Kouri
New Member
I'm helping a friend out with a costume she's putting together, and while I can't stitch a straight seam to save my life, I enjoy tinkering with replica weapons.
Goal character is Lisbeth in her finalized ALO outfit from Sword Art Online II. For those unfamiliar, I'm building a mace and shield for a fairy blacksmith.
To keep everything rigid-but-not-too-heavy, the majority of this build was machined from PVC foam (most folks're familiar with Sintra, but I had Palight on-hand, which has the advantage of being lead-free).
Here're the shop drawings, along with a reference image:
And before going into the build log, here's a completed shot:
The first step was drawing up plans. When I first started this build, Liz was a minor background character in only a handful of episodes. As the build progressed, she'd eventually get a few closeups that had me reworking details in the build.
I didn't snap any photos of the mace components, but what I did was feed the shop drawings into a CNC router to machine each face as an individual panel. Each panel was then beveled on the band saw and adhered into a fancy box.
The mace head and detail panels were all designed to slip over a 3/4" PVC pipe. The head was then taken back to the belt sander to work the curves into each face. It was after assembly but before primer where I got some new reference on the mace - so I wound up adjusting the details under the head and extending the handle.
With the mace out of the way, the next bit was figuring out the shield. I wanted a domed shield with Liz' smithing emblem engraved into it. The engraving tool in my routing software had an "apply to relief" option I'd never used before, but I figured it would be my best bet. After flipping through the software's help file and fiddling with the software options, I came up with this:
And an hour later, this popped off the router:
(On a side note, I rather like the spiral tool marks. I'm tempted to see if I can't make a half-decent Cap shield with this method)
A bit of sanding and a bunch of filler primer to smooth the porous surface got me here:
At this point I realized I made a mistake in the toolpath configuration, telling the machine to engrave inside the lines instead of on them - this resulted in a few details not lining up properly. Back to the router for a fresh shield. Rinse and repeat.
I thought I could use a nice drawer or door handle for the shield handle, but I couldn't find anything big and nice enough at the hardware store. I wound up machining some 1/4" aluminum and bending it into shape.
Some screws and an old leather belt made the shield ready to equip! While the animation model shows a solid black strap, I wanted this to be adjustable. My friend wasn't on-hand to measure her arm width, and even if she was, the costume calls for a gauntlet that's as of yet unfinished - so the fit would've needed adjusting anywho.
With everything fabricated and primed, it was time for paint. I don't recall the exact color names, but the mace and shield received a base coat of metallic silver, were masked, and then hit with a dark iron. The second color was too dark, but I was planning to lighten it up with a bit of dry brushing anywho.
Closeup of the texture on the finished shield:
And the mace head:
Looking back, I'd probably have been careful not to work up to such a light color on the stages of dry brushing for the darker metallic bits. I think the contrast between the dark base and lighter top coats made it appear more worn than I intended. However, my buddy's having a blast with her new gear, so all's well that ends okie doke.
Goal character is Lisbeth in her finalized ALO outfit from Sword Art Online II. For those unfamiliar, I'm building a mace and shield for a fairy blacksmith.
To keep everything rigid-but-not-too-heavy, the majority of this build was machined from PVC foam (most folks're familiar with Sintra, but I had Palight on-hand, which has the advantage of being lead-free).
Here're the shop drawings, along with a reference image:
And before going into the build log, here's a completed shot:
The first step was drawing up plans. When I first started this build, Liz was a minor background character in only a handful of episodes. As the build progressed, she'd eventually get a few closeups that had me reworking details in the build.
I didn't snap any photos of the mace components, but what I did was feed the shop drawings into a CNC router to machine each face as an individual panel. Each panel was then beveled on the band saw and adhered into a fancy box.
The mace head and detail panels were all designed to slip over a 3/4" PVC pipe. The head was then taken back to the belt sander to work the curves into each face. It was after assembly but before primer where I got some new reference on the mace - so I wound up adjusting the details under the head and extending the handle.
With the mace out of the way, the next bit was figuring out the shield. I wanted a domed shield with Liz' smithing emblem engraved into it. The engraving tool in my routing software had an "apply to relief" option I'd never used before, but I figured it would be my best bet. After flipping through the software's help file and fiddling with the software options, I came up with this:
And an hour later, this popped off the router:
(On a side note, I rather like the spiral tool marks. I'm tempted to see if I can't make a half-decent Cap shield with this method)
A bit of sanding and a bunch of filler primer to smooth the porous surface got me here:
At this point I realized I made a mistake in the toolpath configuration, telling the machine to engrave inside the lines instead of on them - this resulted in a few details not lining up properly. Back to the router for a fresh shield. Rinse and repeat.
I thought I could use a nice drawer or door handle for the shield handle, but I couldn't find anything big and nice enough at the hardware store. I wound up machining some 1/4" aluminum and bending it into shape.
Some screws and an old leather belt made the shield ready to equip! While the animation model shows a solid black strap, I wanted this to be adjustable. My friend wasn't on-hand to measure her arm width, and even if she was, the costume calls for a gauntlet that's as of yet unfinished - so the fit would've needed adjusting anywho.
With everything fabricated and primed, it was time for paint. I don't recall the exact color names, but the mace and shield received a base coat of metallic silver, were masked, and then hit with a dark iron. The second color was too dark, but I was planning to lighten it up with a bit of dry brushing anywho.
Closeup of the texture on the finished shield:
And the mace head:
Looking back, I'd probably have been careful not to work up to such a light color on the stages of dry brushing for the darker metallic bits. I think the contrast between the dark base and lighter top coats made it appear more worn than I intended. However, my buddy's having a blast with her new gear, so all's well that ends okie doke.
