MadMike
Well-Known Member
Hey people,
it's a friend of mine's birthday next week, and since she is a huge Naruto fan (and once dropped that she would like to have one), I decided to make her a Konoha headband.Well, actually I wanted to buy one, but those I found online all looked too...I don't know how I should call it, but they looked way too cartoonish and just not right (perhaps some of you know what I mean, I just didn't want to give her something that looked like a cheap toy). Besides, something you make on your own is always better and got character and stuff, right?
Anyway, my metal working skills leave much to be desired, but I wanted to try it anyway. And I apologies in advance, but I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but I'll try to describe it for those interested in the process.
The headband started it's life as a part of my desk-lamp, it was a shield bend over the bulb. I don't know why, but I kept it after the lamp stopped working and came in handy for this project. Flattened, it looked something like this:
My plan was to use the curve it already had on one side, copy that curve for the other side and cut the sides at the red line. Unfortunately, my Dremel had some problems cutting the metal (it worked, but it took a loooooong time), and since I wanted to sand it down to the right size anyway, I decided to just put it in my bench vise and bend it. While sanding the sides down on my grinder, I also grinded down the curve, leaving me with this (in this shot, it was already sanded with sandpaper to give it a bit of a shine; the hole was already drilled as a mointing point for the lamp):
Although it looked a bit off (at least for me), I was pretty happy with the outcome after measuring it (height of 6.1cm on the one side and 6.0cm on the other one), the problem was, it was too wide for a "normal" forehead (I have a pretty big head, and it's a present for a petite woman, something I had to keep in mind), So I did the curve again and shortened it a bit (and flattened it out again, to make it easier to work with).
To add the symbol for Konohagakure, I originally wanted to etch it into the metal using some hydrochloric acid which my father once had bottle of...yeah, well, he had it (or had had?), and it wasn't there anymore. So I grabbed my Proxxon GG12 (for those of you who don't know it: a nice little engraver!) and engraved and engraved and so on, giving me this:
Before painting it, I will probably sand and polish it a couple of times, but I actually don't want it too look perfect. It takes place in a feudal-Japan-esque world, so all these things were made by hand with tools probably even worse than mine So (in my opinion), little dents and scratches only make it more authentic (something that bugged me on those available online, they just looked too perfect).
Next to come: paint (and the actual band, of course)
Thanks for reading!
it's a friend of mine's birthday next week, and since she is a huge Naruto fan (and once dropped that she would like to have one), I decided to make her a Konoha headband.Well, actually I wanted to buy one, but those I found online all looked too...I don't know how I should call it, but they looked way too cartoonish and just not right (perhaps some of you know what I mean, I just didn't want to give her something that looked like a cheap toy). Besides, something you make on your own is always better and got character and stuff, right?
Anyway, my metal working skills leave much to be desired, but I wanted to try it anyway. And I apologies in advance, but I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but I'll try to describe it for those interested in the process.
The headband started it's life as a part of my desk-lamp, it was a shield bend over the bulb. I don't know why, but I kept it after the lamp stopped working and came in handy for this project. Flattened, it looked something like this:
My plan was to use the curve it already had on one side, copy that curve for the other side and cut the sides at the red line. Unfortunately, my Dremel had some problems cutting the metal (it worked, but it took a loooooong time), and since I wanted to sand it down to the right size anyway, I decided to just put it in my bench vise and bend it. While sanding the sides down on my grinder, I also grinded down the curve, leaving me with this (in this shot, it was already sanded with sandpaper to give it a bit of a shine; the hole was already drilled as a mointing point for the lamp):
Although it looked a bit off (at least for me), I was pretty happy with the outcome after measuring it (height of 6.1cm on the one side and 6.0cm on the other one), the problem was, it was too wide for a "normal" forehead (I have a pretty big head, and it's a present for a petite woman, something I had to keep in mind), So I did the curve again and shortened it a bit (and flattened it out again, to make it easier to work with).
To add the symbol for Konohagakure, I originally wanted to etch it into the metal using some hydrochloric acid which my father once had bottle of...yeah, well, he had it (or had had?), and it wasn't there anymore. So I grabbed my Proxxon GG12 (for those of you who don't know it: a nice little engraver!) and engraved and engraved and so on, giving me this:
Before painting it, I will probably sand and polish it a couple of times, but I actually don't want it too look perfect. It takes place in a feudal-Japan-esque world, so all these things were made by hand with tools probably even worse than mine
So (in my opinion), little dents and scratches only make it more authentic (something that bugged me on those available online, they just looked too perfect).Next to come: paint (and the actual band, of course)
Thanks for reading!
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