Pyramid Head – Sword
Oct 27th, 2013 by Messiah
Technically it’s a “great knife”, not a sword.
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- Gluing together two 1′ x 3′ x 2″ pieces of styrofoam.
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- Sketching the design.
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- Gluing together the hilt pieces.
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- Handle and blade reinforcement cut to size.
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- This is about where the handle will be within the sword.
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- Handle cut pretty-like and sanded to just the right shape.
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- Handle fits through hilt.
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- Hilt’s done.
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- Excess foam removed, blade split in two, and groove cut for board.
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- Everything’s glued together now.
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- Changed my mind on the design – sketched again on the other side.
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- Kinda what it’s going to look like.
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- Serrations cut out.
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- Tapered but not quite to a point.
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- Groove shaved out and wood glue added to smooth and reinforce.
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- Polyester resin will destroy the foam, so wrapped the whole thing in packaging tape.
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- Lightly painted so I could see if I missed anywhere.
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- Resin’d and sanded.
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- Resin’d a few more times.
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- Primer applied.
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- Silvered.
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- Handle painted.
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- Handle taped off and clean lines painted.
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- Getting there, slowly.
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- Athletic tape applied.
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- Shoe polish applied. Finished.
Hey. Do you have a link that shows more info on your process for making this. Dimensions, types of resins. Etc.
Specifically regarding the sword? I don’t have a write-up anywhere, but if you have any questions I’m happy to help out. For the inner wooden skeleton, I just used a cedar fence slat. The styrofoam I bought as two pieces, both 2″ x 12″ x 36″, and glued ’em end-to-end. I used a jigsaw to cut the 45-degree “sharp” edge and to cut the shape in general. For resin, I used regular Bondo-brand polyester resin, but I strongly discourage using that resin! Polyester resin is highly corrosive, so I had to cover all the styrofoam in packaging tape first so it wouldn’t dissolve, and the resin doesn’t stick well to packaging tape. If I did it again, I would definitely use epoxy/marine resin, and I’d probably use a lightweight fabric of some sort over top as well. Epoxy resin has a working time of about an hour too, so you’re not nearly as rushed as with polyester resin (~5 minutes work time). If you really need dimensions, I’ve still got the sword. I just kinda eyeballed it though, using this image.
Hi, Thanks for the advice. It looks awesome. I was wondering how you managed to attach the lip around the bottom of the head. Is it bent out of the main piece, or did you attach it after. Not sure how to make it sturdy.
That lip was attached after I’d built the main shape of the helmet. I used a double-thick cardboard – one of those kinds with corrugations running at 90-degrees to each other, within a single sheet. And I put two sheets of that double-thick stuff together to make the lip. The multiple angles helped stabilize it, but it was still a little bit wobbly until I put resin on it. Polyester resin works great on cardboard, and makes it super tough.
If you look at the 1:8 scale model photos, you’ll notice I have some dimensions written on the cardboard. I believe those were in millimeters, but the actual values aren’t important – just the ratios. I should note that when I went full size, I added another piece in between the two “3” pieces. And a word of caution, be careful not to make the head too wide – it’s actually surprisingly narrow. You don’t want it any wider than your own shoulders.