Figure Mad
A Fixture
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2004
- Messages
- 1,789
Hi Guys,
Another SBS on weapons from the ECW, this is a swept hilt rapier, very typical of the gentry that were in the officer ranks on both sides of the English civil war, although not the heaviest of swords used during this period it was none the less very effective for piercing the leather of a buff coat. This again made from plasticard and rod.
I started with a drawing from an image downloaded from the internet, scaled to the correct size. the whole blade and hilt section were cut from o.5mm thick plasticard. The double edge blade was then marked out as to where it would start near the Hilt and I then scraped the very carefully down the length of the blade on both sides to give a representation of the real blade.
The next part to get right was the swept metal cage, this is created from small sections of 0.5mm plastic rod that has been cut from a piece of rod that I have dipped in boiling water and wrapped around a needle file handle while it cooled this gave me a kind of spring of plastic rod. just following the drawing and many photo’s of original rapiers.
I constructed the swept hilt piece by piece, while this was drying I made the handle from 2mm plastic rod tapered to the pommel, the pommel its self is a small ball bearing super glued in place, the rod was cut length in the hand and drilled out to receive a 0.8 aluminium rod, the I had drilled and glued into the handle section of the blade.
This is now ready for paint.
Another SBS on weapons from the ECW, this is a swept hilt rapier, very typical of the gentry that were in the officer ranks on both sides of the English civil war, although not the heaviest of swords used during this period it was none the less very effective for piercing the leather of a buff coat. This again made from plasticard and rod.
I started with a drawing from an image downloaded from the internet, scaled to the correct size. the whole blade and hilt section were cut from o.5mm thick plasticard. The double edge blade was then marked out as to where it would start near the Hilt and I then scraped the very carefully down the length of the blade on both sides to give a representation of the real blade.
The next part to get right was the swept metal cage, this is created from small sections of 0.5mm plastic rod that has been cut from a piece of rod that I have dipped in boiling water and wrapped around a needle file handle while it cooled this gave me a kind of spring of plastic rod. just following the drawing and many photo’s of original rapiers.
I constructed the swept hilt piece by piece, while this was drying I made the handle from 2mm plastic rod tapered to the pommel, the pommel its self is a small ball bearing super glued in place, the rod was cut length in the hand and drilled out to receive a 0.8 aluminium rod, the I had drilled and glued into the handle section of the blade.
This is now ready for paint.
