Sunday, May 13, 2012

My Mjolnir

A friend is going to the Boston Comic Con as Thor and wanted some help with his costume. Being that he is a bartender, it took him the span of an evening to convince me to build a Mjolnir.

Here is the result:



I started with some MDF from an old desk from Staples. I measured out the head to be quite big (20 cm x 15 cm x 15 cm). Eveything got epoxied into place and screwed. I realized that these materials would result in a fairly heavy hammer, but I wanted it to have some serious heft.





The end caps of the head were two layers of MDF. These were also epoxied and screwed. They were cut slightly smaller than the head and beveled. At this point, I want to mention that all of the cutting for this project was done with a coping saw. I don't exactly have a workshop, so the work was done on the balcony (we call it the SkyLounge).



The handle is a dowel from Lowe's. I cut a notch in the top and two in the head. I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to spin. I also pounded it into place and put a couple of nails through the handle inside the head. It would be embarrassing if the head flew off whilst defending Asgard from the Frost Giants.





Bondo...sand...bondo...sand...PRIME...sand...





The cap on top was a thinner sheet of MDF. The fancy scroll work on the end caps and the inscription were engraved with the dremel. I cut stencils and spray painted the designs on.





The whole head got a coat of Krylon aluminum. After some clear coat, I filled the engraved spots with black acrylic and dirtied up the rest of it.





I am not a fan of how the handle looks in the Thor movie. Instead, I wrapped the whole thing in vinyl and then added two more strips of vinyl in a weave-ish kind of pattern. The ends got another vinyl strip with staples covered in small leather "stitches."





The strap was a couple more layers of vinyl. Every bit of vinyl is epoxied and stapled. The handle got some acrylic paint to give it some depth. Then I harnessed the power of a dying sun...AND DONE!