Let it begin! Completed Accurate Kill Bill Replica!

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Tried out painting my bronze cast fuchi last night, and the Testor's enamel coated great! Went with a semi-gloss black, gold, and brass. A couple of touch-ups, some semi-gloss clear coat, and the fuchi is ready to go

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Got the fittings all painted up...


I'm wondering if I need to clear coat this enamel - I etched the fittings before I painted, and the paint seems to be adhering very well...

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Got my CNC kit last thursday, finished the mechanical assembly yesterday. Now I just need to track down a ~12v 8amp DC power supply, and I'll be all set to start fighting with the software

Thanks,
jason

 

[Screwdriva]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Following this closely

 

[Markius]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

This is goin to be epic :cool

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Some glamour pics of my newly assembled CNC Hopefully, I'll find a power supply for this thing soon...

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

CNC is mostly up and running! X,Y, and Z are working. Ended up hacking a PC ATX power supply to supply 12v 10a to the controller board. Took surprisingly few modifications to get it working (and no permanent ones, or any that required opening the case). All I had to do was run a 10ohm 10watt resistor across a red -> black on one of the molex connectors, and jumper the green wire to a black on the 20pin ATX connector. No power switch, but I can plug/unplug the power cable for that (and its safer).

Now to order up a 32v PS for the spindle...

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Just got word from Japan that the iaito blade/saya/habaki that I ordered is finally done and ready to ship. Looks great, Ujishige hamon just like in the OP. EMS shipping is VERY fast from Japan, should be arriving sometime next week!


Thanks,
jason

 

[Akira]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

One pic, hamon looks etched? I'm assuming it was oil or water quenched though? Curious on what you paid to have the blade made, if traditionally made, I know they are usually quite expensive to have a traditionally made sword done.

Tim

 

[mrbungle]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

flipping awesome thread!!!!! love the kill bill movies. keep up the great work.

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Adam's blade is aluminum alloy, hamon is made through a combination of etching/brushing (i think). That's the blade coming from Japan. Blade cost was around $600 smackers.

The blade I'm basing my replica on (using copies of Adam's fittings) is a more traditionally made T10 steel, clay hardened. I think there are some pics of it a bit back in this thread. Hamon is different than the OP, but that's ok with me. Blade cost was much less than the iaito blade for Adam's sword, picked it up second hand for around $150.

So, I'm actually working on two Bride's sword replicas at the same time - I'm kindof testing everything out on my copy before I do stuff to Adam's very expensive parts Maybe I should call them BS1 (Adam's Replica, with original parts), and BS2 (my copy, with copies of Adam's parts, and a steel blade).

Thanks,
jason

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

The blade/saya/habaki are in, and I am not unhappy Every time I look at a Japanese iaito, I'm always impressed by the crisp, clean work that the craftsmen do on these swords - whole different game compared to most low cost Chinese swords. I know that's to be expected, but I've seen $500 Chinese swords that don't have anywhere near the detailing of a $500 Tozando.

Tsuka is only 9", so I'm going to have to add a couple of inches of poplar to it (glue and pins to secure it). Koiguichi to kurigata distance is 8cm, just what I was looking for (as per my calc's from movie stills).

The hamon is very nice, looks like a combination of acid etching and wirebrush. Crisp lines on the shinogi.

More pics up at

https://picasaweb.google.com/jblakey/20110811?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Now, I can finally get to some work, fitting the fittings, rayskin cutting, extending the tsuka...


Thanks,
jason

 

[glenthornetms]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Beautiful, very impressive :thumbsup

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Some learning, and a little progress


First, got my CNC working under Linux (EMC2/Ubuntu) - had to do a little adjustment to the stepper motor timing in stepConf, but they're now running fine. I was finding Mach3 a little unstable for my "one chance" project I could have been using it wrong, but I don't think so.

Next, experimented this week with a spray urethane (I think it's a varsol product). It's got a satin finish, and it looked good after the first coat.

However, I was unhappy at how fast it coated, and so I wanted to try a brushed-on clear coat. Picked up some "Model Masters" clear top coat, to try on the handle collar (fuchi). Went on kinda weird, gave a weird look, and dried very glossy. Not good at all. I'm going to clean everything off the fuchi, and start over (and clear coat it with the urethane spray). Lesson learned. This was my fuchi , btw, not Adam's - I'm using my sword build as a test run for each step, just to be on the safe side.

Added a bit of wood to one side of my handle (tsuka) to bring up the line. I like to use the pre-glued wood veneer strips from HomeDepot (in poplar, I think). Goes on nicely, sands nicely, easy-peasy. A bit more sanding, and I'll be ready for the rayskin...


Getting ready to drill holes in Adam's tsuka to insert dowels that will help to hold the needed handle extension in place. My buddy lent my a very nice dowel-hole drilling jig, so it should be a piece of cake.


Oh, also did some reading about CNC probes this week - I was wondering how to map a flat image (my foo-dog) to a slanted surface (sword blade has an angle to it). Poked around, and came across a technique using a CNC probe to map a surface, then use those z-axis measurements to modify an existing g-code image so that a constant depth of cut is possible. The guy in question used it for PCB milling, but I think it should work fine for what I need to do. Will also come in handle when doing the saya (scabbard) carvings, because the saya has a bit of a curve to it.

That's all for now,

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Did some work this weekend building the 1 - 1.5" extension for Adam's tsuka - came from Japan just a little short.


The dowel-hole drilling rig my friend lent me worked like a charm. Just a bit more shaping to go...

Also got my PWM speed controller for my new CNC spindle working - had to cut a few extra long leads and resolder a couple of points (cracked solder), but other than that, it works great. Pretty good for 2 bucks + 10 bucks shipping

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Finally got a chance to try some CNC machining of some bits of aluminum strapping (good 'ol home depot) last night. After correcting a slight scaling issue (the foodog was coming out 1/2 the size it should on each plane), I managed to get the engraving going! During my second test, the bit I was using lost a "bit off the top", probably my feed rate was too high. But, I've got a foo-dog engraved in metal, and at the right size, about 2x3cm.

By the way, if you're looking for CNC controller software, EMC2/Ubuntu is an excellent alternative to Mach3/Windows. More stable (IMHO) than Mach3, and it's free, clean, and works well. And the Linux distro it comes on is as easy as Windows to install and use.

Off to eBay to order up some new bits, and hopefully my probe will be in soon so I can try mapping an uneven surface to my foodog gcode.

Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Finished up shaping the extension this weekend, got it glued in place. Fitted the fuchi. Laid out the rayskin, and marked up the tsuka for the wrap/node placement. My extension was a little long, so I had to trim it back. I like to use metal snips for cutting rayskin. Much easier than the kitchen shears I used to use

Next up is drilling the tang! I'm not looking forward to it - one chance to do it right. I think I'm going to build a clamping bed out of polymer clay to hold the tang properly during the drilling.


Thanks,
jason

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

In a bit of a quandary concerning a slight detail of the sword - on the OP, it looks to me like whoever painted the gold leaf on the fuchi didn't stay inside the lines. Should I stay inside, or should I attempt to replicate the OP, mistakes and all? I'm leaning towards staying in the lines, but I can see the other point of view as well...



Thanks,
jason

 

[Markius]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

To be honest j, id stick to keeping it neat and tidy. They already look perfect as they are now. i doubt the prop makers for the OP would have gone into that finer detail with them. Unless you can do it ''messy'' without it standing out to much. isn't the flower detail on the fuchi slightly raised anyway. Keep up the good work. M

 

[jblakey]

Re: Let it begin! An accurate Kill Bill replica!

Hi Markius,

Adam seconded your opinion, so I'm sticking inside the lines

Did a bit more work this weekend, cut, sanded and applied the rayskin to my tester tsuka - looked good with the white paint in the back (the rayskin is a bit transparent), so I went ahead and sprayed Adam's tsuka. In a few days, I'll apply the rayskin. The technique I use to apply the rayskin is:

1. Sand the rayskin (belt sander) until it fits the groove it's supposed to go in nicely.
2. Hold the rayskin under water for a minute or so (just to get a bit of flexability).
3. Apply a very thin coating of 2 hour white marine epoxy to each side of the tsuka.
4. Stick the rayskin in position.
5. Wrap tsuka with some left-over cord wrap (ito). Let sit overnight.
6. Wait a couple of days, then trim off the extra rayskin as needed with a dremel and cut-off wheel.

In this case, I also sealed the top/bottom of the tsuka with a polyurethane lacquer - I didn't want my tiny bit of wood filler to fall off at some point.



Also painted the maple leaves on both our fuchi - did a pretty good job on Adam's, only a couple of tiny touch up spots to do. Did a pretty rough job on mine, but it should be fine after the touching up

Also got my scabbard (saya) primed this weekend, and the first coat of black is now in place. Good 'ol 5 dollar spray paint

Thanks,
jason