Background/Inspiration

The Blades of Chaos are the signature weapon of the protagonist in the God of War game series. As a fan of these games, I always thought that the blades looked cool. As I was starting my project, I recalled watching a Youtube video of someone forging those blades and got the idea to create an upcycled version. The idea also worked quite well with the materials I had in hand as I wouldn’t need much more than cardboard, which I had plenty of.

The video mentioned above

I started by searching to see if anyone has made a cardboard replica of this design, and found the video below,

This video provided me with some useful ideas on how I can go about fabricating my design, even though it ended up looking very different.

Aesthetic

The aesthetic of my project is Bronzepunk. It is considered a variation of Cyberpunk that includes many elements from Greek/Roman aesthetics in architecture, technology, and weaponry. This aesthetic is mainly used in games such as God of War, Assasins Creed Odyssey, and movies such as 300. Even though I only recently learned what this aesthetic is called, I have always enjoyed it in all of its visual forms.

God of War PS2 Cover

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Bronzepunk

Vision

There are many variations of the blades throughout the games.

Art by Creative Uncut

 

I chose the first blade as the inspiration for my design, as it would be difficult to decently fabricate the other designs with the materials I had.

Fabrication

I started with a large home depocardboardrd box. I used a pen to draw the initial outline of the blades. I made sure to measure the handle of the blades as I wanted them to be life-sized and holdable

I used a cutting tool to manually cut out the sketches on the box and a hot glue gun to attach the pieces.

After I finished the base design, I started sketching layers to place on top of the silhouette to give it more of a 3D feel rather than a flat one.

Semi-Finished Blades

After adding all of the pieces together, I was finally left with a life-sized silhouette that satisfied my aesthetic, and all that was left was to paint. I originally thought of using watercolors, then soon came to find out that wouldn’t be a good idea on cardboard, so I decided to use spray paint instead.

I started by covering the bottom of the blades using a plastic bag and painting the top white, then I covered up the top and painted the handle with black paint.

Final Artifact

Final Blades of Chaos Replica

The blades turned out better than I expected from an aesthetic standpoint. During painting, I accidentally created the pattern effect that is apparent on the white part of the blades by placing the plastic bag on semi-dry paint. However, I feel like that made a positive addition to the look of them.

I did not have any functional goals going into this project. I just wanted the size of the design to be somewhat accurate to I would be able to hold it.

My aesthetic goals were to have someone who is familiar with the games and the blades be able to tell what I made without being told. As soon as I finished my replica, I sent pictures to my friend whos a God of War fan and he was able to tell right away, so my aesthetic goals have been met.

I am not sure if I am going to keep this artifact or not so far, it will either sit on my desk or be recycled.