Reelart Spear of Destiny and Modification WIP

[kalkamel]

Curiosity led me to buy the Reelart version of the Spear of Destiny. I had been looking to get this prop replica ever since I saw Constantine so I checked around to see what's available. The creme de la creme has got to be Indy Magnoli's (http://www.indyprops.com/pp-spear.htm) but his price was to steep for me. Bronze Armory also has one available, it's slightly cheaper than Magnoli's but its made from resin (Magnoli's metal). The fancy display case probably adds to the price. El-cheapo version was of course Reelart's. And they offered them in 3 flavors: (a) all resin, (ii) resin with real wires and (iii) resin "impregnated" with iron with real wires. I've heard of Reelart's infamous reputation for lousy products but as I said earlier, out of curiousity I bought myself the resin spear with real wires.

I didn't have high hopes. And I was right. Out of the box, the finish on the spear looked horrendous. It was cast in black resin (very flexible resin I might add) and green paint was sloppily and randomly added to simulate patina. The wire braiding work was downright horrible, with no weathering work at all done on the wires. But the one that takes the cake was the cheapo gold foil used for the central old sheath. It was also loosely fitted onto the spear and was removable just by sliding it off.

Here are some pics:

The Spear out of the box

The cheap and flimsy gold foil

Faux patina paintjob and wirework at base of Spear

Wirework at tip of Spear

I immediately set to modify it hoping to improve the look. The Spear was relatively cleanly cast. I removed the foil from the Spear and cut off all the wires.

"Naked" Spear

After removing the patina paint, I primed the whole spear and filled out some holes which are not supposed to be there from the reference pics I found online. I also have a copy of the Discovery Channel documentary "The Spear of *****" which had a lot of images of the actual spear exhibited at the Hapsburg Museum so I used those as reference. From these sources, I find that the actual Spear is not so badly ladened with patina so the challenge is simulating the antiqued steel look. I used a mixture of gunmetal, grey and brown acrylic paints to this effect.

Then I redid all the wirework based on the reference pics (not as exact as I wanted but hey, its still a work in progress) and weathered the wires with acrylic wash.

Finally the gold foil. I trimmed it to fit better on the Spear. The gold finish on the foil looked too "goldy" for my taste so I applied some antique gold Rub n Buff to make it look somewhat muted. I'm still not happy with it so I might sculpt the sheath from scratch when I have the time.

Here are pics of where I'm at right now:

The modified Spear (still WIP)

Wirework at tip of Spear

Wirework at base of Spear

The gold sheath

 

[Darth Brass]

Vastly improved! My only criticism is that it seems like you can't see the lettering on the foil anymore. Then again, I don't know much about this piece, so maybe that's more accurate.

Either way, looks great!

 

[TazVader]

Nice job mate. Looks 100% on what it was. I gotta ask though...do you think those swirls on the spear are from using a grinder to clean up? Looks like it. If so...that just sucks.

How does this compare sizewise and accuracy wise to the real spear tip part?

Cheers
TAZ

 

[kalkamel]

Nice job mate. Looks 100% on what it was. I gotta ask though...do you think those swirls on the spear are from using a grinder to clean up? Looks like it. If so...that just sucks.

How does this compare sizewise and accuracy wise to the real spear tip part?

Cheers
TAZ

Thanks, guys. The embossed wording on the sleeve is still actually a bit visible, i may need to add some paint to make it look clearer.

Taz, I think the swirls are to emulate the hewn look of the actual spear. If you look at pics of the real spear, the surface is not exactly smooth, it looks like it was carved out.

As for a comparison of the real thing, I don't have its actual measurements to compare. But the Reelart spear is about 18.5" long. Here's a pic of the real spear that is displayed in the Hapsburg museum:

You can read more about it here: http://www.khm.at/staticE/page477.html

 

[KnightAsylum]

I have wanted this prop for awhile myself, and I have been considering doing the same thing you did, so thanks for the WIP pic for the price it seems like the likely way I will end up getting mine as well.

 

[kalkamel]

No worries. Though, I would suggest getting the one with the molded wires instead of real wires. It's cheaper.