Hiddenevil
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone
It's been a while since I posted anything on the forum, in fact I think the last project was my hypospray. While I was making that, I had this project in the works. I've always wanted to own a Bat'leth like the one Worf had in TNG, the only problem is that metal one's are not only expensive, but also incur certainly legal problems in the UK, where they are considered a deadly weapon. As I just wanted something for display purposes, I decided to try my hand at making one from the materials I had at hand, MDF, Acrylic.
I decided to make the prototype out of MDF, its cheap, amazingly easy to sand and also not very heavy. Which works to my advantage as the sword was going to be hung on my wall.
It took me roughly a month and a half to complete the prototype and around a month to make the final model. Below are photo's of the prototype, starting from the raw materials through to the final paint job.
In this first photo, forefront is the laser cut MDF, behind it the now sanded & beveled prototype. Honestly I was tempted to keep the sword in this state, it was soo smooth. After taking this photo, I applied several coats of watered down PVA glue mixture, returning to it a few days later, the glue had dried in to the MDF, giving it more rigidity and making it ready for primer.
Bat'leth bathing in the sun, that right PVA dry!!
The first 2 coats of primer have been applied, panic over, the PVA is doing it's job and the MDF didn't suck up the paint!
Families are great, we had a heatwave in the UK and after watching me suffer a little sun stroke, my father cleared out his shed and made me a little spraying booth. Large enough for, you guessed it a Klingon Bat'leth!! First coat of silver / chrome applied.
The upside to a heatwave, paint dries quick and applying 2-3 coats of silver didn't take very long at all.
After the silver coat, I cover the sword in a clear polyurethane coat and then applied a metallic coat over the top. Originally with the intention of sanding the blade edge back down to the silver to give a fresh blade look. However this didn't work and i ended up spending another week repainting the thing. So I settled on silver, topped with a light metallic coat.
Wrapping first in cotton and then in faux leather to pad out the grip, this was by far the most annoying part of building this sword, but i did NOT resort to staples, the wrappings stay in place purely through tension.
It's been a while since I posted anything on the forum, in fact I think the last project was my hypospray. While I was making that, I had this project in the works. I've always wanted to own a Bat'leth like the one Worf had in TNG, the only problem is that metal one's are not only expensive, but also incur certainly legal problems in the UK, where they are considered a deadly weapon. As I just wanted something for display purposes, I decided to try my hand at making one from the materials I had at hand, MDF, Acrylic.
I decided to make the prototype out of MDF, its cheap, amazingly easy to sand and also not very heavy. Which works to my advantage as the sword was going to be hung on my wall.
It took me roughly a month and a half to complete the prototype and around a month to make the final model. Below are photo's of the prototype, starting from the raw materials through to the final paint job.
In this first photo, forefront is the laser cut MDF, behind it the now sanded & beveled prototype. Honestly I was tempted to keep the sword in this state, it was soo smooth. After taking this photo, I applied several coats of watered down PVA glue mixture, returning to it a few days later, the glue had dried in to the MDF, giving it more rigidity and making it ready for primer.
Bat'leth bathing in the sun, that right PVA dry!!
The first 2 coats of primer have been applied, panic over, the PVA is doing it's job and the MDF didn't suck up the paint!
Families are great, we had a heatwave in the UK and after watching me suffer a little sun stroke, my father cleared out his shed and made me a little spraying booth. Large enough for, you guessed it a Klingon Bat'leth!! First coat of silver / chrome applied.
The upside to a heatwave, paint dries quick and applying 2-3 coats of silver didn't take very long at all.
After the silver coat, I cover the sword in a clear polyurethane coat and then applied a metallic coat over the top. Originally with the intention of sanding the blade edge back down to the silver to give a fresh blade look. However this didn't work and i ended up spending another week repainting the thing. So I settled on silver, topped with a light metallic coat.
Wrapping first in cotton and then in faux leather to pad out the grip, this was by far the most annoying part of building this sword, but i did NOT resort to staples, the wrappings stay in place purely through tension.
