I haven’t yet finished the LeBlanc staff, but it’s because I’m at a stage in the build that requires some help outside of my realm. That being said, time waits for nobody, so in the mean time, it’s time to start on my other project prior to Dragon*Con this year. And this one, is actually for me, since I’m going to dress up as (an Asian) Graves again this year, but this time bust out a Riot Graves skin.

But in order to be Riot Graves, that means I would most certainly need to make the Riot Graves gun. The good news for me is that compared to the Mafia Graves’ Thompson-style gun, Riot Graves’ gun is theoretically easier to construct. Not to mention the fact that it’s almost exclusively all one color, it should eliminate a lot of complexities of trying to mimic wood grain, and add gold accents here and there.

Continue reading “Riot Graves Gun construction: Intro” →

This particular progress update isn’t anything that spectacular when it comes to any fascinating build processes or anything, but at the same time I’m very happy with this particular update, because it pretty much marks the end of the core shape making and Shell Shocking. At the very end of it, I have a pretty good baseline of what most of the staff is going to look like towards the end, and if I had to put a number on top of it, I would say that I am around 80% complete.

But since I’m trying to do my best to be dutiful and show as much of the process as possible, it still constitutes as an update that shows how we came to be at this current stage of the construction process.

Continue reading “LeBlanc staff construction progress: 08” →

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” →