finnleo Posted March 27, 2019 (edited) So one can only make so and so many chairs before wanting to try something a bit more ambitious. There had been a certain magic cane that I had been thinking of re-creating in 1/3 scale for some time now, especially since I've had one my dolls have a distinct resemblance to the wielder, although in a slightly different body size. As always the budget for this was a round zero, so I was left to scrounge whatever I had laying around ... mainly again the dismantled spruce paneling pile that was by now diminished into a few sticks... as a starting point I made a 60x10 piece by gluing together two pieces of paneling and then planing them down to 11mm thickness. To help the shaping process, I made a 1:1 scale drawing of what I was trying to accomplish, and used this to transfer the shapes to the piece of wood... After this it was a trip to the band-saw, and liberating the rough piece from its mortal coil... Then it was a case of spending some quality time at various power sanders, dremels and such things for a good six hours, and I got a to a point to see what I had taken out of the raw stock... At this point I was rather stoked. especially since I was worried that the two pieces of wood hadn't adhered together properly, and also a possible grain miss-match but so far everything looked rather promising, to be even left as is ... There was some fine tuning to be had, but at this point it had been a full work day on it, and I still had work the next morning... For the orb I didn't have much in the way of options, and the closest I could get to the original, was a sphere from a LED light string set... The original design calls for some brass accents near the base of the hook part, and for these I used 1,5mm thick solid core electrical wire I had already stripped for a bit more dubious stand project that never became a reality... In theory 2,5mm would have been more accurate in terms of scale, but again I was limited to what I had readily available. To keep the pieces in place since the section was a compound shape of sorts, I made a groove with a dremel bit... To lock the copper hoops in place they were soldered together, with regular electronics solder (all be it the old juicy toxic lead based variant...) to accomplish this the ends had to be rather accurately joined together in a butt-joint: followed by a dab of solder, that would be later sanded down... The first hoop didn't quite end up as nice as the second one, but that at least gave me a place to put a steel wire through for the stain and varnish phase... And for that the whole thing was gone over with 240grit sandpaper, with a block to keep the gain as smooth as possible... As for a stain I had to contemplate between two options.. the palisander and mahogany variants... the copper details would have worked by themselves with the palisander, but the mahogany was more close to the original design... in the end I decided I would paint the copper hoops either way, so I went with the mahogany... And after the stain, three coats of varnish that was sanded down in between coats for that extra juicy boom-bastic finish... To attach the orb, there wasn't really any elegant way of going about, except to drill a hole inside the hook piece for a piece of clear model kit sprue... which in turn grabs a hold of the silicone coupler of the ornamental ball... All that was really left to do was paint the orb and the metal details, but that was easier said than done and resulted in a day and a half of cleaning and tinkering of my work-space to be finally able to get out the air-brush stuff for the orb... it ended being a bit on the pink side, but that's again because I was lacking in paints to choose from... but still, its close enough I guess... So we were closing in on one final detail... But before that I just couldn't help myself, and had to have a bit of a play with a laser pointer and 30 second exposure times... "Charging the boom-booms:" So the final detail was wrapping the cane... the material of choice is naturally cotton.. for which I made a 20mm wide strip which I folded in two... Though as a afterthought I think 30mm would have been maybe a bit better, but as always I decided to go with I had already cut... To keep the start of the wrap in place I used some eye-putty which I thought would clean off with minimal hastle and wouldn't cause much damage to the cane itself I decided to redo it at some point... "Round round get around I get around...." --- until we get to the end of the wrap, for which I just twisted the cotton around and did a simple knot at the base added with some more eye putty to keep stuff in place ... it makes it look a bit puffy, but ... I couldn't think of anything else that wouldn't have required adhesives which would yellow over time.. This is the point where for accuracy the cotton could have been a bit better had it been wider ... but still it looks the part enough for me... and as a added bonus it still fits a DD-gripping hand: And so... time for the beauty shots: (INSERT MAN AT ARMS REVEAL MUSIC HERE:) Thanks for looking, and see you next time... if there is a next time... Edited April 17, 2019 by finnleo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lunadiviner Posted March 28, 2019 Wow!! I recently did woodwork for the first time in school (I'm an art student) and I really admire how smooth you got all the wood and all those curves... Great work!! I love the design of the staff as well! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Catzs101 Posted March 28, 2019 It looks beautiful! I love that it lights up! It gives it that extra magical feel to it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
finnleo Posted March 30, 2019 (edited) Thank you very many. On 3/28/2019 at 11:48 PM, lunadiviner said: Wow!! I recently did woodwork for the first time in school (I'm an art student) and I really admire how smooth you got all the wood and all those curves... Great work!! I love the design of the staff as well! Well luckily there isn't any witchcraft (pun partially intended) to this, just tedious work going through the grits while sanding the thing, and naturally the sanding in between the coats of varnish. Also the lighting manages to hide some of the minor runs in the varnish, but overall for once I am very happy with the end result warts included. The forming was a bit more involved this time around, but to that I need to confess having been at this side of the hobby for a few years now, and even at my ex daytime job I did quite a bit of manual forming on stuff with big sanders and the like... but practice, practice, practice. as for the design, its a fun and detailed one for a very fun character (All be it there are versions of it, of which this is closer to the anime version), but will have to see will I go through with the rest of the getup. Edited March 30, 2019 by finnleo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Poofiemus Posted April 8, 2019 LOL Man At Arms reveal music, yes. I feel like I should recognize this weapon, but my brain instead keeps saying "D & D version of Nanoha's Raising Heart!", which, uh. . . no, no it is not lol. Regardless, it turned out awesome! Looking forward to seeing it with a full DD body instead of just a handy hand. In this household, sanity is considered a tresspasser. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
finnleo Posted April 8, 2019 3 point clue: "Explosion" But the D&D Nanoha isn't all too far fetched ... though this one is for a slightly dorky pyro. But ruthless when it comes to winning things against rivals... or getting to blow stuff up. The photo's of my faux konosuba Megumin are in the photo's section, the "Discount Arch-mage" thread... I was thinking of making the whole outfit, but due to motivational and practical reasons thats on hold for now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
