HOME | DD

Description
Finally finished!

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Genesis Rhapsodos's rapier

Total length: 5 ft 7 inches
Total weight: I never actually weighed it, but I would say around 5 pounds. I didn't have any trouble picking it up and swinging it around XD

I shipped this thing off today and I'm so glad to be done with it. It was quite an adventure. This was my first time working with Aves Apoxie Sculpt, the two part kneaded epoxy that most of the hilt sculpting was made with, and I have to say that I highly recommend this product to everyone out there who's into figurine or detail sculpting. It takes a while to dry and it's not the easiest to sand, but it's so worth it in the end.

------------------------------

A mini rundown of the process I used for this sword:

-The blade is made of wood. I cut a 2x1 ft plank in half lengthwise, then beveled the edges with a bench plane, then glued the two halves together and filled in any gaps with wood putty.

-I used a beech dowel to make the length of the hilt. I used a router and routed out the inside of the dowel and the outside of the blade so that the two fit into each other, basically like a rabbet joint. You can see how they fit in this photo .

-The wings and guard are made of a combination of a wire, Wonderflex, and Paperclay under-form, over which went about a pound and a half of Aves Apoxie Sculpt , which is probably the most amazing sculpting material known to man. It takes 24 hours to dry fully, so most of the time I spent on this sword was waiting for the epoxy to dry.

-The "inscription" panels running down into the blade of the sword are molded from Paperclay, then when they had dried, carved using an engraving tip with my Dremel tool.

-The gems are resin-cast.

-Someday when I have the cash for an airbrush I will be able to not buy spray paint any more, but until then, I paint all my props with spray paint, either Krylon or Rustoleum brand, which are all available at your local big-box hardware store (like Home Depot). I added some weathering detail with silver enamel on the hilt.

The hardest part about making this sword was the lack of reference photos. There is a total of ONE official photo out there from Square Enix, this one , where the sword hilt detailing is TINY. Thanks, Nomura. >.> I looked for screenshots and watched cutscenes on YouTube to try and figure out the tiny hilt detailing, but there were some parts I could not make out at all, so any incorrectness on the hilt on my part is entirely because of the lack of reference pictures.

Genesis, I believe, is the same height as Gackt, 6" even. According to the reference pic, the sword is as tall as he is. The cosplayer I made this for gave his height as 5'7", so I made it 5'7"...so it looks awkward when anyone shorter tries to hold it (as in, me, since I'm 5'4") XD

Photo by the ever talented and awesome kharied . I love you Katie!!!

You can see an in progress shot here at my scrapbook: [link]

---------

Interested in a commission or wanna see more of my stuff? Email me for a price quote at ger.tysk@gmail.com, visit :: my commissions website , or leave me a message on DA!

Also check out~

:: My cosplay.com profile
:: Ikasuze! cosplay

Description
Finally finished!

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Genesis Rhapsodos's rapier

Total length: 5 ft 7 inches
Total weight: I never actually weighed it, but I would say around 5 pounds. I didn't have any trouble picking it up and swinging it around XD

I shipped this thing off today and I'm so glad to be done with it. It was quite an adventure. This was my first time working with Aves Apoxie Sculpt, the two part kneaded epoxy that most of the hilt sculpting was made with, and I have to say that I highly recommend this product to everyone out there who's into figurine or detail sculpting. It takes a while to dry and it's not the easiest to sand, but it's so worth it in the end.

------------------------------

A mini rundown of the process I used for this sword:

-The blade is made of wood. I cut a 2x1 ft plank in half lengthwise, then beveled the edges with a bench plane, then glued the two halves together and filled in any gaps with wood putty.

-I used a beech dowel to make the length of the hilt. I used a router and routed out the inside of the dowel and the outside of the blade so that the two fit into each other, basically like a rabbet joint. You can see how they fit in this photo .

-The wings and guard are made of a combination of a wire, Wonderflex, and Paperclay under-form, over which went about a pound and a half of Aves Apoxie Sculpt , which is probably the most amazing sculpting material known to man. It takes 24 hours to dry fully, so most of the time I spent on this sword was waiting for the epoxy to dry.

-The "inscription" panels running down into the blade of the sword are molded from Paperclay, then when they had dried, carved using an engraving tip with my Dremel tool.

-The gems are resin-cast.

-Someday when I have the cash for an airbrush I will be able to not buy spray paint any more, but until then, I paint all my props with spray paint, either Krylon or Rustoleum brand, which are all available at your local big-box hardware store (like Home Depot). I added some weathering detail with silver enamel on the hilt.

The hardest part about making this sword was the lack of reference photos. There is a total of ONE official photo out there from Square Enix, this one , where the sword hilt detailing is TINY. Thanks, Nomura. >.> I looked for screenshots and watched cutscenes on YouTube to try and figure out the tiny hilt detailing, but there were some parts I could not make out at all, so any incorrectness on the hilt on my part is entirely because of the lack of reference pictures.

Genesis, I believe, is the same height as Gackt, 6" even. According to the reference pic, the sword is as tall as he is. The cosplayer I made this for gave his height as 5'7", so I made it 5'7"...so it looks awkward when anyone shorter tries to hold it (as in, me, since I'm 5'4") XD

Photo by the ever talented and awesome kharied . I love you Katie!!!

You can see an in progress shot here at my scrapbook: [link]

---------

Interested in a commission or wanna see more of my stuff? Email me for a price quote at ger.tysk@gmail.com, visit :: my commissions website , or leave me a message on DA!

Also check out~

:: My cosplay.com profile
:: Ikasuze! cosplay