Next I "painted" 100% acetone (ACETONE MELTS POLYSTYRENE PLASTIC) over the image in small sections, and burnished the image onto the polystyrene. The technique that I used for this sword build was to tape the template upside down to my base material. I've used this method with fine results, but the template needs to be well adhered to the base material so as to not peel off during the building process. If your starting base material is a flat surface, you can just adhere your template to it. There are so many different ways to transfer your image. You're going to have to transfer your template onto your base work material (high impact polystyrene plastic, or HIPS, for this build). You've got a crisp, clean looking template. Also, print at least two copies of your template. If you do the latter, be certain to take your time and properly line everything up. If you're like me and too impatient to do this, the other option is to print the template out in portions on multiple sheets of paper, and then tape it all together. If possible, it's more accurate to have your template printed on a single sheet of paper from any business that offers printing services. Usually the object being replicated is bigger than a standard piece of paper. When my template is scaled properly, it's ready to print. ![]() Using the sword handle of the image for scaling reference, I simply scaled my template to where 1 1/2 of my hands would fit it. In some reference images of He-Man holding his sword, it appears that he could fit 1 1/2 of his hands on the sword handle. I always use my own hands to determine a good size for a weapon. Once I have my template traced, it has to be scaled to a proper proportion. I wasn't as careful with some of the symmetry of the side view as I could of been, but I knew it wouldn't effect my end result. The Power Sword is very simple in design, so I made a quick tracing of the artwork to make my vector template. When tracing the template, the more complex the object, the more attention to detail should be kept. The reason for using a vector based program is that once finished creating the template, it can be scaled to any size without any image distortion. This program is a professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. If you don't have this program, try out Inkscape. For the Power Sword, I found some original artwork of the sword online, and traced it in Adobe Illustrator. ![]() The first thing I do is find as many reference materials as I can to be comfortable with the layout of my project. Throughout this instructable, I will be referring to the He-Man Power Sword, but several of these techniques can be applied to any prop replica creation. A properly planned template will make way to a greater end result. The beginning step will be one of the most important ones. ![]() Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
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