The $4 Mjolnir (for those who are worthy, but broke)

Hello all!
For the last few weeks I've been doing some preliminary work on an "Avengers" style Thor costume (hopefully I will have those duds ready in time for the premiere of the new movie) and the first thing to get off the table was everybody's favorite Asgardian thwappin' stick, Mjolnir. I am trying to keep the cost as low as possible for this build, so I didn't want to buy a hammer if I didn't have to. 95% of this hammer was made from stuff I already had, so the total cost was 4 bucks. Yeeha!
This hammer is sort of a hybrid Mjolnir, blending the look of the movie hammer with the comic hammer. I really love the idea of Mjolnir being a little rougher in appearance to reflect its years of bashing cosmic evil in the teeth, so I went for a dirtier more "forged" look for the head and omitted the knotwork panels on the sides of the bevels more out of necessity that anything else. I may add them later on if I can find the time. The grip and pommel are pretty much straight out of the movie. I loved the pommel design on the "Dark World" hammer, so I borrowed some from that.

The head of the hammer is eight pieces of blue Tyvek foam sandwicheded together. I cut and sanded the block into shape and then glued on corresponding pieces of EVA foam (bought from Hobby lobby, hence the $4) and filled in the gaps with bondo and hot glue. The handle is a length of PVC pipe with an internal dowel for weight and strength. I wrapped it in leather left over from an old leather jacket I had lying around. The grips were just long strips of EVA foam I painted and glued on, bending them in shape as I went. In all honesty, I'll probably redo them. The pommel and accompanying knotwork are EVA foam and the strap is part of an old leather belt.

This hammer was intended to be light enough for me to carry around all day but be tough enough to withstand the rigors of trooping. I've tossed it, hit stuff with it, dropped it, spun it and chucked it and it held up like a champ! This was a fun and gratifying build, and I can hardly wait until I have the rest of the outfit to complete the look. 
Thanks for reading!

Props: Panzerforge's Answer!

A little something I made to get the word on ye olde Facebooke.

Japor Snippet Commission

This little piece was commissioned by a buddy who's a huge Star Wars buff. He had always wanted the pendant that Anakin gives Padme in Episode 1. Despite my personal aversion to most of the prequel trilogy, this was a quick and fun build. The pendant itself was carved out of a block of resin, then sanded and stained. I drilled a hole through and looped a rough-looking leather thong through to The box is pine and weathered with a dremel, followed by a quick coat of woodstain. It was then sanded again to reinforce the aged image. I lined the box with a burgundy felt and pasted a specimen tag on the lid to add an old "collectors piece" feeling to the item. I wanted it to look like it had been floating around the galaxy and changing hands multiple times before coming to rest with the current owner.

Smuggler's Pistol

Star Wars has always been my first love when it comes to an engaging universe chock full of props waiting to happen. I hadn't done anything from the SW genre in a long time, so this was the result. It was based off a mid-90s toy blaster I picked up for 25 cents at a garage sale. The poor thing languished in my parts box for some time before I hauled it out and dressed it up. Nothing too special here... just a basic distressing job with oil-rubbed brass kyrlon and some brilliant silver rubbed over the top. I extended the barrel with some lathed aluminum and added a scope from a monstrously accessorized toy Beretta pistol I bought at Walmart. Green acetate went over the lenses of the scope to add some character.

This was a quick and cathartic build, added to by the fact that it was made entirely from things I had lying around in the workroom. I must confess, it's a fun piece. I've been running around the house with this one and shooting at invisible stormtroopers!

A long expected blog post...

Well, here we go. I finally decided to get a separate blog for my prop and costume work. Theoretically I can now have a space unique to this stuff so's I can stop cluttering up my Facebook and Youtube feeds with prop/cosplay stuff. Hopefully this all works out!