Internet troubles have kept me from updating, but I’ve kept my nose to the grindstone and nearly wrapped up a number of projects! Weather’s kept me from bringing the Buster Sword out for body work, but there was still plenty to do inside. The Orange Mod Works Concept Recon enters the home stretch, and I tinker with a number of Hidden Blade designs.
OMW Recon
Silicone arrived Saturday afternoon, and I spent the rest of the first weekend wrapping up the grip molds.
Recon Grip Masters and Completed Molds
I had too much pressure on the molds for the first set of casts, so the thinner areas of the casts didn’t come out at all. These parts wound up junked.
First set of casts wound up hole-y.
After swapping out the sports elastics with some office rubber bands, the first cast came out at an acceptable thickness.
Successful Cast!
Sadly I bit off more than I could chew – or rather mixed more resin than I could use. It started thickening before I could finish the second half, and the other side of the grip wound up incomplete.
It’s functional, just not complete.
I’ve already cast a replacement and painted up the blue lights. After a bit of masking, I’ll be getting the metal finish on this week.
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Connor’s Hidden Blades (Assassin’s Creed 3)
The longer I pored over the concept art for this blade, the more bothered I was how far the kit deviated from this design. At the very least, I figured I could modify the dagger handle to include the rear flip-out blade.
I don’t have in-process pictures of this modification, but it involved cutting a slot in the side for the rear blade to fold into/out of. The main blade had to be replaced with a thinner version. To make up for the loss of weight (the kit relies on the blade’s momentum in free-fall to lock itself into position), I went with 14 gauge aluminum that gives that satisfying *snikt* sound when drawing. It’s pre-coated in a white enamel that hopefully allows paint to stick better. Moreover, aluminum’s non-magnetic, so it doesn’t interfere with the extension or pivot mechanisms.
The three stages of the dagger transformation to better conform to the concept art.
The three stages of the Pivot Blade dagger are as follows:
1) Collapsed. This is the shape everything is in while the Hidden Blade is sheathed.
2) Extended. When the Hidden Blade is extended for discreet assassinations, the main blade extends out the front.
3) Extended with rear blade. The rear blade is flipped out when the Pivot Blade is pivoted into icepick/reverse grip.
The next step was a couple coats of paint with some careful masking to emulate the engraved details.
I took some metal and painted it to look like metal. Yeah!
Up next is filing a visible edge onto the blades and polishing those edges to prevent tarnish. After that, the remaining pieces will just need some touch up paint from all the modding.
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Modern Pivot Blade (Assassin’s Creed Fan-Universe)
This started out as Ammnra’s Osiris Blade kit. I replaced a loose component that fell off during the hustle and bustle at the Tampa Bay Comic Conference and modified the locking door to hide the exposed pin. The nylon blade’s been replaced with 11 Gauge Aluminum cut from the template I designed for the Connor kit.
Black, metal, black, metal. I thought some contrast between components would look nice.
I’ve some extras of the metal blades for sale. Anyone interested can email me at Kouri[at]kourikustoms[dot]com
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There are other projects in the works, but to prevent delaying this post any further, I’ll save them for a future update. Stay tuned!
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