Gravity Hammer - Pepakura WIP

Shadow Of Intent · Jul 1, 2011

Gravity Hammer (Completed!)

I'm taking a bit of a break form armour making: I work at such a slow pace that it'd be better to finish some sort of weapon in time for a midnight game launch, or similar event, rather than risk a mostly completed armour set.
Here is a picture of the hammer so far:

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 12, 2012

I kind of wish I'd made it bigger, I mean, 160cm was a big improvement on the original 120cm scaling, and it was as large as I could make it without having to split up most of the pieces onto multiple pages. Further research shows around 220cm is about the right scale for a 6' tall person, but oh well!

Another issue is the process of reinforcing it. I have a can of expanding insulation foam, and a matal rod for the shaft, but most of the pieces are designed seperately, so they intersect on the 3D model without tabs to join them. I've redesigned a few peices on the hammer's head so that they form a single hollow structure, but it still leaves me with the problem of how to join those which I cannot make this way.

In short, should I try to use expanding foam to fill the entire model (Once assembled) with a single filling of foam, or make it in parts, and bolt/screw them together. The latter should be stronger and simpler to achieve, but I don't know how to make it completely rigid without using dozens of fixtures. Here are some pics of the head:

thorn696 · Apr 12, 2012

Pep looks great.

Magic Storm · Apr 12, 2012

Beautiful pep dude.

Stiilus · Apr 13, 2012

Shadow Of Intent said:
I kind of wish I'd made it bigger, I mean, 160cm was a big improvement on the original 120cm scaling, and it was as large as I could make it without having to split up most of the pieces onto multiple pages. Further research shows around 220cm is about the right scale for a 6' tall person, but oh well!

Another issue is the process of reinforcing it. I have a can of expanding insulation foam, and a matal rod for the shaft, but most of the pieces are designed seperately, so they intersect on the 3D model without tabs to join them. I've redesigned a few peices on the hammer's head so that they form a single hollow structure, but it still leaves me with the problem of how to join those which I cannot make this way.

In short, should I try to use expanding foam to fill the entire model (Once assembled) with a single filling of foam, or make it in parts, and bolt/screw them together. The latter should be stronger and simpler to achieve, but I don't know how to make it completely rigid without using dozens of fixtures. Here are some pics of the head:

this looks amazing so far. amazing. i do have some advice for you though. don't try to do a single fill of the expanding foam. you have about a day or so to use a full can once the seal has been broken so take your time filling the body up. i'm speaking from experience here. i tried a single fill in the pvc t-800 terminator skull and all it did was settle to the bottom (which was the top of the skull) in one hard lump, more like honeycomb (the candy) than actually expand. the weight of the whole foamy blob just made it all sink down. from this experience, doing it again, i would put an even layer down first, let it set for an hour or so, then add another even layer. it shouldn't sag quite as much doing it that way

. hope that helps...

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 14, 2012

Stiilus said:
this looks amazing so far. amazing. i do have some advice for you though. don't try to do a single fill of the expanding foam.

Thanks! I anticipate the possibility of the foam not fully expanding, as well as the chance it will over-expand and try to rip apart the card, so I plan to create enough holes in each piece for me to fill them in layers (With at least an hour between each).

I also have a plan for assembling it: I have 6 main parts (The head, blade, shaft, hilt, and two blocks to attach to the shaft), but I'm bolting on a reinforcing "skeleton" before I fill anything. The hilt should be fairly easy, as it is an isolated section, then the shaft and one block will go on kind of together and be filled, then the head, then the blade, and finally the last block (Cut in two halves). It's going to be pretty complicated! Here's a diagram of the skeleton (I plan to have 2 loops in the head at about 50° to each other):

I've hit a snag on the handle guard... the steel poles I have offer almost no strength once bent. I tried fruitlessly to heat them when bending (Nowhere near hot enough) and clamping them to prevent flattening or "kinking". I could prevent the latter (Stopping critical metal fatigue), but it was still too weak. Are there any alternative bending methods or materials?

Strangeguy32000 · Apr 14, 2012

have you considered Iron?

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 14, 2012

Strangeguy32000 said:
have you considered Iron?

I guess that would be more malleable, but I don't have any that would be right for the job. I have more metal poles and wall fixings than the average home lying around, as well as a couple of nearby small home diy stores, but other than that, I'm fairly limited in terms of resources.

I'm sure there must be some sort of <1cm tube/rod that is rigid but bends without loss of strength at home somewhere. Maybe I need to look into non-hollow structures =/

Redshirt · Apr 15, 2012

You need access to a tubing bender. The best place to do that is to go make nice at an automotive exhaust specialist or plumbing place. A tubing bender bends the pipe around a metal wheel with a groove the diameter of the pipe. The sides of these grooves prevent the kinking or flattening.

That said, if you are trying to reinforce a Pep or fiberglass prop, there is an absorbent honeycomb material you can get from fiberglass suppliers as a sheet of cloth cut from a roll. Not at Halfords, but the kind of place you'd find in the industrial park. Anyway, you cut strips or patterns of this stuff (it has the consistency of cigarette filters), dip it in catalyzed resin, and apply it to the inside of your part, working the resin into the honeycomb thoroughly. Once cured, it is light and very strong. I used it to act as a spar on a 12 foot model airplane wing and I using it on my current Spartan Laser project. Wish I knew the name, but your local supplier should be able to hook you up.

Good luck. Your Pep looks good.

Redshirt

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 18, 2012

Progress update:
The entire thing has been pepped, although I havent assembled the other half of the blade yet. The metal "skeleton" is complete, but the head and blade are not yet assembled either, as they require the first half of the blade to be attached to them before they can be bolted on (Like a metal > paper > metal sandwich!). That will take all of about 10 minutes though, so I'm pretty much ready to start the expanding foam filling. Early tests show it's pretty strong stuff, and hopefully, with a couple of layers of resin on the finished hammer, any impacts will be spread over a large enough area to prevent serious denting. Have some photos!

ZoidianKings · Apr 18, 2012

You are making some very nice progress with your build! I see you are wanting to use expanding foam and some resin, is that instead of using fiberglass with the resin?

thehunter7 · Apr 18, 2012

Looking good! Keep it up! Let us know how the expanding foam method works out, I was thinking of trying that with another pep weapon as well.

Skyfox · Apr 18, 2012

looking good man keep it up. Are you gonna put LEDs in it?

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 18, 2012

ZoidianKings said:
You are making some very nice progress with your build! I see you are wanting to use expanding foam and some resin, is that instead of using fiberglass with the resin?

Affirmative... most experienced armour builders don't recommend pepakura as a method of creating weapons, mainly because they are enclosed objects, and therefore impossible to fibreglass from the inside (Unless it were to be done in seperate pieces). The foam is for rigidity, and the resin is for hardness, and given the flat nature of the blade, it requires metal re-inforcing

Skyfox said:
looking good man keep it up. Are you gonna put LEDs in it?

I did consider it, but it's allready such a deathtrap of hidden compartments and steel daggers that adding electronics would just be too complicated. Also, I'm kind of annoyed with myself for not having made it at least as tall as me (Should be ~220cm, I made it 160cm, and I am 182cm), so while it's hopefully going to be better than "prototype" quality in the end, I don't feel compelled to put that much effort in.

As an alternative, I was thinking of glow in the dark blue paint, as I'll need to paint them anyway.

Valcara · Apr 18, 2012

it looks really good so far! just a random question, with the metal base, would convention staff let you into a con? because i know the cons that i go to have the rule 'if it hits someones head, what will break first' for deciding which weapons are allowed in...im not even sure if you were planing on ever taking this to one, just might be something to be wary of ahead of time.
but awsome work! im excited to see more of it!

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 19, 2012

Valcara said:
would convention staff let you into a con?

I don't have any plans to go to a convention soon, but one of the reasons I chose the hammer over the focus rifle was that it would attract less negative attention than something looking gun like. As for the the main shaft, none of the actual metal will be shown... the two ends are separated from the paper by at least a couple of cm of foam (Pre stirred to release air bubbles and gain a higher density) and the exposed section of shaft will be wrapped something as close to the fabric used for tennis racket handles as I can find, so they will probably assume it is a detailed cardboard replica!

Unfortunate update: The craptastic can of expanding foam's nozzle snapped off. "Apply gentle pressure" it said. "The foam will come out" they said. It did not. It literally required a screwdriver to be forced into the remnants of the nozzle and levered upwards to release the foam, so that's on hold until I can procure a suitable replacement.

Valcara · Apr 19, 2012

awww that sucks! usually its not so bad, ive used it for some maskmaking in the past, thats unlucky...
but i see your point with the hammer vs gun, i actually never thought of that (i usually take my photoshoots in relatively secluded areas)
and tennis grip can usually be bought at any tennis club in your area, you can even get some pros in the club to wrap the base properly for free, they might even get a kick out of you brining the hammer in.

x13eyondx · Apr 19, 2012

hey is there anyway you can send me the files for the hammer? I have been looking everywhere for them

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 20, 2012

x13eyondx said:
hey is there anyway you can send me the files for the hammer? I have been looking everywhere for them

I've just made a 4shared account to upload it: Hammertime!

It's the version I scaled to 160cm while keeping the page count the same through careful rearranging. I believe the original was in this All In One Pack in case you're interested.

Shadow Of Intent · Apr 20, 2012

I have a new can of expanding foam, and this has alerted me to a couple of issues that people should consider when using it:

1. As it cures, its increasing velocity and elasticity prevents expansion into free space, so unless you brace all the sides of the compartment to be filled, after about half an hour, it will start to push outwards on them, leading to warping (See the picture of the hilt below).
2. Make a test blob beforehand to check how spongey it is when fully cured. I'd mixed the first blob that went into the hilt to release the gas bubbles and make it far denser. Whether it was a different foam, or because I just left it be, the second batch is quite soft. If I gripped the main shaft hard, it would easily dent it, whereas the bottom of the hilt is several times harder than polystyrene.

After resining and wrapping the upper hand grip, its softness shouldn't be a problem. So far, the foam is half way up the main shaft, and it weighs around 1.1 kg

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