Okay, back at last^^' I've had a little break from building and/or updating my blog, sorry about that. My girlfriend and I broke up a month or so ago, but past is past. The more important thing is the project I started for her, and still haven't finished, as I'll still need to aqcuire some materials and a better plan to make it look good. I had thought about not making any unfinished prop-updates, but I probably wouldn't write too much on one sitting anyway, so I shall just update one post, and make the progress and updates visible with that date-marking I shall start using in the beginning of updates. I think it'll be less confusing to just make one long post than to make multiple about the same project, right?^^
Okay, back to the subject at hand. My project this time is quite an ambitious one because of it's size and odd detailing in my opinion as I haven't made anything like it before. It's the Doomstaff from the stand alone Sims-game The Sims Medieval, basically a big scythe the Grim Reaper from the game uses. It's also a forgeable item for the Wizard -Hero Sim.
The Grim Reaper appears.
It's pretty obvious why I wanted to try and make this weapon, the sheer shape of the blades was enough to send chills down my spine, in a good way.
Grim next to a Spy -Hero Sim overseeing someone's death.
I began this project in the summer, and I've been working on it slowly, few minutes every now and then. Believe me when I say that most of my working time has been spent on just staring the pieces and the plans, I want this to be perfect, I just hope it won't become a disappointment when I finally assemble it.
A Wizard meditating with the Doomstaff.
This is the main picture I used when starting to design the two blades. I measured the basic proportions between Sims and the Doomstaff from various pictures to get a somewhat accurate idea of the size of the weapon. I ended up scaling the picture so that it would do two things: One, fit on paper and two, be easy to enlarge. I used a picture 1/3 of the full size for the blade. I then used a simple method for the blueprint: the "magnify the picture and draw it on the paper through the computer-screen"-method. (copyright pending, haha XD) The printer I had at the time decided to die so I had to improvise^^' I'm quite disappointed that something mysterious has happened to the blueprints so I can't show you the work it took, but I'll try explaining it in detail.
What I had to work with...
This'll need some explaining. I tried to save this piece of plywood as I had measured it would just barely be enough for the blades, as I wanted to make it unipieced so it wouldn't break down as easily. And then my dad was coating a door with tar and guess what he used to stand on? Okay, I admit it worked and the tar didn't ruin the new concrete floor we had just finished but still, why use this piece of plywood?-.-' Just goes to show how little I'm given respect... But anyway, it didn't ruin the blade, as the ply didn't break or crack and tar only helps to keep the moisture out so I decided it wouldn't be that big of a problem^^' The lines you can see are how I copied a scaled down version of the blade into full scale. I used straight lines from points where the blade hit the edge of the plywood and right angles from premeasured spots. I'm still quite amazed about how well it worked out after I connected the points and lines. I only had to make one or two minor corrections drawing freehanded to the measurements, just to make the lines smoother to the eye. I transported the board before any sawing to the apartment, just to keep it safe and also because I was worried something might happen to it if I saw it and then tried transporting it on a bus...
Rough form.
I bought a hand-figure-saw to cut the shape, it was quite tiring and I ended up destroying at least half a dozen saw-blades. Lucky they aren't all that expensive^^ And as you might think, the extra plywood cut out didn't go to waste, heavens no, I wouldn't dream on throwing good pieces away^^ And as it turns out, I used some of the wood in The Great Gun King. Golden rule, don't throw something away if it could be reused in anything, no matter if you might not know what that something is yet, ok? Ok, moving on. The blade is 123cm for the longest distance and 47 cm for the two abeam tips from the center. I can always provide exact measurements when asked, but for now I can't bother on measuring every single curve^^' I intend on doing exact blueprints out of the blade-part for future preferences, so until then, let's move on, shall we?
The main staff-part and the blade together.
The main staff-part as I call it isn't anywhere ideal, but I got the go-ahead from the client, so I'll try working with this. It's really difficult to find the shape needed growing naturally in the woods so I had to work with the one I thought was closest possible. I'm afraid that it has taken up some moisture and became crooked, but it's not the end of the world, or so I'm being constantly told^^' It measures 190cm and is still quite heavy, which is a given considering on how bulky it has to look. I managed to make a cut to the end of the staff for the blade to fit through, too bad I had to risk it being destroyed and use a chainsaw, but it worked out fine. Don't try that at home, buy or borrow good quality equipment you're comfortable in using and which suits the your needs. But as I've said often already, I have to make do with what I can get^^'
After the two holes.
Again, try using proper tools, not a knife to drill holes, you might cut yourself, as I've done on many occasions, I'm lucky to have all my fingers intact. And yes, nearly 99% of my projects make me bleed one way or the other, this made me bleed from a splinter when I was scouting for usable plywood-piece. But about the blade itself now, I personally like the holes quite a lot, they make the blade appear like it would only have one big hole in it with a blood vessel going through it, and in my opinion it gives it a nice Grim Reaper-ish touch, intentional or not.
After some sanding.
You might notice that the blade has suffered some moisture/drying-crookedness between the two last pictures. I usually tend to keep the material in the same enviroment through the entire working-progress to preserve the moisture-conditions in order to avoid things like this. I'm still quite puzzled as to what happened, it's not like I took it into the rain every now and then... Anyway, I believe it can be fixed or at least hidden so that it wouldn't show that much, we'll just have to wait for the paint^^
Close-up on the bending.
It's not much, but it annoys me all the same...
Biggest flaw.
But this is the thing that annoys me the most, although it could be fixed, I was assured again that it would be better this way, as the Doomstaff should have the ragged feel of the medieval times, and that's easier with minor flaws in the shape. So for now I'm not fixing this. It was caused by the use of knife, I didn't want to sand the blade into shape from scratch, and I didn't have a file at the moment. Plywood is kinda tricky to work with because of the different layers but I'm glad only this one crack happened. You can now also see how the edge is "sharp" after the sanding.
The holes after sanding.
I took this picture to show you how the tar-damage isn't all that serious as I had you assume, and to point out the amount of sanding done to the two holes. I didn't sharpen them nearly as much as the outer edges as I see no need for that. I just worked a lot on the details, most of the work is such which no one even sees, But I know it's there^^
That wraps it up for now, more on the progress when I get it done, there's more than half of this project to go, but no matter, I'll look forward to it^^
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