#stygius

For Stygius v2 I kept the blade the same, and used the same base pattern as v1 - the main change was the hilt, which I made shorter and adjusted the skull and pommel accordingly. To reduce the hilt diameter I also used some sort of shrink rubber (that I believe is meant to be used for electrical work) instead of covering the PVC pipe with foam like I did with v1

From there the process was much the same - cut away most of the bevel for the edges, then sand down to a smooth finish. I used a hand sander immediately instead of trying to get an even edge with a dremel, but even then I had some issues and decided to do the whole edge with foam clay for the smoothest finish

Before that though, I got to work on the pommel and skull! I used the same process for the resin gem at the end, but hated the colour so decided I would paint over it this time. I also made sure to pack the aluminum foil extra tightly when crafting the skull so it wouldn't have the slight give that Stygius v1 has, and caused a few minor cracks in the finish. The actual pommel was designed to be much shorter and with a smoother curve, though I was kinda making it up as I went to once again it became an area I had to fill with foam clay

Foam clay my beloved <3

After cleaning up the blade edges with foam clay and letting it set I could get started on the leaves. I used the same process as v1, though I changed the placement slightly and added a few on the sides. I also wasn't super happy with how easily the runes got lost on v1, so I cut the patterns into the foam instead of pressing them in for v2.

I used flexbond to prime the foam this time since plastidip is expensive and I have terrible luck with aerosols, especially since I don't have a dedicated spraying area and Australian spring and summer weather is all over the place which makes for a terrible outdoor spraying experience. That being said, I did use a base spray paint coat of ivory to get the sword a uniform colour before painting the colours and details

...by hand. all of it. Each colour needed a minimum of 3 coats

Then the only thing left was to spray the clear protective coats! Matte for the hilt and skull, gloss for the blade and pommel

While the edge isn't perfect and I would have liked the gem to be more glossy, I'm incredibly happy with how v2 turned out, and v1 now gets to live out its retirement sitting over my window watching over my room