~Rhia's Fantasy & Role Playing Class II~

[Rhiannon]

Before we begin, please read the following very carefully:

There will be no liability whatsoever for any accidents, damages or losses. In plain words, you do everything at your own risk. Some of the techniques described include the handling of knives and /or fire or hot material, so let your parents help you if you're a minor. Always follow local restrictions regarding camping, the use of open fire, security regulations, etc. Never ever leave open fire unguarded, even if it's just a small candle. Take care when using weapons, there are very good reasons why LARP weapons are made of latex...

Like in part one, you can ask questions any time, but please no role playing in this thread.

My connection is awfully slow tonight, so I'll beginn with the "fun stuff" tomorrow. See you,
Rhia ;D

[Rhiannon]

In this part, I’ll focus on creating the surroundings and atmosphere for a roleplaying evening, reciepes, patterns, how to make some of the equipment yourself and how to do all this outdoor stuff . And I hope your parents forgive me for starting all this ;D

Pen & Paper etc
The first form of roleplaying and still very popular ;D
The basis are systems like D&D (Dungeons & Dragons), AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons), RoleMaster, etc. No matter which system you use, you’ll have to take the effort and get familiar with the rules and source books. They describe in detail how to develop a character, fight, solve quests, cover monster classes, spells, weapons etc. Yep, it’s a lot of work and looks confusing at first but once you’re done, you can invent your own rp adventures (see part I!). Also, you don’t have to learn the details of the rules by heart but keep the book on the table for reference ;D (the RoleMaster books on magic, weapons and how to play an adventure have 150 pages each...). Apart from that, you can also buy adventure books based on the systems.
What sets a roleplaying evening apart from a game of Monopoly at the family table is of course the atmosphere you can create.
The good news: you’ll have to spend less money than you probably think and you can use the stuff for your outdoor adventures, too. Search your grandparents‘ attic, flea markets and ebay for old and used things. Yes, the older and used they look, the better. Who would believe a stranger that claims to be an experiencenced and far travelled warrior but has only shining brand new equipment?!

Decorating a room
First rule: Keep it simple! If you don’t have wooden floors or brown carpets, try brown fabrics (the cheapest you can get will be good enough, search for brown blankets, sacks, etc). Put them on the floor (take care, might be slippery), over chairs and hang them in front of windows, on walls etc. Same with old furs. Your granddad’s hunting trophies are always nice, too. Put some simple candles, lanterns or oil lamps on the table.

I'll get back to this one later

If you want to serve food or drinks, use simple wooden or ceramic plates, pewter tankards, etc. For music, you probably can’t go wrong with some celtic music or the LOTR soundtrack.

Clothes: on your first tries, they don’t have to be elaborate costumes, especially for friends who aren’t as much into roleplaying (yet!). Clothes should be plain and simple, loose fitting and have „earth colors“ like brown or green. On your first rp evenings, e.g. blankets are good capes. I'll post patterns later on.

Food & Drinks
If you’re a minor, wine and met are out of question. For wine, you can try red juices, for met dissolve honey in warm water.
Food: If you can help it, try to avoid what I have seen as I zapped into the US Robin Hood series on TV: a fruit plate with oranges and bananas !!! Take apples, pears, cherries, grapes, etc.
Cooking: I have a large book with medieval recipes but it’s in German and as I’m not too familiar with american measures, I’ll give you some links.

www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/med-p1.htm
www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/mjw/recipes/ethnic/historical/med-anglosaxon-coll.html
www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/historical/med-european-coll.html
www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.html
members.tripod.com/BlackTauna/recipes.html
www.godecookery.com/goderec/goderec.htm
www.sca.org.au/ynys_fawr/recipes.htm

[Rhiannon]

NOTE: If the following posts seem to be too fast and covering only a few basics, I'm just trying to give you a quick start. We'll get to more elaborate stuff later.
;D

Clothing

What to wear...A real classic are poet/pirate style shirts. They are worn by almost everyone ;D and look like this:

Because they are used so much, you can find them in almost every online larp store. Another possibility is going to a biker shop as they are also especially popular among Harley people ;D Patterns are available, too, either online or from costume /sewing supply shops.

Another must-have are cloaks. You can find two easy patterns here

www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wittie/sca/cloak.html
home.clara.net/arianrhod/Aldebaran/DoItYourself/Cloak02.html

Most useful are plain leather trousers or other simple pants that don't look like a shiny new jeans. A pattern to sew them yourselves is easy to derive from your own measurements. Alternatively you should be able to get a matching trousers pattern with the one for the shirt.

Digging through my photos I just found this picture. As you can see, it's very simple and, like the shirts, pants are rather baggy. Which gives them a high tolerance regarding minor sewing mistakes ;D

For practical outdoor use: get good warm underwear! Also, when wearing leather boots, especially self made ones (I'm still translating the pattern for those) get waterproof socks e.g. by GoreTex or Seal Skinz. Don't let some people tell you that it's not genuine. Otherwise you'll get a very genuine cold after crossing the first creek....And I haven't seen anyone yet taking aspirin the genuine way by drinking willow bark tea..... ;D

[Rhiannon]

Outdoors

Tents: Should be plain canvas tents because it's not that easy to let a modern igloo tent look like something genuine. Best are those (classical boy scout tents over here ;D) because they are designed to actually have a fire in them.

Another widely used form:

IMPORTANT: Never keep an open fire in a tent that's not desigend for that!

Making fire: This is the very method that has been used for ages: an iron fire striker and flintstones

fire striker

flintstone

The trick to get sparks is to strike the stone with the iron, not to just bang them together. Same if you use two flintstones. Flintstones are easily recognised. Most of them look like a piece of opaque black or brown glass.

NOTE: Never throw a flintstone into fire, they explode and send splinters everywhere.

To collect your sparks, you'll need some tinder. The traditional material would be birch bark, dried funghi found on trees or reed seeds. You can also use cotton-wool balls. Simply mix them with a little bit of bark, dark seeds and grass to make them look less industrial ;D

[Rhiannon]

Cooking

Now that you have a nice fire going you probably are hungry by now. Excellent outdoor cooking gear: a wok, especially the black iron ones. You can do everything from frying to soups and they are almost indestructable, easy to clean, big enough to feed several people and look fairly genuine. Because of their shape they are very stable when put on a stone circle around the fire.

Dishes: take wooden / earthenware plates, mugs, etc if you have. If not, anything with plain colors / no pattern should be ok, too. How to eat? Well, your (real) knife and a spoon is all you need, have fun..... ;D

When considering what food to take with you, take also into account how much water you'll need for drinking and cooking! Don't drink any water if you can't be sure it's clean enough. Water from remote areas like e.g. mountains for example is normally drinkable right from the source. If you still want to drink water from a local river, make sure to boil it for several minutes before doing so. This will at least kill most bacteria and break down e.g. some artificial fertilizers (if you are e.g. in a farming area). Still it should be only second choice.

[Rhiannon]

Weapons

Of course it's up to you but on LARP cons weapons are made of latex for safety reasons (yes, there are duels between chars ;D). Whatever weapon you bring to a convention, it will have to pass a safety check to be admitted.

You can buy weapons online, in LARP stores or at ebay. They start at app. 35$. Yes, you have to be at least 18 to get an ebay account but I'm sure your dad will take a look for you after the first weekend of sticky latex, unwilling fibre glass and foam matresses in his garage. If you want to build your weapons yourself, TAKE CARE! Some of the materials are potentially harmful. ALWAYS wear protection!

[Rhiannon]

So you really want to try it yourself? That's fine but don't say you haven't been warned ;D
This guide is from an article in a LARP magazine

Sword Making Guide.
Introduction.

The design I am using in this guide is for a very simple 42 inch bastard sword.

The guide presented here is fairly universal and can actually be used for any length of weapon between 18 and 60 inches simply by changing the dimensions.

For daggers (less than 18 inches) it is better to use a 6mm rather than 12mm former but the rest is identical.

For weapons above 60 inches in length a more substantial core is needed or they become too whippy.


Materials and Tools.

Materials.
6mm and 12mm thick closed cell high-density polyurethane foam (Often sold under the brand names "Plastazote" or "Calogen") (*).
Glass fibre tubing 12mm extermal diameter (**).
A small piece of scrap cloth (Cotton).
Impact adhesive (Evo Stick).
Latex.
Acrylic paints (silver and black).
Hot melt glue gun (Optional).
Steel Tubing (Optional).
Car body filler (Optional).
Tools.
Ruler.
Pen.
Hacksaw.
Some very sharp craft-knives (with extendible blades).
Sandpaper.
Soldering Iron (Optional).
Smallish paint-brushes (I find the ones meant young children good).
A collection of jam jars or similar pots.

(*) It is important to use closed cell high density polyurethane foam. Do not be tempted to cut corners and use "Karrimat" style camping foams as this will mush up quickly and make the sword unusable. Under no circumstances use the soft furniture foam!

(**) Glass fibre rod is virtually indestructable and will provide a former that is light yet strong. Some people use carbon fibre if they want a particularly light blade but carbon fibre rod is considerably more expensive.

The Design.

The Design.
Start off by designing the sword. Get an old newspaper and draw out the sword on a 1:1 scale. The scale is important as things which look fine on a small scale can suddenly look ridiculous when they are scaled up.

For the purpose of this am going to build a very simple bastard sword (Fig. 1).

Cutting and Weighting the Former.

Cutting the Former.
The first thing to do is cut the former to length. Cut a length of former that is 1000mm long. Generally you want a former that is 50mm shorter than the final length of the sword. Use fine sandpaper smooth of the sharp edges of the former.

(Cutting glass fibre rod is fairly unpleasant as it produces a fine dust which contains powdered glass. It is advisable to cut the former outside and wear a face mask when doing it to avoid breathing the dust.)

Weighting the Former (Optional).
If you want to try and balance the sword now is the time to do it. Get a thick walled steel tube with an internal diameter that is just larger than that of the diameter of the former so that it can be slipped over the end.

Cut a length of tube 100mm long and file off any sharp edges. Clean the tube using methylated spirits (both inside and out) to ensure that it is free from grease. Mix up a small amount of the car body filler. Spread this paste over the end of the former and place some down the centre of the tube. Now push the steel tubing over the end of the former turning it as you push it down to ensure that the body filler is spread around inside the tube remove any surplus and smooth off the ends. Allow the body filler to harden and then smooth off with sandpaper (Fig. 2).

(As a general rule for weighting blades you can assume that you want a length of steel tubing which is about 1/10 the length of the former.)

An alternative method it to use thick wire instead of tubing. The wire is wrapped round the end of the former in a spiral to form the weight. In this case the whole wire should be covered in the car body filler and smoothed off afterwards to ensure that there are so sharp edges and that the wire remains in place.

[Rhiannon]

Making the Blade.

Making the Blank.
The first stage is to make the blank for the blade. Cut 2 pieces of foam 60mm X 770mm from the 6mm sheet and one piece 60mm X 770mm from the 12mm sheet (Fig. 3).

Take the piece of 12mm thick foam and cut out a strip 12mm wide from the centre of this leaving 35mm at the end (Fig. 4).

It is now time to construct the blade blank. Take the 3 pieces of foam and the former. They will eventually be assembled as shown below (Fig. 5).

Tip Reinforcement.
This stage is often neglected by people making thier first weapons but it is probably the most important part of making a sword.

Take two small squares of material and cut 2 small squares approximately 35mm X 35mm. Soak them in glue and leave them to dry.

The best material to use is silk as it is very difficult to tear although cotton is a reasoanble substitute

On the two 6mm sheets mark a line across them 35 mm from the end as shown. Take the 2 pieces of cotton and glue them on to the two 6mm sheets as shown making sure that you use plenty of glue. Note how the thread of the fabric is positioned so that it lies at 45 degrees to the former and not running across the end (Fig 6). This helps prevent the fabric for tearing across the end of the former.

Some poeple use thin rubber sheet such as a bicycle inner tube but, although successful I have personally not had a lot of success with this.

Glue one of the 6mm sheets to the 12mm central sheet with the cloth between the two. Now glue the former into the central channel. Be careful to make sure that you spread glue along all the walls of the central chanel as well as on the former. If you have a hot melt glue gun position the former so that there is a 2-3mm gap at the end, otherwise ensure that the former is forced all the way up to the end of the channel Fig.7).

Take the hot melt glue gun and fill in the small gap at the end of the former with hot melt glue. This helps to make a slightly flexible section on the tip of the former which helps extend the life expectancy of the weapon.

Now that you have done this gule the other 6mm sheet on to this with the cotton inwards again. You should now have something which looks like a foam cricket bat (Fig.8). Leave this overnight for the glue to dry fully.

Shaping the Blade.
Now mark out the shape of the blade. The final blade will be 50mm wide so mark 2 lines down the 50mm apart and an equal distance from either side. Locate the tip of the former either by feel or by holding the blade up to a strong light. Mark this point on the balde and another line 25mm from it. Mark the tip on the blade being careful not to start tapering the tip until the end of the former. In order to get the tip symetrical it is a good idea to cut a small card template that is the shape of half the tip and use this to mark out the tip on the foam (Fig 9).

Now take a sharp knife and carefully cut out the the blade. You should now have something which looks like a sword blade when viewed from the top (Fig. 10).

[Rhiannon]

Cutting the Edge.
Cutting the edge is probably the most difficult part of making a sword (or any edged weapon). The secret is to take your time marking things out and use a sharp knife.

Marking Out.
The first stage is to take the blade and mark a line around the centre of the blade where you want the edge to be. I find it better to mark two lines very close to each other (about 1mm apart). This leaves a very narrow flat edge on the sword which helps to prevent the latex from splitting along the edge but it undetectable on the finished sword. It also helps disguise slight deviations in the actual cutting of the edge (Fig. 11).

The next stage is to mark the lines on the sides of the blade where the edge will come to. The further these are away from the edge the steeper the angle of cut will be and the blade will look better as a result. The drawback is that a steeper cut also makes the actual cutting of the blade more difficult and slight imperfections will be more obvious.

I think a good compromise is to mark the edges of the blade 20mm in from the edge of the blank (leaving a 10mm wide gap up the centre between the two) (Fig. 12).

[This assumes the blade is 24mm think. If the blade is of a different thickness you will need to adjust the distance accordingly. As a general rule the following equation can be used (Fig. 13).]

1.67 X Distance from centre of blade to edge (A) = Distance away from edge (B).

Cutting.
Now take a sharp knife. Do not use the modelling knife you have been using up to this point but get a new one. Go somewhere this is well lit and take your time. Try and cut the edge in one single stroke with the knife going slowly and steadily taking your time. Whatever happens avoid using a sawing motion as this will produce a jagged edge which looks more like a saw edge than a sword edge.

Your first edge is likely to be a bit jagged. Do not be discouraged by this, cutting edges is a matter of practice as much as careful marking out. You can use fine sandpaper to try and smooth out any imperfections afterwards.

You should now have the finished blade (Fig. 14).

The Ripper Method.
An alternative to cutting the edge with a knife is to use the "Ripper Method". This is a more rough and ready method than carving the blade described above.

You need an electric drill (any drill with a large enough chuck will do) and a cylindrical sanding attachment (the sort that has a sponge cylinder around whose edge you put a sandpaper belt as opposed to the circular type), a large G-clamp and a table or workbench outside or in a workshop (this gets exceedingly messy, so work in a place and in clothes you don't mind getting covered in foam dust, wearing a mask and goggles if you want to protect your eyes and lungs against said dust which gets EVERYWHERE).

Attach the drill to the edge of the table with the G-clamp so the sanding cylinder sticks over the edge and the trigger and lock button are accessible. Turn on the drill and shape the blade by holding the sword horizontally with the blade at whatever angle you want to cut it to, perpendicular to the axis of the drill and moving the blade in long, even strokes in the OPPOSITE direction to the direction of the sandpaper's motion, each stroke taking the entire length of the blade (minus the very tip). Shape each edge of each blade slowly and carefully, the sander rips through foam at a huge rate of knots and pressing too hard can be disastrous - but the strokes must be smooth and confident, as hesitating mid-stroke can also be a bad thing. When the blades are done, carefully shape the tip by lightly pressing onto the sander, always pointing the tip along the direction of motion of the sander to avoid the tip being dragged back and blunted.

This method does take a bit of practice, but, once you've got the hang of it, is MUCH quicker and easier than carving the blades, though the inside edge of the blade isn't as sharply defined. It also goes without saying that all the precautions of working with power tools should be followed - tie long hair back, don't wear loose clothes, and, most of all, since your fingers will be coming into close proximity with the sander, mind your fingers!

[Rhiannon]

Making The Hilt.

There are three different ways to make the hilt. The choice of method will depend on the design of the sword to a certain degree but all three are possible.

Method 1 - The Foam Sandwich.
This is the method I use. It is exactly the same as the method used to make the blade. Three pieces of foam are cut out and a slot is cut in the centre one before they are glued together to form a sandwich. (If you are clever you can cut the centre piece 12 mm smaller than is actually needed and then cut it in half rather than cutting a strip out the middle.) Cut the foam so that the place where the hilt joins the blade is accurate but leave excess foam all round the other edges (Fig. 15).

Once the foam is glued in place mark out the design of the hilt (Fig. 16).

Carefully cut out the design of the hilt. You should now have a sword that looks like the one below (Fig. 17).

To make the hilt thicker than the blade you can use three thicknesses if 12 mm foam rather than one thickness of 12 mm and two thicknesses of 6 mm.

Method 2 - The Large Block.
With this method the entire hilt is made from a single piece of thick foam (25 mm). Take a block of foam that is large enough to cut the entire hilt from (The hilt is made completely separately from the rest of the sword)(Fig. 18).

Mark out the hilt as shown below (Fig. 19).

Once the hilt has been made it is cut in half as shown below (Fig. 20).

A channel is cut in each half to take the former where it has been cut. The 2 pieces are then glued together on either side of the former to make the hilt. You should now have a sword that looks like the one below (Fig. 21).

Method 3 - The Single Sheet.
This method is not suitable for making the design of hilt used on this sword but it quite useful for making the hilts on oriental swords which tend to have small hilts.

A single piece of foam (usually 12 mm) is cut out in the shape of the hilt. A hole is punched in the centre of this and it is slid over the end of the former to make the hilt.

This method can only be used if the former hasn't been weighted (or by using an awful lot of foresight and placing the hilt over the end of the former before the blade is made).

[Rhiannon]

Making The Pommel.
This method is exactly the same as the method used to make the blade. Three pieces of foam are cut out and a slot is cut in the centre one before they are glued together to form a sandwich. Cut the foam but leave excess foam all round the edges (Fig. 22).

Once the foam is glued in place mark out the design of the pommel (Fig. 23).

Carefully cut out the design of the hilt. You should now have a sword that looks like the one below (Fig. 24).

To make the pommel thicker than the blade you can use three thicknesses if 12 mm foam rather than one thickness of 12 mm and two thicknesses of 6 mm.

An alternative pommel making method to make cylindrical pommels with their axis in line with the blade, is to wind strips of 6 mm foam around the base of the former to build up a cylinder. Cut the base flat and glue some 12 mm on as a cap to cover the former and then cut the 12 mm as a continuation of the cylinder.

Decoration.
You might want a totally plain sword in which case there is no need to do any decoration. However most swords have some form of decoration on then and there is a number of ways to go about this.

Carving.
There are a number of ways of carving decoration into the hilt and pommel. The obvious method is to use a knife but a soldering iron makes an excellent tool for melting patterns into the surface. (When using a soldering iron work outside and avoid breathing the fumes given off as they are very unpleasant.) A small modelling drill can also be used to engrave the surface.

Building Up.
The other alternative to carving material away is to add material to the hilt and pommel. Patterns can be built up by gluing small pieces of foam glued onto the hilt or latex castings can be glued on. One other possibility is to use the hot melt glue gun to build up patterns using small dots and lines of glue.

Making the Hand Grip.
The final stage before latexing the finished sword is to build up the hand grip. There is no hard and fast rule about how thick a hand grip should be as it depends on the size of your hand and personal preference. I personally think a lot of professional weapon makers make their hand grips too thin which results in them twisting in your hand as you try to use them.

There are two approaches to making the grip. The first is to simply wrap foam around the handle and glue it in place until you achieve the desired thickness this will probably require two layers of foam). This is very simple and produces a reasonable grip but it can be a little soft and squidgy particularly if you are making a fairly thick grip.

The second method produces a slightly firmer grip. Take the former and wind it in a thick plastic rope as tightly as possible (washing line is good for this). Use double sided sticky tape on the former to make sure the cord won't slip. If you have weighted the former the cord can be used to build the rest of the hand grip up to the same thickness as the part of the former with the metal tubing on.

Now wrap the cord in a layer of foam as above to build the grip up to the desired thickness. This method produces a very nice grip which is firm enough to allow good control of the weapon but has just enough give in it to make it nice and comfortable to hold.

Finally wrap the grip in a layer of gaffer tape. This helps to prevent the foam from breaking up after prolonged use which can result in the grip going squidgy. The sword should now look like the one below and is ready for latexing (Fig. 25).

One other method of making a grip which I do not recommend involves taking a length of plastic tubing. Two holes are drilled in either end of this and it is slid over the former and screwed into position before the pommel is made. This method is quick (which is why some people use it) but it produces a narrow, hard grip which is uncomfortable to hold and the fact that it is screwed onto the former introduces a weak point in the weapon just in front of your hand where stresses are at a maximum and a sword is most likely to snap anyway.

[Rhiannon]

Latexing.
Before you start latexing the first thing to do is to make sure you have got somewhere to put the weapon to dry once you have latexed it. Make a wire hook that wraps around the hand grip of the weapon than can be used to hang the weapon up on a washing line or other support. [I've got an old clamp stand that was being thrown out of a chemistry lab which is ideal for holding weapons while they dry.]

Latexing.
When latexing work in a well ventilated area. The mixture of vapour given off by the latex and the paints can be pretty noxious. Be careful to avoid leaving brush strokes on the weapon if at all possible, on areas like the blade make sure all brush strokes run lengthways and this should help to minimise problems.

don't use brushes which are too big. I find that the paint brushes meant for small children are about the right size for most things but you might want a slightly bigger brush (a half inch paint brush) for larger areas.

To start give the weapon four coats of clear latex covering the entire weapon apart from the handle leaving each coat to dry fully before applying the next. Take care to make sure you cover the edges of the blade and try to avoid latex building up in cracks like where the blade joins the hilt. For these coats you might want to colour the latex using poster colour. This isn't essential but it makes it easier to see where you have been. If you are making more than one weapon be very careful that they do not touch each other between coats of they may become permanently bonded together!

Next apply 2 more coats of coloured latex to the whole weapon. I tend to use a pale grey for these coats.

The next stage is to apply 2 more coats. This is where you may have to start latexing the blade and hilt separately depending on what colour you want them to be. These coats should be a rough approximation to what you want the final colour to be. An exact match isn't important but having an approximate colour makes getting the final coats to cover properly a lot easier. I tend to use grey on areas that will eventually be silver or black and brown on areas that will eventually be gold, bronze, copper or brown (wood effect).

The final three coats are need to be the colour of the finished surface. This will generally be silver for the blade and may be any of a range of colours for the hilt and pommel. If you are using 2 or more colours apply the lighter colours first and overlap them onto the areas that will be covered with the darker colours. The reason for this is that the overlap will ensure that you don't end up with a bare line showing through at the join where the 2 colours didn't meet up and darker colours cover lighter colours much better than light colours cover darker ones.

[Rhiannon]

Colouring Latex.
Latex Colourants.
Colourants are available especially for colouring latex. They are mixed directly into the latex using about 5% colorant to obtain quite a rich colour. These are great if they happen to come in the colours you want but as of yet I haven't found any metallic colourants.

Paints.
Any water soluble paint can be used to colour latex. Paints which are fairly runny such as poster colour can be mixed directly into the latex. Thicker paints such as artists acrylics must be mixed with a small amount of ammonia first or they won't disperse properly in the latex.

Artists Acrylics.
Artists acrylics work quite well in my experience. The metallic colours tend not to be quite as good as some of the others though.

Flexithane.
This is a specially formulated paint that is designed to give a flexible polymer coating. It is not mixed with latex but can be painted straight onto the latex. The silver gives an excellent metallic finish but I don't know about other colours. If you think about using this stuff work outside as it stinks of some really foul cocktail of organic solvents which is pretty noxious. The main drawback is that it is supplied in 1l tins.

Liquitex.
This is a somewhat specialised paint that can be found in art shops. I have never used it myself but I have heard people say it gives excellent colours.

Miniature Paints.
I find that Miniature paints are quite good for metallic colours and quite a few people use them although personally I don't. The best known brand is probably Citadel Miniatures.

Other Acrylics.
Any other paint that you can find that is water based is worth a try. It might be a disaster but it might be great.

Poster paint.
This is generally only useful for colouring the base layers of latex. It can be used for convenience so that you can see where you have been

Stretchi Paint.
This is a specially formulated water based paint that is not mixed with latex but is designed to be painted straight onto the surface of the latex. I have tried this recently and it gives a nice finish. Colours include Gold, Bronze and Black and the Gold and Bronze avoid the problem of cuprous pigments which is described below. (There isn't a Silver in this range to my knowledge.

A Word of Warning About Pigments.
Avoid any paint which contains a cuprous based pigment as cuprous based pigments rot latex. Paints should list the pigments on the side of them so its not too difficult to spot the ones which could give trouble. As a general rule the colours likely to contain the offending pigments are Gold, Copper, Bronze, Brass and any similar colours. Paints can be found in these colours which don't contain cuprous pigments but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

[Rhiannon]

Latex Thickener?
Personally I don't use thickener as I find it tends to leave brush strokes in the latex but some people use it. Thickener will reduce the number of coats that are needed but I find a few more thinner coats gives a better finish than less thicker ones do.

Highlighting.
If you have an airbrush (or have access to one) you can use this to highlight the weapon. Many people use black to highlight but it looks much better if you use a very dark silver (a mixture of black and silver). Just use the paint alone to highlight rather than mixing it with the latex. Latex is very difficult to airbrush with (and even worse to clear out when it blocks the nozzle). Latex can be sprayed but it requires an industrial sprayer.

Varnish.
Some people varnish weapons. This helps to stop the finish rubbing off but I find that it gives a very "plastic" look to the weapons which I don't like as it is too shiny but if you have airbrushed highlights on you will need to give it at least one coat of varnish. If you do varnish weapons only use a thin coat. I have seen heavily varnished weapons where the varnish is so thick and inflexible that it cracks to form a lovely cobweb pattern when a thumb is pressed against the side of the blade.

An alternative to varnish is clear Flexithane. This gives a flexible finish so doesn't have the cracking problems associated with varnish and it doesn't look as shiny either. I have started using this recently and it is the best solution I have discovered so far.

Another finish which is often used is Isoflex. Isoflex Special Primer (not the main coat) is actually a roof sealant and can be obtained from larger hardware stores. It gives a hard wearing very glossy finish.

*WARNING* Both Flexithane and Isoflex give off very noxious fumes so work outside!

Cleaning Brushes.
Latex is insoluble in water once it is dry so it is important to clean brushes immediately after use. Rinse the brush in warn (but not hot) water and use plenty of detergent to remove the latex. Even so brushes will slowly become clogged with latex. In order to remove the more stubborn build ups soak the brushes overnight in brush cleaner (PolyClens seems to work best). The cleaner appears to rot the latex and causes it to swell. It can then be removed by using a wire brush. Once you have done this wash the brush very thoughrally using plenty of detergent as it is important to remove all the brush cleaner and small fragments of latex that will be remaining.

Flexithane and Isoflex are virtually impossible to shift from brushes. Water, Detergent, Brush Cleaners, Turpentine, Petrol and Paraffin all fail. Soaking it overnight in brush cleaner and then wire brushing as above will make the brush "usable" again (even if it is still somewhat rigid with a few less bristles now).

[Rhiannon]

Finishing Touches.

Talcing.
Once the final coat of latex is dry lightly dust the sword with talcum powder. This will remove and residual stickiness and will stop the sword sticking to all and sundry. If you have varnished the sword the talc isn't essential bit I think its still a good idea.

Silicone Spray.
This is an alternative to talc. It doesn't dull the finish like talc tends to but it does make the weapon feel oily all the time.

The Hand Grip.
The final stage is to wrap the hand grip in leather. Don't be tempted to use leatherette as this can be horribly sweaty and clammy. The leather can be either glued or sewn on.

Congratulations, hopefully ;D