How I’m Making a “Real” Version of Rei’s Sword

As part of the huge Oh No! Manga event occurring later this month, I’ve decided to make a real life version of Rei’s sword in Karma.

I don’t really know if there’s a proper way of making these things of not, but my nephew suggested a kind of craft board he uses for his Gundam model kits. He has no idea what it’s called, but the material feels like plastic, and it can be cut and shaped with an ordinary box cutter. The only problem is, Rei’s sword has a very thin blade, so I did some research and found Returacan on YouTube.

His technique in making swords involves the use of hardened paper, which is basically normal copy paper glued together twice or thrice, depending on what you’re going to use it for. I skipped that part and used his technique of adding support using popsicle sticks and hot glue.

So far so good. I tried to swing it a couple of times, and the 2cm blade is quite durable, but not strong enough. I decided to use Returacan’s technique again, but instead of wrapping just the handle of the blade with paper and glue, I did the entire length of the blade. It’s like paper mache without the water, so the paper layer is much straighter than its watery counterpart.

My main concern with this sword is how I’m going to build the hand guard and hilt. I’m regretting how much detail I put into this sword now that I’m making a real one, mainly because I’m not sure how to translate what I drew into a 3D replica!

Oh well… I’ve been working on this for 2 days now, I think I’ll take a little break after I put another layer of newspaper and glue.