The Reaver

[Livebyhonor]

This is a project I have been working on as money and desire permitted and I came to realize I had been working on it slowly for 2+ years. Well enough of that, its time to finish this thing. Years ago I was searching ebay for the "legacy of Kain" and "soul reaver" games I didnt have since they are getting harder to get in the stores. Long story short I saw a sale going for a mock up of the sword and it simply was not up to par with the game sword and I decided I had to kill that image, and what better way than with my own replica of it.

In case you have no idea what the reaver is this is it.

First off I had to decide if it would work as it was in that pic or not. Beside the handle being a little short for a 2 hander, yes. so I began making the skull and wings section. The first version was made of clay, then latex went on it in coats for like a week. After that i molded it from pure fiberglass resin. it worked but really lacked the details I wanted so I started from scratch and went with bondo.

With Bondo it did take some time but I think it turned out better. You may have noticed I took some of my own Artistic licencing and put blades where the wings were. But I'm not done yet I do have plans to put the wings on in a different way but I need a nearly complete sword to do it.

With the blade made out of MDF its easy to cut out but its difficult to shape edge wise. Since the sword tapers slowly all the way i have to slowly adjust the blades first sharpening edge tighter and tighter or the last 6 inches f the sword would be paper thin (edge A is 1 inch wide while edge B is like 1/2 wide). So essentially the thing becomes more and more blunt as it gets to the tip. But I realized with this blade shape its not so much a sword now since you cant slice with that shape. Its more of an axe where you chop or hack so the sharpness thing sort of went to the " that works" section of my reasoning.

And due to that fact sanding it on a belt sander would have been difficult enough but the serpentine blade makes it 90% impossible to do. If I were to use the belt sander the interior curve wouldn't get sanded since the width of the belt and the outside curve of the next and previous curve would not have worked. So after days of a hefty rat tail file and a drawn line to follow I got it close to what I wanted. only thing is the defining edge from the flat portion to the 1st edge sanding got smoothed off a little so I need to work out a way of getting that defining line back.

I just got my first mold made so later I'll make the first actual plastic hollow skull so I can move on to the next steps. (the reason I'm making another skull is I want to also make the original sword design to so I need 2 skulls) Since im still sort of winging it on the handle for length I dont have a exact length of the sword but as it is now its 54" or so long.

I'll keep you informed on my progress as it goes. I have more pics on my flickr that ill link at the bottom If you want to look at more.

Visit My flickr Website

 

[City Static]

Wow dude, that's amazing. I love the glowing eyes.

 

[mkshane81]

....pretty freakin' sweet man!!!! I loved the Soul Reaver series!!

 

[mwege441]

not familiar with the game but that looks awesome

 

[Livebyhonor]

Ok I know its been awhile since I did an update but real life stuff gets in the way as we all know. so since I had some days off from work after 2 months of 12 on 12 off here is what i did in the last few days.



First off is the game versions under wing ribbing. the first pic is before the clay was molded in and second with the clay in place. I used a puzzle glue/sealer to protect the ribbing and will likely coat most of the wing section with it to since it gives off a shiny like surface that will translate to the final mold.

The Next thing I had in mind for some time now is I didn't like the original blades cut away look, It made the edges I talked about hard to show a defined line so I came up with a more curved version than a flat version. Granted the final design i went with is a variant of the 2nd design I like this one much more.

I also knew for quite some time that sharpening this serpentine blade and keeping it uniform would be hard as hell so I got creative and decided to make my blade strait then cut it to hell and glue it back together on a curved thinner blade. So yea as it stands my sword is made up of no less than 200 small chunks of plastic glued and then bondo'ed up to fill in the gaps. (still doing the bondoing)

Granted I had this next part done for some time now but I realized I didnt post pics of it's doing.

I knew since I was going to make 2 seperate versions of the sword that I would have to dupe the skull so to do that I used a MDF wood box and like 90% of the 1 gallon mix of 2 part silicone.

It ended up being a 12 inch by 12 inch block of rubber that weighs a ton but I know the final mold will be much more.



The other thing Im still working on a little is the lighting bit of it. Knowing I want access to the lights I needed to make a back lid to the plate lid to the skull. I utalized the cracks I shaped into the design as seperation lines and the rest with a wing to skull line. then all I had to do was make a release lip. The back will likely be held in by magnets and you simply pry it off by lifting the diamond shaped plate piece on the base of the skull. Im still attempting to figure out the perfect lighting methid but I think it will consist of 3-5 always on yellow LED's and 3-5 rapidly flashing red (blue, green, white, purple depending what color flame effect you want) to give the flickering fire in the eyes and out down the blade Im trying for.

Just a quick shot of my version skull and wings (partial only) and the game version.

The next thing I need to work on for my version may take a little time but here is the idea. Since Its a vampire sword why not have a vampire blade. vamps feed on humans, so something feeds on their energy and since the sword is imbued with their energy lets add to that. How about a parasitic "head sucker" that has latched onto the back of the skull (will ultimately be the LED access door in this version), wrapped its wings and claws around the bladed hilt to give that wing look of the game version I like so much. And to top it off when you look into the skulls eyes you will see the tongue of the "head sucker" (rather "alien" like mouth in a mouth tongue look) busted through the back of the skull and latched onto the blade it goes through the skull up into the handle. I know that may be a little more detail than what is needed for a wall decoration but details make the art. So here is my "head sucker" creature idea and how it may look on the sword.

Well thats all for now. soon I hope to have the blade bondo'ed up and sanded and ordering more mold making mats to keep going. Ill keep you updated as I make progress.

 

[KrovikanCorvinus]

This....is.....GOD-LIKE! I was starting to think of a way to make a Reaver sword (actually need 5, but hey) for a Legacy of Kain Fan-film me and a few mates are doing. This has proven to me that it CAN be done. I actually went so far as to search the net for pep files for it, to no avail.



I shall be watching this with baited breath!

 

[SwedishNinja]

Ill be watching this one!



Legacy of Kain and soul reaver games were some of my favorite series!!!

 

[Underdogg13]

When I saw the title of this thread I was like O.O someone's building a Gears of War Reaver?



Then when I saw the sword I was like



But then when I looked at the quality of the work I was like O.O again.



Grade A job on this sir. Love the skull symmetry. Keep the awesomeness up.

 

[Greenghost]

That is pretty sweet. I can't find words to fully describe how awesome that looks. I can't wait to see this thing when it's completed.

 

[Livebyhonor]

Yea I've spent quite some time on the skull alone. The first pic of what I made at the top of the post was just bad, pure fiberglass resin. But it served as something to go off of and learn from. Its sort of a curse having artistic eyes that can spot 1mm difference in things and even though the skull looks good its far from a left and right mirror image, but I don't think any skull in life is that perfect either. None the less I have several times cut the teeth off to move it, hack the nose off and such to get it as close as I could.



Thank you all for your interest and I'll keep you up to date.

 

[Decept217]

f'n sweet!!

 

[Livebyhonor]

Im actually about to be placing an order for more materials for the molding / creation and I had a thought. I 1st had planned to do what I have seen most people do in these forums and add like a piece of steel rod down into the casting to give the longer more flexible sections strength but the down side here is the blade is 5ft long so I would need 1 long piece for the job and still being cast from the 2 part white casting material it would still be easy to scrape up and or damage. A paper thin edge of a flexible plastic wont last to long even as a wall decoration so I had a thought.



What if I used the plasti paste outer shell also for the blade. It would give it much more strength, sadly weight to but thats not entirely a bad thing. I only see 2 downsides to that thought though.

1. even if I brush it on will I get all the detail from my design piece.

2. Separation of the plasti paste blade from the 2 part silicone may be a real pain also since tinfoil is often used as a separator.



If any one has had luck or have tips on casting in this manner let me know so I dont blow much desired cash on a poor design thought.

 

[Livebyhonor]

Sorry that it has been awhile since I updated this post but since the sword is almost completely mocked up I have been debating on my next step and I'm hoping you can give me some thoughts. I still want to make this piece a 3 part sword comprising of a blade, hilt and handle. The reason to make it a 3 part is not only due to the fact I want to make another version of the sword and want this blade shape but to allow for replacement blades to be swapped out if prop is damaged). Id like to make it so any of the parts can be made from a 2 part plastic or 2 part foam(1 being more of a display thing and 1 being more prop like). The problem is since I redesigned the blade shape (cutaway look)and the fact the blade is serpentine I cant place a support beam rod or other such core down the blade when I make the foam version leaving the 4ft long blade rather flimsy so I tried to come up with a way to do this.



Here is my thought and please if you have tried something similar or know of drawbacks let me know.



1. After having made the blade only mold I mix about 12-16 ounces of a 2 part foam that expands double its volume (I was thinking FlexFoam-iT! 25 from smooth-on) and pour it down into the 4 ft long blade (no where near enough to fill the blade mold).



2. While the foam is still primarily just a liquid I slosh it inside the blade mold so it evenly coats the blade for a little then just before it begins to expand I place it vertical so the remainder filters to the tip giving it a sorter tip. This would hopefully make the blade a hollow foam blade.



3. Once the foam section is cured I then mix and pour in a 2 part plastic the serve as the core and solid handle center.



If you all have played around with the 2 part foams and know of their density issues please let me know (is the 25 type of foam way to solid for a prop or not) or if there is any problems I could encounter with using foam and plastic in a single piece) Soon Ill be uploading more pics of my progress now that my project money... err tax return has hit. and thank you for any input you may have.

 

[rhaiyszkie]

dude, as of now you are my idol... damn fine sword you got there. i like it very much..

love the soulreaver series... hence the name

 

[Robbymrodriguez]

It's a cool plan, but the plastic or resin you use for the core MIGHT melt the foam :/

 

[Walter Spase]

Foam swords are typically poured around the core. This you seem to know by now, as for not being able to make a core for the sword because it is serpentine, why not make serpentine cores? Making a hollow foam sword for back filling later will be very difficult, as you will inevitably end up with uneven thickness in the foam and possibly have closed sections not allowing the solid core to be poured in later.



FlexFoamIT 25 will be fine as far as a density goes, but the foam tends to form a poor skin if the mold itself is not sealed to create back pressure against the foam as it expands. This is done to essentially crush the cell structure flat at the mold surface, forming the skin. there should be vents to alleviate some pressure obviously and I would suggest doing this at the hilt so that you need not cut any portion of the blade away later exposing the cell structure of the foam and ruining your surface finish.



Now for opinions, take this lightly as I have not molded a cored foam sword before, merely held one and spoken to a creator about the method he was using to create the swords.



My opinion, I would create serpentine cores, then create my mold so the the material were injected into the mold, the injection process would help eliminate any trapped air along the way, and ultimately yield better pieces. The cores will provide rigidity to a foam piece, allowing it to both be safe and semi rigid for sword play.



Nice work so far, interesting prop.

 

[guido666]

Great work! Your attention to detail is fantastic.

 

[Livebyhonor]

Well I'm back again since I have been able to make some progress lately and I have a quick question on a small issue I have been having with making the Blade glassy smooth. I have 2 thoughts though 1 idea will simply require a little more money spent. Idea 1 is cast the blade I have now. since its surface is made of plastic and bondo touch ups the perfect surface I want isn't going to happen so. cast it once solid. sand and polish it like glass then remold it all over again.



Option 2... perhaps you have an idea. perhaps a spray on coating of plastic or rubber such as plasti-dip. I really dont know.



Anyway here are a few update pics.



My how shiny can I make it handle topper test (and yes my 65" tv is my computer monitor for those of you that noticed that)

The shaped blade with a few coats of glossy clear coat.

The handle and hilt in a unfinished but close to it look. I still need to make the handle wrap and blade holding slot.

And here is a pic of how big this thing is. (the handle hasnt been trimmed in this pic at the time taken)

And here is a pic with some blue led's in it since a few wanted to see blue vise the red I showed earlier (this was using a way old blade shape and tinfoil on it as a test) My final idea I think will be similar using a glow additive and a thin clear coat in the skull so it will glow blue with the uv lights on and solid black when they are off.

 

[KrovikanCorvinus]

If I were you, I'd make a mold of the one you have now, cast one from it, perfect the cast, then remold and cast your final from the second mold. After you have cast it, it may be worth giving it a really thick, even coat of clear plastic, perhaps it will be able to project the light coming from the skull throughout the blade a little?

 

[Livebyhonor]

Well with the now little time and money I have the project is going slower but I'm still going forward. I have the master mold for the blade done and can make them at any time. The only problem I still have is the droop due to the length. I tried using a 1/4 steel rod down the center of the blade but it takes time to bend it to the right curve. As I attempt to figure out better ways to do it I have been working on the wall mount since a 5 ft sword just cant lay on the floor as a trip hazard. I decided to use the "Pillars of Nosgoth" as the mount since they are a big part of the swords lore.

Here is a pic of the sword on the mount so you can see its size with it. And the green on the blade is chromatic so different light and angles effect it.

as always more pics can be found at my flicker page.