Combat Knife for Reach

[Duymon]

The knife on the heavy trooper is the best size / fit. Only problem is that it's rubber and you'll need to make sure it's very straight when you make a cast of it or else risk having bent knifes.

I'll give it a go once I actually drag my but to buy some more RTV silicon

[Avi]

I haven't seen one yet, so I'll have to take your word for it.  On a side note, I did send Rayg a couple of Buck knives on Saturday.

[gwaihir]

I've been following this thread for a while and was wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just make the knives out of sheet styrene and a model knife or Dremel? The knives are virtually flat, the scale of the 6" figs wouldn't need too much surface detail and a careful paint job could produce a realistic blade/grip demarcation. The resin technique produces a large number of identical pieces but just how many do you really need and how long has taken you to make one?

I found some blue-prints of the knives from the 405th. You could print them to the scale that you wanted. Stick them to the sheet styrene with spray on adhesive or even tape and then just cut along the lines. Sand off the paper, tape etc and just paint. Probably take 10 min after you got the size/scale just right. If you wanted the knife in hand and a scabbard on the belt you could use thicker stock of styrene to make the scabbard. Make it look like the blade actually fit into it.

Buck knife


Sheath for above


Buck's knife

[InnerRayg]

That's gonna look terrible. Just a flat piece of styrene?

[gwaihir]

Making a sculpt of a knife and casting it in the proper media with minimal pinholes and flash will look great but at what cost, and for how many? Also at this scale, how thick will the blade be to maintain stability and not break or bend every time you try to pose the piece and still look realistic?  A styrene knife can be as detailed as you want. It just takes more time and skill depending on the level of detail as the piece is so small. You can easily carve out a full blade and tang. Then if you really want, make 2 cut outs of the grip using thinner stock. Sandwitch the full blade between the grips (just like a real blade) to give it some depth. Sand a little to round off the edges of the grip. Sand a little more to create a blade edge (but remember how thin the blade is supposed to be and still look to scale). An x-acto knife can be used to create the crosshatches on the grip (but if they are in a hand who will see them? If you want a blood groove in the blade use the Dremel (very carefully). And if the knife is on a belt, the blade should be in a sheath which should have minimal detail anyway. All I'm saying is how much money and time do you want to spend on this piece and how realistic do you really want it to look in the end.

[InnerRayg]

Making a sculpt of a knife and casting it in the proper media with minimal pinholes and flash will look great but at what cost, and for how many? Also at this scale, how thick will the blade be to maintain stability and not break or bend every time you try to pose the piece and still look realistic?  A styrene knife can be as detailed as you want. It just takes more time and skill depending on the level of detail as the piece is so small. You can easily carve out a full blade and tang. Then if you really want, make 2 cut outs of the grip using thinner stock. Sandwitch the full blade between the grips (just like a real blade) to give it some depth. Sand a little to round off the edges of the grip. Sand a little more to create a blade edge (but remember how thin the blade is supposed to be and still look to scale). An x-acto knife can be used to create the crosshatches on the grip (but if they are in a hand who will see them? If you want a blood groove in the blade use the Dremel (very carefully). And if the knife is on a belt, the blade should be in a sheath which should have minimal detail anyway. All I'm saying is how much money and time do you want to spend on this piece and how realistic do you really want it to look in the end.

I'll believe it when I see it, I don't know much about Styrene. I do know molding, and it's not that hard or costly.

[gwaihir]

I have very little experience with molding and bough to your experience and knowledge.
I've been a scratch build modeler for the last 35 years. My comfort zone is plastic.

[Duymon]

THis knife will be easier than I thought to mold. The handle is flat on the bottom so there's no worries about missing undercuts on a one-piece mold.

Best Material imho would be to use Kneadatite (aka Green Stuff). make a block, lube up the knife and put it on a hard, flat surface, then press the block firmly onto the knife and let cure.

Then take out the lubed knife and then get several lubed up blobs of green stuff and stamp them into knifes.

Only issue I'd have with the proposed method is deformation and smudging of the detail on the stamped knives while they're curing.

I would prolly stay away from resin casting because it's such a small piece and easy to screw up, and on a one piece mold you're going to ahve to cut away hard resin on a small piece which is just opening the door for headaches

[ToothpicVic]

How about the machete from Cole Protocol or better yet, the twin machetes with shield from the Legendary emblem. Has it ever been customized to fit Mchalo figs. Or was it ever on the Joyride line? Would it be easier to do swords as opposed to knives? 

[Shiaoran]

Are those shields ever actually used in the series? I always thought they were decorative shields.

[InnerRayg]

I've got the blades, but I also have six projects due next week so we'll see what I can do.

[ToothpicVic]

Are those shields ever actually used in the series? I always thought they were decorative shields.

No ,but neither was the katana swords. The shield looks like the chestplate of the brutes. ANd if the shields were ever made, it could double as a sheath for the 2 swords(machetes). CQB, Sgt Forge, Buck , and Emile paved the way for  the short shank, and Halo Reach seemed to make it less politically incorrect to use knife kills  in a kid friendly game. But I'm just so confused, Spartans had long shanks way before Halo CE.

[Avi]

I've got the blades, but I also have six projects due next week so we'll see what I can do.

I'm not in any rush.  Good luck w/ the projects

[Shiaoran]

No ,but neither was the katana swords. The shield looks like the chestplate of the brutes. ANd if the shields were ever made, it could double as a sheath for the 2 swords(machetes). CQB, Sgt Forge, Buck , and Emile paved the way for  the short shank, and Halo Reach seemed to make it less politically incorrect to use knife kills  in a kid friendly game. But I'm just so confused, Spartans had long shanks way before Halo CE.

IMO the katanas aren't canon, just multiplayer stuff.
Brute chestplates? I don't think they look like the shields... Do you have pics of what you're talking about?
They should ditch the family friendly thing. This is a M-rated series, dammit, we can have guts and boobs if we want.