Wesley Scoggins
Indy Mogul
Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Prop Foil
Foils and Sabers are staples of adventure films, whether you're a swashbuckler, a scoundrel pirate, or a Spanish Aristocrat fighting for Californian independence, you'll most likely have one of these at your side. But the real thing can no only be expensive, but dangerous if you're swinging them around on set, so i'm going to show you how to make your own both much cheaper and relatively safer.
I started out with a thin wooden dowel for the blade. You could go with a thicker one if you want a saber-type sword with a thicker less flexible blade, but you'll need to do more shaping, a foil on the otherhand requires minimal shaping, and it bounces around more and I think it looks a little more interesting in a fight.
I went with a much thicker wooden dowel for the handle.
Using a drill bit almost exactly the same thickness as my sword "blade", I drilled a hole into the center of my handle section.
I put a drop of hot glue on the end of my sword and pushed it in. The more snuggly it fits the better, so try to get a drillbit as close to the size of your sword as possible.
I got this screw-on top to a juice bottle, and a bubble top to a milk shake from my local fast food joint.
I drilled a hole in the bottle top using the same drill bit.
I then put more hot glue around the top of the handle.
Then slide the bottle cap onto it.
Then put additional hot glue on top of the bottle cap, and slide the bubble top on top of it to act as the bell guard. Be careful with hot gluing the bubble top directly because the plastic is so think that is can warp or even melt it very quickly.
I then gave it a basic layer of silver paint.
Then I sprayed the entire thing down with some Chrome Spray Paint.
I then got cotten twine and wrapped it around the handle making a cloth grip.
I then sealed the twine with additional hot glue, and painted it gold. Then squeezed on a foam ball on the end to act as the pommel.
I carved into it forming some indentions.
I added some dark paint for detailing, trying to make it look a little battle worn and weathered, scratching into the paint, and hitting it with a darker silver for the crevices and indentions.
And there you go, a pretty strong, but relatively safe prop foil you can make on your own without breaking your budget.
30 Comments
Add a Comment