How to Make a Broadsword Model

In this instructable I will be giving you a basic outline for how to make a model of a Broadsword. This project was inspired by the Soldier's Broadsword item from the game Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. This is just going to be a basic guide for how to get the shape of the sword rather than how to make an exact copy. You can adjust your tinkercad project until you're satisfied with the results.

Supplies

Supplies:

1. Tinkercad

Step 1: The Pommel

When making swords I generally like to start with the pommel, because it's the simplest part of the sword (usually). For this simple broadsword I made my pommel by getting out two cylinders, making one short and wide, and having the other be taller and thinner. There's no one way to do it, but a general rule of thumb is to not make the taller one way too tall. Once you have both of your pieces, put the thinner one in the middle of the wider one. When you're done you should have a little bit of the tall piece poking out of the top and bottom of the shorter one. Now you need to group them and put the grouped shape off to the side

Step 2: The Grip

The hilt can be a difficult shape to make. If you want to keep things simple you can just make a rectangle and use that as your hilt, but if you want to make a smoother looking hilt you can use the extrude piece. It's found in the featured shape generators, and is really useful when making curvy and organic shapes. You can get the basic shape of the hilt in the extrusion menu, but chances are you're going to have to stretch it a bit to make it long enough. To make things easier when putting your sword together, I recommend you turn on "Snap" in the extrusion menu. This will help you make your sword pieces symmetrical, which helps when putting all the pieces together. Once you're satisfied with your grip, you can move it off to the side.

Step 3: The Cross-Guard

For those of you who don't know what the cross-guard is, I've added a reference image. It's the part of the sword that makes it look like a lowercase t. This part of the sword, just like the grip, can just be another rectangle if you like, but again for those of you who want to give their sword a bit more shape, you'll want to get out the extrusion piece again. Similarly to the grip, you may need to stretch it a bit. Once you're satisfied with the shape of your guard, make a copy of it. Then make this copy a bit thinner and taller than the original. Then drag it over the original piece. This should result with a bit of the second piece popping out of the top and bottom of the first. Once you're satisfied with how it looks you can group the two pieces together and move them off to the side.

Step 4: The Blade

The blade of the sword can be hard to get right. It took a lot of trial and error for mine, and it could still do with some improvement. To make your blade you should get out an extrusion piece. You won't be able to do all the shaping in the extrusion menu, so you can play around with the shapes a bit until you're happy with what you see. I would suggest getting out the extrusion piece, make it long, and then start changing up the shape. Once you're satisfied with your blade, you can make a copy of it, then make the copy taller and thinner (you may be able to see where I'm going with this). Take your copy and put it in the original. You should end up with a bit of the second piece poking out of the top and bottom of the original. Once you're satisfied with all your pieces you can start putting it together.

Step 5: Combining Grip & Pommel

This is it, you're finally putting your blade together. If all the pieces of your sword are symmetrical, this part will be a lot easier. First, start with your pommel. Put it at the edge of your workplane. If you can center it above one of the bold grid lines you can use that line to position the rest of the pieces. Take your handle piece and drag it over to the pommel. Rotate it so that if you were to hold the grip and pommel as they are now, the pommel would be under your hand. Then drag the grip towards the pommel until you're comfortable. If need be you can adjust both pieces as you do this. Once you've positioned them to your liking, you can group both pieces and move them over to the side.

Step 6: Combining Blade and Guard

Take your guard and move it to the middle of your workplane. Depending on the length of your blade you may need to move it towards the side of the workplane to make space. Now take your blade. Rotate both pieces so that the blade and guard are aligned like a T. You can now bring them towards each other. You can make adjustments as you go along until you're satisfied. Once they're both aligned you can group them and move them a bit out of the way to attach the grip and pommel.

Step 7: Putting It All Together

Take the grip and pommel pieces and drag them below the guard. Using the grid line as a guide you can align both sets of pieces. If you need to you can ungroup them and make adjustments. Now that your sword is put together you can ungroup everything and color it to your liking.

Step 8: (Optional) Adding "wear"

You don't have to do this step, but for those who want to add a bit of age to you sword, this step shows you how to make the sword look battle worn. First you want to start off by getting out some boxes. These will be used to "cut" little divots into the blade. Take your box and rotate it randomly. It doesn't exactly matter how you rotate it. Then bring it up to the blade and push it in as far as you want the cut to go. Repeat this as much as you like all along the blade. Once you're satisfied with the amount of boxes, shift click all of the boxes. This will select them. Once you've selected all of them change them from "Solid" (solid color) to "Hole". Now also select the blade of your sword. Group everything together, and your blade now has cuts and battle markings on it.