Topic: Making Castlevania Weapons and Sub-Weapons

[Julius]

Hello everyone! As you can obviously see I'm new to the forums but a long, long time fan of the Castlevania legacy. So much so that I'm taking on a special project that most likely true fans would understand and not consider weird or odd. (Note: I would have posted this in the Fan section but unfortunately it would not allow me.)

Anyway, I'm planning on creating a few replica items from the Castlevania universe and putting them on display. Some will be created from scratch while others will either be bought and modified or put together. What I'm asking of the community is some opinions on how to go about doing the certain items I am replicating. Whether it be something cosmetic or a functionality change, I'd like to hear ANY kind of opinion from anyone willing to participate.

The weapon(s) and sub-weapons are as follows:

Vampire Killer: This will be the main centerpiece of the set. I'm thinking of going with a traditional bullwhip and either painting it completely or adding runes of some sort.

Cross Boomerang: This one might be the easiest or most difficult depending on what I decide to do. I could just buy a metallic cross or make one from scratch and paint it.

Holy Water: A glass jar filled with blue or green water with a cross stopper. Or something else?

Knife: Easy enough, but I;m deciding if it should be a throwing knife or a traditional dagger.

Holy Book (Bible): I'd prefer to use something a bit more customized than simply a bible. Any suggestions?

Axe: Again, nothing special. But would it be better as a throwing axe or a small hand-held axe?

Stopwatch: The last of my 5 favorite subweapons. Right now I'm thinking of just buying a cheap stopwatch and maybe adding a little flair to it. Thoughts?

So that is my current project right now and I would greatly appreciate the thoughs and suggestions from the community as to what might work better or perhaps look cooler. Looking forward to hearing from you all! Thanks in advance.

[crisis]

Hello Julius, welcome to the Dungeon.


Seems like you have a very ambitious project in mind, sounds fun! I have my own Vampire Killer as well:



Well, two, technically. The one on the left is the official Konami VK whip released several years ago. I acquired it through fellow forumgoer PFG9000, kudos to him for keeping it in perfect condition! As for the whip itself, it's not that great; very flimsy, about 6ft long & the material could tear easily. It's basically only for display purposes (not to mention it's a rare CV collector's item)

The 2nd one is my own Vampire Killer. It's about 10ft & made of real, durable leather. I applied a lil bit of black paint to fill in some areas, just to make it appear more authentic like the VK as seen in artworks. You can really smack someone up with it, if used properly.




Konami's VK has the CV logo emblem that's tied into the whip, so I added the logo to mine as well, though it could easily be taken off.


As for your other projects, it shouldn't be too hard to recreate them in the "CV look," just be precise & try not to spend too much money, lol. Don't forget to post pictures of it all!

[uzo]

The one on the left is the official Konami VK whip released several years ago. I acquired it through fellow forumgoer PFG9000, kudos to him for keeping it in perfect condition! As for the whip itself, it's not that great; very flimsy, about 6ft long & the material could tear easily.

Truth. It's made like shit. Mine broke after about 5 cracks. The popper just flew right off. Later it almost completely unraveled. I threw it out. Terrible.

[Julius]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

Crisis, I had no idea that Konami release an "official" VK whip! I'd almost want to purchase it just for the sake of having one, if that's even possible anymore. But your version of VK is exceptional! It's definately pushing me towards the more traditional leather whip than anything else. I had thought about doing the chain whip "morningstar" style VK but...considering I'd like to take it out and crack it a few times it'd prove to be impossible. Plus that just looks really slick anyway, hehe.

As far as money goes, yeah, I'm on a somewhat tight budget. I want them to look like they were ripped right from the hands of a Belmont though. Almost antique in nature. Which could prove to be too difficult to accomplish. I may have to resort to buying some pieces in order to achieve that look.

[uzo]

If you want a good real whip, be ready to shell out $100 at least.

[Julius]

That's what I was hoping to spend actually, hehe. I budgeted around 100-150$ for the whip since I wanted something practical but not too professional. It's a relief because most of the whips I saw when I first searched were around 650-1000$ easy. Guess I was searching on the wrong sites. 

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Hey Julius, welcome to the forums.
Yeah it takes five real posts for you to 'unlock' the ability to post at Fan Stuff.
It's there to stop spams, but this thread is pretty great.  I might move it on over there later on.

I can help you with the cross boomerang.  Do you want it to return?  I'm not sure you want it out of metal, balsa wood, or just as a decoration.

If you just want it as a decoration, you can carve one out of two balsa wood pieces and joint it together with glue, and paint it metallic.
If you want it to be metallic, you can cast one.  I can probably give you the CAD drawing for an intricately detailed one, but it'd be expensive to fly and would not come back (probably, unless I look up some aerodynamics).

However, if you want a realistic, cheap one, that can fly, you can buy this and then paint it metallic color:

It's only $23 (US), so it's actually rather inexpensive.  I'm thinking of getting one just for the lulz.

The site is here:
http://www.flight-toys.com/boomerang/indoor.htm

I'm thinking of getting one, and reverse-engineering the CAD drawing out of it, and perhaps making one out of a stronger material and putting carvings in it and painting it.

[Julius]

Ahh I understand, thanks for the clarification! I'm glad that this has the possibility of turning out to be a great ideas thread.

You know I didn't even think of that Jorge! The Zoomerang idea is a really neat concept for a workable Cross Boomerang. Personally I'm leaning more on the side of decoration but making it "look" like it could work. Noting the sprites for the Cross Boomerang of old it looks to be more of an X and less of a traditional cross unless my eyes are deceiving me.

I'd be interested in your CAD drawing of a metal cast cross. I'm not too worried about the aerodynamics as long as it gives the illusion that it could work. Since most people viewing it won't know much about Castlevania it would be neat to fool them into believing these are functional weapons.

As far as color goes, I'd definately want that aqua blue you see most of the games cross weapons have. I'm sure there is a metallic light blue color out there.

[uzo]

Hahaha, that thing is so awesome. I never knew such a toy existed. I totally want one now.

[X]

Crisis, I had no idea that Konami release an "official" VK whip!

It's just a leather whip that anyone can make and probably last longer then the konami ones would. Get Adam Winwrich to make you one and I'll bet you it'll outlast those konami immitations by years on end. If konami really wanted to give us a "True" vampirekiller whip, it'd be chain-link with a morning star ball at the end. Unfortunately such a weapon would be illegal so maybe that's the reason why they're cheapening out with the leather.

-X

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Yeah when I was in college, I had a friend who made a chain whip with a ball at the end.

Let me tell you this: If you smacked someone on the head with it, you can probably bludgeon the hell out of their skull with it.  The links were stainless steel rings like the ones in Chain Mail, connected in a a square formation, with a Steel Rod for the handle, and the ball sphere at the end couldn't have been bigger than a golfball, if that.  But it was heavy.  He said that he tried it out in his backyard at home and it made an awesome noise when swung because of the links and because of the air going in between the links, but that he couldn't swing it much because his arms would be sore the next day.  It was dangerous!

[Aridale]

yeah mine was dangerous too. I weighted mine with a small (like half inch) metal cube and it was killer. It made awesome sounds to just swing it over your head but a bit too much on the dangerous side to play with too much

[uzo]

Crisis, I had no idea that Konami release an "official" VK whip!

It's just a leather whip that anyone can make and probably last longer then the konami ones would. Get Adam Winwrich to make you one and I'll bet you it'll outlast those konami immitations by years on end. If konami really wanted to give us a "True" vampirekiller whip, it'd be chain-link with a morning star ball at the end. Unfortunately such a weapon would be illegal so maybe that's the reason why they're cheapening out with the leather.

-X

Except that it wasn't even leather. It was more like those cheap paper based materials, like the ones used for halloween costumes.

[Inccubus]

I'd say go all out and try to make a full-power CV1 Vampire Killer chain whip with morning star.
If you could, I'd also try to give the metal an acid treatment or whatever to give it an iridescent finish to simulate the palette animation effect from the NES version. Expensive project, but it would be freakin' awesome! ^_^

[Julius]

I would love to be able to make a full on chain whip with a morning star tip. It wouldn't be very practical in a whip cracking sense but it would sure look very intimidating! I'm actually working on the Holy Water sub-weapon right now. I've got the glass bottle and cross stopper from an actual bottle of holy water. Now I just need to put some simple designs or a pattern on it and fill it with blue liquid. And of course, try to NOT toss it on the ground.