Connie's New Sword - From Steven Universe

[saint357]

So I am a huge fan of Steven Universe and i plan on busting out my Steven cosplay for Castle Point Anime Convention coming up in late April. I previously made Stevens shield and roses sword for it. they were some of my first foam props. While i was happy with the sword at first I've decided now that roses sword is broken in canon, that would try my hand at making Connie's new sword from the episode 'change your mind'. I've learned a lot since my first builds so anyway lets get cracking with the build.

the first hurdle was finding good references to work with. the swords only in the show for a few minuets at most so this was hard this is what i managed to find so far. a few screen shots from the episode.

not much to work with then the wiki for the episode gave me this great shot which looks like its from the actual model sheet so this is what i went with.

the next step was figuring out size and dimensions. Steven universe has never been good at staying on model. sizes change from episode to episode and sometimes even shot for shot. I tried to size the sword to Connie. but for the life of me could not find any kind of height scaling for her, forget cannon height i couldn't even find a rough estimate. so then i turned to this lovely bit of fan art that conveniently had Connie's sword next to roses.

so i went into paint and compared the sizes. it looked like the whole of Connie's sword was just as long as the blade of roses. after taking a look at my own rose sword i found this to be just about right. i cut a piece of pvc pipe to size that i plan on using as the core of the sword. found i liked the length and went from there.

with my length figured out i went about drawing up some templates.

i started with the weird double crystal v guard, (pictured top right) as it would determine the size of everything else. i free handed this using an angle ruler to get the right shapes. it took me a few times to get it where i wanted. luckily the shape is pretty simple. then using that i made the blade pattern in three parts starting with the bottom of the blade closest to the guard. i decided i wanted the blade to be as wide as the witch of the bottom v. then i made the middle and end templates for the blade and taped them together. then finely i took waaaaay to long figuring out the star in the center of the guard. really i suck at drawing stars. anyway once that was done. you can see all the mistakes i made since i decided to draw the star on the guard template for some reason. i traced it out on some baking paper and made my star template.

next i traced them out on to some eva floor mats. i did two pieces for the sword blade and three for the guard since i wanted it to be wider then the blade. i carved a channel going down the center of both and beveled all the edges with my dremel. i also had to cut a taper on the edges of the blade with an box cutter to save on sanding. this didn't go grate and i still had to remove lots of material with a dremel anyway. i glued all the halves pieces together and got this in the end.

(that's actually the first blade, i ended up remaking it because i wasn't happy with how i did the edges.)
since no mater how much i sanded the edges i wasn't happy with how the beveling i decided to take some tips form other makers and i mixed up some burham's water putty and applied it to the edges to smooth and fill in the foam from my dremling. and can i say I'm in love with this stuff it did wonder for the blade especially.

Now its starting to look like a finally crafted bismuth blade, instead of the rough orkish look i had going on before. while i wait for the putty to fully dry so i can give it a light sanding to clean up any irregularity that still remain.

i took the time to cut out some accent pieces out of thinner craft foam i got off amazon. this includes the star for the guard as well as the blue trim pieces the go on the blade and handle above and below the guard.

well that"s all i got until i can plastidip and paint everything. I'll keep this thread updated with my progress. feel free to comment down below or leave any advice if you see something i did wrong or could have down better. I'n the words of Steven himself, thanks and i love you.

 

[saint357]

so update, unfortunately the water putty i used cracked in several places after it dried. it must be because of the soft foam i was using gave to much room to bend and move. a real shame even after a second coat i was left with many a hairline crack.

this putty is clearly not the right stuff to be using for this application but its what i had on hand. and while it shaped good but if it cracks like this on foam then i can't use it. i don't want to apply another coat as i feel i'm already losing definition on the edge. i continued on to the next step of coating it in plastidip spray. i hope that a few coats of the stuff will fill in the gaps. how ever i'm not very optimistic as the only thing the first coat did was highlight said cracks. maybe if i used the brush on platidip instead. will see what a few more coats will do.

if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this i'm all ears because this is a real kick in the gem. anyway thank you for reading and please comment and leave any tips and tricks on how to solve my problem, and i love you.

 

[saint357]

okay guys after way to long and a lot of going back and re doing things over and over again its finally done! so i give you...

Connie maheswaran's new sword from Steven Universe episode change Your Mind. this has been a real roller coaster ride for me. unfortunately i did forget to take pictures through out the rest of the build processes so I'll just have to re count them to you.

okay so first off the water putty i used before did not work at all. it cracked to much and even several layers of plasti dip did nothing to stop those cracks coming through the paint. in fact at one point i drooped the guard piece and the whole thing just cracked to hell.

so i basically had to sand all that work off of the guard and i got some quick seal grout stuff i saw mentioned in some other foam prop making videos. they used it to seal gaps in foam. its great you put it on and you can fill a space with it and use some water to almost like sand it smooth. the stuffs great and i just used it like i did the putty to cover the outside of the guard and make it all smooth. as well as the beveled edge of the sword blade itself.

you can still see some left over traces of it on the sword blade i should have taken more time with it but by this point i had remade the blade twice and had to put the quick seal over the water putty so i was done and just wanted to move on.

so after fixing everything with the quick seal i gave everything a few more coats of plasti dip. then for the guard i found this really awesome metalizer the plasti dip makes. basically you spray down plasti dip like normal. then you sprey this metalizer over it. and i ponds to the plasti dip and only the plasti dip to make this really awesome gold finish that i got in the end. the stuff Gold and Silver, Copper Blue, Green, Red, and Violet, and now Green/Blue Chameleon, and Turquoise/Silver. Chameleon gives you that like color changing rainbow effect. the stuff is awesome and i can not recommend it enough.

the blade itself i just spray painted a dark pink then taped of the center and hit the edges with a lighter almost white pink it looks nice and gives a good effect i like it. not 100% accurate to the shows sword but it's close enough for me.

then i finished the sword with the trim pieces giving them the same foam sealing treatment. originally the star in the center got the same mealizer gold treatment. but it didn't really stand out. so i went back and hit it with some white primer and craft painted it that very light yellow which looks a lot better makes it stand out. then i did the same for the little trim piece or i guess it would be a habaki on the blade. just with a light turquoise blue. the foam i cut wasn't long enough to completely match up around the blade so i just cut some small pieces and painted them to cover the gape. their not perfect but for now I'm fine with it.

next for the handle

i added the little ring piece just below the guard made the same way so the habaki. now original i just warped some purple ribbon i got at the dollar store around the pvc pipe that's the core of the sword. but it looked to puny when compared to both the original sword and the actual prop itself. so i cut that off took some of the same thin craft foam i used for the trim pieces. formed it around the pvc. glued it together then wrapped that in the same purple ribbon.

then to literally cap it all of,f i made the end cap from a cheap rubber bouncy ball i got in a three pack at the dollar store. used a knife to hollow out a hole in one just right for the pvc pipe to fit in to. then i just gave it the same plasti dip and metalizer treatment that i gave the guard and it was done. i test fit everything together and used super glue to join all the pieces to the pipe and behold one sword fit for taking down a diamond. and you didn't even need a bismuth to forge it for you.

in the end i'm really happy with how this whole thing came together, i managed to make it almost completely out of stuff i already had lying around. all i really ended up buying was more plasti dip, the metalizer stuff, a sheet of thin craft foam for the accent pieces, quick seal, and the ribbon and ball. not bad the whole thing probably only coast me like 20-25 bucks.

there are a few thing's I'm not 100% happy with. the biggest thing that bothers me is i made the blade too wide. which i only noticed when i went for final assembly. basically if i cut off all the beveled edges it would be the right size to the source. but i wasn't going to remake another blade for the third time screw that. then there's little things like the pieces of the habaki not lining up and small things like that. but all in all for only my second tie making a foam sword. it came out great and i can't wait to try it out at the con in April.

alright guys that's it for this build leave any comments or suggestions about things i could have done better in the comments i would love to hear form all you amazing and talented people. goodbye for now, and as always i love you.