How I made Chaos Blade and Highway Star

Today I will be talking about how I made Chaos Blade, one of two swords belonging to Gabranth from Final Fantasy XII, the other being Highway Star. I will mention Highway Star, but won't go into great detail as they were both made the same way. If you want to watch a time lapse of it you can find it over on YouTube.

First I did some research. I looked up photos of Gabranth and his swords and saved the ones I liked the most. I also brought a Play Arts model of Gabranth off eBay which really came in handy.

I printed off a photo of the swords I found and traced them on to some paper. Once that was done I changed the shape of them to match the two swords that came with my Play Arts Model as I was only using the photo to get a rough size and shape. I than scan it and using my height, and some measurements I took off the Play Arts Model, I made it larger until I was happy with it a painted it off. I stuck it together using masking tape and cut out the two swords. Using the paper patterns I cut a wooden broom handle to the size needed.

From here on when I talk about sticking or glueing something, I used a hot glue gun to do so unless other wise mentioned.

I decided to start with Choas Blade. I traced the pattern on to some EVA foam twice to get the thickness I wanted. Cut it out and stuck it together. I than cut out a slot for the broom handle and glued it in.

From here I used my model to cut out details and glued them on. Once down I marked out the golden bit that goes down the centre and started to cut a edge to the blade using a knife.

I than went on to sanding the edge down, sanding out the golden bit, and shape the detailing I had already glued on. At one point I came up with the idea of glueing craft foam over the broom handle slot to hide it a bit.

Before I started on Highway Star I made the solid ring that goes around the bottom of the swords and attached them together. To do this I cut out two ractangle bits of EVA foam, heated them out and glued the short ends together. I than traced the shape it made on to craft foam, along with a hole in the  middle for the broom handle four times, cut them out and stuck three on four of the ends. Before glueing the last one one I glued some EVA foam into it. I than glued both things on to the already made Chaos Blade and the yet to be made Highway Star.

I finished off Chaos Blade, by glueing some craft form around the broom handle.

Highway Star was made in the same way.