125 replies to this topic

[Yazzeh]

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

...I don't get it.

[k9turrent]

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

...I don't get it.

Me neither. Make a giant Lollipop

[Icespartan 1114]

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

...I don't get it.

Me neither. Make a giant Lollipop

Dude, your the one that said it....Does your brother or something get on your account?

[k9turrent]

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

...I don't get it.

Me neither. Make a giant Lollipop

Dude, your the one that said it....Does your brother or something get on your account?

Nah, Just one of those bad jokes that you try brushing off by acting stupid and/or smart

[Yazzeh]

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.

[Nerf300]

With the spartan sheild you can run at the younger nerfers at your wars and say "THIS..IS..SPARTA!!!!!!!!" and run into them with it, like a battering ram. I'm just kidding, but that would be funny. You should make a 10 foot spear, too.

[Equilox]

Wow! You have taken duck tape art to a whole new level. If it weren't for the fact that you live in Canada, I'd be there for one of your wars at the drop of a hat. Oh well maybe some day...... Kudos on the work, never ceases to amaze me. keep it up.

[Yazzeh]

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.

[nightfinder]

Add a "It's Hammer Time" sticker on the front

[BustaNinja]

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?

[Yazzeh]

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.

[Judging Eagle]

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.

[CaptainSlug]

I've moved this out of the homemades section because the focus of this thread has absolutely nothing to do with homemade devices for launching foam projectiles.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 26 April 2009 - 05:45 PM.

[Yazzeh]

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.

[Yazzeh]

For anyone still following the thread, I present to you, Katana 3.0 + Sheath.

It didn't turn out as awesome as I'd hoped, but it's still pretty sweet. Also is a lot more rigid than the last version thanks to its flattened PVC core, yet even softer impacts:

[BritNerfMogul]

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.

Edited by BritNerfMogul, 02 May 2009 - 08:08 PM.

[SchizophrenicMC]

PVC + Foam + duck tape = thick.

It's a foam weapon made for foam battles.

If you want something thin, I'd suggest you stay away from such battles, because they can potentially hurt... A lot...

Consider this: I made a Ka-Bar of duck tape and a bent hanger. Some cardboard in it, too. I was sheathing it, and in doing so, the tip, which had exposed itself through the duck tape (And was the point where I had cut it with some bolt cutters) went and lacerated my side. God, that hurt like a bitch.

So, the moral is, more padding more better.

[BritNerfMogul]

PVC + Foam + duck tape = thick.

It's a foam weapon made for foam battles.

If you want something thin, I'd suggest you stay away from such battles, because they can potentially hurt... A lot...

Consider this: I made a Ka-Bar of duck tape and a bent hanger. Some cardboard in it, too. I was sheathing it, and in doing so, the tip, which had exposed itself through the duck tape (And was the point where I had cut it with some bolt cutters) went and lacerated my side. God, that hurt like a bitch.

So, the moral is, more padding more better.

Fair Point. I'm a battle re-enactor, so swinging swords at each other is a standard and I'm used to more 'realistic' weapons. Lots of fun. But I'm also used to a bit of pain.

Love your work Yazzeh.

[splat]

cool! I wonder how much blood, sweat, and tears went into making those weps!

[Yazzeh]

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.

[Yazzeh]

Over-sized Mace, made for Glint:

The whole weapon weighs about 3 pounds.






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

Edited by Yazzeh, 06 May 2009 - 11:56 AM.

[splat]

Wow, thats pretty sweet. Id like to see you make a wep that is like a china saw.

Edited by splat, 06 May 2009 - 07:22 PM.

[RVMVTVProductions]

Wow, I'm behind.

Hey, Yazzeh, since that mace looks like duct tape, I have my question from before answered.

3 pounds? Man.

Edited by RVMVTVProductions, 07 May 2009 - 08:22 PM.

[veginator]

Could I suggest golf club handles as the core. They can be made of steel or graphite and have different stiffness qualities.

[wingd man]

Woah, woah, woah, one word: brass. Flattened brass pipes. oh yeah.

Anyways, I think that a flattened brass/copper pipe would make an amazingly strong core.