Bullgryns all done and ready for action

Next!

The Bullgryns are almost done. They are all glued together and painted and now just need the wash. Now on to the Valhallan Icel warriors.

Bullgryns

Slowly making progress

Cadians

My son finally settled on a Cadian 40K army. Now the real fun starts. Modeling and painting tons of minis.

CT Renaissance Faire

Went tot he CT Renaissance faire over the weekend. We always have a good time when we go. We came across a group of Templars who gave us good info on wear to buy helmets and pauldrons.

Also a must see is the Landsknecht. My son is interested in doing a landsknecht costume so we talk to them for a while. They were very nice and most helpful. We were also told we could contact them if we have any more questions.

Tray

I am making carrying trays for my son's 40K army. This is one of the four that will stack on top of each other.

I am using left over matte board. First I cut out the bottom piece. Then I figure out the inserts and draw a grid patter for where they fall. I then glue the sides on and then reenforce the sides with duct tape. I also cut out little grab rectangles on the side to make it easier to put the trays out. of the box they will go in.

Next step is cut out the dividers and glue them in. Last step is gluing a thin foam on the bottom and sides of the inserts.

Hnefatafl

I know, i know, it is about time I got to making a Hnefatafl board game. Well here it is. It was a long arduous journey but I made it.

I cut the base board out of finished plywood. When I started sanding it I went through a veneer that I didn't know was on the board. So I then had to sand through the whole veneer which took a long time. I then thought it would be a good idea to score into the wood to make the grind pattern. I hit an air bubble in the board pushed a hole into it. I didn't want to start over so I patched the hole with wood putty.

When I had it all cut out and sanded I stained the board. The score lines didn't show up very well so I started painting in the scores. Butt here was a lot off wood pulp left in the scores and it made painting very difficult.

I was done painting and started putting everything together but didn't like the look and repainted the whole thing.

It is finally done and looks okay. There are somethings I would do different but I am not going to make another one. Now I have to figure out how to play the game.

New LARP boffer Shield

Just finished making a n new shield. This will be my son's fourth and final shield. If he wants another he will have to build it himself. This new shield goes with his new LARP outfit.

 

 

 

Fur lined bracers

With left over material I decided to make fur lined bracers for LARP. My wife helped by sewing it together for me.  With these and the hat I will be nice and toasty for the next LARP.

LARP Hat

It is getting cold at night so it is time to make a hat for LARP. Keeping to my somewhat Viking themed outfit I found a hat that I liked. So I bought the materials and had my wife help me as she is good at sewing. Here is the end result. I am very happy with it. I just may wear it this winter.

LARP tablet - finished

Not the greatest pictures. I think the flash went off and washed out the pictures a little. But I am happy with the results of the tablet. I got caught up in the painting and didn't take pictures durinig the layers but I started with painting the whole thing with white gesso. But I didn't cover it completely and some pink was showing through. Then I did a layer of black, next layer a medium brown and last a light grey. The last thing I did was make a dirt color and put it on my fingers and handled the tablet so it would look darker in the areas people would be handling it.

Here is the front and back.

LARP tablet

I saw a pictures of this online when searching for LARP props and thought it was a really cool idea. Of course I had to try it. To start off I cut out a piece of pink foam.

I then rounded the edges a bit and gave the tablet some damage. I then used a heat gun to melt and give the foam a rock like texture. I didn't know how it would turn out as this is the first time I did anything like this. I was pretty happy with the results.

Then I drew some guide lines to keep the lettering straight. I printed a sheet of viking letters to follow for shapes. I didn't actually write anything. I just added random letters. I heated a scrapper and burned in the letters. You can see in the last couple of lines I was getting better at it. Sometimes I would go too deep or burn too much.

Next I am going to gesso the tablet and then start painting to make it look like stone.

LARP boffer spear

Okay, now back to LARP. This time we are making a boffer spear. The head will not look spear like but safety first. The tip needs to be bigger than an eye socket. Even though head shots are not allowed, accidents do happen.

We started off by hot gluing pipe foam over 3/4" PVC pipe. Even though the spear is for jabbing only  we went with the thicker pipe to reduce whip.

 

Next we added a couple of layers of foam to the end. 

Then for that cool wood grain look we used wood grain contact paper.

Now for the spear head. We glued and taped two layers of the pipe foam extend 6" or so from the end of the pipe. The below picture is only the first layer.

And here is the final product. It came out a bit thicker than I hoped but like I said, safety first.

Ultra Marines 40K

Back to painting minis

LARP Shield

I keep getting asked how I make my LARP shields so here is a step by step on the new one my son and I built. 

 We start with a sheet of pink foam. Cut it to size. This shield will have a hand guard in the center so we find the center point, stick a nail in it then tie a string to the nail. If you want a 6 inch hole tie a pencil 3 inches out. Then draw a circle and cut it out.

 

For the handle I use a 3/4 inch pvc pipe. I wrap the pipe with a leather scrap I have. I hot glue it to the pipe so it doesn't slide around when using the finished shield. I then hot glue the pipe to the shield. I then add a strap cut through the shield, glued to the pipe and glued on the front and back around the pipe and glue it closed. Make sure it is tight. In the past I did not do this step and the pipe handle broke free during use. After I added the strap I have had no problems with the handle breaking free.

 

For the center piece I have a thick piece of pink foam. I cut it out to size then start carving it away to get the shape. I then file it smooth. I also carve out the inside of it so there is room for your hand once it is attached. Then I cover it with silver duct tape.

 

Next I cover the shield with a colored duck tape of choice. We went with blue for this one. For the back I wanted to try something new that I saw and liked on other shields. Wood grain contact paper. 

Next we hot glued pipe foam around the edges and then covered it with silver duct tape. We wanted a metal square on the front so we covered self adhesive craft foam with silver duct tape and attached it to the shield. Then hot glued the hand guard. Done!

 

Connecticon

We went to Connecticon over the weekend. As usual it was a really great time. This was the first time my son wore a costume. It took a little work to get him into it and some of it wasn't working and had to be left in the car. But I guess it was okay as when we walked in he was immediately stopped  and asked for a picture. He was stopped 5 times for pictures, got a fist bump and many compliments on his outfit so I will rate it a success. ComiCONN is coming up in August so will will work out the kinks and finish up the outfit.

The first picture is of my son in his Mandalorian outfit. The other are various pictures from the show.