Cata: Rose Quartz’s sword is a project we started in July of 2016 that ended up going on hold because life got in the way. in January 2017, Queadlunn picked up the project and finished it.
This sword is a combination of Sintra (blade) and styrene (hilt and detail pieces) with an oak dowel for the grip. We also used a belt sander, rotary tool, drill press, and power jig saw for this build. We understand not everyone has access to these tools so I’ll include alternate solutions, but having a rotary tool at the very least is recommended.
Onto the tutorial! (Note: image heavy)
This is the primary guide we used for the sword. The size of the sword depends on what you want to do. If you’re cosplaying Rose Quartz, the sword is sized to her so you’ll make it smaller than if you were cosplaying Connie or Steven. If you’re cosplaying Stevonnie, the sword is smaller than Connie or Steven, but still larger than Rose Quartz.
Or you can ignore all of that make the sword however big or small you want because it’s your sword.
The total length of our sword is 39 1/2 inches. The blade itself is 29 1/2 inches and 3 inches across. The grip is longer to accommodate two hands, but you could make it one-handed if you wanted.
For easy transportation, consider making the blade removable. The easiest way is to drill into the grip and blade a few inches, then glue a metal rod into the blade. Drop the rod into the grip and you’re done. This method will also give the blade more support, especially if you’re using EVA foam.
The Blade
(Previous post on the blade)
If you use Sintra and there’s a TAP Plastics nearby (or other place that will cut to order), a 3 feet by 3 inch piece 1/2 inch piece is only 5 dollars.
For the bevel, we used a belt sander and WM Armory’s beveling tutorial.
http://www.wmarmory.com/?p=2248
If you don’t have a belt sander but have a rotary tool:
http://www.wmarmory.com/?p=1210
The above tutorials will also work on EVA foam if that’s what you choose to make the blade out of. Make sure you practice before tackling the blade itself. It’s really easy to mess up and gouge the material. We had to get a second blade piece cut because of this.
It’s also up to how far the bevel goes. You can either bevel the entire light pink section or stop short. Our bevel only goes halfway up the light pink because we had trouble getting a full bevel to look good on both sides.
The decorative collar on the blade is 2mm EVA foam. I used cardstock to make a pattern, cut it out of foam, painted it, and glued it on. The lighter rose petal portion was a separate piece, but you can make it all one piece.
The Hilt
We ended up making two hilts. The first was completely out of EVA foam.
I ended up taking two pieces of 3 mm EVA foam, heating them up with a heat gun, then squishing them into a bowl to force the dome shape. The two pieces were glued together, the edges sanded flush, and filled with wood filler. The curved part was cut from 6 mm EVA foam and heat formed to get the curve in before I glued it to the hilt.
For structural reasons, we ended up moving to a styrene hilt. However, using EVA foam will absolutely work!
The second hilt used the exact same method as the first one, except Queadlunn used the stove to heat up the styrene. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN HEATING PLASTIC.
The circles on the underside of the hilt are 2 mm EVA foam circles cut with the circle cutter on our drill press. You could cut the circles by hand or paint them on.
With the decorative flower piece on the hilt, we decided to go a different route and create a physical piece instead of painting it on. Queadlunn covered the hilt and the bottom of the blade with plastic wrap, put WaterWeld Expoy Putty on top of the hilt, and squished the blade down on it. That created a small lip and clear indentation of where the blade sat. Once the WaterWeid dried, Queadlunn used a rotary tool to carve the shape. The piece was later sealed to the hilt with JB Weld epoxy.
If you want to do something similar, you could probably do the same with clay.
The Grip and Pommel
You can see it assembled in the hilt picture above, but these are the separate pieces.
The grip is a an oak dowel cut to size and wrapped with leather. We got lucky and found some leather from a leather supply shop that was a close match to the color we needed. Queadlunn cut a strip of leather, glued it down as he wrapped it, then went back with leather cord painted dark purple and wrapped it around the seams.
The pommel consists of two Sintra pieces. The circle was cut using a circle cutter, then the edges cut in with a rotary tool. Instead of using white like the picture shows, we used light pink to tie the color in.
The larger pommel piece was several discs of Sintra glued together with contact cement and sanded to a taper with the belt sander. The gem housing and petals were cut with a rotary tool. The pink on the pommel is the same pink used on the hilt.
The gem itself was a plastic gem picked up from the craft foam, painted pink with Sharpie markers, and glued in with clear epoxy.
Painting the Sword
Here are the main colors we used
Dark pink (blade): Valspar Satin Thistle Field (85020)
Light pink (blade): Krylon Colormaster Ballet Slipper Satin
Hilt, pommel: Valspar Gloss Frosty Berry (85022)
Dark purple: Valspar Satin Sumptous Purple (85025)
The blade was wetsanded to make it smooth and shiny. If you don’t know what wetsanding is, I wrote a tutorial on it:
https://ohicosplay.tumblr.com/post/118296273887/the-ura-once-nearly-sacked-the-city-with-these
It’s entirely optional, but if you want some extra gloss, there you go.
The vine pattern was painted by Queadlunn. He masked the whole sword with tape* and drew out the pattern with a compass and freehand, then used a X-acto knife to cut the pattern out. He painted everything with white acrylic paint, then once it was dried, remasked it, and used pink acrylic paint to paint the center stripe.
The same was done for the vine pattern on the grip.
The inside of the hilt was painted with purple spray paint, then the two circles were glued in after.
The final seal coat is an acrylic sealer/finish in semi-gloss and we don’t be doing any weathering to keep the pristine/cartoony look. The finish you go with and if you do any weathering is entirely up to you.
Thanks for reading the tutorial! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.