Tutorial - Building up own weaponry

posted by Roman, Jarhead, kong

In the time that passed i now finally come to the last article i have on my mind to write before making a big update to the article section and making a little article break time, some kind of pause i guess.

If you want me to talk about "Jamballaya" go on reading...
 This article is about how i did build up some of the weaponry of my latest projects, mostly at 'Dschingis Cow'. This is for sure not a step by step guide how you can build up a dagger, or a longsword, or an axe, or a bow, or a long spear. It is not meant to be exactly an article what you have to do. This is more an article that shows you what i have done and why it is easy for you do build up every weapon you like - you simply got to try and do it. Here is some inspiration how you can do... and patience is needed, ah i always want to forget this...

Building up a shield
For the shield of Dschingis Cow i was inspired by an old earring Raffa found on the streets and gave it to a while ago. I choose to super glue wooden coffee sticks to it on the back... superglue mode active. You may click to enlarge the photos:

Some super glueing moments later:

After this was dried, i took a rasp to make it round at the edges. Also i took a scalpel to add some damage to the wood, concentrated on the edges because if Dschingis would have used his shield it might be the place where he stopped an enemies advancement towards injuring him... TSSCCCHHOONNNKK! Kkknnnooogggrrraaaahhhhh!!!Damage there... but take care on yourself while working with a sharp scalpell, screaming with reason while working relaxed is really not a wonderful moment. I also added small blanks by Takka-Takka to it with simply using super glue and a toothhpick as a tool to work precious...

Now the shield was glued in place and some sculpting work with Magic Sculp passed to place the leather belts that are used by Dschingis to grab his shield easy and confortable while conquering the local barnyards.

Building up the blade of 'Dschingis'

As you can see i changed the topic at this place - i guess because of the picture above. There you can see a big blade, which is Dschingis's best friend. He found it on a big desert mountain chain, while climbing to the stars to ask them questions. They spoke to him and gave him "Jamballaya", a blade made by the stars to conquer the local barnyards more easier, even he is destinated to do in the future.

Jamballaya's blade was build up from 3 pieces of plastic card . One big for the use as the main body, two smaller one for more massivnes. I sketch them on the plastic card and did use a nail scissor to cut them out, sandpaper to make them fine and clean them up. Then i glued them together in place. Next move was soften the hard edges from the difference material strength with using Magic Sculp - just press it in place, like "blourb!" and use some water wet fingers to make it plain, also you could use Milliput instead.

After this was dry i've used a rasp to work the material to form a blade edge, tried to keep the same angle all the time. Sandpaper afterwards.

Next i choose to make the blade loke more oriental and did first cut and then rasp and sandpapered an area off from material. I've also build up the missing part of the upper blade grip using pastic card and glued it to its place after the casual plastic card surgery i am talking about all the time. I then added magic sculp by using the "blourbs!" technique to Jamballaya's hip. I took a liner by a lollipop and a tip of a pencil from thechniqual drawings to press some strange design to Jamballaya. Waited until it dried and worked my way over it with sandpaper to make it plain.

The blade of the stars was now finished. Dschingis is the only one to swing it with his rightous reasons against some evil farmers...

Closing words

I hope this helps anyhow. What i can say from my experience while doing it is that there is patience needed and i even did use a lot on my version. I guess you can do really masterpieces of different weaponry with patience in your chest. That will happen to me too i guess, someday, haha.

Here is another example where i first gave this a real try, smaller scale, less patience:

Bad photos i know... Jamballaya for barnyard freedom!!

Keep on happy painting!
Regards
Roman