The Elder Scrolls III / V: Sunder and Keening

[Jm419]

That is some damn good ref. Thanks for that.

Yeah, so I guess my blade's thicker. Ah well.

That's odd. So the handle appears to take up much more of the length in the Morrowind version than it does on the Skyrim model, but they end up being about the same length.

I guess mine's actually closer to the Skyrim model, but I think I'll do mostly Morrowind detailing. If that makes sense.

 

[Moses]

Here.

This is a 1ft x 1ft square. Use these for measurement if you want. I made it to figure out how to organize the pieces for the most space efficiency. The handle isn't there because I actually used a polycarbonate rod for that. Here's some others too. The 3d model is exactly 19.8 in. from blade tip to the middle of the crescent prongs.

 

[Moses]

another issue with the morrowind version of keening is that the part of the side pieces that touches the blade is actually thinner than the outside sides near the top. If you look at the reference you'll see what I mean. It doesn't look pretty at all. Oh and I'm carving the cracks right now. I should be done today.

 

[Jm419]

*whistles*

Whew, that's some damn, damn good ref. Thanks for that, buddy. This'll help me with some of those raised parts around the back end of it.

 

[Moses]

Here, I'll link you to a FREE .NIF file viewer/editor(morrowind's models are .NIF's) and a download of keening and sunder's models. It's actually a mod that re-textures keening and sunder, but the models are untouched and you should be able to use these to look at keening and sunder at any angle you want.


Nifskope
Keening

 

[Jm419]

All right. Some progress done, and I need an opinion on something.

So, take a look at what I got done in the garage recently:

Basically, I did some work on the upper part of the hilt, not all of which shows (I had some structural failures in the area, so there's now some wire in there.)

I also built these things:

Now, here's where my question comes in. Looking at this reference photo:

You can see there are two rings around the screw. I bought three different sized washers. Do you like:

Option 1:

Option 2:

or Option 3:

Each one has its problems. What do you think?

 

[Jm419]

Bump for opinions.

 

[Moses]

Personally I decided they were grooves dug into the material like a record because the way the shadows are made on the screw in the center shows that it's sunk below the surrounding material. Although when I did this it didn't leave me much material left once I carved out space for the blade. Since you're not using something as durable as polycarbonate I'd say to use those washers to add more support to it.

 

[Jm419]

Yeah, looking at the model, I agree they're flush; but you're right, it's not polycarb, it's balsa wood, lol. What do you think? Which arrangement looks the best to you?

 

[Moses]

I figured it's balsa wood by it's appearance lol. You need to think outside the box when it comes down to something like this. If you want to have it more accurate then that's what you should aim for. You could try your hand at finding some hardened tool steel and making internal supports like I did.

Something you might want to try is putting a layer of something on top and carving the grooves out of that to keep from removing any more material than you have already.

I can just say from experience that I've dropped my Keening once on concrete while I was still carving it and thrice on wood after it was finished. It only received damage from the fall on concrete and that's what probably caused the crescent to split in half. Other than that It's been entirely undamaged even though it fell on the blade the other 3 times. I am also able to swing mine hard and stop suddenly without damaging it as well. It's very durable.

I can show you where you can buy a 1ft x 1ft x 1/2in sheet of polycarbonate for about 25$ if you're interested in trying it out. They have sheets, tubes, and rods as well as many other types of plastic and out of all the places I've looked through they are the only ones who provide in small amounts like a convenient 1ft x 1ft sheet. I like them lol. Working with polycarbonate is kinda like working with hard wood that can melt.

Plastics International

They ship pretty fast too. This is where I bought the materials I used in Keening. If you do decide to use polycarb then for this specific piece you'll need to make a top half and bottom half cause it doesn't come in any thicker sheets than 0.5in and the part is gonna be close to 1in thick. You can hold them together with a bolt like it's supposed to use; that's what I did. I had to modify the bolt's head with jb weld though and I poured jb weld over the nut on the opposite half to make the dome and sanded it smooth.



Here's a couple up close pics of mine to show you how thick it ended up being and how I contoured it.

 

[Moses]

Any updates?

 

[Jm419]

I'm afraid not. I haven't had the time.