My cosplay group (Anna Heim, Ryan Brown, my husband, and I) decided last year at AWA after the contest that this year we were going to do Final Fantasy IV. The decision was pretty easy-- Amano does well, Anna does Amano well, and we all fit the characters. Anna wanted a chance to do Rydia with crazy Amano Fro hair. Rosa and Cecil were a perfect pair for my husband and I, and Ryan could be the dark, brooding, awesome Kain.
We've been collecting ideas and materials and methods for months. I have finished Kain's spear, Rydia's whip, and by the end of September I will have made the armour for the men as well as Rosa's bow and an awesome mask/helm for Kain.
Cecil's sword went through a few incarnations. Here is how I made the final product. See the Amano art below for reference.
The first sword was the holy sword from the strategy guide, complete with feathered knuckle-guard. It just wasn't working out, though, and while trying to perfect it, I broke it. Then I blacked out and She Hulk must have come to trash it because next thing I knew it was in the trash in shards.
Attempt two flowed much more smoothly.
Materials
- 1 Dowel
- Oak Tag
- Tape (Clear)
- Resin Epoxy
- Sculpi Clay
- Foam Balls (Wal-Mart)
- Superglue
- Krylon Metallic Red Spray Paint
- Purple, silver, and Gold metallic acrylic Paints, white, red, and dark purple acrylic or guache
- Red and Purple Embroidery Floss and assorted beads.
- Sandpaper, knives, patience
- Suede lace
Roll out sculpi like a big snake and coil it around a dowel. Wiggle the dowel around a bit to make sure there's a tiny bit of extra space before sliding the dowel out. The coil will collapse a bit in the oven, so make sure you have a bit more space. You can always superglue in the handle to keep it fixed to the dowel when its finished.
Make sure the coil is at least as long as a one-handed grip. Bake at 275 for 15 minutes. Let fully cool and then put it on the end of the dowel. Twist the tip of the dowel into a foam ball until you have a slot for it to slide in. Don't just push or the ball will break. Superglue the ball on securely.
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| That should be what it looks like. |
You'll want to make 11 inch long, NARROW right triangles (4 of them) that are less than an inch wide to attach to the dowel as the thick, tapered part of the blade. Use clear tape-- these will be coated in epoxy. Carve a pointed tip on the dowel and sand it smooth. This is a thrusting sword (and an Amano replica) and so the long, thin end will be round while the bottom is bladed and defensive.
When you have the forms of the sword made, it's time to coat it in epoxy. This will take a couple of days because full dry time is nearly 24 hours and you want to do it in two stages so you don't end up coated with epoxy with your sword stuck to a table.
Mix 50/50 epoxy and hardener and use a dowel segment or paint stick to spread it. The mixture will get smoother when it settles, but it will also drip. Do it thin and perhaps do two coats over two days instead of thick. Drips will be a pain to sand. The neater everything is early on, the easier it will be to touch-up later.
Coat everything, but only do half at a time so you have something to hold. Make sure you spread a drop cloth because epoxy is permanent and will ruin whatever it lands on. When it dries completely it will be hard and awesome. Make sure you get the handle as well as the foam ball, so that you make sure those are sturdy. 2 coats here would be advisable if you think the person wielding it will whip it around wildly.
After some sanding, it's time to start the basic painting. I started with my red. I wanted it to look organic, glossy, like fresh blood. Then I painted the areas that are everything but blade with a silver acrylic. You'll notice this goes around the blade in weird patterns. I marked what was not red as a base coat. I then masked my sword and sprayed the purple handle.
I then wrapped the handle with a thin suede lace to give texture to the gold spiral in the art and the pommel with embroidery floss to continue the spiral. I glued those down and painted them gold.
Hand-painting was the next step. I painted a lot of things to match the art and there's not much benefit for me going in to detail here. I'll say that I did a lot of layers, a lot of blending, and made sure to paint shadows on the borders of various colors to give depth and create a better division between areas.
I spray coated it in a thin layer of clear-coat when I was done. Here is the final product. I wouldn't hit anything with it, but it's sturdy enough to flourish for the camera and falls in line with AWA's rules for weapons.
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