As part of the The PropTarts of Punished Props Facebook group (the Punished Props cosplayer and prop maker group) I ran the Secret Santa prop gift exchange event, where makers are matched up and they have to make each other a gift.
My own “adult-child” wanted something from the Dune movies, based on the sci fi books by Frank Herbert.. So I made this Fremen crysknife, made from the tooth of a giant sandworm.
I did not want it to be a lightweight 3D print and with the intent to sell more in the future, I created a silicone mold so that I can create high quality resin casts. This more than doubles the weight of the knife.
The “master” knife had to be as well-prepared as possible as even the finest mark will make it through into the mold and then into each cast item. This meant lots of filling, sanding, filling, sanding.
I chose to create 2 molds – 1 for the blade, 1 for the handle. This allows me a little more freedom if parts of a cast didn’t work out, and also for painting – it’s easier to glue the pieces onto sticks and painting both sides than it would be to paint a whole knife 1 side at a time.
The molds came out great: no bubbles and every small detail captured.
When it came to painting I used a mix of acrylic and acrylic lacquers. The silver is from Scale Model Supply, an Australian paint manufacturer that makes beautiful airbrush ready paints that spray like a dream. After the blade and handle were painted they were glued together with 2 part epoxy and then weathered with a blackwash to really bring out the details and give it the real-world used look. After that a couple of coats of satin clearcoat to give it a nice polished sheen look.
1 Dune crysknife ended up winging it’s way overseas to my Secret Santa adult-child. 1 Fremen knife ended up on my Etsy store, and this store too. Buying direct from me means you get a discount, as I don’t need to worry about Etsy fees. Payments are made with PayPal so you can be covered under the PayPal Buyer Protection scheme if anything goes wrong with your order.
