how to: rockets from pens and milk cartens

Ok so after quite alot of interest in my little rocket I decided that it would be best if I showed everyone how to make one...

so step one... get your pen. and cut it down to size

I will be using the top pen. the one thing you must do first is cut it down to size... notice that the top white pen has some tfin like things just behind the nib... Cut it there.

Step 2 preparing to add the fins

right now you have you pen done it is time to add the fins... To do this find an old (prefereble washed) milk carten one of the plastic ones. You couls use anyother b\plastic sheet as long as it is rigid... Now cut the pen. I used a knife that I had heated up with a lighter to cut through the hard plastic. cut one side and then carry one through the other side so that there is a strait line through both the holes. then do the same on the same at a right angle to the previous cut... 

step3 adding the fins

with the holes cut it is time to add the fins. simlpe cut 2 long bits of milk carten, try and get them wide enough to fit into the depth of the cuts but not over hanging so much that they look stupid. look at the image above if you want to know how wide to make them. next cut one of the plastic strips in half... now cut them to shape. look above for an idea of the shape. you can cut them any shape you want it is your rocket... Once you are pleased with the way it looks superglue the fins in.

step4 painting

now your rocket shold look something like this....but wait no it dosent it needs painting. Now I do not know much about rockets so I just did this humble colour scheme. but you can paint it any way you like.... But there is one tip for the tip... cover it in many layers of paint so that any remaining ink does not leak out and stain the colour.

And finished

I take no responsibility if you use this method to take over the world

so there you go I hope you can understand this little tutorial as it was very spure of the moment... have fun with you pens

How to: weapons from chicken wire and paper ;-D 2 the details

Ok now comes the hour we test our meddelers courage. Here is my continued tutorial on how to make weapons out of chicken wire and paper. But this time I will focus on the details and how to make use of both of the previous techniques on making swords to full effect to make the best looking sword around :-D

First up it is How To... make more details on a sword with just cheap and simple materials ;-)

You will need... A sword you prepared ealier, PVA glue and some "white out", "twink", "pen eraser", whatever you call it

Step 1: Put a little Pva glue on the areas shown, I don't know what they are called but is is the pommle?
then when the glue is starting to set add the first layer of twink/ white out.

Step 2: Once the first layer of twink/white out has set apply another one so that you build up these areas. Look at the top one see how it is starting to get that roung shape. I recomend that once this layer is dry you coat it in a wash of PVA and water to harden it if needs be

Once everything has dried take a look. Does it look right to you? If not add more layers or file back the ones you've made. I recomend that if the sword is going to go in a ring hand you do not to the top pommle, what ever it is called. Also I used white out because it was cheap I got hold of one pen of it and a little bottle of it for just $2 at the dollar shop. You could use "Green Stuff" but a tube of that I bought for $14 so you can clearly see the savings

Next up is the string for a bow
This next tip is similar to Paul's one but I've used a slightly different material and one that you really don't have to use I just used it for fun and because there is so much of it lying around.

Right get that cross bow you made earlier. Some PVA and some very thin string thread or hair. 

Todays hair comes from the huge amount left behind by my very funny dog Oscar!

Step 1: Get somthing to hold the cross-bow in place. Add a bit of PVA glue to the stock and the ends of the now arms. next put the thread hair or string onto the bow, make sure it touches the PVA. Leave to dry

Step 2: Once dry you can take the bow out of whatever was holding it and trim off any extra thread, hair or string. hey guess what all you need to do now is paint and your done. If you want you could add an arrow to the cross bow but there are other tutorials for this so I won't carry on.

And last but not least we have the best looking sword. I made a broad sword here but you could make any sword with this method. The first few pictures are the same as before but that is because the first few steps are the same...

Step 1: You don't need any new equipment just the same as before so... Firt cut out.

Step 2: Scale it

Step 3: Hammer flat and shape

Now things change...

Step 4: Cut out a bit of paper fold it in half. Open it up apply PVA put sword in the middle of one half  and fold  both sides together and press together as shown. Leave to dry.

Step 5: Once dry cut to shape, bath in plastice glue, once the glue is dry add other details if desired, paint and done! 

And there you have it details and improved swords here is a finnal picture showin them all lined up

Not bad eh ;-D

So once again a chep and easy way to produce weapons on the cheap. I hope that some day soon I will be able to do another tutorial but my school trip/spanish trip to Argentina draws near and so to does my need to prepare for that. But anyway hope these prove as useful to you as they did to me. :-D

How to: weapons from chicken wire and paper ;-D

Ok well recently moved into my new home, started getting my stuff in order and looking around for stuff left behind that could be usefull for modelling. So today I went to the bottom of the garden and fount some chicken wire that had been used in a fence but the person who put is there forgot to cut the excess off but hey now I'm using it :-D

Ok I can imagine that many of the things that are included in this how to have already been used by the people viewing this blog but for those that don't know these methods here is a tutorial. It is mainly to show how to make swords out of chicken wire and paper but I have included how this method can be adapted for making a cross bow and how to make a sword without the paper... In another tutorial I will explain how to add other details to these weapons :-D but for now here is the basics...

You will need... Chicken wire, scissors, plires, wire cutters, normal paper, PVA glue, Plastic glue a hammer (not shown), newspaper, paint, a hard surface (prefrebly an anvil (not shown, or owned) and paint.

Step 1: cut the chichen wire into pieces, using the wire cutter, these pices should be a rough representation of the weapon you want to make. i.e Swords like in this case should be like little crosses.

Like this one :-D

Step 2: Make sure it is to scale. I feel that it is so moving on then...

These next few steps include a technique I got off Paul! It is essencialy his how to make a paper halbard but adapted for swords.

Step 3:Right if you have seen Pauls tutorial you just need to look at the images if not...
Cut  out a bit of paper ,  fold  in half, open it up and put the "Blade" in the middle of one of the halves, take the blade out and apply a bit of wood glue to the paper, put the blade back fold the paper over again, press halves together, wait for glue to dry and cut into this shape.

Step 4: Bath in plastic glue and stand it up, I stuck it in news paper but I imagine foam or cork is good. Leave it to dry, you will find when it's dry it is rock hard this is thanks to the plastic glue. 

The sword is now complete all you need to do is paint. :-D nice and simple, for those of you want something more complex I will add another "How to" in which I will discuss who to add details, and basicaly complicate the whole thing :-P But here is a few variations...
Cross bow

The edges os the wire are only slightly even so it is easy to make a cross bow
1. Cut out a T shaped bit of wire
2 Bend the top of the T to make it look like a bow
3 cut out a piece of paper and fold it over the main part of the cross bow.
4 Put some PVA on the paper and then fold it over the bow. I recomend you try add another bit of paper just so you double the thickness this is mainly for aesthetical/proportional reasons.
5 Leave to dry.
6 Once dry cut to shape if you don't know what this is look at an illistration of a cross bow.
7 Bath is plastic glue and leave to dry solid.
8 Paint and add bow strings ( I will hopefully include a tutorial on that in the next post).

Sword without the paper

To make this just follow the first 2 steps for making the other sword then these
Step 3: put blade on a hard surface, I recomend an anvil.(I used concrete :-P)
Step 4: Hammer the blade flat, do this on both sides.
Step 5: Straiten the blade out with plires.
Step 6: Use the wire cutters to make the blades point.
Step 7: Paint :-D

Ok here they all are side by side so that you may compare them.

From Left to Right... Paper and wire cross bow, just wire sword (its at an odd angle :-( ), paper and wire sword , paper and wire sword

And there you have it an easy and cheap way to mass produce weapons :-) I will include another tutorial to explain how to make these more detailed and how to combine both methods of making swords to get the best results.