THE WORKSHOP – Custom 1/6 Sword by Paul Benson

We’re back with another workshop by the might Paul Benson!  Paul brings his technique in creating custom swords for all your 1/6 army.

Enjoy!

– Knives

How to make a 1/6 sword

What you will need:

You will need a sheet of 2 mm and 1 mm styrene sheet, masking tape, scalpel, sharp scissors, nail file, sand paper (various grades) and/or nail files, cyanoacrylate (commonly sold as Super Glue or Krazy Glue), Dremel with tool kit (optional), matt black paint and metallic paint (preferably as spray paints), acrylic paints of various colours (depending on the colour of the handle tape [see below]).

I am writing this up, in the hope it might be useful to folks. I am no expert on swords so please excuse any little inaccuracies that are due to my lack of ‘sword knowledge’ or being unable to scale details down to 1/6 scale.

Nothing new under the sun here, but as a little set of techniques that could be used to make a whole variety of things e.g. knives, axes, tools etc. Wrote them up as a set of stages to follow through.

STAGE 1
As a starting point find a suitable picture online, using an image search. I chose to make a Japanese Katana. From the found image find out the actual size 1:1, which you can get from the website who are using the picture.

Copy and paste the picture and then crop and resize to 1/6 scale using Photoshop or another photo editing programme. If you don’t have Photoshop or something similar, you can do this by trial and error, printing out and then measuring the length of printed sword and then resizing.

STAGE 2
Print the sword picture onto card and cut out to use as a template.

STAGE 3
Draw around the template onto 2 mm thick styrene sheet. Cut out the sword outline with sharp scissors or a fine modellers saw. After cutting out the sword blank it may need to be flattened slightly as the cutting process can distort the plastic. This can easily be remedied by immersing the sword in boiling water or use a hair dryer and hold flat whilst it cools.

STAGE 4
To create the cutting edge for the sword blade use any or a combination of scalpel, nail file, Dremel and various grades of sandpaper. Start off by removing the square edges. A scalpel can be used at to shave off the plastic to make the cutting edge. Final corrections can be done with coarse and then finer grade sandpaper. Depending which figure you are making the sword for you may need to thicken the sword handle. That is certainly the case for example for ThreeA Tomorrow Kings and Queens. This can be done very easily by adding further strips of plastic card glued to either side of the handle.

STAGE 5
The guard can be made by drawing a small suitably sized oval onto 1 mm styrene sheet, cut out with scissors. A slot then needs to be carefully cut out with a scalpel the same width and thickness as the blade next to the handle. Slide this onto the sword and glue in place with super glue. The blade collar is just masking tape cut into a 4 mm strip and wound round the blade. Once on the sword to keep the tape in place and to harden it, ‘paint’ it with super glue. Some super glue containers come with a brush in, very handy.

STAGE 6
The handle was also wrapped around with a 4 mm masking tape strip gradually wound down the length of handle. Japanese swords, of course have a tape wound round the handle in a particular way. I have done the winding in the simplest way possible! To get the 4 mm strip, if you have one of those green soft artist cutting boards, the tape can be run along a line on the board. Mark off 4 mm along the tape and use a ruler and sharp scalpel to cut a strip around 40 cm long. When done, again it was painted over with super glue.

To paint the sword it was first sprayed with matt black using Humbrol acrylic aerosol paint (enamel paint would be fine). As the sword was light it was held in place on a piece of waste board whilst being sprayed with a small blob of Blue Tack. When one side was dry, the sword was turned over and the other side sprayed. The blade was sprayed with Humbrol acrylic polished steel metalcote. After the paint had dried and been allowed to harden for a few hours it was rubbed with a soft cloth to give the ‘polished steel’ finish. The sword can of course be sprayed with another suitable metallic paint. The handle was lightly dry brushed with a dark brown, mid brown and then a light brown. What colour you use for the tape is of course up you. The guard was dry brushed with silver on it edge.

Being the ninny that I am, I forgot to photograph this sword before I sent it off to someone! The pictures below are of several swords I have made. The sheath shown was made from styrene tube carefully and evenly squashed with pliers to make an oval cross section. The tube was cushioned with a cloth to stop the pliers marking the styrene. I drew round the ends of the tube onto 1 mm styrene sheet and cut out the ovals with sharp scissors. With one of the ovals a rectangular slot was cut out with a sharp scalpel slightly larger than width and thickness of the sword blade collar.

So that’s it! Again, this can be applied to a wide arrange of melee weapons. Trial and error is part of the fun! Thank you for reading and see you next time!

We hope you enjoyed the latest Workshop. Big thanks once again to Paul for sharing his techniques with us. 
 We’d love to hear from you and check out what kind of customs you’re working on! Send us a shot of your latest custom work with a brief description to radtoyreview@gmail.com. 

Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter pages to stay updated whenever we post new Workshops and epic toy reviews!

Until next time!


THE WORKSHOP – DIY Mini Bertie Custom (PART 5 of 5) by markovengine

We continue with the final of our 5 part tutorial series by markovengine! It’s been a great ride!

If you need to catch up:

Part 1 – DIY MINI BERTIE CUSTOM PAINT TUTORIAL

Part 2 – PAINT BODY AND CREATE DECALS

Part 3 – PLACING DECALS

Part 4 – Weathering – 1

Enjoy!

– Knives

———————————————————————————————————
PART 5 : Weathering-2 (FINAL)
———————————————————————————————————

5-1
Continuing our with our weathering, I mix some brown and black to make a darker brown paint.

———————————————————————————————————

5-2
I paint with this closer in to edges and seams where I’ve sponged on my lighter “rust” .

———————————————————————————————————

5-3
Paint and erase until you are satisfied. Take your time, this little guy isn’t going anywhere.

———————————————————————————————————

5-4
With our sponge work completed, I decided to hit the bertie with a little yellow to closer match his big brother.
Repeat Step 4-2~Step5-4  until you are satisfied with the result.

———————————————————————————————————

5-5
Here is the what the final painted rust looked like before the final step.

———————————————————————————————————

5-6
I then use an airbrush and hit the bertie with a little clear flat matte coat to protect my work so far.

———————————————————————————————————

5-7
Now I want to go back and wash the grooves with black so the details really pop.
It’s a pretty easy process. Just dilute some black with thinner and run your brush over the various grooves and other areas you want to be darker.
I also painted a little oil dripping from the eye hole using the same method. You can also dab a little dark paint at random points of your figure for more variety in his paint texture and weathering.

———————————————————————————————————

5-8
Finally! My completed Mini Deep Powder Bertie!

Here are some variations I created using several of the same practices. Thank you for reading my tutorial, I hope you enjoyed it!

We’d love to hear from you and check out what kind of customs you’re working on! Send us a shot of your latest custom work with a brief description to radtoyreview@gmail.com. 

Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter pages to stay updated whenever we post new Workshops and epic toy reviews!

Until next time!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.


THE WORKSHOP – DIY Mini Bertie Custom (PART 4 of 5) by markovengine

We continue with part 4 of our 5 part tutorial series by markovengine! 

If you need to catch up:

Part 1 – DIY MINI BERTIE CUSTOM PAINT TUTORIAL

Part 2 – PAINT BODY AND CREATE DECALS

Part 3 – PLACING DECALS

Enjoy!

– Knives

———————————————————————————————————

Part 4 : WEATHERING

———————————————————————————————————

4-1
These are the colors and brand I like to use for weathering figures.

———————————————————————————————————

4-2
You can apply your paints separately or mix them together. Before you start painting you need to really dilute the paint with paint thinner. You just want a very watery thin base coat. If your application is too dark, just wipe it off with a cotton swab.

———————————————————————————————————

4-3
Work over the whole piece with diluted brown/black paint. Be sure to get into the crevices until he looks something like this.

———————————————————————————————————

4-4
Next, we start working on our rust technique.
I used brown and a piece of sponge. Different sponges will give you different texture.

———————————————————————————————————

4-5
You’ll want to cut the sponge shape sharp.

———————————————————————————————————

4-6
Get a dab of your paint on the tip of the sponge. Wipe off the excess with a cloth. You won’t need a lot of paint.

———————————————————————————————————

4-7
Very lightly press the sponge to your figure using mainly the edge. The idea is to capture the tiny splotches on the sponge and not a solid mark.

———————————————————————————————————

4-8
Apply your “rust” as you see fit. Check out reference photos to see where rust my creep up on a robot or machine. Rusting near joints and grooves would be common as well as any are that might be consistently splashed from the ground.

———————————————————————————————————

4-9
Here’s bertie with just one layer of weathering complete. Not bad?

———————————————————————————————————

Next up the final piece of the puzzle!

Part 5 :Weathering-2

We’d love to hear from you and check out what kind of customs you’re working on! Send us a shot of your latest custom work with a brief description to radtoyreview@gmail.com. 

Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter pages to stay updated whenever we post new Workshops and epic toy reviews!

Until next time!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.


THE WORKSHOP – DIY Mini Bertie Custom (PART 3 of 5) by markovengine

SDCC delayed our Workshop posts. Today we continue with part 3 of our 5 part tutorial series by markovengine! Part 4 is coming very soon as well!

If you need to catch up:

Part 1 – DIY MINI BERTIE CUSTOM PAINT TUTORIAL

Part 2 – PAINT BODY AND CREATE DECALS

Enjoy!

– Knives

———————————————————————————————————

PART 3 : “PLACING DECALS!”
———————————————————————————————————

3-1

There’s a couple different ways I like to apply decals.

You can apply your decals directly to your bertie’s surface using printable fake tattoo seals. This works well, but requires a little guess work as to how your decal will actually look on the surface after it’s laid down. To make it a little easier to get the exact placement, you can put the tattoo seal on a clear decal sticker before you apply it.

Left : Tattoo seal pack front.
Center : Tattoo seal pack back.
Right : Clear decal sticker pack.

———————————————————————————————————

3-2

Since techniques can vary depending on the type of printable tattoo sheets and clear decal stickers you have, so read their instructions!
Make sure you print your tattoo decals in reverse – (words should read backwards on sheet) Left to right, right to left so that when you apply them they will read the correct way.

Left : Decals printed backwards on tattoo sheet.

Right: Clear Adhesive sheet

———————————————————————————————————

3-3
If you’re not worried about fine tuning or adjusting your decal after you place it, you can apply the tattoo decal directly to your figure.

Left : Cut the tattoo seal to the right size. In this case, the upper arm.
Right : I peel off the transparent sheet and apply the adhesive part decal down.

———————————————————————————————————

3-4
Left : Wet the base of the tattoo sheet with water.
Right : After a certain time (read tattoo sheet’s instructions) base sheet may be separated.
Your tattoo/decal is applied!

———————————————————————————————————

3-5
If you are unsure and want a little more flexibility in your decal placement you can use the clear sticker sheet to help out
Left : Cut the tattoo seal to size
Right : Put decal down on clear sticker sheet.

———————————————————————————————————

3-6
Left : Wet the tattoo sheets base with water.
Right : Remove the base sheet after a set time (read tattoo sheet’s instructions).

———————————————————————————————————

3-7
Left : Carefully cut the decal. Be careful as the surface is not protected.
Right : Apply your decal like a sticker.

Easy peasy.

———————————————————————————————————

3-8
Here are examples of the complete decals. I used a mix of direct and indirect application.

———————————————————————————————————

3-9
After all the decals are set, I used an airbrush to apply a clear gloss in order to protect the surface.

———————————————————————————————————

3-10
Now our mini bertie is ready for some weathering!

———————————————————————————————————

Continues to Part 4 : “Weathering-1”

We’d love to hear from you and check out what kind of customs you’re working on! Send us a shot of your latest custom work with a brief description to radtoyreview@gmail.com. 

Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter pages to stay updated whenever we post new Workshops and epic toy reviews!

Until next time!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.