Rose's Sword

this is a guide for rose's sword, this took me a couple weeks to finish due to mistakes I had made.

Step 1: Plans

Before you do anything you need a plan, it doesn't have to be anything crazy it just need to be a basic idea. The sketch is needed to break down what you need to make and what you can make it out of. The goal is to make it as cheap as possible so if you think something else would work better for you than what I have, go for it.

Step 2: Templates

Oh man, I can't stress how much these little things can help you. Templates are super easy to make and if you mess up its only on 1 dollar poster board rather than 20 dollar supplies. My templates were formed over the whole project with my first two being the the sword and handgaurd. I wish I could tell you the exact measurements bit unfortunately I can't remember them, despite this is can explain what they should you like. The sword is stright forward with both sides being stright, once at the two one side curves into the other so there is an angle. The handguard is a bit diffrent. For that I tracked a bucket we had a home, drew half a handle shape which should be curved at the top and getter narrow as you go down, once the half was done in folded it and cut it out. As for the other templates they came later on in the creation process so I'll explain thoese more in depth later.

Step 3: The Blade

I've made a few swords already and I've found in my experience that a sheets of hard pink foam insulation works great especially when you have a hot wire cutter. You can make this out of eva foam but that not my area so I won't be able to explain it to you, if you do use the insuation but don't have a hot knife a bicycle cutter will work you just have to make sure to keep it from snagging in the foam.

Making a blade is super easy, it's simply tracing you template onto the foam and cutting it out, cutting the sides at an angle for the sharp part of the blade than sanding with fine grit sandpaper. Super easy, well unless you end up with holes in your foam...unfortunately there's no real fit but you can mostly his eyes them by covering the holes with a thin peice of foam (gluing it on with hot glue) and sanding it as thin as you can get it. When sanding make sure to wear a mask because this stuff goes everywhere.

Step 4: Handgaurd

let me start by saying I hate eva foam and I never use it. For a lot of people it's wonderful for me it's terrible since I don't have a heat gun, honestly the pictures here are from my third attempt! What I ended up doing was cutting slots partially in the foam and putting in curved peices of paperclips. Two things for this are important First off the paperclips have to be curved or else it will suck and secondly shoving it into a bowl well the hot glue drys works great. The first thing I did was trace my template, of course, than I mapped out where the middle of it was and traced out my blade so I could cut that peice out later with fear of messing with the paperclips. I than spent the next hour fussing over paper clips, once all that is done shove it into the glue drying bowl with something good on top to keep it from posing out. Leave that for as long as you can wait (at least a day). Now all of this can be avoided is you have a heat gun, if you do all you have to do is heat up the foam and put it in the bowl to cool down.

Step 5: Glue

I'm cheap when it comes to these things so I use glue rather than plastic dip. Sure it's not the same thing but it works well for covering small scratches and keeping the foam from stealing all the paint

Step 6: Prep and Paint

Before we can paint it we need to cut a small hole in the bottom for the hole and in the handgaurd for the blade. They should all fit like in the second picture. After that paint it black so everything will have an even base for when you add paint

Step 7: Glue It Together

Now comes the time to see it all come together. Start by gluing the handle into the slot that should be cut in the handgaurd. Than use two skewers tips and stick them into the foam once in glue them to the handle to help stabilize it, glue the handgaurd onto the blade and bottom onto the handle to finish it up

Step 8: Paint

This part is stright forward, paint the handgaurd a pink red and the handle a purple pink.

Step 9: More Templates

the templates for the Spirals were made from the original handgaurd, I drew it out on the paper than cut it out. Once cut out I traced it on some foam and cut it out, for the handle I just drew some stright ones on a peice of paper and copied what I did for the other.

Step 10: Spirals

for the thorn Spirals I painted a dark purple pink onto the handle and a light pink onto the top. After the paint had dried I glued on the thorns by putting a but of hot glue on each triangle until all was added.

Step 11: Bottom of the Handle

Make a twist by gluing two pieces of foam together and warping one aren't the other. Glue it onto the bottom of the handle along with a very thin peice under it than the flower ontop. My flowers were foam ones form the dollarstore but normal fake ones or one out made from foam will work.

Step 12: Flowers

fill in the handle with flowers and fake leaves, I wasn't able to find any leaves so I cover foam in flowers

Step 13: More Paint

use painters tape to mark how far in you want the dark paint spot to be that go ahead and paint it on

Step 14: Last Touches

I made templates for testing details on her sword and the bit on the handgaurd with paper than cut it out in foam. Paint it all accordingly before attaching the to the sword.