Welcome to this paper Phantom Blade Instructable...

Phantom blade, latest and perharps the deadliest weapon from the Ubisoft franchise Assassin's Creed. Fans including me would die for one. Unfortunately many fans around the globe can't own the official replica (toy) of hidden blade, due to shipping and tons of other troubles... And most tutorial online require 3-D printing or pep file components, which is not handy neither (in Hong Kong at least)...Here is my little attempt to solve this problem with a papercraft approach, the human pep again...haha... BTW Thx for the suggestion for this project, i really had fun finishing it!!

This tutorial features:

No pep files,
No need to be a computer wizard
Fully recycled materials... (low-budget)
A short youtube videos tutorial as well as written version
and once you master the technique you can build whatever you like!!
old-fashion and raw true paper craft experience..
can be customize in any size and level of detail as you wish

Comparing to the AC4BF hidden blade we built before, This one is a Absolute Step up...

!!More skills, time and dedication are required!!

What are you waiting for fellow assassins?

Step 1: Let Start From Drawing Board....

Every good project requires time, dedication and never the less PREPARATION!!

After E3 2014, We assassin's creed fans have had a pretty gd look of the Phantom Blade itself. And with these amazing reference photo and sketches... it should do the job...

If you have read my instructables... You may find the following preparation advice familiar, But its so important i have to put it here...

Conceptual preparation:

Measure the length of your forearm
write down the intended sizes and dimension of your hidden blade
start googling reference fotos (deviant art and flickr are great too)draw or print a 1:1 (blueprints) for your blade
come up with simple plan of constructing the 3d shapes and forms

Physical preparation:

have a clean working table or station (which i fail all the time)
collect and unfold your recycle paper boxes and estimate how many will be use
experiment and playing around with unfolded paper card board
Attached with sketches and work plans i did for my blade... for reference... feel free to make your own plan and sketch

p.s. My advice is to draw the sketch once, even if you find a very detail blueprint, make modification of your own... drawing your own sketch takes a bit of extra time, but really reveal a lot more details and realism... Make the production stage smoother and more efficient...

Step 2: Materials and Tools

the project is a low budget one hang tight... (most of my projects are)

Materials:

plenty of recycled paper boxes (tissue or cereal box)
some draft paper for drafting and sketching
double side adhesive tape(optional)
adhesive tape
clean McDonald's straw (optional)
rubber band (for projectile in the sliding track)
decorative elastic cord or simple string

Tools:

scissors (normal office scissors will do)
cutters
hot glue gun (you can any glue you like i like hot glue gun cus its fast and firm most of the case)
white glue
pens, pencils, and markers
hole puncher (for making hinges)

This is it for material and tools,

!!Caution!! scissors, cutter and hot glue gun could potentially be dangerous, use with care.

Small remark on glues:

Hot Glue: faster to 'dry', more durable, water proof

school glue/white glue: Longer to dry, more control(can spread evenly with brush or fingers), not water proof...

To me they are both awesome choice... I think hot glue is best for conneting 2 faces to an edge, and white glue is best for connecting 2 faces to layers...

Step 3: General Game Plan...

One fun way of Planing a paper&glue project is to divide it into smaller layers!!

Lets imagine a phantom blade laying on our wrist from bottom up:

At the bottom, its the Hidden blade mechanism,
Then is a Sliding track for the bow and arrow contraption
on top its the turn-able Bow limbs and where the "Arrow" rest

Pls see the photo for some of my rough sketches in coffee shop...

Above three parts will be our major Parts!!

There are some structural reminders to keep in mind...

the hidden blade mechanism will be similar to the one i proposed in AC4 blade
A simple hinge system can be use for rotating bow limbs
the gap between the 2 bow limbs should be wide enough for the "arrow" to pass thru
This is after all paper we are using... glue firmly and add more layer of paper to strengthen it up!!

Apology in advance!!

You may spot some super minor space-time paradox in pics in this instructable... Meaning some picture and instruction are out of chronological order...

i.e. 1st step: i ask you to stick a straw on, but 2nd step the straw is not stuck yet in a pic...

Bcuz the instructions shown here is a improved clearer version of the workflow i actually did... hope this wont cause major confusion... Feel free to ask me for inquiry, i am more than happy to help... i wish i can time travel to solve this problem haha... just hold on tight i think it will be fine...

Step 4: Part 1: Hidden Blade Mechanism

Some comments reflects that my previous instructable on this is not extremely clear...here is my little improvement. For inquiry, visit my other instructable on this issue:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Letz-make-a-Paper-...

or ask me in the comment below, I will try my best to answer you ASAP...

A picture beats a thousand words...

The hidden blade build is fun... pls refer to the pics if my following steps description falls short...

Cut out the base board and start from it... (i use three layers of paper to stay stiff)
Cut two layer of paper into the shape of the blade, i use bamboo stick inside for reinforcement(optional)
Add a paper tail to the end of the blade, later forming rings with it...
Build the two layer track, blocking out an empty space for the blade
Fit the 2 sliding track into the 2 rings on the blade...(!!no glue!!)
Secure both ends of the tracks, make sure the blade can slide freely in range and will not fall apart
Enclose the whole mechanism so that we can build the next part!

!!TIPS!!

You may apply some baby powder for lubricating the sliding track b4 enclosing the mechanism... i use the johnson's btw
b4 proceeding to next step, You should check whether the blade can move in desirable range at this point...

Step 5: Part 2: the Sliding Track for the Bow and Arrow

Félicitations!! reading this Means you have finish the hidden blade part... Hope you are all warm up!!

The building of sliding track is starting to get challenging, yet total fun for a craftman like you!!...

This track will need some rubber bands for powering the bow and arrow, In next part, Part 3 the "string" of the bow will only be a decoration!!

pls refer to the pics if my following steps description falls short...

Open up the drinking straw all the way... (low friction + consistent shape = ideal for making track)
Glue the straw on top of the hidden blade compartment...
Re-enforce it by building 2 paper 'wall' around it
Row up a a small paper cylinder with extensions, its diameter should be smaller than that of the straw
Secure a chain of 2 rubber bands in this cylinder (my experience: stapling and tape should do the job, hot glue it for extra strength).
Fit the cylinder inside the straw
Make two paper clip-like thing... and glue it on the side of the paper 'walls'
Secure both ends of the rubber band onto two clips, expect to use a super strong glue for this... Hot Glue is ideal, if not glue 1-2 extra layer of paper wrapping the clip
Cut a new covering plate with a gap of appropriate length and width as the range of movement as the cylinder in the straw. make the width tight to prevent the the cynlinder from escaping
Enclose the whole mechanism with the covering plate(>1 layer preferably), so that we can build the next part

!!TIPS!!

I recommend straws from the McDonald's, they are quite stiff, a friendly diameter and there's printed line for easy cutting... It also withstand the temperature of my hot glue without deformation, which is great!!
Don't staple thru the rubber band!! this will damage and weaken the rubber... staple around the band... Also i use a chain of 2 bands, should work fine for common bands, but it still depends on the band of choice
You may also apply some baby powder for lubrication b4 enclosing the mechanism... i use the johnson's btw
b4 proceeding to next step, You should check whether the recently built blade and track is functional at desirable range at this point... if not, fix it ASAP

Step 6: Part 3: the Rotating Bow Limbs and the Arrow ...

Félicitations!! X2 reading this Means you have only the bow limb and the arrow to build!!

A fun thing to note... Here i will introduce building simple hinge system using paper... And forming shapes by layering... These 2 tricks are easy to learn and applicable to many paper craft situations.

Again feel free to refer to the pics only if you dont feel like reading my instruction!! you should do fine...

Replicate and cut the limb shape(pls include the hole) of the bow limb on card board 18 times.
Punch holes accordingly for all of them (for later use of hinge)
Punch an extra hole on the other end of for four of them ( later attaching the "string")
For 1 bow limbs,
1. School glue (normal glue) is better than hot glue here, it takes longer to dry but can be spread evenly across a surface.
2. Glue 2 layers of limb shape with 2 extra holes together
3. Tie a secure knot to the extra hole with the string of choice (gold elastic cord in my case)
4. Glue 3 layers of limb shape without 2 extra holes together
5. Glue 4 layers of limb shape without 2 extra holes together
6. Glue the three macro-layers together, the 1 with extra hole and string in the middle...
Repeat step 4 again for the other limb, in which the length of the string = length when the bow is fully extended.
Roll up a long strip of office paper (around 2cm tall) until its diameter is barely smaller than the hole by the hole puncher. Do this twice to obtain 2 'paper rolls'
Fit the ‘paper rolls’ into the the hole in the bow limbs.
Cut out the arrows shape, stick 2 layer into 1 arrow…
Cut out 1 circular disc and punch 2 holes, take care the gap between holes is wide enough for 1 arrow to pass thru freely even after the 2 limbs are installed.
Find the correct width and replicate this disc shape 18 times
Build up around 9 layers of disc so the lower disc is as tall as the sliding track compartment…(no. of layers may vary, according to the glue and paper of choice)
Insert the 'paper rolls' into the hole of the disc as the hinge.
Fit the bow limbs in to the hinge, check again if its wide enough for an arrow
(OPTIONAL) build a small track for the arrow in the gap between 2 hinges.
(OPTIONAL) stick some layer in a way that will stop both limbs from over turning.
Build up another 9 layers of punched disc for upper disc.
Fit the upper disc to the hinge too.
Lastly Attach the ‘string’ cylinder extension(refer to part 2)…

The blade is structurally finished… But we are more than engineers, right? As artist, We just need some small touch up and paint!! Hold on tight Assassins!!

“TIPS”

My circular-discs have 4 holes, its a mistake... bcuz I didn’t find the correct width between the hinge holes at first, and didn’t notice it after I punch most holes… so I re do the hole punching with the correct width… if u made the same mistake, no worries…
After gluing layer of disc, If the holes don’t fit the paper roll anymore, just stab the scissor in and gently ‘drill’ around the hole to widen it a bit
My hinge system is not glue down yet. i can still dismantle it, since i may need to dismantle it for touching up

_______________________________________________________________________

Step 7: Personal Touch-ups

Just refer to the sketch and Add decorative layers to our newly made phantom blade. Let your creative mind take over from here on… No more boring textbook instructions…

As always I try to keep my blade looking similar to what I see in the trailers and gameplay. If you are interested pls see the following:

I recommend using acrylic paint as it is relatively durable and water proof,

Paint scheme:

For Metallic texture----- an even base coat of solid Dark paint covering all paper surface… then dry brush some silver on top…

For Wood texture----- an even basecoat of light brown… dry brush a darker brown on top….

For the sculptral details of the wood and metal in original design, we may cheat t but doing it in paint job

Step 8: YAY!! Here You Go, Your Very Own Phantom Blade!!

And Here You go!!! The latest and hopefully working Phantom blade!!

Add belts to it and carry it around!! Go and improve the design or mechanism!! Show me what you guys come up with… Hope you all have a great time and pick up a few tricks in this instructable… This is a complicated project of pushing the limits of paper and glue!! You should all be proud of your self!! Don’t hesitate to give me feedback or any advice or constructive criticism.

I tried to put even more pics and add some more specific instruction is it the right style for you? Is my lengthy instruction too boring? Let me know, Tell me more about what you think…

If you are patience enough, and read till here. Thanks for Your time and support, if you like my work, feel free to give me a like, comment below or/and subscribe to my account!!… I really appreciate it!! Lastly I am also entering a contest with this instructable (glue contest), pls vote for me if u think I am worthy… THX...

SEE YOU ALL IN MY NEXT INSTRUCTABLE!!