Time for a sword guide! This one was for specifically Gramr, from Hellblade, but most of the documentation is for the raw construction process so it should be applicable to most any sword one would want to build, particularly one with a straight blade.
Materials for this, from beginning to end, were:
- Wood - one board, 6′ long by 3″ by 1″. I used softwood, as it’s easier to work and cheaper, but hardwood would probably help make a smoother blade.
- Acrylic paste. I used Golden.
- Paperclay. Regular air-dry clay would probably work, too.
- A Screw + screwdriver or drill
- A strip of leather. I was fortunate enough to have a scrap strip that worked almost perfectly.
- A good, strong glue. I used Wellbond, but a wood or Gorilla glue might have been better.
- Access to a woodshop, particularly a skillsaw and belt sander. One could theoretically use a handsaw and hand sanding block, but it would take much longer.
First thing, I found some good reference images for scale and to break the sword into basic shapes:
This is, too be frank, a big-ass sword. I am very tall. In order to figure out exactly how long to make it, I took a stick I had lying around and played with it - held it above my head and at belt level, to get an idea of how big would look ‘big’ on me. It’s also important to note here that Gramr is a two-handed sword, at least for Senua, which for me means the hilt must be around 10 inches. After some research and some consideration of what’d be feasible for me, you know, standing, I settled on a 34-inch blade, for a total length of 44 inches. I went to some effort to find a 3″ board because I wanted the blade to be 3″ across, and 1″ in order to cut down on shaping time without sacrificing strength.
However, the shape isn’t super distinct. It’s helpful to look at a variety of sources to find references - the best image I found of the shape was actually the icon for the “Gramr Released” achievement:
Here we can see the shape clearly. I also marked down those lines to show equal lengths - so the crossguard is just as wide as the hilt is long. From there, I moved on to drawing the shapes onto wood. Here you can see the drawn shape of the crossguard. I marked the relative positions of the circles (based on the width of the sword), used the bottom of a shotglass to trace them, then drew the connecting pieces:
Here’s another picture showing both the hilt and blade outline. It gives a better sense of scale. Tips for drawing the blade: mark out the center of the blade from base to tip, make marks an equal distance from that center at regular intervals, and trace between them. For example, measure to 2″ wide of center 15″ from the base, then 1″ at 25″, and use a straight edge to trace between them.
After everything’s been drawn, it’s time for a trip to the woodshop. I used a skillsaw to cut out both the blade and crossguard. If you’re not familiar with the equipment, please get help - skillsaws aren’t quite as scary as tablesaws, but they’ll still take your fingers, and the blade can snap and and fling metal everywhere. On the plus side, this is where we can start to see a sword!
Note that at this stage I have two copies of the crossguard. The idea is to use one on each side of the blade and sandwich them together. Instead of trying to draw the exact same thing, I simply traced the first one after cutting it out.
That done, it’s time to shape the blade. My first attempt here I tried to use a hammer and chisel, but I was afraid I’d overcut and destroy the line of the blade, which I really Did Not Want, so I went with the slower but more precise method of using a power sander. I think a belt sander would be ideal, but I didn’t have access to one, so I ended up on an oscillating drum sander. Either way, I eventually ended up with a passable approximation of a blade:
After that, I finagled the crossguard pieces - I cut them each in half longways, so I had the original shape 4 times. I then sanded out the center of two of the four, so I had room for the blade, and cut another into thirds. I discarded the center piece and used the outside two to fill in the gap between the two outer pieces.
Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of... the rest. of construction. sorry. However, I can still provide some step by step instructions:
- Secure the cross guard pieces to each other and the blade using glue. I placed a pencil under and atop each outer circle, then stacked a barbell weight on top to make sure they stayed, and left it overnight.
- For extra strength, use a screw or nail through the intersection of crossguard and blade. Be careful, as this may splinter the thin crossguard, especially if you’re using softwood.
- Acrylic paste to fill in the gaps between the pieces and create a cohesive surface, including smoothing out the screw or nailhead. I also layered some over the circles, to make them stand out more. These circles also have designs on them, which facilitated one of my favorite uses of acrylic paste. I spooned some into a ziploc bag, clipped the corner off, and... essentially frosted them on. Wait for it to dry, plunk on some contrasting paint, and viola:
Not as finely detailed, I concede, but I was quite happy with it. Illustration aside, before painting:
- Paperclay is used to form the larger, stiffer pieces - the pommel and the band around the base of the blade. Once all those pieces are dry,
- Wrap the leather strip around the handle. I did a few test wraps, then glued down one end, wrapped tightly, and secured the other end also with glue. If possible, staple gunning one or both ends would make a stronger grip, but it frankly won’t go through the same amount of stress as say a hand tool.
- Paint! I used a mix of gold and brown to get the bronze look, and pebeo moon in a dark metallic in an effort to get that marbled iron look. I also used fabric paint on the leather, to help the grip look cohesive, and backed up to that achievement icon to get a handle (heh) on the pattern that’s apparently inlaid and sketched it out.
- Not really a part of the sword proper and I don’t have a ton of pictures, but I did also make a sheath. To make the base, I just laid the sword down, traced one edge of the blade, flipped it over, and traced the other edge. Sew down middle. Sheath. However, I did wet form the sheath when I was done to make it more structurally sound,, and I wanted to provide a Warning: when wetforming a sheath, consider inserting something small to bulk up the blade so that it can be extracted easily. I slid a paint mixing stick in with the sword, and if I hadn’t drawing and sheathing it would be a whole lot clumsier.
That’s about all I got! Have fun, and happy swording.
And in honor of the season, I thought I’d go into some detail regarding how I made this:
So, for this project I was making something fairly simple: a head in a bag. Specifically, Dillion from Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice as a prop for an upcoming cosplay, but the same process should be appropriate for most skinless-head needs. As with many things, it’s best to start with some reference images:
So, we have a head, it’s in a bag. We can see that the head itself has lost most of its soft tissue, but doesn’t appear to be ‘rotten’, per se. The bag has been tied shut, and seems to be made of either a rough linen or burlap. It’s also been stained, particularly over the eyes and mouth, which will be important since it’ll spend most of its time in the bag. That also means that we’ll want to particularly emphasize the cheekbones, brow ridge, and eye sockets.
Head first. The obvious material would be clay, but I chose not to use that here because of the size of the piece - I would have to use air dry, which would take a very long time to dry, and the amount would be awkward given the clay package sizes available to me. The uneven texture of paper mache could actually be an advantage on this specific piece, because it mimics the effect of flayed flesh. Plus, a chance to learn a new medium is always welcome. I used CelluClay instant paper mache, a powdered paper mache base that activates with water, because it let me carry over some of the experience I have in clay.
In order to save some weight, material, and drying time, I started out by making a “braincase” out of newspaper and tape:
From there, I made the thinnest part, the scalp, so that it’d dry quickly and I could use it as a surface to, well, set the piece down on while I sculpted the rest.
From there, I built the rest of the skull, minus the mandible, again emphasizing the cheekbones and brow ridge and taking care to sculpt the visible teeth:
That section took a... long time to dry. Probably not as long as clay, but it was a full 24 hours before I continued and it wasn’t fully dry (the package says up to 24 hours depending on thickness, but I waited over 72 and some parts of the mandible still didn’t fully dry). From there, I added the mandible. I included a lot of the jaw muscles, as the head isn’t really rotten, just heavily scavenged.
I then spent some time evening out the scalp. I added fossa (those little grooves above the teeth) and lengthened the nose, as I felt the area between the cheekbones and the teeth looked oddly blank.
I should also add that I’m very aware the shape of the skull is quite different from the reference screenshot, which kind of pained me, but frankly that head isn’t really consistent with Dillion’s living appearance, so I beefed up his jaw quite a bit to have it make more sense with those visuals. Plus, I wanted the head to appear “life-size”.
Anyway, time for the fun part: paint! For the “oldish-bloody flesh” look I used primarily red and brown, with an off-white undercoat on the teeth and over the shallow bones.
After that, I thought I was done. But then, tragedy of tragedies:
The vicious scavenger that lives in my room apparently thought paper mache looked tasty, which necessitated another paint job. Fortunately, I’d already been thinking about doing this, so I mixed up another, redder tone of brown-red, and used a paper towel to brush it unevenly over the head so that the deeper parts retained the darker tone. I also whitened the teeth a bit just to make them more visible. In the end, I was much happier with the second paintjob:
To finish up, I coated the whole thing in Sculpey satin glaze, to protect the mache from incidental water and the paint from rubs.
Now for the bag. I got half a yard of burlap, buried it in the yard for a few weeks to weather it, dug it up, shook it off, dried it out, and wrapped it around the (dried) head, tight enough that the cheekbones make visible protrusions. Then I took a needle and some rough thread in the other hand and ran it through the folds in the burlap, like so:
From there, it can be tied with a simple looped knot, like shoes. This also allows me to untie the bag and extract the head, should I ever need to. From here, you can add the blood stains, such that the marks make sense with the bone structure:
Aaaaaand continue. I used watered-down red-and-brown fabric paint, either sponged on or dispensed with an old spray bottle.
That's all the relevant principles, though I may add some very thinned-down brown paint to the sack to make it match the ref more. Happy building, and happy Halloween!
It’s technically my and @stonesfromglasshouses‘s second run at a casual Zarmei cosplay, but this time Glass has the wig and I have a set of appropriately themed pajamas. We met a bunch of nice people, and I was also pleasantly surprised by the positive response we got! Somebody even asked if they could hug me hehe (that shirt is wonderfully fuzzy)
bonus:
now it’s time to buff up for my casual workout mei cosplay for sakuracon…
Mercy and Pharah: invertedlaura (IG) and izzyacosplay (IG)
Mikorin and Sakura: @ziocho and crazysakuru (IG)
Photography credit:
1st pic: Rhealityphoto (IG)
2nd pic: My friend Bo who doesn’t have tumblr or IG. Thanks Bo.
@emeraldonyxdragon (Corvo) and I had a great time at Sakuracon this weekend, especially as pieces in the Saturday evening chess game! We broke some hearts - and, at various times, both our swords and two bonecharms - but I’m ultimately pretty happy with how our fight turned out
Discovering Emily’s twist was one of the greatest disappointments of my life.
Dishonored cosplay photos from this year’s Sakuracon, featuring @emeraldonyxdragon as Corvo, myself as Emily, and a Special Guest Appearance from @altedi as Unaware Civilian.
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