After making myself custom swords I will make a write-up on eventually and attempting a Blade of Evil's Bane (AKA the Master Sword), I realized many things. So...

Dude, how do you duct tape so cleanly? Even my cleaner one looks crap compared to yours.
If you want a pic, I'll get you one. But it is crap, and I say crap! Why am I still typing? Don't sig me!

I'd have to see what you mean

You see, the flaw in the NWS, currently, is the fact that it butchers speakers and/or hard disks and straps their magnets onto the outside surfaces of the guns.

I would use Neodymium magnets, which are cheaper, smaller, and stronger, and I would use them inside the blaster casing. Probably epoxy, since I have a lot of the stuff and I know how to use it. (I've worked a few times on fiberglassing projects)


I, personally, buy my magnets from K&J Magnetics. They sell cheaply, in large numbers (Or, in quantities of one), and ship reliably.

I'd buy from there if I lived in the states, but since I don't, buying off Ebay with free shipping is much cheaper.

You wait you are from Quebec, that explains the giant foam weapons......

...I don't get it.

Hello fellows. I haven't been lazing around completely. I've made 2 full sized round shields and I have two bucklers. I'm also working on Katana 3.0 which is the 3rd katana out of a series of at least 4-5 I'll be making as my personal weapon. No sneak peeks at it yet, but I'll tell you the hilt practically glows with evil and the guard is thinner and much more realistic.

Here are the shields. One of them is for me personally, as you can tell from the foam lettering on it:



The other shield is a slightly scaled down version of a Spartan shield (because the base I was using wasn't that big):



Now you might be wondering what those brown handles are actually made of. When I scavenge for foam cushions on the curb, I have to rip open the material covering it, sometimes it happens to be leather. So yes, my shields have leather handles with firm foam inside of them to give you room to squeeze it and let it conform to your grip. I used two different styles and I know which one I'll be using from now on (rectangular prisms don't fit the hand very comfortably). The reason the Spartan shield has 'nipples' or 'eyes' is to pad the screw bolts I use to keep the handles on the shield. I couldn't get around it, besides removing a layer of washers I use to distribute the stress on the plastic base. The edges have two layers of pipe insulation foam.

These are the bucklers:


These don't use a plastic base like the larger shields. These use flexplastic tubing, like the Ringblade, as a frame, then CPVC as crossbar reinforcement. Both sides are covered with a layer of thick craft foam and the edges have a layer of pipe insulation foam. I didn't use leather on these handles because you're supposed to still be able to hold a weapon with the strapped hand, or hold a two handed weapon.


Let me know what you think, questions are welcome as always. My inbox is getting stuffed up, haha.

Oh my god! You've made a Pacman!

Love those knives, too. What have you used for the inner reinforcement. Can't imagine that being too thick for such a small weapon.

I used sections of wooden dowels wrapped with duct tape at the tip so it wont cut through the foam during a stab.

On a side-note, I used this for someone's birthday surprise. He had to go through a bunch of challenges after being kidnapped by his girlfriend and another friend right outside of his workplace. The first challenge was to fight someone who had a short sword and a shield using only this combat knife.

Surprisingly enough he won. I just think his opponent sucked. XD
I'll see if I can get that video clip up. It was entertaining to me.

I made a duck tape Ka-Bar, once, and there were magnets in the blade, because I had an upside-down housing, mounted to my backpack. (It was a strange war, indeed.) Neodymiums are the stuff, man. Didn't fall out, ever.

That said, I need bigger neo's for my NWS... Don't know if that'll ever happen. I'm thinking something in the 20lbs pull force range. That way, clustered, they'll hold my guns on my back. Sliding is easier than pulling, I'll tell you this.



Nice work on those, by the way.

I've checked out the NWS and it could be refined quite a bit more. These magnets apparently have 50 lbs pull force each.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/2...2...:1|240:1318

Those magnets are amazingly strong for their size. Two alone will keep an Elimination gun fastened securely to you. When putting magnets on guns, I recommend either cutting a hole into the case to inset the magnet with epoxy or if you can't, then use Hockey Tape to secure it. Hockey tape welds better onto things, especially to itself, than duct tape. It's the only think I'll use to secure magnets without epoxy.

Meh. A (or several) shuriken would be cool though.

Windmill Shuriken

As cool as making that would be, it's nearly impossible for me to make battle-ready. I could make a weapon that looks like it and all, but it wouldn't stand up to any beating.

I do have a 3 foot end-to-end windmill-esque shuriken sketched out, but it'll be more costly and even less practical than the Ringblade. The Ringblade is being sold for 60 dollars for the girlfriend of the guy who bought the Red Queen.


HOWEVER,
I have made small shuriken. a couple different kinds, weighted in their tips with lead shot fishing weights embedded in the foam. The fly pretty well and are fun. I sell those for 2-3 dollars a pop. I actually made a Pac-Man shuriken when I had some left over foam from another project that resembled him.

Hmm... I would like to see a huge (working) foam nightfinder. But, making the internals would be challenging.
Also, a big freaking Tagger to accompany it would be cool.

I don't see the sense in making that. I only make things out of foam that will be used for melee attacks. If you were to hit anyone properly, or receive a hit with a gun with functional internals, the shocks will eventually be enough to dislodge or break something. Trust me on that, foam is great and all, but forces are forces. 3 of my earlier swords actually had their cores shattered because they'd seen too many brutal fights (and hit too many walls/floors).

Wing'd man, what do you mean dart-things?

I've also made a kunai from Naruto and a dimensionally and detail accurate combat knife. I'll upload all my smaller stuff later in a picture.

Here are the smaller weapons I've made. Some of the Shuriken are based off of real ones. the black Kunai and the large knife are based on a ninja weapon and a combat weapon respectively.

This is the actual Combat Knife:


These are the weapons:



edit: Forgot to mention! The combat knife actually has 3 magnets in the hand guard. This lets me magnetically stick it to my belt which also has magnets on it. They're Neodymium and strong enough to sprint around without worrying. I'm working on eventually phasing out making holster for myself and just having magnets strapped on to me at certain places to attach my weapons, though my swords will always need a loop because of their length and leverage would make magnets impractical, unless mounting a short sword on your back.

You folks are getting really close to convincing me that this "melee" stuff really can fit into (my personal view of) the spirit of nerfing. The sheer goofiness of the big foam claw hammer at Toys'Я'Us is starting to really appeal to me. I could almost picture myself being willing to wield a mid-sized foam shield made to the bloodied appearance of The Comedian's happy-face button. In fact, if I see those oversized frisbee-like flying discs at Big!Lots again ... I might just buy one to use as a base.

This stuff definitely was "not my thing" a few weeks ago. But I'm budging. Keep it up!

I'm glad you're coming around Bob!

I think that a foam sword belongs next to a foam shooting gun. Think Blade, you're firing shot after shot at vampires and when it's time to get personal you whip out the katana and slash them from neck to crotch.

HOWEVER, as much as I promote the use of melee weapons in Nerf Wars, I do NOT promote the use of shields. It's too impractical in a war with guns to have a giant obstacle you can move with yourself. People would waste all their ammo hitting your shield when they should rightfully be hitting you in the face/crotch. Then it's simply a game of "shoot for no reason, then use swords to play the game". I only use shields in melee only games.

Blocking with a sword is a trick move rather than a practical one, but it lends the game a feeling of superhuman ability. First of all, Nerf guns represent guns which shoot at, obviously, the speed of a bullet. To dodge darts flying at you by an inch is a rush, and lends you the feeling of being superhuman in respect to how the weapons are represented. So if you can smack an arrow or dart out of its trajectory to your heart, of course you're going to not only be pumped, but feel like a legendary fricken' ninja.

At least I do... >.>

I have a few clips of footage where players block an arrow aimed directly at their body with swords, and a clip of someone knocking an arrow away with a spear. Everyone pauses for a split second to register the fact that he didn't die, and then the action is back on at an even more frantic and crazy pace. Unfortunately I've yet to see someone successfully swat a dart out of the air with a normal sword, but there's always the next war. The reason Nerf Arrows are so often used in place of more accurate darts is because they count for an instant kill.

Fun stuff. Long post.

Nerd time.

Blade doesn't use a katana. It is a more chinese influenced sword, think of the precursor to the Katana...

Nerd time over.

You INSPIRED me. I Have been now working on some foam weapons and whatnot, just because for the indoor wars, they would be so fun to use. I have no idea where to begin or how to start. Any suggestions?

My suggestion to everyone is to always develop your own style. But ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS start with the basics and improve on them. It's the only way to understand the dynamics of foam smithing.

The most basic sword you can make for the least amount of money is a pipe-insulation foam sword with a PVC or CPVC core. My friend made a write-up for me a while back which you can find here:

Sword Making 101

This is good enough for a simple sword. The more advanced and detailed you want to be, the more it'll cost. I suggest using PVC for short-swords and longer, CPVC for anything shorter than a short-sword.

If this is too low grade for you, I'll have a video write-up in the next few weeks on how to make a cartoon pirate cutlass. Right now I'm organizing a sword war, throwing some parties, working on 5 projects at once and shooting at my dog with a Belt Blazer. She finds it amusing >.>

I think you'll all want to see how my Vega Claws commission turns out.

Yazzeh...why did you say you would charge people entrance if you go 50+ people and moved to a larger gym? Do you have to rent the gym, like F_A24's wars? If not, then I'm sorry, but no one should ever have to pay to nerf. That's what makes the sport so awesome; the guns are cheap (relatively...) and the ammunition can be made at home. You've got a good thing going; don't scare people away by trying to make money off of them in ways other than selling your foam and tape creations.

I hope you and some of your guys can make a road trip down to one of the Season of Foam wars. I'd love to duel against some massive boffers with a nerf sword. We'll be in both Ontario and New York, which, with a bit of driving, might be doable.

I don't really make any money. The charge for everyone, even for 20 people, is 15 dollars each. for 20 people I have a smaller gym that I can rent for $45 an hour. Everyone pitches in so I can restock destroyed darts, rebuild anything that's been broken, like obstacles, upgrade the obstacles, repair swords, build more swords. To be honest, I've only broken even on the cost of hosting these wars after 3 of them. I charge around 15 per person so that no-shows that I can't calculate into the divided cost don't end up making the remainder of the gym rental fall on my head. I'm already spending literally thousands of dollars buying all the Nerf guns and making all the swords for people to rent, adding to the cost of buying and maintaining the materials for obstacles. This stuff doesn't happen by magic, and people would rather rent a 20 dollar Nerf gun and a 25 dollar foam sword for 5 bucks in total than buy them permanently.

The reason the price wouldn't go down for 50+ is because a larger gym to accommodate them would cost $100 an hour. I'd also have to make more obstacles and most likely supply more guns and definitely more swords for rent. The next war would be cheaper, of course, with everything mostly paid off.

The first war I hosted was a $20 entrance fee and 8 people showed up so I had to cover the rest with my own money on TOP of having made and bought everything. That was a sinkhole, but I did another and another and made enough to balance my books.

As for going elsewhere to Nerf, I don't have the time. Most of my friends like the melee aspect more than the Nerf gun aspect, which is why I joined them to appeal to a wider audience. They still like the guns, but wouldn't be a fan of gun only games.

Disregarding that completely pointless post... My latest creation!



It is the Priest Staff seen on the Priest Class Patch for World of Warcraft.

For comparison:


I only did one side because I have a bunch of other projects to finish before the Sword War this June 6th. I personally think it looks great. Reminds me of a stained-glass window. Though I wouldn't want to get hit by one.

Great to see you like my suggestions
Nice newest creation too, looks very well made.

How about giant cutlery? A log?

I always love other people's creative suggestions. ^^
Usually my own ideas are Effeminate such as the Battle Stop-Sign and the Yield Sword, but they're often not as fun as other people's suggestions.

Giant cutlery is a definite possibility. A giant fork wouldn't be beyond me. A spoon would be cool, but since I'd need to make a bowl on the end of it with foam, there's no way to reinforce it and it would easily be broken off.

A giant log is terribly uncreative. It's just a rod of PVC coated in layer after layer of foam.

My girlfriend says hi.

Well I got banned for a week for trying to be nice to someone with a terrible idea on the forums. I sent CaptainSlug a message about it, and whichever way he takes my criticism, I'm just going to let anyone who cares to keep up with my foam experiments know that they can get in touch with me through many different ways. For the sake of keeping my main accounts free from junk, you can reach me through my gmail account so I can then tell you how to keep in touch with me through other means. Yazzeh [at] gmail.com

I've glued down the Claws to the glove base and am currently reinforcing its structure with balsawood.

I got bored and didn't want to work on a large weapon, so remembering someone's idea from 2 years ago, I finally constructed a QB (Quadra B, 4B, BBBB, Battle Broken Beer Bottle). It's a 1.5 scale beer bottle that has a removable bottom piece revealing the jagged edges of a broken foam bottle.

Finally, I've made the companion to the Battle Stop-Sign:




The Yield Sword.
I made with extra special sauce, which can be seen here:
The Yield Sword In 'Action'

Also I've found slightly thicker fiberglass, though it is rather expensive at $9.50 for 56 inches, so I'll be able to design even thinner lighter weapons.


Thank you all for your comments and thoughts.

edit: Nevermind me leaving any time soon. I'll stick around. Pictures and video of the QB in a bit.

Splat, that sword is a cool idea, but the proportions of the handle and such are ridiculous. I think I'll try making a cross-sword later, using PVC and fiberglass for the crossing blade.

I've finished cutting the blades for the Vega Claws and I can show you how they look. He wanted them aqua colored, with a blue glove/forearm base. I haven't finished the base yet. They're not the most practical weapon, seeing as they need a lot of support on the forearm so that you can actually deflect blows without ripping the blades off completely:





wing'd man, the difference between normal untreated PVC and flattened PVC is this:



This looks rough on the inside because I haven't carved off the leftover shards from sawing it.

The main benefit of flattening the PVC is making it more rigid. If it's more rigid, you can make longer weapons using a smaller diameter of PVC (lighter) and not have to worry about it drooping near the end. Also, it makes it harder or even impossible for an opponent to bend your sword out of the way for an attack.

The downsides are that you need much more padding on the striking surface of the blade. Because it's so rigid, it can't bend to absorb shock, so that is left to the padding alone. It seems like it would make the blade flatter, but it's not very noticeable, while it makes it necessary to add more padding to the strike surface which makes your weapon heavier. Also, if you use fire, or uneven heat, it may make the PVC structurally unstable, which is why people try to use boiling water to have it uniformly heated. I personally just use a stove and haven't had any problems.

I've never dealt with a plexi-glass rod. I don't know if it's a good core. If it can shatter, bend too much over a medium length or stays permanently bent, it's not a good core.

As cool as making that would be, it's nearly impossible for me to make battle-ready. I could make a weapon that looks like it and all, but it wouldn't stand up to any beating.

I do have a 3 foot end-to-end windmill-esque shuriken sketched out, but it'll be more costly and even less practical than the Ringblade. The Ringblade is being sold for 60 dollars for the girlfriend of the guy who bought the Red Queen.


HOWEVER,
I have made small shuriken. a couple different kinds, weighted in their tips with lead shot fishing weights embedded in the foam. The fly pretty well and are fun. I sell those for 2-3 dollars a pop. I actually made a Pac-Man shuriken when I had some left over foam from another project that resembled him.

Well, if you do want to make very fiddly and thin weapons that won't flex and are light; you could use graphite shafts.

Either going to your local Goodwill/Valu Village/Amity and buying cheapo graphite golf-shafts or actually ordering graphite kite-spar from online vendors, or if you have a specialty store that deals with RC modelling/building and the like, they often also have kite-building supplies, such as kite-spar.

I've been interested in LARPing for a long time, mostly because when it's all said and done, you've got some really good stories to tell. I've only played a few times in the last couple of years because of work and school, but the few times that I have shown up I've had a good time.

However, a lot of it is very physical, you're usually walking all day long, or for many hours; for the 'big' fights you tend to be fighting for a good hour or two non-stop. Although sometimes you're merely waiting a few minutes before the next wave attacks and you've been fighting for four hours, and not ending until it's 3 in the morning.

The designs that you've made are pretty impressive Yazzah, you've got some very good looking weapons made here. If I knew that they were perfectly safe I'd even reccomend you trying to sell some of them to LARPing players.

Your sheilds look pretty safe though; and light (a heavy sheild carried for 12+ hours in a day is really fucking annoying; however it does encourage LARPers who play tanks in game to actually work out on their own time out of game). So you could try selling them to LARP groups near where you live.

I'm also curious as to how much time it took you to set up those "Yazzah" letters. I might want to do something similar for a friends sheild, she's got this minotaur character and putting the labyrinth symbol on it would be pretty interesting.

I very recently started looking into fibreglass cores. We have driveway markers for the winter when snow gets built up. They're 0.7mm thick rods, but they flex a lot. It's more of a Rapier sword than a heavy sword for direct attacks and full blocks. I'm currently using it to make some short claws, like Vega has. I'll have to look into graphite, though.

My shield is quite light, since it's not made out of wood, and the duct tape covering it reinforces the plastic.

The lettering took very little time to apply. Making sure it's all secure is the tricky part. If someone hits your design at an angle, there's a chance it'll rip off if not thoroughly secured. The whole process took... hmm... 10 minutes to decide on the font, decide to make it italic and choose the right size. 20 minutes after printing it out to cut out, pin to foam, retrace, cut out the foam letters and apply double-sided tape to hold them in place on the shield. Maybe 1 hour to duct tape each letter and cut it to fit the form of the letter and then secure it with more duct tape so it can't be ripped off easily.

By the way, thanks CS, I didn't mean for this thread to get so large and stay up so long. I just wanted to win an internets cookie for making a stop sign that you can swing at people without maiming/killing them.

It looks a little unwieldly, but I like it. Alot of detail and effort present. Every tried anything a little thinner? I'm a little put off by the thickness.

If I could get my hands on some Graphite or some decent Fiberglass, I'd make much thinner weapons. Unfortunately, my only source of Fiberglass is driveway markers for the winter season and they're only 7 milimeters thick. They bend so much, and I prefer my weapons to be very rigid (the Katana has virtually no bend to it because of the flattened PVC core). I am going to make Katana 4.0 as thin as possible while still being as soft and painless as possible. I'll also be using Latex for the first time instead of duct tape. Oh boy that stuff is expensive, $77 for a gallon XD. I'll be using two fiberglass rods parallel so they're more stiff. The katana will also be shorter than the one I made recently.

Next post will be my latest creation.

Over-sized Mace, made for Glint:

The whole weapon weighs about 3 pounds.






Taa-Daa! Might redo it in black if Glint prefers it.

Tira's Ringblade from Soul Calibur 4:




My battle-ready foam version:



Not exact, but the resemblance is great in my opinion, not to mention how sturdy this thing is compared to the metal version (where the blades are all separate). I combined the point blades at their base, increased the thickness of the thin blade around the ring, and lifted the smallest point blade higher so that you can use the little area seen in the metal version as a hand grip.

I'm not decorating it right now, once a weapon is battle-ready, its not a priority anymore so I can move on to making more stuff.

Using this at a Nerf War would be horrendously difficult XD.
NOTE: DON'T THROW IT. That will never end well.

Any comments, advice or criticism appreciated.

Rise, my thread.... RISE!!!!

Anyhow, back on topic, my current project is Tira's Ringblade from Soul Calibur.



It's about a 1/3rd done right now, but you can guess what it'll end up looking like. (Hint: Awesome)

There's 3 handles along the loop in front of each large outcropping of blade. It's solid and there's no chance of it hitting anyone because of the foam sticking out around it. This isn't such a strong loop that it can support your weight if you lean on it, but it'll stay rigid if struck with a sword and is very fun to spin it on your arm. It's too heavy to use as an actual hula hoop, unless you've got a super-pelvis.

More pics when I'm done.

Next few projects are Halo Gravity Hammer, Sephiroth's 9 foot 4 inch sword, 5 foot long Mace, WoW Warglaive of Azzinoth (iffy), and The Banhammer. Some people like to call the Gravity Hammer the Banhammer, but I'm going to make an oversized cartoony mallet with the word BANNED on its front.

Woo!

Those are awesome. I would love to come to one of your wars.

Anyone from the Haven is invited to. The next one is during the summer, either June or July. No set date yet, I see what's best for everyone around Montreal who comes.

If I have a large turn out (50+), I'll use a larger gym and charge players $15 entrance, $3 to rent a foam weapon.

I also take requests if anyone wants to see something realized. My next project is making a Ringblade from Soul Caliber. You don't need to pay me to make it, you'd only have to pay me to own it. XD

One more thing I think people might find nice... The Chocobo Keyblade. Commissioned for someone's Christmas present, $40 (was feeling generous).

Those are amazing! Could you make a writup on cutting and handling the foam?

Well I use a lot of different techniques for cutting foam. Most of my weapons now use open cell foam bordered by closed cell foam. This has the effect of softening hits even more and stopping the degradation of the open cell foam because of the closed cell foam restricting how far it compresses against the pvc core.

I'll put up a tutorial on how to make a rush sword, which is good enough to fight with, but isn't nearly as pretty as any of these weapons.

The request for the Keyblade was to make it 4 feet long. To do that, I had to scale everything (except for the handle width) so that it wouldn't look weird.

It's actually not all as massive as the picture of me holding it makes it look. The angle gives you the impression that I'm holding a plank of wood worthy of a treehouse.


The foam materials I use in general are Craft foam (thick and thin types), Camp pad foam, pipe insulation foam, open cell foam from mattresses, open cell foam from couch cushions, and rubber/foam mats that you usually find in the form of large puzzle pieces that you can lay out on the floor. The stop sign used 3 of those foams, the pipe insulation for the pole and couch cushion and mattress foam for the sign itself.


My duct tape bill is monstrous. I get 2 rolls of decent duct tape for about 12 dollars, though I can get cheaper duct tape for 4.50. I'm trying out different duct tapes now so I can use different degrees of quality for different stages of the weapon. The cheaper duct tape is good for internal taping, where it wont be exposed or prone to peeling, since it's covered with higher quality tape.


I had an idea for a Ban-Hammer once. I haven't planned it out because I need to find the right picture to use as my base idea. It has to be large, mallet-like and cartoony. I'll put the word BAN on it's hammer faces in duct tape lettering, like the stop sign.

This is my Warhammer 2.0. The first one was structurally weak and the head became loose after the war. Now reinforced with steel twine and rope. The front end is padded with open cell foam and the back end is a tri-claw hammer.






Finally, my Tonfa 2.0. The original was much smaller and did not have a weight in it's far end. The weight helps it to complete full spins.







Every single one of these weapons is used in my Nerf Wars, so it takes a bit of creativity and strategy to figure out what everyone's abilities are and what everyone's weaknesses are when you run out of readily available ammo.

Enjoy!

This is Prince Arthas's war-hammer from World of Warcraft. More like Sledgehammer, if you ask me. Commissioned job, $70.








This is an experimental sword. It uses a magnet inside to keep the two sections together, but a powerful swing will launch the dagger out like a dart, doesn't spin at all.










This is the Red Queen from Devil May Cry 4. Commissioned job, $45 (guy will pay $15 to own it for scavenging open cell foam from a mattress).






This is actually a sword based on a sketch of a sword my girlfriend found online. It's her sword now.






This is my personal Katana. A bit battle-worn, and I gave it a bit too much of a curve, but I love it. The handle is wrapped in the traditional manner, though using hockey tape.






This is my girlfriend's Katar. I'm not sure why she wanted one, they're very unwieldy. Some poor planning led it to being so fat so it wouldn't cause anyone harm. It's structurally reinforced with epoxied steel threaded rods inside of cpvc (making sure a few joints don't jar loose on impacts).




This is a bit of my pride and joy, the Kirby Hammer. Not to be confused with the King DDD Hammer, the colors are inverted. Commissioned for one of my shortest and cutest female friends, $40.



Continued in next post (Picture limit).

May I be so presumptuous as to say this is the first realized foam battle stop-sign? I googled it a few ways and saw someone asking how to make one, but I don't think they followed through.

I think this entitles me to an free internets.

Ha! I like it!

Madworld inspired?

No, actually I was just talking about making interesting weapons with someone. They suggested I make a broken hobo bottle-shank (which I still will for the novelty of it) and I suddenly decided I wanted to make something even more imposing. Now what the heck is more imposing that a 2 foot wide bright red stop sign flying at your face?

Damn, is there a war where nobody has a longshot?

On topic, that is awesome. I defiantly love the idea of making foam weapons that are... I can't think of the word. You know, like broken bottles, stop signs, chains, etc.

Wait, is your sign breaking in that picture? It looks like the pole is coming out of the back, not the bottom. And is that thing heavy in any way?

EDIT: oh, I get it, somebody is hitting the sign, I just didn't see you holding it.

Haha, yeah, two people who're regulars at my wars like the longshot. One of them switches between longshot and scout (he likes how it looks).

I was considering making a chain weapon. It'd pretty much be a piece of rope with sections of foam on it with a bit of added fishing weights to each section (so it wouldn't just flop around).

More weapon pictures after this post!

So what type of duct tape do you use on the outside? Might be fun to make a little sword. Beat little kids with it...

I don't actually know what it's called. It's the Duck Tape brand, and they come in packs of 2, wrapped in clear plastic. It's not Utility or General Purpose, those usually peel away if they're under any pressure (such as trying to keep foam from springing apart). You can use the Professional type if you can't find the pack of 2, or better yet (read: cheaper yet) you can get one of the less expensive Scotch brand of duct tapes. They smell rancid, but they work well.


Selling these anywhere but locally is a problem due to the cost and means of shipping. A lot of weapons people want are huge, and so far only UPS seems to want to ship large things, and even then, their cheapest rate is $76.

I was actually going to make a small boffo child to swing around as a giant club, with 3 flailing limbs and one solid leg to use as the handle, but the cost of making it isn't justified unless someone is going to buy it. It'd be awesome, but it would cost around $100 to make properly. A chicken would be interesting though.

How do these stand up to high powered darts?

Well high powered guns using stefans MIGHT pierce the 2 or 3 layers of duct tape, but it'd be stopped in the foam for sure. I say 'might' because it's not a rigid material like cardboard, it can take impact and spring with the force.

Anyways, if it does shoot into the sign, you aren't getting your dart back, and it's just going to make a small hole to patch with an inch of red tape.

We don't use high powered guns at the war, it's indoors.


Edit: I noticed you meant all the weapons. They can all stop a dart at any power, no dart would make it through any of these weapons because of the elasticity of open cell foam, and where I don't apply open cell foam, usually PVC is in the way.


Edit2: I thought you might want to see the weapons in action at the war. This video is all the slow motion footage I got with my digital camera. The actual video/s will be put up later. A lot of it is Zombie, which everyone voted to use melee weapons only. Next war we'll have normal Zombie with guns. The music is just to fill up the silence. Otherwise you'd be hearing people yelling in slurred voices every second.



Unfortunately, I had to take the Stop Sign away from Adam (the guy holding it in the picture). He was raping everyone too hard with it, so I had to make things slightly more fair.

Haha, a lot of people do. This is going to take a while, I have some current projects to wrap up first.

If this entire thread was just the setup so that you could post that pun ... congratulations.

It's actually pretty damn funny.

Ahahahaha, oh man, I didn't even catch that XD

Do you guys play tackle zombie? Anyway great job on the blades, I love the Red Queen.

Haha, we'll it isn't supposed to be tackle zombie, but with some of the players there, that's what it ended up being. It was zombie based on a LARP style of the game where a zombie has to keep in contact with you for 10 seconds in total for you to become a zombie. You can't kill zombies, you can only stop them until they respawn. In that respect, zombies are a force of nature in the game, not actual players. The last player alive wins, though they get rushed by a room full of zombies with no backup XD.

LARP isn't a Nerf term. It stands for Live Action Role-Play

It is basically where people take a game like Dungeons & Dragons and play it in a style where they are the characters, rather than just saying what their characters do. They generally wear costumes and carry (usually) safe versions of weapons, similar to the stuff in this thread, and have rules for how combat works. Some people look down on so-called LARPers as the height of geek-hood. I just think they have their own way of having fun. (Even if I don't always quite understand why...)

Funny thing is, even though a lot of people on this forum look down on LARPers, many of those same people think that Humans vs Zombies is a very cool game type. When you really think about it, HvZ is basically a very rules-light LARP.

I agree completely with you. While I would never LARP myself, I know people who do and I don't think any less of them for it. It is fun, uses your imagination, but I wouldn't be caught dead throwing a handful of rice to cast an 'attack spell'.

In HvZ, there are two types of characters to emulate, Zombies and Humans. The humans just have to be themselves, surviving, while the Zombies are much more in character, if they want to be. I myself like to stagger closer to the enemy while groaning and dragging a foot before sprinting to grab them. One of the other Zombies liked to let out an inhuman shriek at the humans to unnerve them (which was really entertaining).

There are an infinite number of LARPs, some are loosely based on a theme, like a group of surviving humans in a post-apocalyptic earth, others are rigidly defined stories where you have to fight against monsters and have a character which grows after each game, much like an RPG game. Every weekend they'd get together and continue their stories, fighting Orcs, learning new spells, and the next weekend they'd pick up from where they left off.

Good stuff, but still not my cup of tea. My Nerf wars are more akin to a multiplayer game of Halo or something like that. No plot, just having fun without having to worry about a story or any details.

Wing'd Man, thou art mine hero. Nothing beats a full 3D model of a weapon to know how it looks down to the last crevice.

Glad I could help, I really want to see this when it's done.

Haha, a lot of people do. This is going to take a while, I have some current projects to wrap up first.

Actually, I've been commissioned by someone on the Haven to make a Gravity Hammer already.

It's going to be 7'4" long.

Edit: Actually bog, do you have any more picture of the hammer from different angles? I need more to make it more accurate.

one
two
three

Google: 3
Yahoo: 0
Yazzeh's problem: hopefully beat

Yeah, I know yahoo doesn't do 3d stuff (as far as I know) but still.

Wing'd Man, thou art mine hero. Nothing beats a full 3D model of a weapon to know how it looks down to the last crevice.

Before I ask my question I'll start by saying that I know you said you wouldn't be doing writeups for unique weapon builds. Does that mean you would be opposed to doing a little how to video for a basic sword or something of the like? I've made foam weapons before but never have I seen such craftsmanship!

Amazing work! Can't wait to see more!

Haha, thanks for the compliments. I do plan to do some writeups and maybe video how-tos for basic swords. I'll be doing one for a two sided rush-sword and one for a flat blade (I'll need to find something worth doing, I don't like using flat foam for generic swords).


xtremejumpy, I could make a Gordan Freeman Crowbar, but it would have to be scaled up quite a bit for proper padding, which would ruin the fun of having a Gordon Freeman Crowbar... It'd be more like having a Gordon Freeman Bent Log. XD
Giant chainsaw would be doable. The engine casing would be made from rubber matting, designing how to make that would be interesting in itself.

Could a Mace be possible? Something like this:

http://i149.photobuc.../Twillu/MoM.jpg

Maybe is you used a giant Styrofoam ball and some cones. I personally think it would be awesome to have a giant pink toothbrush.

HAHAHA, oh my, a giant pink toothbrush. Well I don't know where to get pink duct tape at a reasonable price, but that sure would be quite a sight.

A Mace would be a piece of cake. You should never use styrofoam in boffo sword making. It might not hurt, but your weapon would only last 1-2 fights before it looks like a hunk of junk. The ball would be made from couch cushion material, as would the spikes. The only trouble I'd have making it is to make the duct tape work to keep it durable while still letting it look dangerous. Duct tape can be tricky business around curves and cones.

As stupid as it sounds I'd love to see one of these at a war, just for the sake of yelling GRAVITY HAMMER!!!! during a rush....

Actually, I've been commissioned by someone on the Haven to make a Gravity Hammer already.

It's going to be 7'4" long.

Edit: Actually bog, do you have any more picture of the hammer from different angles? I need more to make it more accurate.

Yes. Yes, it is a battle stop-sign. Made from PVC and 3 different kinds of foam.
And quite a bit of duct tape of varying colors.

I don't do write-ups for unique weapon builds.







Is this Nerf related? At my Nerf Wars, it sure as hell is.



I'll post other unique weapons (Like the giant hammer you see in the last picture) in this thread later, but I have got to get some sleep. I'm just happy I finally finished the detail-work on this BAMF.