1s/eros
CONVERTING THE MASSES
by Neil ‘Mad Converter’ Roberts
{In this short article, neil Roberts shows us how to make great hand. weapons casily from scratch
‘There are ewo parts to each weapon; the bit you hold (the
handle) and the bit you stick ino your enemy (the head). At
the most basic level there ate three types of head ~ sharp,
‘edged and blunt as seen in spear, sword and mace, for
Instance. There are likewise three types of handle ~ shor.
medium and long. Short and medium represent one and
twechanded weapons while Iong handles represent the very
Intelligent idea of putting 25 much distance as possible
‘wrapped that section with a thin ribbon of masking tape cut
for the purpose and wrapped as you would a bandage
Unfortunately this didn’ look as nice a V'd hoped it would,
40 off it came, but I have used i on other weapons in
the pas,
Wooden hafts are my favourite, as anyone
‘who's seen my Golden Demon 2003 entry will
‘hetween yourself and the person who's trying to hityou. know: Smooth wood, as on a spear shaft or modern
[axe hana, is mostly inthe painting so Ijust use plain {/) (ag. 2)
‘There are exceptions to the above a staffis all andle and / brass rod for this. Small lumps of Green Stuf added
no blade, and a throwing dagger is all blade and no / and then smoothed out can give a more organic
handle) but look at it this way —only halfas much Ji) appearance, especially on a rounded end. But its jf
weapon to sculpt! There, docs thar fect eter? (gate wood that I most enoy sculpting, the hind
} ‘of wood chat stil has bark over its owisted core
TOOLS AND MATERIALS i
‘The basic too! ki consists of a pin dal and bits, 2 You sat off with arod or wie core (bent to shape |
sharp hobby knife, your standard sculpting tools, 4 Jd (ag. 1)
pair of wire-cutters and various needle files Ifyou
have an electrical hobby drill with a set of abrasive
and cutting heads, all the beter, but they're not essential
All che examples you'll see were done with the basic kit. 1
@ use rwo sculpting tools, by the way. For modelling purty 1
sean old dentist's tool which Tve never seen anywhere
‘else but whichis simllat to the GW sculpting tool, while for
Green Stuff use a Wax 5 professional sculpting too!
1 recommend cleaning your tools thoroughly before using
‘with diferent modelling compounds. The list of materials is
slightly longer. Various thicknesses of plastcard are nice, but
you can get avay with just one thin grade sheet for most
projects. Brass cubing. the types that it nicely inco each
‘other like Russian dolls, for some weapon types is essential
for. Masking tape often gets used, as docs steel wie fom my
local fishing racke shop. For glue I don't bother with past
Blue, only superglue, and I round out my materials with
Some scrap copper wire, fuse wire, solder and, of course
modelling putty and Green Stu
Realistically whatever does the job can be considered part of
Your materials. I've used everything from plastic BBs to
children's toys, jewellery to electrical components
HANDLES AND HAFTS
High tech hafts and handles ae the esses, Ifyou look atthe
mace you can see that there i a central core of bras fod
From the brass tube that fts snugly over this cod I cut
several rings of various lengths and then glued these into
place leaving gaps to make both interesting variations on the
hafe and also the section that would be held. Originally 1
handle inthe examples) around which you puta
thin layer of Green Stutt When this is cured
Jwrap another layer around the section you wish to sculpt,
letit harden alittle and then draw parallel lines down it with
your sculpting tool ~ t's that simple.
If need be a5 you can see ftom the bladeless i
Olay, not quite. There are some things that you can do to
make it more interesting, Wavering the lines and varying
‘hele thickness for instance, just lke with real bark, helps
lve the weapon some characte. I also add splits to the
hark, prising the sculpted lines apart and easing the point
Under the edges to lift chem up slightly In this way you can.
see the wood inside and, again, it adds character
“There's nothing to stop you doing a whole haf ike this, but
ike to vary texture wherever I can1s/eros
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One mote thing ~ knots. add lite blobs of Green Stuff
‘which I then tim into rough trlangles for the body of the
ots, but I leave the walling ends of cloth unt after I've
added the weapon tothe igure because graity effects how
‘they would hang. Often I'll sculpt these tralling ends on 2
ceramic tle, pop them off when they're cured and glue
‘them into place
BLADES AND HEADS
‘There are two ways I make blades: ether with thin or thick
plasticard. At the most basic level you cut out the desired
shape and then sharpen it's that easy.
O For narrow blades, like sabres or daggers, carefully mark out
the basle shape on a sheet of thick plastcard (Luse some
1.2mm thick sheet), Cut around it leaving a margin outside
the marked area and then trim it carefully 0 shape using
Your sharp knife. You now have a very blunt blade, Using
‘one of your rougher needle files, draw i diagonally along
the blade, starting to sharpen the edge of the ‘blade’. Keep
turning «€ over while you do ths $0 that each side is
sharpened evenly and the blade is symmetrical. When you
have che basc edge roughed out use a fine ile to smooth
It to finished point. I warn you now that your first blade
‘wll e rough and uneven, ft fora culist ora bodyguacd,
‘but not a noble Inquistor. Practice makes perfec. Of
‘course you can also use your files and knife to notch
and distress a pristine blade if you want ~ i all
‘depends on the character you're arming,
you don't have any thick plasticard than use thin sheet and
‘thicken i. I's tempting to make up a sandwich of plastcacd
by gluing sheets together, but the Bond often won't survive
the sharpening process you use superglue and ifyou use
plastic glue it deforms the sheets. Instead I use modelling
ppc, adding a thin layer to each side ofthe plastcard and.
lerting it cute, The bonus with this option is that during
sharpening I know when I've reached the centre of the
blade. That's when I uncover the plasticard,
‘This sexacly the same technique that use for broad blades
such a5 the long hooked knife (fg. 1)
Shaped heads, like axes othe prime cutting spear in the
‘examples, are justa variation on this theme
Last but not least, are blunt headed weapons. Rocks bound,
‘onto sticks aside, there are several ypes of blunt weapons
[Astaffis all handle and no head, a maul i also essentially &
hafe with no head ~ a shore staff f you will ~ and can be
made by adding 2 few studs to the handle you've already
made. Club? Big stick ~ again just a modified handle. That
leaves my mace
‘The most notable feature of my mace isthe vaned head. This
looks hard to do, but was really quite easy just time
‘consuming. marked and cu the same basic shape sx times
from thick plasticard, smoothed the back and ends of each
and then taped them together into one very thick chunk of
plastic with one very regular and rough face. I marked the
shape of the leading edge I wanted on the cop ofthe ‘lock’
and thea used my pin dri, kfe and fles to germ
‘carve eto shape, Once shaped I just removed
the tape and smoothed off afew rough edges. Voila —
six vanes. These were then glued into place on the
reconstructed hat. (fig. 2)
Lastly hammers. ve never made one, bu 1 id
bul! go abot the mune bevy ade
[ppc tecnologia! bats id coping brass
J )iea‘sda's tee plate made trom pasar
J attach it to a haft and bingo - one hammer much
Me Preubar cts. A prnive banners
(Goud be made as Supe cock whch then
arched ws wooden it ls your dae
LAST STEP
Once you have both handle and head just glue them
together, pinning them wherever possble to give them
strength. And that's it. You can also see ewo variations on
the themes above in the examples Ive done ~a bone knife
‘with leather covering on the handle (which, with its
Separate stands of sutching, s more sculpted than any
‘weapon I've done before) anda muck rake. (fig. 3)
Ie-was late at night and I was watching ‘Monkey’ on TV —1
make no excuses. Anyway, until next time, is over {0 you
‘Time to arm the masses.
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