TUTORIAL: craft your own giant sword!

Today I would like to tell you how I did my Battle Bunny Riven (from League of Legends) Sword.

There are a lot of tutorial online but I figured out that they often use materials that are not easy to find or to handle, that require a lot of practice or special instruments to be worked with.

So… here it is my simple and cheap way to do a giant sword with easy to find and cheap materials…such as Styrofoam boards.

Materials needed:

-        -          3x Styrofoam boards (100x50x2cm)
-        Styrofoam glue (the one used to glue the Styrofoam board on the walls for insulation)
-        A sharp serrate knife that can be heated up on the stove
-        A wood stick (100cm long, 2cm in diameter)
-        Polyurethane foam (not essential)
-        EVA foam
-        All purpose glue
-        Newspaper paper and some very thin paper (tissue paper)
-        Starch glue or white vinyl acetate glue
-        Knife

1- preparation for the handle

Let's start by taking one board and creating a 30-35cm long cut, 2 cm wide (same diameter of the wooden stick that you are going to use as handle) in the center of one of the Styrofoam board. 

Use a hot knife to easily cut through the foam! You will cut through it without having fall outs or foam crumbles everywhere… it will be as easy as cutting butter! To warm up the knife I used my stove J it’s as simple as it seems! Remember: use a knife that you won’t use again for food J some Styrofoam will stick to it!

Since the thickness of the board is the same as the diameter of the stick, no other modification to set the handle are required. It will be kept in place by the other 2 boards placed on top and bottom of it.
In case the diameter of the handle stick is bigger than the thickness of the board, you will need to create on the other two boards a small curved inlet to accommodate the stick and being then able to have it trapped in there. You can see what I mean in this video here (even if they use a different material!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOFu0MBAxE4

 2- glue the boards together

Take one of the intact board, and add a layer of styrofoam glue, by spreading it all over the board.

Take the board with the cut and put it on top of the previous board. Add the handle in the area we cut previously and add a lot of glue (Styrofoam glue or express all purpose glue, or a combination – avoid hot glue since it may melt the styrofoam).

Add a layer of Styrofoam glue all over the board and glue the third and last board over it. Add weights to the overlapped boards and let dry overnight. The advantage of using this type of glue for insulation panel is that it makes the styrofoam stronger since it dries in a similar way to plaster.

3- Prepare for the cut

Draw on a piece of paper the layout of the sword, by copying it from your reference image. Remember to considere where will be your handle inside the foam (eg: in my case it is positioned till 35 cm from the bottom of the board). 

Cut out the drawing and apply it over the Styrofoam boards to redraw it… and then start cutting. As mentioned before, I used a hot knife for this step. Firstly I cut the shape quite quickly and then I finalize the details and the shape with the knife. Remember: you must reheat the knife quite often during the process…as soon as you see that it gets stacked in the foam, it means that is not hot enough!

 

4- Add the details

I used EVA foam for the details of the sword: the leaf on the side and the rounded thing in the center. I also used eva foam to create the details of the handle. Use your imagination and the material you already have at home: cardboard or clay may also be used for this purpose!

5- paper mache time!

After all the cutting and detailing, we really don’t want our sword to break down in pieces...so, paper mache it’s the way to go when using porous material as Styrofoam. The trick to obtain a nice homogeneous result is to be PATIENT: cut small pieces of newspaper paper, and be careful to do not form any wrinkle when adding them on the sword. It’s better to take your time here, instead of regretting it afterwards. I usually dip the paper in starch&water glue, but also simple flour&water glue can be good enough. You can also go for vinyl acetate glue diluted in water. I believe the first two methods are so cheap and work just fine that it is not needed to spend money on this step! 

I did 3 layers of paper mache.(wait for the glue to dry between each step). If you are willing to obtain the best result, just add an extra layer done with super thin paper, such as tissue paper, to ensure that you don’t see the overlapping of your paper strips!

 6- priming and painting

Before starting with the painting process, I did a couple of layer of glue on the sword to make it as smooth as possible. Usually 3 layers are enough! As a base, I used a transparent spray for polymeric material all over the sword. I did two coating to ensure that the painting afterwards would have been as nice as possible. Be aware: many types of spray paints can “eat” the foam!! If you are not sure, test it on a small spot first! And buy paint for polymeric materials!

To color the sword I used acrylic paints. These are very convenient because they can be used for any type of material and they come in a wide range of colors. Since you want to create some dimension in the sword, you always need a shade lighter and darker of your main color. In my case, I took orange, brown, and yellow. Moreover: black and white are a must to create the shadows!

  

In this case, I started with the main color all over, and then added the shadows and blending between the colors…(a quick trick: use some wet tissue to smudge in between two different colors before they are completely dry, it worked very well for me!). Practice and see if you like what you get…. I did try different things before getting to the final result that I liked since it was my first big project!

 
7- Protection

Now that your color is done, you don’t want it to fade over time, or get ruined by a few drops of water. So…spray again some transparent spray to give a nice coating over it (2 layers, or even more if you like the effect).

8- Final result