sculpting swords advice needed

[godfather]

I am building a resin 13 century knight 120mm resin. Of course the sword blade is bent pretty bad I will try and heat it up and straighten it but if not successful I was thinking of sculpting the sword blade. So what is the easiest way of sculpting a blade for as standard 13 century sword. I have aves at my disposal but am bad at sculpting. Thanks

 

[Figure Mad]

Hi Godfather

You could try using plasticard, scraping with a knife and sanding to shape

Dave

 

[Jeff]

If you want something a little more rigid you could use brass stock it is pretty easy to work with files. And would not bend if the figure got a little hot. So if you use heat to speed the drying time of paints on your figure you do not need to worry. I have used both plastic and brass. I have also had luck with aluminum. Nice thing about it is that you can polish it and not have to paint it to look like metal.

 

[MCPWilk]

Why not use a length of nickel-silver Peco or Hornby model railway track? You will need to do a fair bit of filing, but it is rigid and the right colour when polished! One six inch length will give you enough for four swords at least (two rails per length of track).

Good Luck,

Mike

 

[Einion]

If you want to work with putty don't think of it as sculpting but as a building project. Roll the putty out evenly, slightly thicker than you need, wait for it to set nearly hard and cut out the rough shape. Now wait for it to fully cure.

Then start scraping/sanding to refine the shape, thin it down and make the edge sharp (you can get a pretty good edge on a hard putty like Apoxie Sculpt). If you want to do grooves of any kind - some blade forms had them, others didn't - they're tricky and require practice so might be an idea to do more than blade at the same time, then pick the one that works out best.

Einion

 

[renarts]

There are a variety of sword shapes and forms for 13thc. swords. While the earlier to mid 13thc. shows most to be single handed swords, later 13thc. examples show a mix of single and two handed, long swords. Some with sharpened blades, some with not so sharp blades as a sword could be handled by the blade in combat. In the hands of a trained swordsman a sword is much more than an oversized knife and is a versatile lethal and non lethal weapon.
Some will have fullers running partially along the length of the blade, others the length of the blade. Some swords from the period also have diamond shaped cross sections. Much depends on the country of origin, the sword maker's preference and the "job" of the sword. The fullers or grooves are there for rigidity for the blade to prevent flexing and to get more strength without the weight.

Most 13thc. swords have a slight taper to the blade with a spatulate tip.

The attached link is a nice reference to Oakshott's cataloging and identification of sword types. Something that may come in handy while sculpting your sword. Click on the line drawing of the sword and a photo of an extant example will appear.
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_oakeshott2.html

I've achieved nice results with both Einon's and Dave's methods of making swords. But I will admit that Dave's is the easiest. I've scored the center line of the blade the length of the fuller I wanted and then used a round file to shape the groove of the fuller. A piece of wire is used to attach the blade to the quillions and pommel.

Good luck.