Thundercats Sword of Omens - Full size replica - My build/upgrades step by step

[ave4uevoli]

I'm not only a prop but also a sword guy, 15 years HEMA, and there is something important I have to tell you. As visible in one of your pictures that sword has what is known as a rattail tang and the picture shows that it hasn't been welded on that good. That is the point your sword will break. And that isn't a if it will break but a when it breaks. Please be carefull and don't make any swinging motions near your kids, I've seen it gone wrong a few times and it isn't pretty.

If you have the ability to weld the "rattail" to the sword better it will be a lot saver.


And yes, that sword is in my props wishlist.

RvA

I wholeheartedly agree. Thank you for pointing that out for everyone's safety. What they consider a "tang" is barely a tang at all. I wouldn't trust that rat tail either. Thankfully the sword is very heavy so the kids didn't go crazy with it. Plus, they know that it's one of my "props" so they treated it with respect. Now it's just hanging on the wall. Like with many of these prop swords, they're really just for decoration.

 

[Starganderfish]

This is amazing. I've contemplated trying to 3D print a Sword of Omens for a while but even with the best cleanup and paint it's never quite as nice as real metal. This is definitely preferable.
Looking at the listings online it seems like most of these come from Pakistan, so no cheaper options with Aliexpress or Taobao - also explains why the eBay shipping is so high. Still, the overall price makes it worthwhile.
I just ordered one from eBay and look forward to replicating some of your work.
To round out the set a little, I also found a listing on Amazon for the Sword of Omens in dagger form. Says it's also steel, and looks ok. No idea what the quality will be like, but hopefully it's roughly comparable and they'll look good together.
There may not be enough room for lighting in the smaller dagger, but honestly, I've found that lighting in props is something I rarely use, even when I have it, so I may skip it even on the sword.

 

[Starganderfish]

If anyone’s interested, I received the “Dagger of Omens” version from an Amazon seller.

Server Busy

Like the full size sword it’s an all metal construction, has nice little blue and red gems in the grip and comes with a faux-leather sheath.
The Eye of Thundara is a thick vinyl sticker that actually looks okay. Peeled off really easily and I 3d printed a replacement using red resin and a little yellow paint and gloss clear coat. Gives it a more cartoony feel, which I like.
It’s a much more compact piece than the sword so lighting it might be a little trickier, but probably still doable if you wanted to.
Very happy with it and can’t wait for my full size sword to arrive from eBay to get a similar treatment. I think they’ll look great together.

 

[Starganderfish]

I received my full-sized Sword of Omens replica today. It's nice. Couple of small quirks though.
First thing I noticed after removing the shrink-wrap was that mine had been coated in a thick, clear oil (to protect against rusting I guess, which is nice) In washing this off I also realised that my sword had been murderously sharpened!
It's cool and all but as a prop that's only for display, not really necessary. Definitely won't be letting my kids play with this one. Reading back over the eBay listing I note that it says it's "a high carbon double sharpened edge fixed blade". Skeptical on the carbon steel but it's really hard to test that.
Next I noticed that, unlike the OP's sword or the dagger I bought, this is pure shiny stainless, not the slightly darkened/weathered look. Not an issue really, it has enough surface detail on the hilt that I can darken it with a wash to get a similar effect. The listing pics showed the darker colour but they're the same stock pics every listing uses.

The biggest difference is that my sword already has a light-up Eye. The lowest of the gems on the grip has been replaced with a momentary push button and when you press it, the Eye lights up. The pommel unscrews and there's a sealed plastic cylinder inside. For some reason, the batteries are sealed in this plastic cylinder and I can't see how to remove them to swap them out. It's just got two wires running out the end of this battery pack into the crossguard where the light is hidden.
I wasn't planning on lighting this, and was actually going to replace the stock Eye with a 3D-printed one, so this complicates things a bit. It should be relatively easy to remove the plastic battery pack and wire in a rechargeable 18650 Li-Ion and recharge port, but replacing the Eye of Thundera is a little more complicated now. There was no mention of the light up feature in the eBay listing.

The sculpt is a little different to the OP's, and to the Dagger but close enough to work for me. All told, I can definitely recommend these swords as good wall-hanger props, ripe for a little extra customisation.

 

[mvr923]

Beautiful!

Where did you find The Claw? It's amazing!

 

[Bealeki]

Back to Back they were a bit thick. Plus this sword has a tang running down the center of it, and I did not cut through that so I had to remove the battery compartment completely off of the circuit board and I quickly tested a way to wire them with a series of batteries aligned in a vertical configuration so I could slip the batteries down the hollow metal handle of the sword.

View attachment 1666240

I can't believe that actually worked.... as ghetto as it looks...

I 3d printed out some thundercats logos with my 3d printer using transparent red resin. They came out really nice. I picked a file where the actual cat on the logo was recessed, so all I had to do was slap some black paint inside. No masking required.

View attachment 1666241View attachment 1666242

I test fit the electronics, added a diffuser that I cut out of a old diffuser from a basement fluorescent light.

View attachment 1666244

Here's the first test of what the eye of Thundera looked like with a light shining through! View attachment 1666245View attachment 1666246

Hi!

Sorry for dredging up an old post but..... I have just bought the same sword, and found this build, as I am looking to customise the Eye of Thundera as you have (I remember having the Sword of Omens toy as a kid and the eye was definitely not flat!). Do you have the 3D file for the final one you went with? Or at least are you able to share the dimensions you used?

Thanks in advance.

Dan

 

[Starganderfish]

Hi!

Sorry for dredging up an old post but..... I have just bought the same sword, and found this build, as I am looking to customise the Eye of Thundera as you have (I remember having the Sword of Omens toy as a kid and the eye was definitely not flat!). Do you have the 3D file for the final one you went with? Or at least are you able to share the dimensions you used?

Thanks in advance.

Dan

This is a nice one because the symbol and disc are separate pieces. Print the disk in red translucent resin and the symbol in black and glue them together?

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5361896

 

[ave4uevoli]

Hi!

Sorry for dredging up an old post but..... I have just bought the same sword, and found this build, as I am looking to customise the Eye of Thundera as you have (I remember having the Sword of Omens toy as a kid and the eye was definitely not flat!). Do you have the 3D file for the final one you went with? Or at least are you able to share the dimensions you used?

Thanks in advance.

Dan

Hey Dan,

I just 3d printed the logo from these free files on Thingiverse. I liked this one because the black part was recessed so it was easier to paint. I resin printed it in translucent red.
For the size - I truthfully don't remember, I printed a bunch and just picked the one that fit. I forget exactly what percentage I scaled it at.

Here's the link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1776851

Hope that helps.

 

[Bealeki]

That's great, thanks! I don't have my own printer (yet) so trial and error is a bit harder, but at least this gives me something to work with. Thanks again.

 

[ReelClones]

Seeing this thread pop back up reminded me I forgot to post my attempt following your excellent work!

First up, I resin printed a replacement eye. Being undecided on whether to have an “open” eye on one side or just two the same, I printed three!

Then I started off opening up the hilt with a drill.

And cleaned up with a dremel and a grinding bit, leaving a lip for the eye to sit on.

I tried to mix my own custom shade paint, trying to get it slightly greener than the OP but it ended up almost exactly the same hue! But it looks good so I kept it!

As I wanted my sword to look more like a “real” thing, I also weathered it with a red scotchbrite pad to get rid of much of its cheap high shine look, adding extra brushing and wear where I thought it needed it, following this with a heavy acrylic dirt wash which was mostly wiped off.

I also dulled the blade down a bit using this method

Before giving the hilt a “dull coat” of satin acrylic lacquer to seal it all in. (Please excuse messy workshop!)

After this it was back to the eye. I infilled the black with an airbrush before wetsanding the overspray back and polishing the red resin up until smooth. After this it got a coat of gloss lacquer which was wetsanded up to 5000 grit and polished with car polish and elbow grease!

Onto lighting tests! The back of the eye was sanded with a rougher grit wet and dry to give a frosted effect to help diffuse light. Then using led strip around the outside in a loop. Here’s my rough tests.

And here’s a WIP test wire up to see how it looks! I’m still working out the details to avoid shadows etc with the fastening points and batteries. I am working on a 3D printed insert to hold it all together.

 

[Reel Fakes]

NOICE

 

[Jintosh]

Reaming out that metal for the Eye took some work.

 

[Bealeki]

Inspired by you guys I decided to update my Sword of Omens too. However, after finding my old (and well loved) LJN sword, in the attic, at my Mum's house, I decided to go in a different direction and try and make a more realistic version of that toy, using the gold hilt highlights, vs a blue or green tint (although I reeeally like the blue). So here is my progress so far. While searching for a suitable gold paint, Amazon recommended me a gold leaf (gilding) set. At £10 I thought it would likely look better than any paint, but was nervous having never worked with gold leaf before. Despite being harder than I anticipated, I am extremely happy with the results. The only downside is that I'm now not sure if the blue that I had picked out (cobolt) will go with the gold, so am debating with myself whether to use it still? Find another blue? Or just leave it? Any thoughts on this would be welcomed. Lastly, I don't have my own 3D printer, so am still waiting for my Eye of Thundera to be printed and shipped. I don't think I have the expertise, or patience, to add LEDs to the build so, for now, I will probably just add them without lighting. I am contemplating using a pearl black for a more ethereal look but, I have concerns that pearl black might look more grey than black? I have ordered them at a 66mm diameter, so hopefully that will be the correct size!

 

[ReelClones]

Inspired by you guys I decided to update my Sword of Omens too. However, after finding my old (and well loved) LJN sword, in the attic, at my Mum's house, I decided to go in a different direction and try and make a more realistic version of that toy, using the gold hilt highlights, vs a blue or green tint (although I reeeally like the blue). So here is my progress so far. While searching for a suitable gold paint, Amazon recommended me a gold leaf (gilding) set. At £10 I thought it would likely look better than any paint, but was nervous having never worked with gold leaf before. Despite being harder than I anticipated, I am extremely happy with the results. The only downside is that I'm now not sure if the blue that I had picked out (cobolt) will go with the gold, so am debating with myself whether to use it still? Find another blue? Or just leave it? Any thoughts on this would be welcomed. Lastly, I don't have my own 3D printer, so am still waiting for my Eye of Thundera to be printed and shipped. I don't think I have the expertise, or patience, to add LEDs to the build so, for now, I will probably just add them without lighting. I am contemplating using a pearl black for a more ethereal look but, I have concerns that pearl black might look more grey than black? I have ordered them at a 66mm diameter, so hopefully that will be the correct size!

Looking good! I love the gold leaf!

 

[Bealeki]

Okay, my 3D printed eyes arrived from Womp, and they're perfect! They already look so good, and are the perfect size (66mm). I just need to paint the logo now, I'm hoping to use a pearlescent black paint.

I also need some advice from you fine (and much more experienced) people.....

As I mentioned before, I don't have enough confidence to install LEDs, at this point, so I will just be removing the existing sticker, and attaching the Eye(s) to the bare metal. As it's translucent, and will show any inconsistencies underneath, I want to use a glue that will hold well but, more importantly that will dry evenly, not go opaque, and not eventually dry out and crack. Can anyone recommend the best glue to use?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[ave4uevoli]

Okay, my 3D printed eyes arrived from Womp, and they're perfect! They already look so good, and are the perfect size (66mm). I just need to paint the logo now, I'm hoping to use a pearlescent black paint.

I also need some advice from you fine (and much more experienced) people.....

As I mentioned before, I don't have enough confidence to install LEDs, at this point, so I will just be removing the existing sticker, and attaching the Eye(s) to the bare metal. As it's translucent, and will show any inconsistencies underneath, I want to use a glue that will hold well but, more importantly that will dry evenly, not go opaque, and not eventually dry out and crack. Can anyone recommend the best glue to use?

Many thanks in advance.

A 2 part clear epoxy would be really solid IMO.
Gorilla glue makes one that I use frequently around the house and for props. The 2 part epoxies are usually all about the same, but make sure you get the clear version or else it'll be an opaque yellowish color.
(the clear itself has a really really slight yellowish tint, but it wont be noticeable at all behind the red)
Once mixed really really well, just do small dollop and smoosh the logo down. It should spread all the way across the logo

 

[Bealeki]

A 2 part clear epoxy would be really solid IMO.
Gorilla glue makes one that I use frequently around the house and for props. The 2 part epoxies are usually all about the same, but make sure you get the clear version or else it'll be an opaque yellowish color.
(the clear itself has a really really slight yellowish tint, but it wont be noticeable at all behind the red)
Once mixed really really well, just do small dollop and smoosh the logo down. It should spread all the way across the logo

That's awesome, thanks. I already have some 2 part epoxy Gorilla glue, but will have to check if it's the clear stuff. If not, I'll try that. Thank you.

 

[ave4uevoli]

BTW, I'm so glad that you guys used this post and totally improved on what I did. It's great seeing all these awesome sword of omens!

ReelClones can you tell me what kind or rope light you used, and controller? how did you get it all to fit inside the hilt? Your eye of thundera looks so much better than mine. Mine still has hot spots from the LED board I put behind it.

 

[scorpion wins]

Does anyone make the eye of thundera for this sword?

 

[scorpion wins]

Where are you putting that long battery pack? Is the handle section hollow?