1s/eros CONVERTING THE MASSES by Neil ‘Mad Converter’ Roberts {In this short article, neil Roberts shows us how to make great hand. weapons casily from scratch ‘There are ewo parts to each weapon; the bit you hold (the handle) and the bit you stick ino your enemy (the head). At the most basic level there ate three types of head ~ sharp, ‘edged and blunt as seen in spear, sword and mace, for Instance. There are likewise three types of handle ~ shor. medium and long. Short and medium represent one and twechanded weapons while Iong handles represent the very Intelligent idea of putting 25 much distance as possible ‘wrapped that section with a thin ribbon of masking tape cut for the purpose and wrapped as you would a bandage Unfortunately this didn’ look as nice a V'd hoped it would, 40 off it came, but I have used i on other weapons in the pas, Wooden hafts are my favourite, as anyone ‘who's seen my Golden Demon 2003 entry will ‘hetween yourself and the person who's trying to hityou. know: Smooth wood, as on a spear shaft or modern [axe hana, is mostly inthe painting so Ijust use plain {/) (ag. 2) ‘There are exceptions to the above a staffis all andle and / brass rod for this. Small lumps of Green Stuf added no blade, and a throwing dagger is all blade and no / and then smoothed out can give a more organic handle) but look at it this way —only halfas much Ji) appearance, especially on a rounded end. But its jf weapon to sculpt! There, docs thar fect eter? (gate wood that I most enoy sculpting, the hind } ‘of wood chat stil has bark over its owisted core TOOLS AND MATERIALS i ‘The basic too! ki consists of a pin dal and bits, 2 You sat off with arod or wie core (bent to shape | sharp hobby knife, your standard sculpting tools, 4 Jd (ag. 1) pair of wire-cutters and various needle files Ifyou have an electrical hobby drill with a set of abrasive and cutting heads, all the beter, but they're not essential All che examples you'll see were done with the basic kit. 1 @ use rwo sculpting tools, by the way. For modelling purty 1 sean old dentist's tool which Tve never seen anywhere ‘else but whichis simllat to the GW sculpting tool, while for Green Stuff use a Wax 5 professional sculpting too! 1 recommend cleaning your tools thoroughly before using ‘with diferent modelling compounds. The list of materials is slightly longer. Various thicknesses of plastcard are nice, but you can get avay with just one thin grade sheet for most projects. Brass cubing. the types that it nicely inco each ‘other like Russian dolls, for some weapon types is essential for. Masking tape often gets used, as docs steel wie fom my local fishing racke shop. For glue I don't bother with past Blue, only superglue, and I round out my materials with Some scrap copper wire, fuse wire, solder and, of course modelling putty and Green Stu Realistically whatever does the job can be considered part of Your materials. I've used everything from plastic BBs to children's toys, jewellery to electrical components HANDLES AND HAFTS High tech hafts and handles ae the esses, Ifyou look atthe mace you can see that there i a central core of bras fod From the brass tube that fts snugly over this cod I cut several rings of various lengths and then glued these into place leaving gaps to make both interesting variations on the hafe and also the section that would be held. Originally 1 handle inthe examples) around which you puta thin layer of Green Stutt When this is cured Jwrap another layer around the section you wish to sculpt, letit harden alittle and then draw parallel lines down it with your sculpting tool ~ t's that simple. If need be a5 you can see ftom the bladeless i Olay, not quite. There are some things that you can do to make it more interesting, Wavering the lines and varying ‘hele thickness for instance, just lke with real bark, helps lve the weapon some characte. I also add splits to the hark, prising the sculpted lines apart and easing the point Under the edges to lift chem up slightly In this way you can. see the wood inside and, again, it adds character “There's nothing to stop you doing a whole haf ike this, but ike to vary texture wherever I can1s/eros Lyn he wt roe ite around same etn a / Ripe on Wate he ren Sui eh tase be Tanne he unde on of he teleost cen oft Sip on shy stom One mote thing ~ knots. add lite blobs of Green Stuff ‘which I then tim into rough trlangles for the body of the ots, but I leave the walling ends of cloth unt after I've added the weapon tothe igure because graity effects how ‘they would hang. Often I'll sculpt these tralling ends on 2 ceramic tle, pop them off when they're cured and glue ‘them into place BLADES AND HEADS ‘There are two ways I make blades: ether with thin or thick plasticard. At the most basic level you cut out the desired shape and then sharpen it's that easy. O For narrow blades, like sabres or daggers, carefully mark out the basle shape on a sheet of thick plastcard (Luse some 1.2mm thick sheet), Cut around it leaving a margin outside the marked area and then trim it carefully 0 shape using Your sharp knife. You now have a very blunt blade, Using ‘one of your rougher needle files, draw i diagonally along the blade, starting to sharpen the edge of the ‘blade’. Keep turning «€ over while you do ths $0 that each side is sharpened evenly and the blade is symmetrical. When you have che basc edge roughed out use a fine ile to smooth It to finished point. I warn you now that your first blade ‘wll e rough and uneven, ft fora culist ora bodyguacd, ‘but not a noble Inquistor. Practice makes perfec. Of ‘course you can also use your files and knife to notch and distress a pristine blade if you want ~ i all ‘depends on the character you're arming, you don't have any thick plasticard than use thin sheet and ‘thicken i. I's tempting to make up a sandwich of plastcacd by gluing sheets together, but the Bond often won't survive the sharpening process you use superglue and ifyou use plastic glue it deforms the sheets. Instead I use modelling ppc, adding a thin layer to each side ofthe plastcard and. lerting it cute, The bonus with this option is that during sharpening I know when I've reached the centre of the blade. That's when I uncover the plasticard, ‘This sexacly the same technique that use for broad blades such a5 the long hooked knife (fg. 1) Shaped heads, like axes othe prime cutting spear in the ‘examples, are justa variation on this theme Last but not least, are blunt headed weapons. Rocks bound, ‘onto sticks aside, there are several ypes of blunt weapons [Astaffis all handle and no head, a maul i also essentially & hafe with no head ~ a shore staff f you will ~ and can be made by adding 2 few studs to the handle you've already made. Club? Big stick ~ again just a modified handle. That leaves my mace ‘The most notable feature of my mace isthe vaned head. This looks hard to do, but was really quite easy just time ‘consuming. marked and cu the same basic shape sx times from thick plasticard, smoothed the back and ends of each and then taped them together into one very thick chunk of plastic with one very regular and rough face. I marked the shape of the leading edge I wanted on the cop ofthe ‘lock’ and thea used my pin dri, kfe and fles to germ ‘carve eto shape, Once shaped I just removed the tape and smoothed off afew rough edges. Voila — six vanes. These were then glued into place on the reconstructed hat. (fig. 2) Lastly hammers. ve never made one, bu 1 id bul! go abot the mune bevy ade [ppc tecnologia! bats id coping brass J )iea‘sda's tee plate made trom pasar J attach it to a haft and bingo - one hammer much Me Preubar cts. A prnive banners (Goud be made as Supe cock whch then arched ws wooden it ls your dae LAST STEP Once you have both handle and head just glue them together, pinning them wherever possble to give them strength. And that's it. You can also see ewo variations on the themes above in the examples Ive done ~a bone knife ‘with leather covering on the handle (which, with its Separate stands of sutching, s more sculpted than any ‘weapon I've done before) anda muck rake. (fig. 3) Ie-was late at night and I was watching ‘Monkey’ on TV —1 make no excuses. Anyway, until next time, is over {0 you ‘Time to arm the masses. ator rr DP Rite NOt Re an Or ener STR pararesenener spanner yey ree Scan be parcase ra ms baby a Pesaran soe Ao Posey ner Pace ee Prareinny a erseert cian aati