#artemis bow

[autumnslance]

Spent the evening before maintenance starting and completing the original Relic Reborn - Artemis Bow quest chain; it didn’t take very long at all. I may or may not continue to upgrade the weapon over time, we’ll see. I have “The Godsbow” title with this.

May go for Gae Bolg as well, and any other jobs I get to 50; this stage (and the first upgrade) are pretty quick and easy.

[empyreanlydia]

It’s...so purple...But finally, I made it through hell and survived!! 0/10 would not attempt to do this step again...

[prettylittlelunaa]

[mmorpgeek]

Spammed FATEs until I got all 12 Atma pieces, took me about 2-1/2hrs, but I upgraded my Aretmis bow. Which is ironic, since I don’t even equip it. But, I figure if I upgrade as I go, eventually I’ll get to anima lux. 

[halfbakedbass]

This my waifu here. Hope you all like it since it was a hell of a pain to make the pallette

[max-the-bird]

ARTEMIS BOW: FFXIV BARD

This was a co-op effort with sashafelicity, pictured last. She did the painting and other detail work on the bow, as well as the entirety of the rest of her awesome bard costume, so if you have any questions about that, she's the one to ask. However, if you're interested in the construction/carving of the bow, you're in the right place!

Materials:

36" x 3" x 0.5' Balsa wood (~10 pieces)

Wood glue

Paper + pencil for pattern making

Something to cut/carve wood with. I used a box cutter.

Set of trunk lid hinges (the bendy kind that go on the sides and hold it open, not the ones that go on the back

Having a dremel tool helps

Wood filler

2 - 3 square feet of Worbla for details

Paint

A few little blue feathers

Photo description/Tutorial:

Reference pic.

The Artemis bow is made of two parts - the top piece, which is basically a harp, and the bottom piece, which looks like 2/3rds of a normal bow. Here's my pattern for the harp part.

Working on the pattern for the bottom/bow part. It was useful to make the two patterns on separate pieces of paper, so I could check their relative proportions whether the bow was folded up or not.

I make cosplay props out of balsa wood whenever possible. This keeps the overall weight down (important when prop is more than 6ft long and held in non-dominant hand). Balsa is also much easier to carve than almost anything else. I had to split the pattern up into about ten pieces to fit it onto the wood. I cut three layers of balsa wood, taking care to break up the pattern in different places for each layer, and then glued them together with wood glue.

Here's the lower part. I carved down the edges to be smooth, evening out the differences between the three layers of balsa wood and giving it a nice overall shape. Be careful when carving any thin tips, as excess pressure may cause a split along the grain of the wood. As with any carving project, don't be intimidated. Carve the wood off in small shavings and gradually work towards the shape you want. Sand it when you're done, and you'll be amazed with how it looks :)

Details on the hinge attachment: I carved a slot through the balsa wood and put a piece of stronger wood in, to better support the hinges. I drilled screws in all the way through the side of the bow. Sorry I don't have a better picture of this.

Hinge attachment to the harp part: Most of the hinge actually had to be hidden. I planned to put another piece of balsa wood on top of it, so I carved a trench for the hinge to sit in. The raised part on top was quite annoying, though. There was only one place to put a screw through the hinges, so I ended up drilling holes through the entire bow and wiring the hinges in.

The final details. I covered the hinges with more balsa wood, then started carving out the details. I used a dremel for most of the inside edges, and sanded everything down after.

sashafelicity took it from here. She covered the remaining cracks (and my mistakes) with wood filler, sanded again, made the rest of the details with worbla, and painted.

[brattyconifer]

Finally got my relic bow tonight! (And showing off my totally awesome looking CT hat that I got last night)