Sword 1.0

My son decided he needed a sword for his cosplay then drew this picture for me.  My first thought was "How it the world am I going to do this?" 

I started looking online and found the awesome Kamui Cosplay http://www.kamuicosplay.com .  She makes some amazing things and she is fun to watch. I followed her spray foam tutorial. but I didn't quite get her results. 

You start with a basic cardboard form

Cover it in Spray Foam (WEAR GLOVES)

Once dry you shape it out with a blade 

At this point I was quite proud. It was looking Sword like and my son was happy with it. But the foam had so many large holes in it. I filled holes with more spray, then shaped those new bubbles back down to the shape. 

I used glue to try to fill and smooth. I even went to a prop shop and bought something specific to fill and never was happy with the texture. Figuring I had done all I could, I moved on to the Paper Mach'e

Basic Paper Mach'e.  No big deal. 

There, a sword.  Some spray paint and we had...

A heavy sword with a strange angle and a rough texture that we couldn't sand down. I wasn't happy with it. Then the whole outer shell started cracking. I'd refill the crack and that would crack. Eventually an entire blue tip pealed right off. At that point I decided my spray foam days were over. We were going to start over We needed a new plan. 

Sword 2.0 to come soon.