League of Legend- Nidalee's Spear

I don’t play League of Legends but I enjoy making things. This one is for Nidalee’s spear. The instructions for the other parts of the costume will be in a separate Instructable. Some points to keep in mind before starting:

• Research is the first step as usual, and I used pictures from Google and Instagram.
• I bought the teeth from GeekCrafters from Etsy.
• I used this tutorial by Creative Chaos, but I recorded each step I took since I’m a word/visual person. The tutorial is broken down into three sections- Spear Stick, Spear Head, and Spear Head and Stick Attachments.

Step 1: Stick- Tape and Paint

This project begins with the stick in two parts! I had originally bought a 4 ft (¾” x 4’) round wooden dowel from Home Depot, but decided it was too short and bought a 6 ft dowel instead, which is perfect.

The first step is to wrap the stick with painter’s tape (I used blue, but it doesn't matter), and use as many layers as you need to make sure any parts that stick up are securely taped down. Don’t worry about bumpiness or unevenness because the stick should be uneven and “wood-like”.

The second step is painting. Paint 3-4 layers of basic brown paint followed by random, freely drawn black lines to imitate the bark.

Step 2: Spear Head- Sketch

First draw the shape for the spearhead on a separate sheet of paper and cut it out. Then trace the cutout onto your foam.

*I like to use a stiffer paper for this step, such as manila folders or card stock. I outlined my pencil with Sharpie (optional) and included my measurements as well, in case you wanted to make your own.

**The measurements are close but not precise and I did not measure after adjustments were made.

Step 3: Cut Full Pieces

When you cut the foam, make sure you: 1) leave extra room to start the slice, if possible, and 2) cut at an angle. Trace and cut on the smooth side because the direct side you cut into is smoothest, so angle the cuts inward.

Picture 1- Leave room to slice. 2- Don’t slice straight! 3- Angle the blade- see the difference between B and C.

*Note that the foam I’m using is thicker than the one from Creative Chaos's video, if you are referencing that as well, so depending on your foam thickness, you might have more adjusting to do.

Step 4: Cut Indents

Now that you have the two halves of your spear head, mark where the indents need to be. Same as the previous step, cut your indents at an angle and don't cut too deep!

Step 5: Glue Together

1. Glue gun section by section, starting with gluing ONE side of the two pieces together.

2. After the ONE side is glued together, glue each upper vertical indent together.

3. Glue the remaining side together now.

4. Once all the upper verticals are glued together, you should have something similar to the first three pictures, which were just taken at different angles.

5. Next glue the lower four sides together by first gluing the wide-faced pieces, and then connecting the two halves. From a downward-facing point of view, you should have something similar to the fourth picture.

Step 6: Sand/Smooth

Fill in the extra spaces with hot glue and/or Jovi art clay, as referenced from Youtube, HOW TO: Fill EVA Foam On Props. You only need to slightly sand the edges since this Instructable will go about covering all the edges with craft foam as well.

Step 7: Create Edges

1. After the slight smoothing, wrap the spear head with saran wrap and masking tape. (Picture 1)

2. Once the masking tape covers the essential edges, draw on the lines that will make the actual edges. A clear definition could be solid lines for edges and dotted for the ones to cut. Make sure you label the faces on the saran wrap as well as the spear head itself after you remove the wrap. (Pictures 2 and 3)

3. Carefully cut the saran wrap off and then cut the shape of the edges off. Trace the edge shapes onto craft foam and cut out the craft foam. (Picture 4)

*As you see in the picture, I attempted to be frugal and save some tape.

**Make sure you know/mark which craft foam edges match to which edges of the head.

Step 8: Details and Solder

Time for some details!

1. Know the pattern you want to have and sketch it out somewhere! This is where the research should have come in handy because I have seen a few different designs on her spear head. (Picture 1)

2. Use a thick Sharpie to draw the pattern onto your spear head. I did the same pattern on all sides. (Picture 2)

3. Soldering time! I soldered the pattern twice, because I didn’t like the unevenness the first time, but it doesn't have to be very deep. (Pictures 3 and 4)

*I have never used a soldering iron before, so whether or not this first time is right or wrong, I don’t know. If you know or have tips, tell me!

Step 9: Glue on Edges

This step is pretty simple but time consuming. Glue gun each edge piece on one at a time. It will take extra time to check the seams to make sure they are closed together.

*I would suggest to glue in this order: one upper side, the middle horizontal piece, lower same side, and last would be the entire other side.

Once everything is glued, use sandpaper and a dremel to smooth out all the edges and uneven areas of the craft foam.

Step 10: Create the Base

Right now the spear head has no bottom, so you need to make the base.

1. Roughly measure and cut out two foam pieces for the base of the spear head. One smaller piece to fit into the opening and another larger piece to cover it up.

2. After the pieces are cut out, trace a hole from the end of the stick.

3. To cut the hole out, I just used scissors and stabbed an even four sides. Please use a better way if you have one, but the hole should not be exact or perfect- keep it uneven and tight and the foam will adhere to the stick.

*Ignore the fact that I painted one of the bases!

Step 11: Prime and Paint

Be prepared, this is a long step, but is also the halfway point to completion! I would say this is also the most time-consuming part. Here you will work on all the pieces- the spear head and the base pieces.

1. Prime: Use 2-3 layers of Gorilla Wood Glue mixed with a little bit of water and a foam brush to spread it on. Wait a full 24 hours to let it dry.

2. Paint: Paint a base layer over everything (I used dark gray) and darken the soldered lines with black.

3. Paint a second layer in silver or your desired color (I used the Metallic Sterling paint from Target). Don't worry about getting silver into the soldered lines because you will go over them again at the end.

4. Take a small flat paint brush and run a dab of black paint along the inner edge of one panel. Use tissue paper to wipe/smear the black off along the edge and do this panel by panel. This provides detail and definition and don't worry about getting black onto the silver edges because you will go over the edges again at the end.

5. After smearing all the edges, use the same brush to carefully dab and darken in the soldered lines. Don’t rush, but if you do get outside of the lines, a drop of water on tissue can easily wipe it off. Repeat for all lines.

6. The last step is to clean the edges by painting a final layer of silver to cover any black and clean up any lines if necessary.

Picture 1- Paintbrushes. 2-4- Post-paint pictures.

Step 12: Attach Head to Stick

Here we will attach the Spear Head fully onto the stick!

1. First, slide the spear head onto the stick and mark the furthest it goes on the stick. Remove the spear head and slide the two base pieces onto the stick, larger one first- do not glue anything yet. (Picture 1)

2. Use a substantial amount of hot glue on the tip of the stick and put the spear head all the way onto the stick so the tip is touching the foam. Hold until the hot glue is cooled and hardened.

3. Now slide the small base close and then use hot glue on the inside of the spear head’s bottom edges. Push the smaller base into the opening, push sides close, and again, hold until the glue is completely cooled and hardened. To fill in any seams on the side or against the stick, just shove the head of the glue gun into the space and push glue in- the foam is soft and will give when you do this and will also bounce back to its original shape after you remove the glue gun. (Picture 2)

4. Follow the same method as the larger base to cover up and secure the spear head. (Picture 3)

5. Spray finish the entire thing. I used 2-3 layers of Krylon Satin Spray.

*Picture 4 shows the spear head fully attached and secure! (Do the shake test to make sure)

Step 13: Create Feathers

You can skip this step if you will be using real/fake feathers.

1. Cut out two rough feather shapes in craft foam, one bigger one smaller.

2. Cut in small grooves along the feathers’ edges.

3. Use the smooth, thin edge of a tool (I used the edge of my tweezers) to indent a groove along the middle of one side of the feathers. This should be deep and permanent.

4. After making the indent, turn the scissors onto its side and set in grooves along front.

5. Paint and spray paint.

Step 14: Wrap Stick

Use a length of red fabric to wrap the stick directly under the spear head. As you wrap, use hot glue to keep the fabric tight and in place. Before you finish wrapping, tuck the two feathers in and glue gun them down.

*I cut out the bottom edge of an old red t-shirt and wrapped the stick directly under the spear head about twice.

Step 15: Attach Teeth

As mentioned earlier, I ordered the teeth custom from GeekCrafters on Etsy. (Picture 1)

1. Wrap twine around the top base of each teeth. The twine I bought was thin and light from Amazon so I wrapped it around twice. As you wrap, glue gun it in place and make sure the ends of the twine are on the back of the teeth (the pointed end goes outward). (Picture 2)

2. Glue gun the teeth to the stick one by one. Add glue as needed and you can glue the sides of teeth together if they touch as well. (Picture 3)

3. Intertwine extra twine around each tooth and the stick. Start with wrapping the stick several times, then continue to wrap around each tooth, and end with the stick once more until you are satisfied. After this, you are DONEZO!

*For references, the teeth measurements for the spear are: length ~7 in, circumference ~9 in, and 4 teeth. These were slightly larger than I expected, so if I were to reorder, I would make the width smaller.