Anime represents a large hole in my pop culture experience, but I don’t have to know everything about a story to appreciate bold and outrageous (in a good, Jem and the Holograms way) costumes and weapon designs. Kill la Kill ties both those things together. Students of Honnouji Academy in Kill la Kill wear Goku uniforms that give their wearers special powers. Ryuko Matoi has a scissor-shaped sword that she uses to cut through those uniforms. Matoi has half of the Scissor Blade, and Harrison Krix of Volpin Props made a replica.
He started with blueprints based on concept illustrations for the series and made the main blade from 1/4 inch thick MDF. He used 3/8 inch pieces of the material for the handle sections. Once the blade took shape, Krix glued a 1/4 inch steel bar onto the MDF to give the blade stability. After much preparation, the blade was finally ready to be put in a mold:
I decided to mold this as a large box pour. The scissor was supported by some wood blocks to ensure it was level, then a clay dam was sculpted to the blade edge to create a parting seam.
Foamcore panels were cut and hot glued in place to create the edges of the mold box, then registration keys were cut. The squiggle technique is something new I’m trying out, seems to work pretty well so far!
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