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.

 

LARP Book

In the LARP my son and I attend my character can read and write. Being able to take notes helps as information I get I easily forget, especially names. My character has also been commissioned from the manor house to gather information about new monsters and mystical beings. So I needed a book to carry and take notes.

This is the book I made for that purpose. The cover is cardboard which I glued a textured paper to. The pages are printer paper but I tore the edges to give an hand made look. I held a straight edge down and slowly ripped the paper along the edge. I then folder everything and tied it up with a strap of leather.