Weapon Question

G

guardian174

Newbie
Hey guys,
I am a newb and have a question about weapon making. Are you allowed to paint your boffer weapons or does that make the foam to stiff? If you can't, does anyone have suggestions about how to make your weapon look "pretty". Thanks

Josh
 
Hey Josh,

I've never seen a weapon that was painted directly, I have seen some really colorful/neat patterns done with ducttape, and painted covers. (I've hear Little Girl tights work the best) The neat thing about the covers is theoretically you could have different patterns for different characters if you want to reuse the weapon.

I'm sure Gandian will chime in with better ideas, but I wanted to beat him to the punch ^.^

-David
 
Colorful duct tape and plastic tape are the easiest way to go. For example, here are a couple weapons I made a little while ago, the hammer for myself and the sword for a friend. The easiest way I've found to do designs like the eclipse thing on those weapons is to lay out the duct tape on a cutting board and go at it with a sharp knife. Keep in mind that you don't want to add too many layers of duct tape onto the weapon since it gets kinda hard. I generally try not to have more than 2 layers of duct tape anywhere - if you need to layer up for an intricate design, try not to do it on the striking surface.

A lot of people like cloth-covered weapons, but I actually prefer the look of duct tape (as long as it's not in plain grey). Like Dave said, though, you can swap out different cloth covers and reuse them, so they can be pretty useful. Cloth covers are actually really nice for shields - you can have a plain black one if you want to use your own shield when NPCing, a nifty insignia for one PC, and heraldic colors (or whatever) for another character.
 
I personally wouldn't recommend painting the boffer weapons, given that the closed cell foam is porous enough that it would take many layers to make the paint look good, and by that point, the weapon would be very stiff with paint.

I do a lot of intricate design stuff with different colors of duct tape (and am reknowned in SoMN for making some of the more flashy/intricate weapons), doing as Kyle does and putting the design tape on a cutting board and using an exactoknife to cut the designs. Then I just peel it off and stick it on the weapon.

You could do some really cool cloth cover design stuff (like Dave says, children's tights work wonders, or you can sew your own cover), simply drawing on the cloth with permanent markers, etc. I've been looking to do this for some of my weapons, and perhaps I'll post pictures sometime wen I do my first cloth-cover one with designs.
 
I would recommend picking up some tights and then decorating them with SoSoft fabric paint. It stays flexible and gives the weapon a uniform look.

Vicki
 
Thanks guys for the advice. 2 more questions. Sorry to bug everyone. I couldn't find 5/8 pipe insulation so I used a pool noodle. It's closed cell foam and 3/4'' thick. Is this ok? Also, I was thinking of putting a edge to the blade with open cell foam. Not a real edge just something to give it a more real think. Would this work ok? Thanks again for all the advice and again sorry for bugging everyone with these stupid questions. I just don't want to spend all this time making a weapon and then it not pass inspection.

Josh
 
Safety wise, there isn't any reason not to use pool noodle, or open cell edges (over legal thickness closed cell foam)n but from a fighting stsndpoint you will likely find it awkward. The more foam on the weapon, the more weight and wind resistance, both of which make fighting more difficult.
 
So a new weapon question... Firstly, Tom, thanks for the taping tips last Sunday.
So I'm in the design proccess mentally for a long axe style weapon. Is there a size limit for the head of an axe weapon? Are double headed axes passible?
I'm planning on building it much like I did with my hammer, bonding car sponges together and cutting them into shape then taping it up. Is beveling the edge to make it appear like an actual edge passable? (Not shaving it down to a point)

Finally, how does Alliance Chicago feel about those latex weapons?
 
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