The Spear Kassandra is given as a child truly is broken. Fractured shaft, tattered cloth and rusted and pitted blade, but as she travels through Greece she is able to re-forge the spear in the Forge of the Ancients – Isu tech which re-makes the weapon.
I like the look of the third version of the spear, it’s re-made to a point where it’s become something special but retains an element of what it was in the leather wrap around the handle.
Build
When I’d done the design for the spear I new that the shape of the handle lent itself to something I’d seen before… an axe handle! So that gave me the starting point for the whole spear. The max dimensions also gave me some direction of how I was going to get the blade together.
The max diameter of the handle end of the blade meant I had to use multiple layers to get the thickness and because it would taper down to an edge, I wanted the join to be in the centre so 2 layers of 18mm MFD make up the blade itself. The handle and the blade would be joined with a piece of PVC pipe.
Easy the, just cut and shape 38mm of MDF, cut down and reshape an axe handle and join them together!!
The handle was bulked out using some pieces of timber glued and then filled and sanded. This bit was pretty straightforward and I managed to get a really good finish. I left the handle oversized when I was working on it to give me the ability to hold and clamp in place while I was sanding and shaping.
Shaping the blade was messy, MDF turns into fluff and floats everywhere! Getting the right shape means using multiple copies of the template being cut and used the define the various shapes from the thickest down to the edge and the for the shaped inset areas.
A combination of belt sanders, rotary tools, sanding blocks, paper and knives was used to get the shape to where I wanted it to be.
Getting the surface of the MDF ready for paint meant using an MDF surface sealer which means it’s possible to sand to a smooth finish and get rid of the ‘fuzz’. A couple of coats and soe sanding back and I was able to get the primer on and start eh top coats.
Finish
The main part of the blade was primed and airbrushed with metallic steel with the engraved areas filled in black.
The centre ‘gold’ area is airbrushed on and actually used a bright brass Vallejo pigment.
The final touch for the blade was to buff the blade edges and shaft with some graphite powder, this give a fantastic shine and metal look and I LOVE IT!
The handle was sprayed with black Plastidip to give the texture I wanted for the plain section and I masked and sprayed the end with silver which I then knocked back with a wipe of black acrylic. Then I wrapped a strip of brown leather around and up to the ferrule which fitted into the centre joint. After the leather was in place I roughed the edges with a bit of sandpaper and rubbed a bit of my dirty paint-water in to give it the used, weathered look.
Materials
- Hickory axe handle
- Scrap wood
- Wood filler
- 18mm MDF sheet
- PVC tube
- 2mm EVA foam
- Metallic gunmetal spray
- Vallejo Bright brass airbrush colour
- Vallejo metallic steel airbrush colour
- Process black acrylic paint
- Graphite power
- Black Plastidip
- Brown leather
- CA glue
- 2-part epoxy glue
Tools
- Band saw
- Belt sander
- 60 / 80 / 180 / 400 grit sandpaper
- Rotary tool with sanding drums and small router bits
- Mini hand files
- Craft knife
- Airbrush
- Heat gun