Gunblade Prop

Hey guys,

I’ve told a number of you that I would be working on a Gunblade for use in Heath’s LARP, Ashes on the Wind. Well, I sat down for a couple of days after Christmas and finally built it!

Photos and a short writeup are available here: hazardu5.deviantart.com/art/Gunblade-148843875

Not to be picky, but speaking as a GM and maker of weapons, the fact you’ve made it using a dowel core may rule it not LARP-safe, as would the fact there’s a significant chunk of plastic gun above your hand ie closer to the person you’re trying to hit, whereas conventional LARP weapons are entirely foam. As a point of interest - how did you attach the core to the gun? (And is that part of the gun strong enough to withstand the blows of combat?)

That said, I do like the look - I’m not sure if it’s intentional but the slightly rough-hewn blade (foam’s a bitch to cut straight, I know) has a certain “I made this from a peice of metal mthrfkr and now I’m going to gut you with it” look that would look awesome with a few nicks and scratches, along with some patches of rust in the paintwork.

Cool. Have you tried fighting with it yet?

I still need to test the weapon in actual combat; I’ve tried whacking a few things with it and it seems pretty sturdy. The main stresses seem to be at the bottom where there are two smaller dowels running through plastic holes. The Nightfinder has three holes below the barrel. Once you take the electronics out it’s pretty easy to secure a dowel in there with foam wrapped around it.

My choice of using dowel was mainly because I couldn’t find any fiberglass rods at Bunnings, and I was buying a bunch of stuff from there anyway. There is significant padding around the core dowel, so I didn’t think this would be a problem. The blade is easiest wielded with two hands, so most of the plastic underside would be covered by your hands.

Regarding the blade itself, i was hoping to get the lower edge cut straighter, but it just wasn’t working for me. I thought that a slghtly rougher edge would work in with Ashes on the Wind’s post apocalyiptic setting anyway.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to do some finishing paintwork on it sometime - I’m not terrible good at the fine details, so if anyone has any tips?

Also, what is the difference between using dowel and fiberglass for the core of LARP weapons?

Wood has MANY problems…the biggest i see is anisotropic strength (its stronger in certain directions IE across the grain vs with it is like 4 times difference in stength), inconsistant strength through its volume (its organic and grown so parts of the tree near the base have stronger wood than others also knot holes, causes stress concentrations around inconsistencies) and the fact its porous and biodegrading so when it absorbs water the properties change over time (unless you used treated wood and ever then…)

Oh and when it breaks it splinters into wooden shards.

Nasty… I’ll remember that for next time.

How does CPVC pipe stand up for use as a core?

What Cameron said re dowel - either it’s going to be too weak at the same size as fibreglass, or too heavy when it’s strong enough.

PVC pipe is ok IF you use the pressure pipe. Anything else, like electrical conduit, is either too brittle or has too much flex. The trouble is that you need a decent diameter pipe to be any use - 20mm plus - so your weapon is going to be fat and ugly. This is how the original “baseball bat” boffer weapons were made.

You shouldn’t have trouble finding fibreglass rod. RD1 in Albany is the hotspot, but if you can’t get there you could organise a delivery for a fairly reasonable fee, or maybe con a fellow larper living closer to collect it for you and organise a handover. Last time I was going to get some, I was going to go by bus… I have no shame.

Timber is fine - 30 years ago, we used broom handles in all our padded weapons - they just break a lot. We never had one break, tear through the foam and gut someone, they always broke reasonably safely.

If the material used has a high chance of breaking, all the more reason to use something that going to do the job properly AND last a lot longer.

I’ve never been to a LARP that ever wooden core weapons, and I’m not really sure I’d want to. I think you’re quite lucky, Derek, to have had them break but not in a dangerous manner. Dowel isn’t prone to snapping cleanly, and given the application would most likely split along the length, resulting in a more shard-like and easy-to-stab-with fragment. The worst part is that being cased in foam, you might not necessarily notice it until you’ve swung the weapon a few more times and the foam gives, exposing that nice sharp ‘stake’ mid combat :-/