The Sheath! (and sword)

Well, I skipped posting a step in between the last post and now, but it's not that important.  My dad buffed and sanded the sword down to make it all smooth and then put on three or four coats of primer.

For the sheath, we decided to use matboard, which is kinda like really hard cardboard.  It is used in framing a lot.  We measured out the length of the sword and built a mock to get the sizing correct and figure out how to not have it collapse.  By cutting only halfway through a layer with a razorblade it makes the matboard pliable enough to bend but still retain strength.  We bent the side pieces so that they overlapped each other, adding more strength.  To add the 3-D effect down the top of the sword, we cut another piece of matboard and peaked it (like a roof).  Then we glued in spacers of matboard and a little piece of wood to give it the height that we wanted. 

We then covered the entire sheath in packing tape which added strength.  Here is a close up of the nose, which was a pain to make.

The sword next to the sheath.

Since the sheath was covered in tape, we put brown paper (like butcher paper) over the entire sheath.  We used vacuumount spray to attach it.

By doing so, it gave us the traction needed to attach the blue.  That is actually boat shrinkwrapping plastic; it just happened to be the right color for the sheath.  Rather than plastic, we could have left it just covered in paper and painted it.  However, I didn't want seam lines on the back.

Big jump here.  Once the sheath was covered in blue we started cutting out patterns for the gold decorations out of paper.  Once we got working models, we then traced and cut them out of yellow craft foam.  Since the yellow was the wrong color we painted the pieces gold.  It took 4-5 coats to come out the color I wanted.  A really good glue to use (at least for us) was E-6000.  I swear, that stuff will glue anything!

Another big jump.  Here you can see most of the pieces have glued on.  What all the clamps are for is that we just added the top most piece of the sheath, the one that sticks up around the wings of the sword.  We glued this on after because at the time of cutting it, we didn't think of how that piece was going to fit in :P  Otherwise this would have been added in when the sheath was first cut.

Out of the whole costume, I think the sheath was the hardest.  I will add more pictures later.  At this time, thought, the sheath is done!

Sword Update:

Big jump again!  To get the doughnut around the handle, we ended up using modeling clay and just shaping the doughnut on around the sword handle.  We then let it dry next to heat for a day.  We used the same modeling clay for the ridges that are shown in this picture.  It's really hard making matching ridges so all the wings look the same!  These were glued straight onto the wood with E-6000.

The sword has now been spray painted silver to color the blade.  We put on a couple coats of spray paint to make the blade shiny.  However, I'm not sure, but I think these leads to increased scuffing if you are not careful with the sword.  I already have a couple scuffs from taking it in and out of the sheath since the sheath is a bit of a tight fit.

Now the sword has a clear laqure sprayed over it and we are painting on the blue.  In later pictures you will be able to see that the insides of the ridges on the wings were painted darker than the rest of the sword.  This gives a shadow effect.

The only thing left is to wrap the green/yellow string around the blue leather grip on the handle. 

Sword complete

Back view of Sheath and Sword

If anyone wante more detailed pictures of the sheath I will be happy to send them!
Email me at my cosplay.com account.
http://www.cosplay.com/member/247929/