In this tutorial I will discuss my technique for foamsmithing strong, but soft crossguards. I used this technique on Anguirel, and it has thus far proved itself worthy.
Materials:
Completed sword blade
Paper
Cardstock
Pencils
Flexible Plastic Cutting Board
Cardboard
Glue (hot glue, dap, etc)
1. Make a concept sketch. Don't just start throwing together your crossguard; have a clear idea of what you want and how you'll do it. Here's a picture of my concept sketch for Anguirel. As you'll see later, I didn't stick to it entirely, but it still turned out awesome.
2. Scan your concept sketch and print it out on cardstock. That way, if you mess it up, you'll still have the original and a digital copy.
3. Cut out the cardstock crossguard to use as a stencil.
4. Trace the stencil onto the Flexible Plastic Cutting Board four times. Cut each of these out. The plastic cut-outs should be slightly larger than the cardstock cut-out.
5. Use one of the cut-outs of the plastic cutting board to trace the crossguard onto the cardboard. Cut out two of these. The cardboard cut-outs should be slightly larger than the plastic cut-outs.
6. Glue (I use DAP) the Plastic Cutting Board cut-outs to the cardboard cut-outs, with a piece of plastic on both sides of the cardboard. This will henceforth be called the "crossguard-core". (The pictures are of the crossguard-core for a sword other than Anguirel. I do not have any pictures of Anguirel at this state.)
7. Use these to trace the design onto enough foam to cover the gap that will form between the two pieces of crossguard-core, when placed on the PVC. Also, cut out a piece for both the outside edges of the crossguard-core. When you cut the foam out, make sure you cut it a deal larger than the crossguard-core, so you can go back over them later and shave them smooth.
8. Glue the crossguard-core to your sword-core.
9. Glue the pieces of foam between the crossguard-cores and on top of the crossguard cores.
10. Use a Wonder-Styro-Cutter (or other foam-cutting tool) to slice off the excess foam and make the foam straight from crossguard-core to crossguard-core.
11. Smooth the foam with sandpaper and/or an iron (set on delicate) and some wax paper.
12. Add a layer of foam on the top of the cores and foam to cover the remaining crossguard-core and to penny-round the tips.
13. Smooth all edges of the foam again.
14. Now cover your crossguard in your preferred manner: with cloth tape or latex. If you want to use real latex, look on the How-To Page for Magnus of Narnia's tutorial—it's very good. I myself use PlastiDip, an easy-to-do latex dip. Make sure you use black PlastiDip, if you decide to use it instead of real latex.
Special thanks to Tiberius of Alterra for sharing this design. To view more of Tiberius' work, visit The Forge of Imladris.