kotono: step 16
I can't think of a snazzy intro. Let's just jump in, shall we?
I went though my rhinestones, plastic gems and resin gems that were on-hand and selected the ones I would be using. (ignore the yellow hearts on the top left. Since I didn't have my computer, I was working from memory and I couldn't remember what those looked like. I will NOT be using those as they are not accurate. Also, I later decided not to use the tiny heart on the bottom as you will see in later steps.)
I bagged the smaller ones to keep them together. We won't be using these for a while yet.
Ideally, all these gems should be slightly pinkish, so to lighten them a little bit and to give them a nice shine when the light hits them, paint the back metallic pink. Do this also with the bigger heart (not shown).
Using one of the many old copies of the blueprint I'd made from step 5a (thank goodness I'd saved those things!!) I cut out the shape of the heart detail from the hilt. The inner heart wouldn't be the same since the heart I'd chosen was a tiny bit smaller. So I traced the gem itself and cut it out instead. Seal the foam with diluted modge podge like in the last step.
It's model magic time again!! Have a copy of the hilt template on hand and make the wings slightly bigger for later reshaping. The hearts in the upper left are what replaced the small yellow resin gem that I mentioned earlier. What eventually happened with those is that I made them way too fat so once they dried I just cut one of them in half. :P The half hearts are for the tiara looking thing on the hilt. The small circles on the bottom are the small swirly things just under the wings. The other parts are the white swirly doo-dads that attach to the inside of the white/light pink hand guards. I make them in separate pieces so it would be easier to fit the hand guard, rather than making an intricate piece, only to have it not fit the sword. The frames around the heart gems are made bigger than they should for later shaping. (Have you noticed that that's my philosophy with model magic use? Haha...) When letting these dry, it's important to flip them over every hour or so, especially the wings. That way they dry evenly and they're less prone to cracking.
Here's how the hearts look after careful shaping. On each one, the rims ended up popping off due to the pressure of the sand paper or exact-o knife, so a tiny dab of super glue on the back seams in strategic points was in order. When shaping, try to make two of them look identical (or close to it) and designate them as the front two hearts.
Of all your pieces you've just made, the wings will take the longest to dry because of their size. I let they dry for 48 hours instead of the standard 24. Cut out a wing from your template and trace its shape onto the model magic using light pencil pressure. On the side where the wing will attach to the sword, you want a little bit of excess. Keeping that in mind, carefully carve out the shape with a brand new exact-o knife blade. Using sand paper, carve out the curves of the wing ribs and round out the sharp corners from the cut edge. Trim and sand away the excess between the sword hilt and the wings until you have a flush and perfect fit.
cut out the crown shape from the template copy and cut out two of them from 2mm craft foam. Super glue them between your two sets of hearts, making sure you keep your two "front" hearts separate. In other words, pair off a front and back piece; do not attach your two front pieces together. When gluing, only use two dots at each corner of the crown piece. This needs to be pretty flexible at this point.
On your wings, trim out little pieces like this, which will be places for your hearts to sit. I really wish I had taken pictures of how I did this step because now my memory is fuzzy. :\ Spread the heart out across the wing and trace the bottom V part of the heart and carefully carve it out with the exact-o knife. At least, I think that's how I did it, anyway. >.>;;; Sorry. V.V;
Super glue the hearts on, making sure the front hearts face front and that you have them on the correct wing, for that matter.
attach to hilt. super glue will suffice for now. Go over all the model magic pieces with the diluted modge podge mixture (don't get any on the gems...I'm not sure if it will cloud them over, to be honest with you, but we'll take care of that later). Fill in the seam from wing to hilt with the modge podge. If you messed up really bad on the seam to the point that modge podge can't fix it, then use caulk and go back over it with modge podge. But if you did it right, modge podge should take care of it on its own.
Now, the gap between the hearts looks pretty hideous, so now we're going to fix that. The gap between them (on mine anyway) is between 2mm and 3mm but for the sake of it being extra snug, I decided to use 3mm foam to fill in this gap. I cut out a small square, stuck it in the gap, traced the curve with a pencil, and cut it out.
Insert the foam piece in the hole. Then, cover the foam piece with modge podge (DON'T dilute on this step), making sure to spread it onto some of the model magic as well. Modge podge will serve as your glue for this step. Repeat x4.
Assemble the curly white thingers together. this requires cutting and sanding, which you should be pretty adept at by this point. (For all you gamers out there, you're at, like, level 6 now. XDDD) Also, incorporate the swirl design in the round piece and attach it beneath the wings.
At this point I noticed that somehow I either put the wings on crooked, made one of the wings too big (not likely), made one side of the hilt bigger than the other, or a combination of these. Because I had to fight to squeeze one of the two round things in its place. I don't have a picture showing it, either, but dang. It's there. DX
Proceed to Step 17
I went though my rhinestones, plastic gems and resin gems that were on-hand and selected the ones I would be using. (ignore the yellow hearts on the top left. Since I didn't have my computer, I was working from memory and I couldn't remember what those looked like. I will NOT be using those as they are not accurate. Also, I later decided not to use the tiny heart on the bottom as you will see in later steps.)
I bagged the smaller ones to keep them together. We won't be using these for a while yet.
Ideally, all these gems should be slightly pinkish, so to lighten them a little bit and to give them a nice shine when the light hits them, paint the back metallic pink. Do this also with the bigger heart (not shown).
Using one of the many old copies of the blueprint I'd made from step 5a (thank goodness I'd saved those things!!) I cut out the shape of the heart detail from the hilt. The inner heart wouldn't be the same since the heart I'd chosen was a tiny bit smaller. So I traced the gem itself and cut it out instead. Seal the foam with diluted modge podge like in the last step.
It's model magic time again!! Have a copy of the hilt template on hand and make the wings slightly bigger for later reshaping. The hearts in the upper left are what replaced the small yellow resin gem that I mentioned earlier. What eventually happened with those is that I made them way too fat so once they dried I just cut one of them in half. :P The half hearts are for the tiara looking thing on the hilt. The small circles on the bottom are the small swirly things just under the wings. The other parts are the white swirly doo-dads that attach to the inside of the white/light pink hand guards. I make them in separate pieces so it would be easier to fit the hand guard, rather than making an intricate piece, only to have it not fit the sword. The frames around the heart gems are made bigger than they should for later shaping. (Have you noticed that that's my philosophy with model magic use? Haha...) When letting these dry, it's important to flip them over every hour or so, especially the wings. That way they dry evenly and they're less prone to cracking.
Here's how the hearts look after careful shaping. On each one, the rims ended up popping off due to the pressure of the sand paper or exact-o knife, so a tiny dab of super glue on the back seams in strategic points was in order. When shaping, try to make two of them look identical (or close to it) and designate them as the front two hearts.
Of all your pieces you've just made, the wings will take the longest to dry because of their size. I let they dry for 48 hours instead of the standard 24. Cut out a wing from your template and trace its shape onto the model magic using light pencil pressure. On the side where the wing will attach to the sword, you want a little bit of excess. Keeping that in mind, carefully carve out the shape with a brand new exact-o knife blade. Using sand paper, carve out the curves of the wing ribs and round out the sharp corners from the cut edge. Trim and sand away the excess between the sword hilt and the wings until you have a flush and perfect fit.
cut out the crown shape from the template copy and cut out two of them from 2mm craft foam. Super glue them between your two sets of hearts, making sure you keep your two "front" hearts separate. In other words, pair off a front and back piece; do not attach your two front pieces together. When gluing, only use two dots at each corner of the crown piece. This needs to be pretty flexible at this point.
On your wings, trim out little pieces like this, which will be places for your hearts to sit. I really wish I had taken pictures of how I did this step because now my memory is fuzzy. :\ Spread the heart out across the wing and trace the bottom V part of the heart and carefully carve it out with the exact-o knife. At least, I think that's how I did it, anyway. >.>;;; Sorry. V.V;
Super glue the hearts on, making sure the front hearts face front and that you have them on the correct wing, for that matter.
attach to hilt. super glue will suffice for now. Go over all the model magic pieces with the diluted modge podge mixture (don't get any on the gems...I'm not sure if it will cloud them over, to be honest with you, but we'll take care of that later). Fill in the seam from wing to hilt with the modge podge. If you messed up really bad on the seam to the point that modge podge can't fix it, then use caulk and go back over it with modge podge. But if you did it right, modge podge should take care of it on its own.
Now, the gap between the hearts looks pretty hideous, so now we're going to fix that. The gap between them (on mine anyway) is between 2mm and 3mm but for the sake of it being extra snug, I decided to use 3mm foam to fill in this gap. I cut out a small square, stuck it in the gap, traced the curve with a pencil, and cut it out.
Insert the foam piece in the hole. Then, cover the foam piece with modge podge (DON'T dilute on this step), making sure to spread it onto some of the model magic as well. Modge podge will serve as your glue for this step. Repeat x4.
Assemble the curly white thingers together. this requires cutting and sanding, which you should be pretty adept at by this point. (For all you gamers out there, you're at, like, level 6 now. XDDD) Also, incorporate the swirl design in the round piece and attach it beneath the wings.
At this point I noticed that somehow I either put the wings on crooked, made one of the wings too big (not likely), made one side of the hilt bigger than the other, or a combination of these. Because I had to fight to squeeze one of the two round things in its place. I don't have a picture showing it, either, but dang. It's there. DX
Proceed to Step 17