How to Make God of War Swords: Blades of Chaos

Ever dream of having weapons of mass destruction forged in the pits of Tartarus? Fan of the God of War games?.. well, my friend joined us for C2E2 this year and i wanted to turn him into the God of War himself. I was in charge of creating the Blades of Chaos... 

Let's get started!

Materials

-Cardboard
-2 Dowel rods
- hot glue
-exacto knife
-Bondo
-sandpaper
-primer or gesso
-plastic Chains (ebay for $7)
-silver paint
-black paint
-thred
-leather

Start buy drawing out your swords on a piece of paper. If you can, having 2-3 copies of the completed sketch is helpful. If not, you can make due.

you will need 5 layers of cardboard PER sword. the the swords at different angles against the "grain of the cardboard. 

For 1 sword

• Cut out all 5 copies of the entire sword
• Glue 3 copies together
• cut a grove down the entire sword (ALL the way through the handle) and glue in the dowel rod in place for support
• Glue the remaining 2 copies of the sword on top of the dowel rod. 
• - The dowel rod should be in the middle of the sword now. 
• Now that the entire sword base is complete, Seal ALL the edges of the sword
•  
• Repeat for the other sword

• Take your exacto knife and cut out the "blade" portion of your sketch.
• Trace that portion onto your cardboard sword.
• -use your exacto knife and cut at an angle to give it a blade shape.
• Use hot glue to keep the blades together
• - It will look rough, but don't concern yourself with that at this point.
   

• Take your sketch and cut out the handle from your sketch.
• You will need 6 cardboard cutouts per sword.
• Glue 3 on each side of the handle and glue the seams together. (pic 2)
• once glued, take your exacto knife and start cutting the handle into the general shape
  • This may take some time, so be patient (pic 3 + 4)

Do this process again for the butt of the sword. i believed i used 2 per side.

THis is a long process. 

Bondo and sand the entire sword.
- You dont have to be too concerned about imperfections with these swords. they add character to them.
Bondo is like spackle, only dries harder and quicker. 

i have a dremel, and found that to be SUPER helpful for sanding in details. If you dont have one, i also glued some sandpaper onto some wood and used that as a sanding block.

• When you are satisfied with the shape, time to start priming. 
• Once completed, spray the swords with silver spray paint
• After this, take watered-down black paint,  paint the silver blades, and IMMEDIATELY wipe off the blade. 
• -you are only trying to darken the blade, not paint it black If you wait too long the black will settle. 
• For the handle, You can use a less watered-down black, and just do several layers to make it darker than the blade itself.

Chains

• I had to spray paint my chains because they were black. 
• Cut or drill a hole in the butt of the sword
• insert end of chain and securely glue it in.
• If you want to be a superstar, you could technically bondo the chain into the sword.. I was just lazy at this point. 

Handle
You can take leather and wrap it around the handle. bind it with some twine or rope for some details.

In order to keep the chains in place around your arm, take some twine and string it through the chain from wrist to forearm. that wil keep it from unraveling.

The end! Enjoy and give the Gods hell!