Props Heroic Shield

[juliet76]

Special Mention on this build



I'd like to thank some people- I'd like to thank Rube. I love the ODST and hope to make my own set of armour (sooner rather than later) and Rube's helmet build just left me in awe and I can only hope to one day achieve a fraction of his talent.



I'd like to thank Leekegan, for inspiring me and opening my eyes at the capabilities of tools that I own. When I acquired a scroll saw I figured it'd come in handy but I didn't really know what for. Well now I do and Lee's projects helped to expand the way I think about going about builds.



I'd also like to thank- SPARTAN II, S1l3nt V1p3er and Loess, all for been supportive of me and my ideas when I first joined up the 405th. You guys are part of the reason I'm still here on the 405th (although not as regular a poster as some) and plan on only doing more stuff here.



I'd also like to thank my partner in all things including crime (if I go down you're coming with me)- Linda. It makes life a hell of a lot easier if your other half is supportive of your hobby.



Thank you to you all.







So a while ago I posted the plans to build a Marathon shield and machete in my blueprints thread located here. But I never really mentioned how I came to doing them up.



I wanted to build a Heroic emblem to go in my workshop. I thought it would be an easy enough build to help ease me into prop building as well as been an inspiration for future builds, hanging in my workshop overlooking me as I worked on them. I started out by scaling the shield up from pictures. I then drew it up on some ply board and did a cut out. It was at this point I figured that what I'd scaled up was good enough to share with the rest of you and decided to try my hand at the copy of Auto CAD I'd just then recently acquired. Haven't stopped drawing with it since, and truth be known if I'd used my CAD blueprints to draw up my marathon shield I'd probably have a more accurate version sitting in the workshop right now, not that you can really tell with the naked eye.



Anyway, let's get onto the build.



Please note that I'm fairly well into this build, I started last year got side tracked studying for my apprenticeship, got stuck back into it, and have now become a bit side tracked again. But I should have it finished shortly. I'm not sure if I'll paint these as I'd like to try my hand at a mould and I figure these should be simple enough and good to practice on. The scale of this shield and machetes are based off of an old Australian Army issue machete that I own and are the same as my blueprints.



I started off by scaling up the shield from easily available pictures found on the net. I then transferred the dimensions onto 7mm plyboard to make a master.

And here it is with my Aust Army machete.

I then cut out the master using my scroll saw.

I then used the master to trace around onto some more 7mm ply board, and two pieces of 6mm MDF to give me my three layers, just like my blueprint.

I then used the scroll saw again to cut them all out.

And here's all three layers sitting on top of one another.

That's all I'm going to show for now, but I should be able to find time to put more up soon. :cool

 

[Jakelton117]

Well i would just like to say that that is freacking amazing! Going to try Legendary anytime soon ?

 

[AceNat]

wow just wow

now thats one to hang above the fireplace.. haha :lol

 

[Purrie]

I'm liking it, actually pretty surprised that this is the first of these I've seen... Looking great though! Keep it up man

 

[Shade88]

AMAZING!!!

 

[S1l3nt V1p3r]

Juliet... You make me proud, buddy. *wipes tear off cheek*

 

[Brandon McClain]

That looks phenomenal! Makes me itch to get into my grandfathers wood shop! Too bad I have to wait for the summer...

 

[Spartan 051]

always fun using a scroll saw looks good

 

[carlino]

looks very nice and very close to the design you had made. Looking forward to seeing this finished

 

[mustang2500]

Very cool! This should be good in the end!

 

[insanetrooper]

really great work, cant wait to see it finished

 

[juliet76]

Thanks everybody.

Well i would just like to say that that is freacking amazing! Going to try Legendary anytime soon ?

I'm liking it, actually pretty surprised that this is the first of these I've seen... Looking great though! Keep it up man

A legendary is a bit beyond me at the moment. While I'm pretty handy with the timber, sculpting an elite skull is a whole different kettle of fish. Not only that, but the scale of this build is a bit off of what an elite's skull size is. I think this would work well with a human skull with the mythic symbol or something like that on it though.



But I'm not the first one to make one of these. Link4044 made a legendary crest a couple of years ago and his skull was awesome-

Juliet... You make me proud, buddy. *wipes tear off cheek*

Viper, you're so emotional these days. Thanks mate.









While everything may have looked like it fitted together well in the last picture, there was some flex to the outer edge that was going to be an issue when I laminated the three layers together. I also needed to make sure that the two circles would not move whilst been glued.



So I busted out the trusty hand drill and did up guide holes for some 1.25mm bullet head nails to hold everything in it's correct place while been glued. Remember kids- for neat accurate builds always drill guide holes in timber and always use a centre punch to produce start points for your drill bit.

I didn't put the nails all the way in to begin with as I needed to place glue between the layers first.

Then the gluing. I used the template I'd cut out as a brace on the front while gluing. This is why you can never have enough clamps!

Glued together.

After that I took to it with the linisher, files and sandpaper to get a nice even edge (thanks to Leekegan for mentioning his small files regularly in his build threads, after that I bought a set and now use them all the time).

After that I put a mixed layer of water and PVA glue (about 50:50 mix) onto the shield to help seal the edges and anywhere else that I'd removed the top layer of the MDF. Here it is drying in my spray booth. After the first layer dried I gave it a light sand and re-coated it.

And that about does it for the shield. Next up is the bumpy road of the machetes, which I'm currently still working on.

 

[S1l3nt V1p3r]

Damn it Juliet, now you made me want to build this Shield!



I'll have to dig up your blueprints and get started then, don't I?

 

[juliet76]

Damn it Juliet, now you made me want to build this Shield!

You should! It's a really simple build and it'd compliment your metal bladed machete nicely.

I'll have to dig up your blueprints and get started then, don't I?

I know what you mean about digging up the blueprints. To be honest I was kinda hoping that keeping them neat and all together I might have drawn enough attention to get my thread stickied, but the stuff I've done is more obscure than the stuff of someone like Wizard Of Flight, so I can understand the MODs not feeling the need. I want to get another knife blueprint up before the launch of Reach and than I'll try my hand at some of the wealth of firearms that are as of yet un-done.



Back on topic-



Straight after the shield I moved onto the machetes. I intended to go about them the same way that S1l3nt V1p3r had and make the blade as if it were real and a full tang through the handle.



I drew it up the same as I usually do.

And cut them out of 7mm plyboard.

Before they went anywhere near the handles I wanted to do the edges. I bought a drum sander for my drill press and using a block of timber which I bored a hole through...

...and then cut an angle on, and trimmed the back off, I intended to use it as a guide to get the edges of the blades even and accurate.

Not 100% happy with the results I mucked around with it on the linisher a bit too.

Here they were at the end.

I wasn't real happy with the result. I thought I was on the right track with the guide for sanding the edges but the drum approach didn't work as well as I'd hoped. It was at that point- about October last year- that I had to go off to TAFE for a month to study for my apprenticeship. It's been a long time since I've done any sort of educational study and found all my spare time devoted to studying theory. After I finished, I found my time devoted to getting ready for Christmas (presents, organizing finances, traditional get togethers) and trying to catch up on projects that I'd promised people I'd do for them. So this project fell to the wayside.



Until now, where I've started from scratch on the machetes and decided to take a different approach.



Stay tuned true believers.

 

[Brandon McClain]

Its coming along great! Its nice to see the progress coming along. I know that nothing feels quite like putting your time in and seeing things take shape, even if you make little goofs along the way, its just part of the learning curve we all have to go through. Its nice to see you taking your time, planning, and giving th build the detailed attention it needs and deserves. That's my kinda build!!!



PS, you make me totally jealous with your workspace!!!

 

[S1l3nt V1p3r]

Juliet, you are doing a wonderful job on the Machetes! Stop badmouthing yourself. >=(

Only thing I see that needs improving is the angle of the edge of blade. Sharpen it like you would a real knife.

 

[juliet76]

...Its nice to see you taking your time, planning, and giving th build the detailed attention it needs and deserves. That's my kinda build!!!

Thanks Brandon, sometimes I wish I did less planning and more building though.

Juliet, you are doing a wonderful job on the Machetes! Stop badmouthing yourself. >=(

Only thing I see that needs improving is the angle of the edge of blade. Sharpen it like you would a real knife.

Best way to improve is to be your own worst critic. As for the angle of the edge I scrapped the whole thing, started again and am nearly done the rough finish of one of them. When I said "Until now" I should have said "Until about two weeks ago".



More pictures in approximately however-long-it-takes-me-to-get-off-my-arse-and-post-them. Which probably translates to sometime tomorrow (my time). :cool

 

[S1l3nt V1p3r]

Can't wait to see more pictures! ;D

 

[shoalindiciple]

i absolutely love the smooth edges, very exceptional work juliet76. i love to see another woodworker like lee and i add new stuff to the site.

 

[juliet76]

i absolutely love the smooth edges, very exceptional work juliet76. i love to see another woodworker like lee and i add new stuff to the site.

Well in a hobby sense I've been working with timber for about 5 years now mainly to build things that I required for the workshop. My intention was always to build cool stuff like movie and game props but I felt I required the tools and the workspace first, so I've been collecting and organising that over the years. Building my own workbenches, stands, whatever I required, has taught me good principles as far as how to produce neat and (fairly) accurate work. Now it's just time to apply the tools and principles the tasks I wanted to in the first place.



We seem to be getting quite the collection of woodworkers- Leekegan, S1l3nt V1p3r, shoalindiciple, myself, Lord Devious (whose DMR looks awesome) and LO5T V1K1N6 (in the noob section who's also working on a very promising DMR), as well as others who I must have missed. It's gone from very few woodworkers to heaps! So long as we all stick around things are looking good for wooden props 'round here.







So around March this year when I got everything out of the way that I'd promised other people I got my arse into gear and went back to my Heroic shield. I wasn't happy with the results of the full tang approach I was taking and so decided to just layer the machetes out of MDF like the shield.



The template draw up.

Cutout phase 1.

Cutout phase 2.

I then traced around the template onto my 6mm MDF.

Then over to the table saw (yeah that's kinda new, at least to you guys). See that off cut from the back? That'll come in handy later.

Cutout phase 1 & 2.

Remember that off cut? I then cut the handle off my template to use to mark out the handle layers (would you believe it's only just now that I question why I did that, I think I was just over excited at the time I can just re-attach that later if needs be).

The handles cutout and layered.

Next up- the blades edges. I'm very happy I re-did these babies.