Project : Original Variant - Raising Heart Force Blade form (Posing and Weight)

While the buster sword is broad and a bit short, this project experiments with material rigidity. The entire sword is over 30cm long and I want to see how it can hold up. My swords are not of a monolithic design, therefore weight is an issue when joining the hilt to the blade itself.

The blade itself is stiff and does not wrap under its own weight. To achieve this, I used a layered piece instead of a thick piece of pla-plate on its own. I find that a single thick piece has a tendency to be less rigid toward the tip of the blade and is good up to 15cm personally. This holds true only for thickness of 0.5mm and 1mm pla-plates which I commonly uses. Recently I have seen 2mm and 3mm thick pla-plate popping up at the regular store where I get my supplies so I might test them out, time permitting.

I will do up a short post on my material experiments if there is interest.

Shia in an alter Nanoha costume with Raising Heart Force Blade

As we can see from the photo, the blade should be able to be pose regularly in most positions without much of a weight issue.

Competition photo

Last I will leave you with a shot for a photo competition I took part some years back but sadly didn't get into the top 10.

Here we come to the end of this series of posts for this project, thank you for viewing !

Project : Original Variant - Raising Heart Force Blade form (Completed)

This is the gallery post where I put up pictures of the completed project. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Original Variant - Raising Heart Force Blade form ! Feedback and comments are welcomed.

The completed blade

Close up of the blade tip and details

Hilt details

Hilt and grip

Thank you for viewing !

Project : Original Variant - Raising Heart Force Blade form (WIP)

Project : Original Variant - Raising Heart Force Blade form

My doll, Shia, is no stranger to cosplaying and she have a huge wardrobe of cosplay costumes. As for me, I prefer variant over canonical versions and so this project was born. To create an original variant of the female lead Takamichi Nanoha's "intelligent device", Raising Heart from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. The original was a wand but I wanted to do something alternative so I went ahead and designed a melee weapon.

Creating variants, for me personally, is a much more enjoyable process than trying to recreate the original item. It frees me to exercise my creativity rather than nip-pick on details of the original.

Looking back, I realised that I have little to none Work-In-Progress (WIP) records for my Buster Sword project. For this project, I made an effort in recording down work processes whenever possible.

The base form

Hilt details

Blade details

Click here for pictures of the completed sword !

Photoshoot : Fate/Stay Night - Saber Variant

Besides being a weapon fanatic, I am also into creating variants, be it original or otherwise. No doubt it would be more satisfying to portrait a character you fancy onto your doll in all its glory, sometimes don't you wonder if it would be more fun to create a variant instead ?

The character : Saber (Fate/Stay Night)
Saber, of Fate/Stay Night fame, is possibly be one of the most prolific sword wielding character in recent times. Such is her popularity that she is even made into a Dolfie Dream doll. She is a sword user (plus point for me !) and she definitely has a nice dress outside of all her armor (which I am still trying to create).

Love for a character can be expressed in many ways and the way I choose to show it is to create a variant. For this, I had a custom Saber dress tailored for Shia in shades of red and black and with the help of my friend, mori.m, we trekked off to a coastal area to do this shoot. mori.m has been a great friend of mine and my wife and is also the one who manipulated introduced us to the world of dolls. With his experience in doll photography and guidance, this series of photos were born.

Thank you for viewing !
I hope you have enjoyed this gallery !

Project : Buster Sword (Posing and Weight)

Here we have my MSD Shia (紫夜) holding the buster sword. I greatly favor using gunpla plastic/pla-plate as compared to epoxy putty. Firstly, my fingers are not nimble enough to produce something decent. Secondly, it is too heavy for my liking to provide the type of pose I aspire to have.

The above shows the sword still in the production stage but is able to be handled and posed. As this is the first weapon prop I have created with pla-plate, I shortened the blade length by a third to reduce the weight. In hindsight, I think it would not be necessary to do so.

The following two photos shows the completed sword being posed and held by my doll. Shia has jointed MSD hands which allows her to grip the weapon as a human would do so. Should the sword be made in epoxy putty, I believe poses like this would be pretty difficult to achieve without additional support.

Project : Buster Sword (Completed)

While the previous post is mainly on the effects of the buster sword which I was trying to reproduce, this is a simple gallery showcasing the completed buster sword itself. Comments and feedback are welcomed.

The overview

Bullet holes

Battle damage with rusting

More rusting effects

The hilt and grip

Thank you for viewing !

Project : Buster Sword (Effects)

One of my first project involving weathering effects, the buster sword is both an experiment with various effects and an experience in creating a 1/4 prop largely on my own with a little guidance from my mentor.

Here I try to recreate battle damage and rusting on a Final Fantasy VII classic weapon, the buster sword. The inspiration for this project came after watching Final Fantasy : Advent Children. The rusted and worn buster sword towards the end of the show really strikes a chord with me.

Battle damage

An example of battle damage. Here I was trying to create an effect of the blade blocking a heated sword attack and sustaining damage in the process.

Rust from lack of repair

An example of rusting. Natural wear and tear has taken a toll on the sword, the pristine blade has started to age and rust.

Another example of battle damage. The sword has taken a beating from gunfire.

Bullet holes

Click here to see the completed buster sword !

The beginning of a journey...

After much procrastination, I finally got down and created a blog where I will chronicle my journey as a scratch-builder and a doll prop maker.

I started on the hobby a bit more than 2 years when my first doll, Shia (紫夜) arrived. The pairing of a deep passion for weapons, mainly blades, and a pose-able figure gave me an outlet to unleash the weapon fanatic in me. It has been a long and enriching road as I slowly recalled my past completed and uncompleted projects to date

In this little journal, I shall showcase my projects, document my experience and my various experiments.