Cloud Strife's Hardedge

This is actually almost a year old now, but it was what started it all and as such I thought it appropriate to make it the first prop entry. After my girlfriend had gotten me to take the final leap going to AWA 2010 in costume, I was hooked. I also purchased a Buster Sword from another replica prop maker at the same convention which pushed the idea even further. Cloud holds a special place in my heart being the protagonist of one of my favorite games and I really wanted to do him justice when I eventually do the costume. One of the ways I thought to do so is to recreate each one of his iconic weapons in the order that he acquires them in the game, and since I already had a Buster Sword this was the next in line.

The sword is an extremely simple design. The initial profile was cut from a single 1x10" board that I had lying around, then two additional profiles of the square guard were cut from the same board and sandwiched around the full profile. Unfortunately I didn't have the mindset to take progress photos at each step, but  the result of the above work can be seen here with a size comparison to the Buster Sword.

Hardedge is 49.5" from end of hilt to tip of the blade. The blade is .5" wide, the hilt guard is 1.5" wide. Size was determined by scaling the Play Arts Hard Edge and Play Arts Cloud action figure with the known height of Cloud.

The small rings at the base of the hilt were cut from two sizes of PVC pipes. The 'Materia Slots' were made with a hole saw and a drill press, they are approximately 1/8" deep. "Hammered" Gunmetal Grey paint with silver air-brush dusting is was applied then the center strip was masked off and painted red.

Ittoouroudan: "Cutting in two with a single stroke"
That's the best translation I've been able to find for the Kanji on Cloud's iconic sword. Drawn out by my girlfriend who has a much steadier hand than I, then painted basic black. She also pointed out that it needed to be mirrored on the back side so it would still read correctly, something that I had forgotten about.

After adding two half round dowels the hilt was wrapped in maroon gauze.

A couple shots of the finished sword.

And a quick shot to show how much of a FFVII nerd I am. I snagged that well worn, but ridiculously awesome, T-shirt way back when, on September 7th 1997 as a reserve item from Funcoland. A fan since day one.

Productive Day...

Recently talked over the prospect of 'props for profit' and came to a conclusion that with a couple people involved and a little luck with finding that niche'.
Idea right now is to build up a portfolio of work and skills, which I was planning on slowly doing with this blog anyway, now I have help. Not only that, but I have help from someone who has a few skill sets that I don't have.

Started about 9am, called it a day about 5pm. All in all about 3-4 hours of actual working time and we end up with a new template, a new sword, and parts for a new hammer glued and left to dry.

Not gonna say what the first two projects are just yet, though fans on the Facebook page can get a preview spoiler, but fans of BLEACH and Marvel might want to tune in next time for the next exciting episode of Dra.... 2DLogic Props!

First Post!

My first post on a new blog. Lately I've gotten into building replica props as a result of my girlfriend getting me to take the final leap on cosplay at last year's Anime Weekend Atlanta convention. The blog is created in a similar vein to that of Blind Squirrel and Volpin's blogs, partially to pay a bit of homage to two amazing prop builders who have inspired me and given me ideas on several builds already, and partially because it's an efficient design.

Right now this is just a labor of love. I will be posting work journals, templates, etc for the various props that I make for myself and my friends to hopefully give those who are interested in this kind of thing a little of the inspiration that I've gotten from other people's blogs. Who knows, if this project is well received this could turn into a commission business at some point.