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North-Steading β LRP Knight's Hammer
Published: 2009-08-01 09:45:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 5020; Favourites: 22; Downloads: 483
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Description
Two sets of weapons delivered yesterday (for once I remembered to photo them before they left the 'shop).Finished hammer based of these sketches:
[link]
Knight's Warhammer - traditionally styled for those people who think war hammers shouldn't be a huge brick on a stick (as popularised by fantasy artwork).
Also included the finished version of:
[link]
Finished these hatchets months ago but managed to damage them during the final painting - left me having to redo the paint job for one of them - which was a pain.
Carved out of ridgid foam so they are safe for use in combat.
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Comments: 9
I just weapon checked that hammer at TV fest I think. Dave Gledhills from Newcastle?
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TV, tees-valley F&H? It's a small world - I'd heard that people'd been down there the other weekend. I didn't make tha hammer for Dave but I'm not sure who might be using it now.
Yes - I've made a heap of stuff for F&H people over the years.
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I've not been particularly sold on spray-on adhesives - they're a bit too 'easy' for me, though I've not tried that one. Worth doing a test as seeing but I'd likely go for something like:
[link]
I've not used this brand but the mechanical properties look alright. Typically the more poisonous and full of solvents the better with this kind of high performance glues.
Yeah, I've heard that US-LRPs are a bit heavier on their weapons. I'd expect a weapon to withstand regular use for at least 2 years so maybe 20+ events. There are a few tricks to building a more durable weapon but they're a bit subjective to weapon types. The other thing that lot of people miss is how to use the weapon in a sensible way, parrying edge on edge is just going to mess a weapon up like it would do with a real blade or hooking with axes and pulling shields down is always going to be more hard wearing that typical fighting. How heavy does the fighting get in your systems, is it full contact with unpulled blows? I think most of my regular systems are somewhere in the middle ground, fairly full fighting but still with enough checked blows that armour isn't always necessary.
Yes, I've not used that foam but it says it's not self skinning which isn't ideal. I've just done a heap of throwing daggers for some-one in Flex-iT but I went for a mixture of two densities to aim for about a 15. After a bit of playing about they came out quiet well and didn't need latexing afterward (donβt think I photoβd them either). They're fairly light and safe but they're reasonably accurate to about 20' which is better than more commercial versions. Flex-iT 25 would be lethal for throwers (well in the UK at least), without eye protection anything like a sharp point could easily have an eye out, I made one to see and you could barely compress the point. Your other option would be to make a 25 'core' piece to give it weight and then do a second cast with a 10 outside.
Before I mixed the densities I asked about on the internet for advice and no-one was really forthcoming but I figured what the hell, might as well experiment.
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Very nice looking weapons. Any chance you might be inclined to put together a 'How-To'? Lot of em out there but none of the how-to's I've seen so far detail making latex weapons with an end result of this quality.
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Thanks - I appreciate the feeling.
I've considered it but as you say a lot of people have put their ideas out there already and if folk are happy with those results maybe that's all they want. I've done a bit of work for a few people in the past giving them pointers but for most LRPs there isn't the impetus for quality that would make it worth while.
Maybe thatβs not the attitude to have but Iβve got a pretty full plate most days. If I get chance this summer I might knock something together but as my leather working notes have shown Iβm not very good doing tutorials β I always forget to take the pictures.
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Tutorials are certainly difficult to put together, I'm still trying to get more in the habit of taking pics of the process on each mask. Hard enough most days just showing the progress over the day/week ignoring each step along the way. Perhaps you could give me a few tips on what materials to buy and where to get them.
I've been looking into doing molded weapons with silicone molds and pour foams similar to the style of weapons made by Calamacile. I can get most of the materials from Smooth-on.com but just to experiment with the process would cost quite a bit and with all the other start up costs I'll have to wait on that project.(insurance, deposit on the camp, treasure/ tags, costuming, etc)
Sandwich style carved foam swords with painted latex are probably more practical and require a much smaller investment. I can get hold of carbon fiber cores and have drums of mask latex but finding foam other than the blue camp pads for crafting the blades is difficult in the US and buying foam sheets from overseas is impractical.
My Larp starts up this fall and my team is working hard to create as high a quality game as possible. I'm sure if we were able to start off with a selection of latex weapons instead of the standard duct/ kite tape or nylon sleeve boffers it would greatly improve the in-game atmosphere. Any help would be much appreciated.
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I'm suprised that Plastazote and similar aren't available in the states...
This is a list off resellers from the Plastazote main company:
[link]
You might have to do some leg work to find which would supply it in cut sheets but if you had a group willing to place a decent order you'd likely have fewer problems.
The LD45 foam is what I'd typically use glued with a contact adhesive like Evo-stik impact adhesive or 528. Search around and there'll be the same or similar products for you - any high-strength in tension and shear flexible adhesive should work.
LD45 and similar foams have a much better lifespan than pipelagging or camping mats - I see a lot of weapons of this type to repair on the foam cna quite quickly crumble when worked.
I've worked with the Smooth-on Foams a bit but I'm loathed to do a whole sword in it, the cost of doing a whole blade sized mould to be too high. Instead I use the cast components to make details and similar for weapons. I also find the Flex-iT 10 too soft and 25 too hard which means for my purposes I need to play about and mix two densities before casting.
Latex weapons are fairly easy to make, people seem to have funny ideas about how hard it is. Even a crap latexed weapon should look a lot better than a gaffa'ed sword. I'll see what images I've got kicking about and see perhaps whether I can sort out a tutorial.
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Thankyou very much for the advice, I'll check down that list and see if any of them sell sheets. I'm sure that if we can find them we'll have people willing to put in a bulk order.
Up here in the North East of the US were seeing a lot more use of latex weapons in Larping but most are bought online and the few that are made use either the pipe foams or camping mats and break down rather quickly. In a high combat larp the average boffer lasts 3-4 events tops before it begins to fail safety checks. Due to the quality of foam we have available the homemade latex ones are breaking down just as fast so the trend has been to either buy latex weapons online(expensive for most players) or just use the pipe foam boffers and switch out the blade often.
I was thinking I'd use 3M Super 77 for adhesive for the sandwich though I'm not sure how well that will hold up to impact. Also I had been wondering about the flex-iT 25 might be too hard, didn't even think of mixing 10 in with it. Do you think 10 would work for throwing weapons? I've been using [link] to cast throwing daggers though I'm looking for a foam with a little more weight to it.
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