Quite Frankly Builds: July 2014

Young Xehanort's Keyblade

So there weren't that many reference pictures to go off of with this keyblade since you can't wield it in KH3D, and only see it while fighting young master Xehanort. There was some line art from a guide book which was really helpful as well.

I've made 2 versions in the past before I knew about bondo, so they turned out bumpy and misshapen. I just wasn't happy with how they turned out, which is the main reason I decided to take this on one more time.

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STEP ONE: DRAWING AND CUTTING

The first step I take for any prop I build is sketching out the design. I do this by taking the length I want the life size version to be, and dividing it by the length of a picture of it. I can multiply this ratio times any measured length of the picture and get the life size length. Next I plot the points onto foam board, or the material I'm working with, and sketch the rest of the design.

I decided to make a foam template and then filling in the details. Then I cut out 3 layers of this design using the template to make it the right thickness and glue them all together, using clamps to hold them together. Make sure to check up on the clamps every now and then when you glue things together in case the layers slide around.

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STEP 2: CARVING

The next step was to carve away the design. I started by shaping the wings. using a dremel with a sanding bit.

Then, I lowered the handle guard thickness using a hand-router to make it smooth and remove wood faster. I did the same with the gears, but a little lower, and removed some of the wood from the part between the wings.

After some sanding of the wings, routing the clock and other parts, spiraling the handle and removing some wood from the blade with the dremel:

I used the hand router again to lower the clock area, and remove some of the recessed areas on the blade. I decided to make the clock hands separate this time to shape them better and ensure the clock area was completely flat. I'll also be engraving numbers into the clock later.

Every now and then, I sprayed sandable primer on the key so I could see the details, bumps, and scratches a little better and add bondo where necessary.

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STEP 3: PAINT

Here's what the keyblade looks like primed with a final coat of sandable primer, with the clock hands white and ready for painting.

Here you can see the clock hands with a few thin coats of blue glow in the dark paint.

The resin eye was cast using a rubber/plastic tablespoon.

Next, I primed the keyblade white so the colors weren't affected by the dark primer, which was mainly just in case I needed to sand more.

Purple areas taped and spray painted using Folk Art's royal violet acrylic paint using my new spraygun. All the color paint I used was Folk Art acrylic paint from the tube. Less than a dollar at retail stores.

In the past, I used pearl white on the wings and clock area, but the color never really showed up in tests, so I used sterling silver.

I mixed a bit of gunmetal gray with the sterling silver to fade the tips.

And here, the aztec gold, sapphire blue, nutmeg brown with a bit of black, and the black paints are finished. All that's left is the glow paint.

I got the glow paint from glonation.com. It's the bright glow blue paint. I do have to say that while it's nice I didn't have to add a thinner and could spray it, it peels like latex so I had to be careful not to spray too thick at once. However, the paint was built up on top of the tape, so when I went to remove it, the paint started to come up a little.

This doesn't sand easily because it's a latex paint, so it left a bit of build-up where it meets the brown of the clock. A solution would be to spray a thin coat, then either lift the edge of the tape while it's drying or use an x-acto knife after every one or two layers to separate the tape.

After the second coat:

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STEP FOUR: THE KEYCHAIN

The keychain pendant for this keyblade is an hourglass, since it's a time controlling keyblade and such. I started by cutting 8 squares out of thin mdf. I drilled holes in the corners, and one large one in the center of 4 of them. I glued these 4 on top of the untouched 4. Then, I rounded and shaped the hourglass piece on my lathe, and placed it into the squares in the large recess we cut out earlier. I placed 4 dowels into the four holes in the corners.

I cast the hourglass using moldmax 30 and clearcast resin, and shapes the dowels using my lathe and dremel.

I rounded the end pieces with my dremel, drilled holes in the top for a chain, and painted it gloss black.

STEP FIVE: PROFIT?

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The pictures below are comparisons to the version I made before this one. I knew taking those pictures would come in handy, even though I hated how it looked.