WIP: Half Life, Gordon Freeman's crowbar using fiberglass putty

[guybrush]

Project is finished! Scroll down

hey,

hope you accept Half-Life stuff here :cool

I'd like to share my progress on building a crowbar as part of an HEV costume which I'm currently pepping.

As a noob, I think such a prop might be a good start to learn some skills like bondoing, sanding, painting, weathering and so son.

So I made the "body" out of fiberglass putty which I skimmed into a cardboard "rack". Like this

Inside you see two lines of acrylic which is suppoed to keep the putty into a hexagonal shape. Later the cardboard and acrylic can be torn off the "cast".

Here's the fiberglass resin filled into the mould:

After curing, I've noticed that the putty became very VERY rigid due to the glass fibers. Didn't expect that...

The basic shape after getting rid of the "mould":

Now a first layer of bondo, actually my first contact with bondo , and wetsanded:

More bondo-layers needed... but I didn't expect a perfect surface after my first bondoing either


Any feedback would be appreciated.

Greetings from Germany

 

[Jabenbetz]

I like it =D
it does beg the question why not just get a real crowbar, but i guess this would be lighter and safer if you wanted to cosplay or something.
It is looking rather good =D

 

[tsau mia]

I'm not quite sure if a real crowbar would be allowed at most costuming events. Plastic is much more... safe? I guess, if you bash someone over the head with it. It will still hurt, but probably not cave in your skull.

 

[Tactonyx]

Even if it were allowed, which I highly doubt, a real crowbar will get heavy fast. This is a good idea, probably cut the weight by 75% or more. I've seen a lot of prop crowbars, and none of them look nearly as good as this one.
If I may make a reccommendation, once you get this done and sanded, try using metalizers, especially gunmetal buff or even magnesium, to give it a very mettalic look (gotta have an airbrush though) If no airbrush, try rub n buff. Nice to see another Half-Life project here.

 

[guybrush]

Thanks for the feedback so far!! Yes, the piece is much lighter and my guess is that I can actually enter a convention with it Plus, I gain some experience with bondoing and I can see how far I can stress my family with the smell ;-)

Hey Tactonyx, good to see you here. It really pushes me to have gotten such feedback from a "prop-pro"! Been following your work a bit. I'm really intrigued by the metal buffs. Did some research and it seems to be a bit picky as it tends to come off the underground, so I guess I need a perfect priming and later a protective layer. Can someone chip in a few brand names? I've found ModelMaker available in Germany but maybe you have a better suggestion...

So no progress picture so far, did a second round of bondo, more wetsanding needed.

 

[guybrush]

... didn't really managed to continue on it. Just did a little artwork out of boredom to see how it't supposed to look like... :cool

 

[guybrush]

hey,

finally got to continue the project! I was able to resume sanding, so here's my progress.

Greetings from Germany!

 

[guybrush]

hey,

finally I was able to make some real progress! After countless rounds of bondoing and sanding , this is the piece ready to be primed,

It is still not perfectly shaped, but I am quite happy with it. And now: the first silver coat:

Tactonyx has advised me to use rub'n buff, it is being shipped right now :cool , I'm glad to have gotten hold to it in Germany. So I thought this silver would be a meaningful basecoat for the rub'n buff.

 

[Cloviz]

Even if it were allowed, which I highly doubt, a real crowbar will get heavy fast. This is a good idea, probably cut the weight by 75% or more. I've seen a lot of prop crowbars, and none of them look nearly as good as this one.
If I may make a reccommendation, once you get this done and sanded, try using metalizers, especially gunmetal buff or even magnesium, to give it a very mettalic look (gotta have an airbrush though) If no airbrush, try rub n buff. Nice to see another Half-Life project here.

A crowbar weighs like what 15-20 pounds? At most he will shave 5-10 pounds...bulk up buddy but still I'm sure each convention has rules about props and what materials they can be made out of. But still a fiberglassed and bondo prop will hurt just as bad as any baseball bat. Back on topic I looks like you went to a hardware store a purchased a crowbar although I wouldn't recommend prying any doors with it.

 

[guybrush]

hi again,

.... aaand we're done. Here are some final pictures. I hope you like it! The piece weighs about one and a half pounds (23oz), so that is quite light, but, Cloviz, I agree, it is still very hard...

 

[Tactonyx]

That looks fantastic. You did a great job on the painting, and the build for that matter.

 

[CowboyFromHell]

If i hadn't seen the build process i would seriously think thats real! Awesome work man!
Let us know how many times you get stopped at any costuming events by security thinking you've got a real crobar!
Keep it up! Look forward to seeing the HEV suit!