BERSERK replicas

[HighlanderFX]

I always see people with collections of helmets from various franchises (most commonly star wars) in wonderfully lit display cabinets or what have you..And so I've been motivated to try to make my own unique collection that I can proudly display.

My goal is to have a display of a majority of the Apostles from the manga Berserk.

Rakshas is oddly one of my favorite characters because he's kind of a nut job (as far as apostle's go) and the simplicity of his character design really intrigued me. He's basically a cloaked figure with a Kushan styled mask.

This seemed like a good place to start my project. I made a 3D model of the base of the mask and then started the tedious smoothing process that comes with PLA filament.

I'll be painting the "eye liner" on the mask and since I want to keep everything consistent, I thought I should do the same for the "tears" so I filled them in with bondo.

Here I beveled the eyes to give a bit of detail.

And printed out a set of teeth.

Once I have enough props to display, I want to hang my Dragonslayer (4th attempt at making this sword?) which I just finished printing out behind all the Apostle masks/helmet.

 

[Thomas Guycott]

Re: Rakshas' Mask - BERSERK

Nice progress. How much does that printed blade happen to weigh?

 

[HighlanderFX]

about 4.5 lbs

 

[HighlanderFX]

Picture dump of the matrix molding process for the sword.

 

[logan74k]

Really nice mold work dude. I've always been interested in this sword and brainstorming how to build it for real in a way that was durable, paintable, yet light enough to hold one-handed out in front. Just thought that would be pretty cool. My questions for you:

What's the length of the blade? Did you mold it just so you could put a rod in it? Hard to tell for sure in the images - did you include texture/pitting in your 3d print? What did you end up casting it out of?

The fabricator part of me is chortling just a bit at the massive print for an otherwise simple geometric shape, but I understand the appeal if you have your own FDM printer! I do a lot of printing myself, and sometimes catch myself modeling and printing things that I could have easily made in the garage in much less time haha. Just interested in your process.

Thanks for sharing! Whats the next step?

 

[HighlanderFX]

Really nice mold work dude. I've always been interested in this sword and brainstorming how to build it for real in a way that was durable, paintable, yet light enough to hold one-handed out in front. Just thought that would be pretty cool. My questions for you:

What's the length of the blade? Did you mold it just so you could put a rod in it? Hard to tell for sure in the images - did you include texture/pitting in your 3d print? What did you end up casting it out of?

The fabricator part of me is chortling just a bit at the massive print for an otherwise simple geometric shape, but I understand the appeal if you have your own FDM printer! I do a lot of printing myself, and sometimes catch myself modeling and printing things that I could have easily made in the garage in much less time haha. Just interested in your process.

Thanks for sharing! Whats the next step?

That was largely the challenge for me as well, as I too want to be able to "swing it around" one handed near the hilt (or at least just be able to "point" with it).

Blade length is 65 inches long with a 12 inch width at the bottom tapering up. I scaled it based on the common knowledge of Guts being around 6 foot 3 inches tall, while I am 6 foot 2 inches. This means when I hook it to my harness rig, it will stay off the ground and not hit the back of my feet when I take steps.

I have not put any kind of rod in it except for the wooden dowels you see on the mother mold (the white plastic shell). Any kind of rod that goes into the sword I think will unfortunately add weight that I simply can't afford.

The texturing was sculpted by hand after I printed out my sword sections and glued them together. If I ever do this again, I will probably include the texture in the 3D model.

I'm still in the process of making my first casting but it will be made out of a very hard and durable resin. I've scratched my head about this project one too many times in figuring out what is the most economical/easiest way to make this thing. In the end, I have spent a little over $1500.00 on supplies (mold material, printer filament, glue..etc) and that does not include hours spent working on it, which has easily reached about 80 hours (primarily sanding the snot out of it).

The next step right now is waiting for the last of the silicone to cure (should be a few more hours) and then its de-mold time. I will do a test casting later tonight and post up my results.

 

[FPLeatherCo]

Nice! Here's what I've been working on.

 

[HighlanderFX]

Nice! Here's what I've been working on.

View attachment 638561

Good work so far; I haven't seen many BotH Guts, keep it up!

 

[Dope]

Coming out pretty awesome. I have to say, that looks like enough work that you might as well have just made the real thing

Dope

 

[HighlanderFX]

Coming out pretty awesome. I have to say, that looks like enough work that you might as well have just made the real thing

Dope

True, though I don't really know how I could wield one so heavy

So the good news is that the mold turned out great. Everything cured the way it was supposed to with no air bubbles.

I did a "cleaning cast" which got rid of all the left over primer from the master and here are the results.

The detail was picked up really well by the thin layer of plastic I painted on the inside of each half before I put the two halves together and filled with expanding foam.

However, some areas did not get enough resin and resulted in this funky "spider web" effect. Glad I discovered the right amount of resin to use on the test sample.

It has been an exhausting weekend+monday, as I have basically worked non-stop on this mold for the majority of my waking hours. I'm going to take a few days to recuperate and then bust out a proper casting to have painted by the end of the weekend.

 

[Dope]

True, though I don't really know how I could wield one so heavy

You just need to be a lunatic, that's all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YvCcAJ5gn0

Dope

 

[logan74k]

I think, in this case, 'wield' is a relative term!

One could cut a 60 pound slab of 1/4" steel, put a bevel on it and call it the real thing, even though it resembles the reference in profile only - and can be posed with in roughly three poses:

1 "Take the picture before my hip goes out"
2 "I just as you took this photo finished cutting the hell out of something"
3 "Oh, you've caught me and my sword standing next to each other"

For me, I prefer the version that looks like the anime sword and can be posed with. Best of luck with the weight too, are you using 2lb rigid foam? You could consider the relative weight (and much lower cost) of the pink insulation foam, it may be appreciably lighter, and pop in a core of that to pour the expanding foam around for the bevel. Just an idea. In my thought experiments I was doing a carbon fiber and resin 'shell' with a similar technique for filling to what i describe. You might also look at "free form air" from smooth on to reinforce the tip.

Looking forward to seeing the casting!

 

[Drfeelbad]

I'm literally following the progress for this on reddit, SK.NET and therpf all at once. Very excited about this build.