hey! I’m still not dead, but my fingers are bc of this thing! Since a couple people already asked on
hey! I’m still not dead, but my fingers are bc of this thing! Since a couple people already asked on instagram and twitter, and I haven’t shown it here: this is my rakuyo for katsucon and how I made it!The blade is: window blinds. the sliding door variety. bc the old tenant destroyed ours.a thin steel rodone (1) birthday bageva foam (thin)GLUEThe hilt is:a wooden dowelthe steel rod, cont. aluminum tapemore eva foam (thin and thick variety)14g steel wirethree pvc connectors, two duplicates, one oppositesufferingand this is how i put it together!Each blade has a sandwich of blinds–the dagger side having a cutout for the inlay. the largest risk was the blade ‘rotating’ on the rod, and i was afraid hot glue wasn’t going to cut it, so when the ‘live’ edge was sealed, i poured an unholy amount of wood glue into the pocket and let it sit under boxes for a few days. I also just took a heat gun and helped push any bumps of glue flat inside. The dowel I used for the hilt I just dremmeled a little groove down the side of for the steel rod to sit in. I taped over the two of them with aluminum tape, but there was a little wobble, so a mending plate got clamped over them to make sure nothing would move on the longer blade (the short one was fine)Then it was just…. detailing with eva foam. I bulked things up with hot glue andlittle strips of it, then taped over it to give a solid base over big parts like the hilt. I gave my lifeblood and a pair of eyebrow scissors + razor to cut out all the little details over ~40 hours. Cried a little. Then contact cemented them in place and cried more as I sat on the porch in the cold to do it. The spindley hilt guard pieces are the 14g wire rammed into tiny drilled holes and contact cemented in place. I just hot glued strips of foam on them until they looked vaguely right. On the smaller blade I cut out a plastic-y birthday bag into the design bc foam wasn’t going to hold its shape after being that chopped up. After that I just covered any foam with coats of wood glue, then painted with chrome rustoleum paint. Because I wanted to transform the whole thing based on whatever I was doing and also it being easier to carry through crowds as one piece, I made it…. three pieces!The dagger has the ‘screw’ side of the connectors, the saber and extra hilt have the ‘bolt’ ends of the duplicates, so either of them can attach and make it transformed/not. I’ll just keep the extra hilt in my bag. But that was it! The materials were pretty basic, though some tools might not be. Mostly it was a ton of razoring out swirls. Everything is strong enough to not wobble and withstand the cats flinging it around a couple times. Also lady Meowia approved! -- source link
#katsucon 2020#rakuyo