Iron War Axe

Very excited to show you my work on the axe for my Stormcloak costume. It was tough to decide specifically what weapon to make from the game. Since it was to accompany my shield, two-handed weapons were out of the question. The concept art for the costume depicts the Stormcloak with a sword, but I really felt an axe better fit a Nord and Nord culture, as well as the traveling Stormcloak soldier. It's got that nice hammered texture and looks like it was made quickly for outfitting a soldier, which I liked.

Here's the finished project. The handle is made of wood, but the axe head is fiberglass over foam using the same process as my shield.

I found a nice branch in my backyard that had the correct shape needed. I sawed off the ends and sawed/sanded off the bark as it was very loose and wouldn't be good for the finished prop as it was.

I continued to sand it to fit some PVC which would be used as the cap for the axe.

Since the branch had fallen off a tree some time ago, I wanted to strengthen it to make sure it could take a bit of abuse as a prop (not that I'd be really hitting things with it :P). So I used wood hardener along the entire length.

I made some approximate measurements from the in-game render to draw out the shape of the axe head on foam.

Here you can see some of the sanding process.

I used an exacto to carve out the edges. I didn't focus on any of the texture yet, just creating the base shape to work from. I sanded the interior edge of both pieces to allow them to fit the PVC.

Like the shield, the foam here was covered in 3 layers of masking tape to protect it from the resin.

After applying the fiberglass with an extra layer of resin to work into, I used my trusty dremel to create that hammered texture. I also used the dremel to carve into the handle to regain that barky texture, and used a dark ebony wood stain to match the hue seen in the reference. I glued the handle on with hot glue, which I also used to seal off the top. It was painted with chrome spray paint, semigloss clear, and a bit of black and burnt sienna acrylic for the rust and weathering. The final step was sewing on the faux leather grip to the handle.

I'm very happy with the finished product. I only kinda wish it really was made of metal so it would make a cool clanking sound when I hit my shield with it!

Butterbeer and the Monster Book of Monsters!

Is the blog overdue for an entry? I'd say so. I've desperately been trying to finish up my Stormcloak costume for a photoshoot and documentation here, but free time for cosplay work is found few and far between my real work as of late. It will come though.

But in the mean time, here's some fun I had this holiday season!

Butterbeer! So delicious! It's all foamy and yummy and cream soda-y but butterscotchy too :B And fillllliiiiing. You feel like you'll have to roll around the room after this. Here's the recipe I used: http://www.squidoo.com/universal-studios-orlando-harry-potter-butterbeer-recipe

In addition, one of the Christmas presents I worked on at the end of the year was the Monster Book of Monsters!

It was incredibly fun to make this. Not made to be an exact replica, it was created entirely from extra cosplay materials I had lying around (aside from the Canson Sketchbook bought for it specifically).

I started off by making the overall cover from craft foam sewn together, fit specifically to the sketchbook.

I used some Christmas wrapping ribbon for the tongue which is glued directly to the inside of the cover. I used Sobo glue to adhere the faux leather (from my Stormcloack costume) to the craft foam. The eyes and teeth were cast in hot glue from negative molds I carved into paper clay. Considering I didn't make a positive to start with, I'm quite happy with their outcome.

Afterwards, I adhered faux fur to the leather, plotting where the cleared areas would be for the writing, and anywhere else. I was also careful to cut the spider-leg-like parts around the edges, which are better seen in the first picture. At this point I roughed the leather up a bit (not in an interrogation room) with sandpaper.

The cover was then taken off the book so I could paint the fur the appropriate color (it was originally white). To do this, I used watered down brown fabric paint. I think I had about a 1:1 ratio. It took a while - the water was absorbed quickly by the fur and cotton binding underneath, so I kept having to mix more as I slowly spread it across. Once covered, I let it dry by fan, then used some black paint, sometimes watered down, for detailing and blending the transitions between leather and fur.

One of the most difficult parts was to properly get the fur adhered to the curved contours of the eyes, and stay that way till dry. I pressed down on the fur using a popsicle stick in between each eye to do this. In order to deepen the effect, I brushed some black paint there (not enough to blot, just enough to fade out). The eyes were painted black too, with yellow for the irises. The teeth and gums were done in acrylic paint. Both the teeth and eyes were covered in High Gloss Varnish to give them that wet look.

I didn't have any gold paint that had a nice reflectivity to it, so I mixed a goldish tone in acrylic, painted the words on, then lightly brushed white on top of that to make it appear to be reflecting higher amounts of light. This was also varnished over to exaggerate the effect.

The last stage was the belt, which was simply sewn together from the faux leather and built onto a buckle I already had. This was roughed up with sandpaper too.

The final result is a fun twist built around one of my favorite things from Harry Potter. Once the fur dried, it no longer had a nice smooth feeling to it, but rather a rough matted plushness suitable to such a hostile creature. Again, though at times I did strive for accuracy from the movie version, it was made completely out of materials I had lying around and is not meant to be a fully accurate reproduction. My main goal was the hope that this book cover would help to inspire the artist to fill the pages with exciting images!

UPDATE: This got a Daily Deviation on deviantART!