup was needed to finish this piece. Compared to the crystal Fiona sword from Adventure Time there was almost none. I removed what little flashing there was and hit it with a coat of clear spraypaint to enhance the transparency.

And there it is! My Ashe bow is done (first one anyway)

 

[Crimson13]

I. Am. So. JELLY!

That turned out GREAT! I wish I had the tools for stuff like that.

Any plans on doing a run of those in the JY?

 

[Cobheran]

Hi Crimson! I'll most likely do a limited run once I get the mothermold fixed. I actually hadn't thought of doing one in the JY but that's probably one of the best places to do it haha. Thanks!

 

[Crimson13]

Cool! Also, if you haven't yet, send some pics to Riot, they LOVE this kind of stuff.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[SEBRET]

Looks awesome. I always heard the So Strong colors were potent, and clearly (lol so punny) they are. Any plans for the string and wrap? This is actually getting me pumped for my own League prop plans.

 

[Gombabomb]

Nice!
Cast turned out with a good balance of translucency and color saturation and the form you came up with is very crisp and delicate. All together very...icy looking. With the cleanup, did you need to sand it or just remove seams? How did that affect the surface appearance/translucency in the touched up areas? Never worked with clear stuff and just curious.

Want to get into League of Legends since there are so many great characters and weapons screaming to be made into props... been told by friends that play that the player "community" is godawful and not to bother. :I
Way too many cool character designs to pass up... going to give a try anyway.

 

[Cobheran]

Crimson: That's a great idea!

Sebret: Yeah the dark colors are extremely concentrated. The lighter colors tend to be less so however. I know the yellow is about 1/4 the potency of the darks to get the desired color in particular. I was actually toying with the idea of using an El wire for the string, but not sure how that would work without having wires inside the bow as well. I was playing around with some polycarbonate tube as well, which I filled with so-strong colored water and that looked pretty good, I'd just need one thin enough to work. I didn't get a chance to make the wrapping because my friend who I was making this for needed it for her costume the very next day and she was across the country. I do have plans to make the wrapping though. I also made a few arrows on my 3d printer, but those need a bit more work before they're ready.

Gomba: Thank you! I actually just had to do some seam removal with this one. I have a good bit of flashing near the base as well. Somehow the reservoir and air gate just popped off without any issue and I didn't have to do much cleanup there either. With the clearcoating after that it matched the raw areas very well and I couldn't tell that they'd been abraded at all. And YES! I actually played League for a very short time and was very turned off by the community. However the character designs are AMAAAAZING and there are so many things to be made! If you are going to actually play the game though, I definitely reccomend playing with friends. Most likely there aren't many people you're going to actually meet through the game that you'll get along with.

 

[The Ronin]

That turned out SICK! Getting EL wire to work for the string would be cool, but where the heck would you hide the battery and inverter? :/

Seeing this just reminded me that I need to post the build I did of Jinx' Fishbones rocket launcher.

 

[Gombabomb]

The finish looks flawless. : ) How's the progress with the arrow?
Watched my friend play a few times and honestly not into that kind of micromanagement/gameplay (and yeah, both teams and the content of the chat were hilariously awful), but man that splash art alone is tantalizing. Kind of want to make one of Ziggs' bombs because it looks really cool and would be fairly easy.

 

[Cobheran]

The Ronin: This comes to mind @_@


Thanks Gomba! I'll try to post something about the arrow tomorrow! And yes! The art is where it's at!

 

[jcdesign11]

This looks awesome! I was trying to figure out a way to make Aqualad's water bearers and this may do the trick.

Awesome work!

 

[Cerberus442]

Incredible... very nice paintjob...!!!

 

[santiclause]

It is fun! What program do you use to build your models?



It was, which was why my very first after getting it all cut out was gluing the two halves together and filling any gaps. Were this to be the final copy I'd have routed out some channels in the middle and run some metal rods through to increase stability. However since I'm planning to make a mold of it and cast it in clear resin, my plan leans more to just getting a nice clean master over stability. That being said it's currently residing in a rarely used corner of my house because I want to handle it as little as possible when I'm not working on it (especially while drunk)

View attachment 262007
Here's a shot of the two halves glued and gap filled with apoxie sculpt.

Hey, I use mainly Autodesk maya and zbrush for almost all my modeling purposes. Then if I need to make sure something is 3d printable and closed completely I'll use netfabb studio to make any last minute changes and if I want to be extra sure I'll even upload that model to shapeways and let it pass the inspection.