Introduction: Ancient Short Sword From the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

About: I am a maker from the St. Louis area. I have spent a lot of time playing video games and watching anime. I am finally jumping into the world of making things I like from these places.

Right now the US is under a stay at home order. At least in the state of Missouri. It thought this would be a great time to finish the Ancient Short Sword from The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.

Supplies

  • Adafruit Trinket M0
  • 22AWG Stranded-Core Wire
  • Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip
  • Batteries or pawer supply
  • 8mm, 4mm and 2mm EVA Foam
  • Solder and Soldering Iron
  • Pattern PVC Pipe and end cap
  • Plastazote® LD45
  • Utility knife and knife sharpener
  • Black and clear PlastiDip
  • Contact Cement and Superglue
  • Heat Shrink Tubing and electrical tape
  • Heat gun
  • Paints
  • Sandpaper
  • Painters Tape

Step 1: Make the Blade

First put tape together your paper pattern. Take the spaces between your blade sections and transfer the markings to your PVC Pipe. I filled in the space where I wanted those parts to be empty. I then cut out the blades and transferred them to my Plastazote. I cut out 2 sides and then about 1/2 inch strips. I them made these into hollow boxes. I wanted these hollow so light could pass through easily.

Step 2: Make the Body

Next I took the body section and cut out 2 sides out of 8mm foam. I then cut the pattern apart even more for the detail pieces. Some of the circle pieces I use Plastazote because I added lights to the body section.
I them cut out a strip of 4mm and connected the 2 sides.

Step 3: Add the Lights

I used the same code form the Guardian Shield. I have the code upload to my GitHub account. This code is based on Adafruit's Logan’s Run Hand Jewel LED tutorial. Measure and cut out your Neopixels strips.For Neoplxels you can cut between the Gnd, Dat, and the Pwd pads on each segment. Cut out your wire leads and solder them to your Neopixle strips. I had some strips left over from pervious projects. I had to make do with what I had. Once I got the lead wires on the LED Strips I used contact cement to glue them to the pipe. I did ruff the surface with sandpaper so they will stick better. I did drill a hole at the end of the last strip to attach all the wires together in parallel and to attach it the Trinket and the power source in the handle.
I did add lights to the tip of the blade and was able to fish the wires to the hole at the end of the strips.

Add in the Trinket and I had an old light pin flashlight that I retrofitted for this project. Solder your wires to End, USB and your data pin. Then solder the Power and the Ground from the flashlight to the Trinket

Step 4: Glue It All Together

The first things I did when I had the lights in place was glue the blades in place. Match the edges of each section to the lines that we made earlier. Once the blades are in place add the body section to the top and over the blades. Once the body is secured add the side panels.

Step 5: Seal and Paint

Once everything is glued together and the lights are working then it is time to heat seal the foam with the heat gun. You want the foam to look shiny and all the pores to close up. I first masked the Plastazote areas and used 2 thick coats of black plasti dip on the body. After that layer was dry I used clear plasti dip on the Plastazote areas. For the body base code I use a combo of Bronze, Gunmetal, Venetian Gold, and Rich Silver.
For the blade I used an airbrush and use a light blue. I went in and did some rush spots using Red, Orange, Brown and Black.