So with the crown of the staff just about finished, it’s time to get to work on making the other components of the staff. At this point, what is left is the, what I’d call the neck, as well as the base of the staff, and their corresponding components.

My plan of execution was just like everything else I’ve made thus far – create the shape in foam and then Shell Shock it. Fortunately for me, these shapes are a little more straight forward, and not nearly as complex, so the sanding process, I don’t anticipate being as big of a bitch.

Continue reading “LeBlanc staff construction progress: 07” →

Today, we dive into the wonderful adventures of sanding things that have been Shell Shocked. I would also like to point out that if you could hear me saying that phrase, it would be dripping in sarcasm and with facetiousness, because it is fact that sanding things, especially with complex curves and intricate patterns, absolutely blows.

But it is also an integral part of the construction process, and as much as I’d like to avoid it, it really cannot be. At least not without having an end product that I would probably classify as sub-standard.

So, due to a lot of the complex nature of the design of the staff, I knew that I would be a whole lot of hand sanding, to get into the little cracks and crevices of some of the parts of the crown. And when I hand sand things, I like to do it in parts, as in using a very high-grit paper to really smooth things down, and then gradually working down from 60 grade to 320 grade. I’ll confess that I grew so tired of sanding, that I eventually skipped using 120 grade altogether, except in troublesome spots that refused to smooth down.

Continue reading “LeBlanc staff construction progress: 06” →

Well, that didn’t take as long as I had anticipated, I suppose. I guess when I actually convince myself that I certainly do have the time to apply more Shell Shock, or that the fast formula really only takes about an hour to cure, then I can be tenacious and push forward. Needless to say, as of now, it’s turned out about to what I had expected it to turn out like, and there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The optimistic side of things is that once this part is done, the remainder of the actual staff part doesn’t seem at all that difficult, as I have been thinking about the next steps as well.

But here’s where we stand currently.

Continue reading “LeBlanc staff construction progress: 05” →

The next step in the construction of the LeBlanc staff was to coat it in Shell Shock. We here in Atlanta get the stuff at Engineer Guy, near the airport. In short, it’s a liquid plastic that can be applied onto a myriad of surfaces, and is durable enough that after it cures, it can be sanded and painted, while maintaining a hard and substantial integrity. Coating the LeBlanc staff would give it a little bit of heft, durability, and give it a better surface to paint on than just plain insulation foam.

Like a retard, I set myself up for a ton of extra work, by pre-assembling the staff in its entirety before Shell Shocking it. To be perfectly honest, this was the step that puzzled me the most, and when I did it, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but in the end, this sets me up for a lot of extra work that might be harder than all other alternative methods discussed, that I could have done. No matter, with everything assembled and adhered, there was nothing more I could do to go back, so it’s all or nothing from here.

My rationale is that if I apply the Shell Shock with paint brushes instead of slathering the goo on with popsicle sticks, I could smooth it out and apply it thinner and more refined, resulting in less clumping in the cracks, and do my best to make it look less messy. From what I’ve done in this update, it’s so far so good, but there’s still a lot more to do ahead of me, so who knows how much I’ll hate life as this process goes on.

Continue reading “LeBlanc staff construction progress: 04” →

Instead of letting the project sit for a few weeks like I sometimes tend to do, I actually was pretty productive this weekend, and got right to work with the next step of the construction of the LeBlanc staff.

This is what I thought was going to be the hardest part of the entire construction, since I would be essentially slicing the shapes that took a good deal of work in the first place, right in half. Once halved, I inserted a metal hoop rod into the shapes, to put them into arrangement.

In my best efforts to be as thorough as possible in explaining my build, there will be pictures as well as descriptions, after the jump.

Continue reading “LeBlanc staff construction progress: 03” →

In an attempt to try and be a somewhat contributing member of the internet when it comes to sharing knowledge, I’m going to make a conscious effort to chronicle the construction of this LeBlanc staff I’m making with some actual descriptions, instead of simply taking pictures and posting up a blurb like I had done with the Mafia Graves gun throughout the time before Dragon*Con last year.

“02,” you say?  Where’s “01?”  Although this is the first post I’ll have made about the staff, the first progress photo would have been this here.  This was the staff’s initial pieces cut out, and nothing more.  The above picture is the second progress picture, also with a reference shot so that anyone viewing might have an idea of what the heck I’m making.

As for the process, I’ll spare the gory details for after a jump.

Continue reading “LeBlanc staff construction progress: 02” →