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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 21, 2011 5:36:48 GMT
So, it was a real pain, but I figured out how to make a somewhat decent leaf blade, though I'm still rather clueless on how to do blade spines.
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Post by MOK on Sept 21, 2011 9:48:11 GMT
Oh, spines are easy - just draw the blade in halves and make one lighter than the other. Actually, what I like to do is to draw the entire blade profile in the darker shade, then draw the lighter half on top of that. It lets me see the full blade shape to begin with, and eliminates a minor potential glitch when exporting the blade (sometimes - not always but sometimes - a one-pixel gap can appear between objects that are right next to each other but don't overlap).
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 21, 2011 10:15:34 GMT
Thanks a bunch, mate! You wouldn't happen to have a slightly easier method of doing the cord marks on grips, would you? I couldn't make heads or tails of it in the tutorial.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 21, 2011 10:56:21 GMT
Deleted the original image as I didn't want it cluttering up my Photobucket; I've got enough crap in there as is.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 25, 2011 20:21:56 GMT
The more I get to know Inkscape, the more my respect for MOK's talents grow. I present the redone Iomhair; edited to fix the fullers and the grip. And the redone Ifearnán, which was a true and nasty bastard, but I think I did much better on the blade:
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Sept 25, 2011 20:47:11 GMT
love everything but the purple handle. i loathe purple on swords for some reason, always have. great job in inkscape though...i couldnt even get a stick figure sword done.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 25, 2011 22:52:24 GMT
Thanks; I think I could have done a much better job on Iomhair, particularly the fullers and the grip. I think the grip could stand to be a touch wider at the top.
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Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on Sept 25, 2011 22:53:58 GMT
coulda been a litle wider, its like a hanwei tinker as it is now
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 25, 2011 23:04:36 GMT
Long as I don't gotta redo Ifearnán, I'm willing to redo Iomhair until I get it right. That thing was a bastard; the pommel itself was half a nightmare, but the guard... God, I'm going to see that in my dreams for days.
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jhart06
Member
Slowly coming back from the depths...
Posts: 3,292
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Post by jhart06 on Sept 26, 2011 0:22:00 GMT
not a fan of the colors per se, but they look nice man!!
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 26, 2011 0:30:27 GMT
Thanks. The colors may change, they may not; I haven't really decided, to be honest. All I know is that the crystals on one will be the leather color on the other, similar to how their owners (sisters) are somewhat opposite, but linked. Mé'aré and Ithin are actually the only swords I've designed where the color scheme is irrevocably set and that's because of the symbolism involved (dark blue + silver = starry sky; dark red + pale gold + ash gray = morning/fire/sun/etc.). The others are pretty much whatever looks right (or in the case of the designs not associated with my novels, whatever the person wanting them made prefers).
Anyways, that fishtail was a right pain in the ass to do, but not as much as that guard. I had to lay out the basic shape, then do each of the surfaces individually. All told, it's composed of nine different surfaces, if you include the base.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 28, 2011 5:22:33 GMT
So, I had a bit of inspiration this evening regarding an ongoing brainfart of mine; up to this point, I hadn't decided on a style of sword for the occupation forces in one of my novels beyond that they were a single handed sword meant to be used with a shield. With that, I present the Endycion: I wanted something that the ordinary layman wouldn't be able to tell apart from your average, everyday Euro, but make those who had more than a passing familiarity with Oakeshott go "wait a tick". The blade is a Type XIIIb, the pommel a Type P, and the guard is a Style 10; the Style 10 enjoyed its popularity in the 15th and 16th centuries, about 150 years after the XIIIb's own popularity. The P could have been used on an XIIIb, but since it is so exceedingly rare, with no known existing examples, there's no way to tell. In fact, many people might think, at a passing glance, that it's just a hunk of steel like you see on some fantasy swords. I didn't include the stats in it since I was more concerned about the design itself, but the general stats are: 36" overall, 29.5" blade (14.5" fuller), 4" grip; the guard is 8.2" wide and the blade is 1.8" wide at the base where the shoulders flare and 1.6" for the rest of its length (the fuller is .8" wide).
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jhart06
Member
Slowly coming back from the depths...
Posts: 3,292
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Post by jhart06 on Sept 28, 2011 6:24:27 GMT
I find myself loving that guard! Very nice! Got my brain juice goin for a new design of mine.. But I just tried and miserably failed at a hammer, and can't find the coffee, so probably hit it up tomorrow.
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Post by MOK on Sept 28, 2011 20:41:39 GMT
You've got some nice pommels on these!
The fuller on the Endycion is really, really wide for a XIIIb - more like a type X, really - but it does make for an interesting and visually distinctive design. The blade would have to have a lot of distal taper, likely in several distinct stages, to keep the fullered forte stable and the lenticular foible flexible...
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 28, 2011 20:50:06 GMT
Thanks, MOK! I prefer lesser used pommels to give the swords a slightly fantasy look without actually just making things up, since, unless I specifically state that they're "just for fun" designs, I try to make fully functional and realistic designs my ideal.
The fuller was actually something of an accident, but after I saw it, I liked how it looked and I thought that it would put a lot more mass in the forte if it was done right to make a more authoritative parry; they could use it to parry and stifle while worrying less about damaging their edge. But yes, there would have to be some pretty dramatic distal taper to balance the sword proper. I just don't know how to do that in Inkscape.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 30, 2011 6:28:39 GMT
This next one's just a little something I wanted to tinker around with: rehilting the Windlass 30 Years War Sword. I really like the blade shape on it, but I don't really like the guard on it; 11" wide? Yikes. So, I decided to use the blade, shorten it a bit and remove the ricasso, and give it a simpler hilt. And here it is: I was originally going to use a Style 1 guard, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt that this sword needed something more elegant, so I gave it a more upswept version of my favorite guard: Style 9 (the same as on Mé'aré). I chose a J1 partly because it fits with the guard into Oakeshott's Family F, but also because the recessed circle on each side could easy house a crystal insert if so desired. I also figured that, if the furniture was lighter than the current guard (likely, considering there'd be considerably less metal), it just might push the POB out a little and make this a cut-n-thrust sword rather than a dedicated thruster.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Sept 30, 2011 21:45:10 GMT
Okay, so I said I was never going to redo Ifearnán considering the nightmare that was it's guard. Well, you know what they say about never saying never, right? Mostly, I was unhappy with the grip colors. They came out waay too bright. Ifearnán came out nearly neon green as opposed to forest green while Iomhair came out close to electric purple as opposed to indigo. Anyways, I figured, I'll bring up Inkscape and fix that... Hehe, well... I ended up completely redoing them both from scratch. The only thing I didn't completely redo was Ifearnán's grip and pommel since I was happy with them the way they were (minus the color, of course). Here they are: Now, obviously, I darkened the colors and completely redid Ifearnán's guard. What may not be quite as obvious is that I redid the blades slightly. They're now 1 3/4" wide at the base as opposed to 2"; the tips are a little pointier, and the fullers terminate 1.5" from the tips, meaning they're 28.5". The blades are now almost exactly like their inspirations, which was a sketch of the XXI done by Peter Johnsson, albeit a little slimmer (I put the blades on his sketch at 2 1/4" wide, but I thought the loss of 1/2" made them look more agile, more like the cut-n-thrust swords they are). Secondly, I redid Iomhair's pommel somewhat; it's now closer to a true Type T as opposed to the Type T4 I had before. Reason being, this sword's furniture is the Valiant Armory Malatesta's furniture*. I also got rid of the incisions on the arms of the guard, but that was more of a mistake I didn't feel like correcting. :oops: Lastly for Iomhair, I made the risers not so "in your face". For obvious reasons, the top riser near the grip is still more visible than the other two, but that's it. Next, with Ifearnán, I darkened the grip, of course, and reused the blade I made for Iomhair so that they'd be much closer in shape than before. Now for the meat and potatoes of this sword: its guard. I redesigned it from scratch, but I owe the entire thing to Anders; his design, Hawkwing, features the same style guard (and was, in fact, the sword that brought me to like S-shaped guards like this) and was a great aid in the redesign. Instead of drawing out the whole shape and then adding in the different sections after that, I started with the central shape where the crystals are. Then I did the two arms; after that, I added the darker section to give it a spine. Finally, I added the wings and, lemme tell you, getting the spine just right on that upper wing was a semprini. Still, I'm quite proud of how it turned out.
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Post by Anders on Oct 1, 2011 2:35:23 GMT
Thought that guard looked familiar. Slightly embarassing fact: I was actually unable to draw the Hawkwing guard from scratch, so I made a full scale model out of cardboard, which I then photographed and traced.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 1, 2011 2:51:48 GMT
Hey, if it works, it works. I never would have figured out the proper way to draw it up without looking at yours. But anyways, I used to really dislike S-shaped guards that were horizontal (no problem with vertical ones) because, for the most part, every time I saw one, it'd be really shallow and look more like one of these -> ~ as opposed to an actual S that I just couldn't like them. Then along comes Hawkwing and what do you know? It looks exactly like an S-guard should and just when I needed a guard for Ifearnán, too.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 1, 2011 8:20:17 GMT
This is my latest design, a no frills beast that is equal parts sword, equal parts machete, and all vicious chopping power: I call it Tashel (տաշել), for want of a better name; it's an Armenian word that means "hack" and that's exactly what this little monster does best. I meant it as a replacement to the Albion Soldat/Knecht mash-up I posted much earlier in this thread as a weapon for one of my characters, Tayen, a young girl with a crippled right hand. However, since messers are handed, much like many sabers (in that the guard angles towards one direction more than the other), I couldn't very well have her using a right-handed messer when she's a lefty. Yes, I could just change it in world to be lefty messer, but since its late owner was right handed and its owner after that, Vega, my main character, is right handed, that'd be a kinda "wait... what?" moment, since they'd both be using a lefty messer right handed. Anyways! In comes this little beast. It is 27" overall with a 21" blade and a 4" grip; let's also not forget that hefty 2" Type R pommel to balance out the 2" wide, 1/4" thick blade. The guard is similar to a Style 3, but much wider to act as a sort of omni-directional nagel. Perfect for lefties or righties. The fittings are rough forged, blackened steel; I tried to give the blade a similar rough forged look with a blackened flat to really give it that almost crude look, similar to the Uruk-hai scimitars from Lord of the Rings (though, oddly, those were nowhere near the inspiration for this blade), but, as you can tell, I couldn't really figure out how to get that look. I was originally going to go with a Type H1 pommel, since I think square-ish pommels look a little crude (probably something to do with their use on a lot of crude fantasy swords in manga and anime) and that was the vibe I wanted for this blade, but I decided on the R mainly because, well, semprini, which would hurt more if someone bashed you in the face with it? A thin square disk or a big honkin' metal ball? For that same reason, the guard is little more than a thick, rectangular chunk of steel. In short, this is a weapon all over without being one of those super overblown things, like the Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. sword or those cheapo fantasy blades you get at flea markets.
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