The start of my Barbarian custom.

[kisstour03]

I decided to finally get my feet wet in this custom thing. I decided to do an original character, who will be a barbarian. Haven't made up a name yet though. The holidays have slowed down the head and body arriving in the mail. So I decided to go out today and pick up some stuff and make his main weapon. I love battle axes and also the giant war hammers like one on the main bad guys in Conan had. So I decided to combine the two.

I think it came out pretty well considering I've never made any kind of accessories before. A couple of pieces of wooden dowel. The end cut off an old butter knife. Some swede strips off an old jacket. A couple of heads off some small nails and voila a war hammer/axe. I tried to make it look like it's been used in some major battles. And also to look like something my barbarian made from scrapes in the wild. The two little brass nail heads on the one side are markers for the two dragons he has slain in his travels. This may not be the final version. I may try again. But I think this one came out pretty well. This custom thing is fun.

[cockyhoskins]

Very nice work! Can't wait to see it completed!

[thunderbolt]

nice, like the use of the butterknife for the blade.

[ZombieJimC]

Looks Great! Love this stuff.

[mikeoz]

I like it. Great start

[torgospizza]

The two little brass nail heads on the one side are markers for the two dragons he has slain in his travels.

I know it sounds weird, but this is the kind of stuff that makes it fun, to me. Your guy already has a backstory. Keep up posted on this project, okay? I want to see him when you have him finished!

[Gorn Captain]

Great idea, to make something completely original with your own little touches.
Looking forward to seeing it completed!

You really nailed that hammer!

[kisstour03]

I know it sounds weird, but this is the kind of stuff that makes it fun, to me. Your guy already has a backstory. Keep up posted on this project, okay? I want to see him when you have him finished!

Making up a backstory is half the fun for me. I already have some ides for other characters as well. But one step at a time. I woke up this morning with an idea for a sword. Now to see if I can make it work. May have some pics later if it works out.

[kisstour03]

Well today I woke up with an idea for a sword for my barbarian. Need to think of a name too. Anyway here is the result. I used an old paring knife and cut the handle off. I ground down the knife shank with my Dremel. Then dinged up the blade with a grinding wheel on the Dremel. And heated the blade with a torch and quenched it. There are actually some nice purple and greenish colors from the quench but I couldn't get it to show too well in the pics. The handle is a small wooden dowel notched to hold the blade. Electrical tape wrapped around the handle and some green thread to finish it off. And some red thread to give the blade the look that the sword was made on the trail in some far off land. I wanted to make his weapons look like they were put together from what he could find so I wasn't worried about them looking clean and perfect. I want my barbarian to have a "lived in" look.

[kisstour03]

I was happy to arrive home from work last night to find that my barbarians head and body had been waiting at the PO Box when my wife picked up the mail. I'm using a Type S body I got from 8inchsuperstore. And a brown haired barbarian head from CTVT. I'm on vacation starting Saturday. I'm hoping to spend a good part of those nine days working on this little powerhouse. I'm going to try and do most of his outfit and other accessories from scratch like his weapons. My wife said that he could be finished as he is now, because a barbarian could have been naked anyway. But where's the fun in that?

Oh and he has a name now. Grundvor.

[kisstour03]

Yesterday I started making a shield for Grundvor. I hadn't even given thought to a shield until the other night while watching "The 13th Warrior". There's a scene where two Vikings fight and they use wooden shields. That's when the light bulb went off for me. "Grundvor needs a shield too." Duh.

Here's the start of the shield. Pretty simple. I just glued some popsicle sticks to a piece of comic backing board. I was already finished gluing when I thought I could have just did the two layers of sticks crossways to each other and eliminated the cardboard oh well adds some stiffness I guess. This morning I cut out the circle and sanded to shape. Then did the torch treatment like I did on the hammer. Next step is a rim around the outside edge and some paint. Then figure out how I want to attach the handle so he can hold it. The pic really picks up the slight gaps between the slats. In person they don't look that wide.


Here is the basic idea that I'm shooting for.

[cockyhoskins]

Great stuff! Can't wait to see it finished!

[Capt Kirk]

Yep, very nice. Every barbarian custom deserves real, metal, nasty, pointy implements...

[hawkmike]

wow looking good