help sculpting weapon

[bodie]

I'd like to sculpt a life size weapon for show of this warglaive
Click to see full-sized image
what would be the easiest way to go about this? usually i use pepakura which is a paper folding program, then i would fiber glass and bondo... but since its never been done before there is no patern to follow. i had my brother draw it out on paper the size it needs to be. the way i was thinking about doing it since the blades are the same on both sides was to make one blade one handle and cast them both but do the blade twice so they match. but like i said before im a total nub when it comes to doing things from scratch. should i make a frmae for it first, and if so what do i make the fram from? any help would be great im trying to finish this before halloween. thanks in advance i'm really not sure if this is any of your guys cup of tea but i thought i'd ask.

[mahon]

what size of that weapon is what you want?

you would need different approaches for different sizes of the object...

[bodie]

well the blade is about 3ft tall from tip of handle to tip of blade.

[Demi_morgana]

no idea what can be done - 3ft is pretty damn huge thing to cast...
maybe cutting it in thick pcv?

[Cyberpaddy66]

Watched a program about Resin Casting recently and I have to say if your looking at doing a 3 foot weapon your best bet is going to be polyurethane resin, you can make a mould out of the soft resin allowing you to re-move the mould and re-use it then pour the actual weapon out of the hard resin so that it holds it's shape.

As for making the mould you can create your weapon from expanded foam or even wood prior to making the mould from the soft resin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ9lgZ3V90o

Ignoring the fact they they are using concrete for their finished product the process is the same for any finished pourable medium.

[Pandadosmares]

You can always use wood.

Some wood shops sellers can do almost anything

[bodie]

so i think i know how i am going to attack this thing. my brother and i built 2 sides to one blade. we are going to mold both halfs and then either glue them together or try and use both halfs of the mold to just make one good one. anyhow here is a updated pic at where we are now.
Click to see full-sized image

[bodie]

Click to see full-sized image
all together about 3ft total height and weight in clay for one blade ia about 1lb. any ideas for the handle? i was thinking somthing like a skull molded itnto it.

[LadyEyes]

So what material did you end up using?

[bodie]

So what material did you end up using?

i am using some model clay calle pizmo or somthing like that. its cheap and easy to use. we got both halfs made and put them together. now the only thing i ahve to do is dremel down a sharp blade edge and figure out if i want to make all of them blade edges or more of a sharp round edge.im still stuck on how i want to make the handle. i dont know how to shape it