They shall all drown in lakes of blood...

[Nexus6]

"Now they will know why they are afraid of the dark; now they will learn why they fear the night."


The latest project, & my finest work imo (at least the one I'm most proud of :$).

35 pounds of wood, blood (yes, I cut/gouged myself several times during construction), leather, brass, & steel.

From start to finish, this effort has taken approximately 2.5 years. This includes design research, parts/materials acquisition, & build-time. It turned out just how I had hoped. Everything was basically done by hand (since I lack many of the "proper" tools), although I did make limited use of a circular saw, a dremel tool, a belt sander, & a cordless drill. Ultimately, I wanted it to be as authentic as possible, so a LARGE portion of the work was done with just a mallet & chisel.

I'll be building a display stand for it next (after a brief hiatus), & I'll provide additional progress photos & information in a day or so.

So without further delay - - -

 

[Mechamaniac]

35 pounds :eek

No wonder it cracked a stone column in the movie.

That thing looks AWESOME.

I notice a distinct lack of anyone actually wielding the thing in your video

 

[Nexus6]

35 pounds :eek

No wonder it cracked a stone column in the movie.

That thing looks AWESOME!

I notice a distinct lack of anyone actually wielding the thing in your video

LOL, the only one in my family who can pick it up is me, & when I was taking the pix, there was no one else home to take my picture with it. :lol

Besides, my mug wouldn't have done anything to improve the vid.

 

[Apollo]

Love it. :thumbsup

 

[OldKen]

My speakers are disconnected ATM, so i couldnt hear dialouge if there was any... but i too wanted to see that thing smash the crap outa somethin.

Who needs a gun for home protection, just click the lights on swing that behind your head and say WRONG HOUSE..." and uhh that outa do it. :thumbsup

and great prop as well.

 

[BLASTER]

THAT is cool. An awesome effort. :thumbsup Done with hand tools... most impressive.


I have a Rexor axe by Marto on the way.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i204/ron...10/DSC00788.jpg
The axe doesn't appear to be 100% screen accurate but I had to have it.
Marto also offers a Thorgrims hammer, again screen accuracy may not be 100%.

Steven

 

[Aegis159]

Hehe, that thing needs Sven to come within camera view and start swinging it around. If nothing else a shot of it next to a coke can would at least give us a scale....

Looks great though..

 

[Nexus6]

If nothing else a shot of it next to a coke can would at least give us a scale....

I didn't have a Coke.

 

[morganthirteen]

Beautiful. Excellent presentation, too.

Well done.

 

[Mechamaniac]

Now can we see the Pepsi take the hammer challenge?

 

[Smiling Demon]

Facinating.

Well done indeed.

Kenny

 

[Nexus6]

I have a Rexor axe by Marto on the way.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i204/ron...10/DSC00788.jpg
The axe doesn't appear to be 100% screen accurate but I had to have it.
Marto also offers a Thorgrims hammer, again screen accuracy may not be 100%.

Steven

Actually, the only Marto "licensed" Conan replicas that are EVEN CLOSE to being 100% screen-accurate (and I'm fairly comfortable stating this opinion, given the number of times I've POURED over this film during this project) are the Atlantean sword & the 'Fangs of the Serpent' dagger. However, I do like the "Rexor axe" quite a bit, even with it's inaccuracies (and I doubt one could acquire a "better" version w/o having it custom-made). Marto's 'Thorgrim's Hammer' though, is a joke; as is their version of Conan's 'wheel of pain' pendant. Their Thulsa Doom helmet is nice, but their Rexor and Thorgrim helmets are lackluster at best.

 

[Nexus6]

Beauty shot:



In constructing this piece, I scoured every conceivable, available resource to help me create a replica that is as screen-accurate & as functional (i.e., "sturdy") as possible. There were multiple hammers used during production. In fact, I count five:

#1.

#2.

#3.

#4.

#5.

I made mine a hybrid of #3 & #5. The handle is a branch from the cedar tree in front of my building at work, & the head is a length of discarded telephone pole. (Incidently, I tried to get a piece of piling from the local dock-builders, but was unable to find a suitable specimen that was NOT pressure-treated with arsenic. So the old telephone pole was a Godsend) The bands & rivets are all chemically-aged, solid brass. The leather wrapping is deer-hide.

Build photos (some of the earliest shots are crappy cellphone pix, cuz at that point, I wasn't sure if I could even pull this project together):

 

[Nexus6]

A couple more photos for scale:

At the widest & narrowest parts of the handle:




I'm 6'4" tall, & ~250 lbs:

 

[david reed]

great job on a great prop,and nice presentation,music and all.love conan

 

[Clutch]

That is beyond cool! How did you go about sizing it?

 

[Nexus6]

That is beyond cool! How did you go about sizing it?

Well, it's like this.

One day while searching the Internet, I found an old video interview with Sven-Ole Thorsen, where he stated that his height was 6'5", & that during the filming of Conan the Barbarian, his weight was 325 lbs.

I then took ~200 DVD screencaps of the hammer from every clear, unobstructed angle & view that I could find (along with a few production still photos) . I sent the pictures to my best friend, who is a police officer (in other words, A TRAINED OBSERVER). I gave him Thorsen's physical stats & asked him to study the screencaps, & provide me with his professional opinion of what the measurements of the hammer were (length & diameter of the head, diameter of the rivets, width of the brass bands, overall length, circumference of various positions on the handle, etc). While awaiting his answers, I studied the photos myself & estimated the same measurements. When my friend got back to me, amazingly, EVERY ONE of our measurements, were either EXACTLY the same, OR in one or two cases, 1 inch different. In those cases, I went with my measurements (since as everyone here knows, propmakers are naturally hyper-anal about accurate measurements, & I felt that my vested interest in the project would cause me to be a little more meticulous in my efforts).

After I began construction, I stumbled upon an archived webpage that contained an auction of one of the screen-used hammers (hammer #2 in my earlier post). The auction stated the overall length of the hammer. When I applied that number to the rest of my previous calculations, my measurements were either exactly spot-on, or so close that I didn't give them a second thought (WOOT!)

Incidently, in the Sven-Ole Thorsen video, he stated that the hammer weighed "around 40 lbs", so when I got finished with mine & it came out to 35 lbs (35.5 lbs to be exact) I was pretty stoked. :love

 

[amish]

That is freaking amazing!!! Thanks for the quick rundown on making it as well!

 

[The Death Curse]

That...is amazing. Words cannot display my feelings on how COOL that hammer is...Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite films of all time anyway, so I'm totally floored by such a great replica! You have done an amazing job.

.....So tell me, have you smashed anything to test its force yet? :lol

Cheers,

Ryan

 

[Nexus6]

That...is amazing. Words cannot display my feelings on how COOL that hammer is...Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite films of all time anyway, so I'm totally floored by such a great replica! You have done an amazing job.

.....So tell me, have you smashed anything to test its force yet? :lol

Cheers,

Ryan

Thanks, CtB is definitely one of my all-time favorites as well.

And LOL, no, I figure that Thorgrim's Hammer was designed for crushing:

1. People
2. Pillars

So until I come across one of those things that is deserving of my wrath, I'll refrain from the crushing.

And since you are a fellow fanatic, here are links to my other CtB projects (y'know, in case you might've missed them): [URL="http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=5906"]#1[/URL] & #2.