I've always loved the season 1 Duncan katana, but could never afford a screen accurate replica. I've got the Marton Dragon Head katana as well as a Taiwanese knock-off I bought for live steel sparring. So, after seeing some photos of the original prop, I thought that modifying the latter shouldn't be too difficult. This is similar to what I started with (tsuba is different):
It seems to be a recast of the Marto, though the details are not 100% the same. It's a cheap white plastic with black "antiquing" and a cheesy red plastic rhinestone covering the mekugi (tang peg). When I first bought it years ago I immediately removed the rhinestone and gave the entire handle a brown acrylic wash to make it look a little more realistic. This was the result:
So, the first step was to dremel down the neck band, reshape the the top of the head and beneath the chin and then carve in the extra lines under the chin and on the neck. After about an hour or so of dremel work and hand sanding, this is what I had (before and after):
After cleaning all the dust off, I painted the entire handle with acrylics using a mixture of antique white and buttercup. I then sprayed the entire handle with a gloss polyacrylic. After that dried, I painted the handle with a brown acrylic wash (just a little water added to the paint). I wiped off the excess lightly with a soft cloth. Once that dried, I did some spot aging with a very dark brown acrylic concentrating on all the carved lines and deep recesses.
And the end result (before and after):
Sure, it's not 100% accurate (a few details left in the head, that pesky mekugi pin and copper tsuba) but I hope this inspires everyone to take a dremel to those el cheapo highlanders!
Kind regards,
Magnoli
It seems to be a recast of the Marto, though the details are not 100% the same. It's a cheap white plastic with black "antiquing" and a cheesy red plastic rhinestone covering the mekugi (tang peg). When I first bought it years ago I immediately removed the rhinestone and gave the entire handle a brown acrylic wash to make it look a little more realistic. This was the result:
So, the first step was to dremel down the neck band, reshape the the top of the head and beneath the chin and then carve in the extra lines under the chin and on the neck. After about an hour or so of dremel work and hand sanding, this is what I had (before and after):
After cleaning all the dust off, I painted the entire handle with acrylics using a mixture of antique white and buttercup. I then sprayed the entire handle with a gloss polyacrylic. After that dried, I painted the handle with a brown acrylic wash (just a little water added to the paint). I wiped off the excess lightly with a soft cloth. Once that dried, I did some spot aging with a very dark brown acrylic concentrating on all the carved lines and deep recesses.
And the end result (before and after):
Sure, it's not 100% accurate (a few details left in the head, that pesky mekugi pin and copper tsuba) but I hope this inspires everyone to take a dremel to those el cheapo highlanders!
Kind regards,
Magnoli
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It was more for going through moves, etc. In any case, I'm more of a Renaissance swordsman, so this is really just a wall-hanger now... hence the "upgrade".
