Arrow of Legolas
by EarthboundEmpire in Craft > Costumes & Cosplay
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Arrow of Legolas
Legolas is my favourite character in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and this is a replica arrow I made of the ones Legolas carries in The Lord of the Rings movies. Note that this isn't designed for real archery. For display purposes only.
This arrow is quite large compared to my height because I wanted it to be elven size :D
This arrow is quite large compared to my height because I wanted it to be elven size :D
Materials
• Dowel rod 8mm x 900mm (can get from any hardware store)
• Silver, gold and dark green paint
• Gold wire
• knife to carve the wood dowel and shape the feather
• 1 long yellow turkey feather - the one I had was 30cm and I managed to get all 3 arrow tails from it (You may need 2 feathers depending on the size and shape of the feather)
• Strong glue (I use super glue because I'm impatient)
• Plenty of reference pictures.
• Silver, gold and dark green paint
• Gold wire
• knife to carve the wood dowel and shape the feather
• 1 long yellow turkey feather - the one I had was 30cm and I managed to get all 3 arrow tails from it (You may need 2 feathers depending on the size and shape of the feather)
• Strong glue (I use super glue because I'm impatient)
• Plenty of reference pictures.
Measurements
Arrow Head and End
Head
Carve the arrow head shape from one end of the dowel.
One area of the arrow head is widen than the dowel so use wood filler to form the parts that protrude.
Note that the arrow head isn't rounded, but oval shaped when looking from the tip down. (look at the cross section in the pic).
Sketch out the engraved pattern and trace over it firmly with a pen or pointy something to leave an indentation.
End
To get the end (nock) in line with the arrow head, stick some string to the tip and pull it to the end where the nock will be.
Mark it as 1cm long and cut out the slit with a hack saw or rotary tool.
Paint the arrow head silver, the shaft dark green and the engraved pattern gold.
Carve the arrow head shape from one end of the dowel.
One area of the arrow head is widen than the dowel so use wood filler to form the parts that protrude.
Note that the arrow head isn't rounded, but oval shaped when looking from the tip down. (look at the cross section in the pic).
Sketch out the engraved pattern and trace over it firmly with a pen or pointy something to leave an indentation.
End
To get the end (nock) in line with the arrow head, stick some string to the tip and pull it to the end where the nock will be.
Mark it as 1cm long and cut out the slit with a hack saw or rotary tool.
Paint the arrow head silver, the shaft dark green and the engraved pattern gold.
Arrow Feathers
This feather I had was 30cm long and nice and wide. I got all 3 arrow feathers from this.
Cut the feather in half by cutting down the centre of the shaft with a craft knife.
I trimmed the shaft a bit because it was quite thick in some areas.
I cut the template from thick paper and placed that over the feather, positioning it so that I could cut all my arrow feathers from the one feather. Then cut the feather around the template using a craft knife. I trimmed them using hair dressing scissors because they seemed to be the only scissors I had that could cut the feather.
Because i'm impatient, I used super glue to stick the feathers to the shaft.
I also stuck them on a bit far from the end, so I cut the end a bit shorter.
To wind the gold wire, make a shallow hole with a pin and poked the wire in. This is to hold it instead of using glue. Keep winding it to form about a 1cm band until it reached the feathers. Then wrap the wire around the feather shafts leaving a 1cm gap each time. The feather vanes will easily split to allow the wire to be wound around the feather shaft. These can easily be rejoined as they have lots of tiny, tiny barbs which allows the vanes to join each other. Then finish it off by winding it to form another 1cm band after the feathers and make another pin hole to poke the end of the wire into to secure the whole thing.
I lightly brushed the end part in gold paint to reduce the amount of boring green, but that is optional.
Now off you go to shoot some orcs!
I you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments below or inbox me :)
Cut the feather in half by cutting down the centre of the shaft with a craft knife.
I trimmed the shaft a bit because it was quite thick in some areas.
I cut the template from thick paper and placed that over the feather, positioning it so that I could cut all my arrow feathers from the one feather. Then cut the feather around the template using a craft knife. I trimmed them using hair dressing scissors because they seemed to be the only scissors I had that could cut the feather.
Because i'm impatient, I used super glue to stick the feathers to the shaft.
I also stuck them on a bit far from the end, so I cut the end a bit shorter.
To wind the gold wire, make a shallow hole with a pin and poked the wire in. This is to hold it instead of using glue. Keep winding it to form about a 1cm band until it reached the feathers. Then wrap the wire around the feather shafts leaving a 1cm gap each time. The feather vanes will easily split to allow the wire to be wound around the feather shaft. These can easily be rejoined as they have lots of tiny, tiny barbs which allows the vanes to join each other. Then finish it off by winding it to form another 1cm band after the feathers and make another pin hole to poke the end of the wire into to secure the whole thing.
I lightly brushed the end part in gold paint to reduce the amount of boring green, but that is optional.
Now off you go to shoot some orcs!
I you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments below or inbox me :)