of contracts and magical girls - kyoko's spear (2)

After all the glue had dried, we (from here on now, we = my dad and I) went about putting bondo on the ends so we could sand them and therefore the edges would be flush.



And now the ends are perfectly smooth!
After priming and sanding down each piece of tubing, I sprayed each piece with Montana Gold in Gold Chrome and used Clear Gloss to finish. You can no longer tell I used a cheap pipe tubing :DUsing the tree in my parents' backyard to let these pieces dry haha....
My dad did most of the woodwork on the actual spear head, but he's going to be teaching me over the next few months so you'll have to bear with me as I will be writing extremely long posts about working with wood because my knowledge is so limited.
I mocked up the scale of the spear on Illustrator, which my dad then mocked up in AutoCad. He printed the  blueprint on 2 sheets of tabloid paper and transferred the lines to 1/4" MDF. We decided on 1/4" MDF (medium-density fiberboard) because it is lightweight enough to handle but DENSE. After applying the spray paint it could actually look like a dangerous weapon. 
We used a total of 4 pieces of MDF. The edges of the blade were shaped using a belt sander, as well as the convex edges of the spearhead attachment. The small diamond inside was also shaped with the belt sander. Each piece of MDF was glued with wood glue, secured with clamps overnight, and the spearhead attachment actually included some nails my dad added for extra support using an air staple gun. 
To clean up the glue residue once dried, we used a chisel. That hollowed crevice is for the bolt we glued into that space in order to be able to make the spear detachable. The spear in total is about 6 feet tall and difficult to transport so we added a bolt into the spearhead. This was covered up by the spear attachment. And don't forget all the bondo~~~After more sanding...The finished spearhead, ready for painting!

of contracts and magical girls - kyoko's spear (1)

This cosplay is surprising for me for 2 reasons:

1. I don't usually make anime-derived cosplays
2. This is a magical girl cosplay. I don't make those. (usually cannot relate to magical girl stories or characters)

But as you've read on my previous post about Madoka Magica, this story is unlike any other magical girl story I've ever experienced, and a huge part of me wanting to make this cosplay was because I am cosplaying with my sister! And one of my best friends! So of course I wanted to participate! I do also like the Kyoko character very much, even though her screen time in the anime was a bit short.


So let's get to it! I actually spent some time in my parents' house today and I have very poor wireless connection on my phone for some reason when I am there, so I don't get all my work emails, text messages or notifications of any kind. But it's nice in this aspect because I can work on stuff and also not have to think about replying to emails all day since I do that at work already :( I didn't plan on starting on her spear at first, but I had a lot of time to kill while at my parents' house. I headed over to Lowe's with my dad and we picked up some of the basic parts--PVC pipe, PVC plugs for the pipes, PVC caps, 9' of plastic chain... I decided to go w/ this variation of Kyoko's spear. Unfortunately mine doesn't actually pull apart as it does in the anime, and I have seen someone make a version that pulls apart, pretty damn cool but definitely more complicated and because I only had a month to make this cosplay I wasn't sure I could execute such a contraption within my limited time frame. Anyway, excuses aside, I figured out all the lengths for each section--both the pipe and the chain, and my dad went and cut all the pipe pieces on his radio saw. The great thing about going to my parents' house is, my dad has every single power tool you can think of--he's a furniture designer so YES I AM LUCKY. I am very lucky I have access to all of these special tools. On the other hand, my dad really likes to make props too, so he sometimes will take over a prop project I'm working on T_T

We thought the neatest way to attach the chain pieces to the pipe would be to glue the plugs into the pipe ends, and screw in a screw hook through the top of the plug, then connect the chain link to the metal screw. (not in that order, see the photos below) It was a good thing we worked on this in the early afternoon--the gorilla glue takes a good 24 hours to properly cure so I will be going back to my parents' house to finish the rest of the spear next weekend! You are probably bored of reading this wall of text now, so I shall supplement the photos below w/ some captions to explain more of the little details.



 The plugs we bought didn't fit snugly enough into the pipe, so I wrapped some masking tape to add thickness
 my dad, in his element. lol. Cut chains CLAMP EVERYTHING. LEAVE FOR 2-3 HOURS. The longest pipe piece is the actual spear.You may notice that the rim of the plug is hexagonal. It needs to be flush w/ the cylinder of the pipe, so after the glue is dried, bondo will be applied and sanded.