Kingdom Key Replica

Can someone kill me already? Oh, you actually kept reading after the first word. That's weird. So, have you every had the unshakable urge to dress like an emo weeb's dream guy and tote around a giant ass key at the sake of your dignity, a weekend or so, and about 30 bucks? Then do I have a project for you to undertake. You might recognize this as the basic template for a replica of Sora/Mickey/your terrible terrible OC's (depending on your paint job) Keyblade. And I can confirm- this is the iconic weapon/door closing mechanism from the paradoxically amazing child of Disney and Square Enix known only as Kingdom Hearts. Get on your w̶e̶e̶a̶b̶o̶o̶ prop making clothes and try not to cry from what you realize you're truly doing.

Step 1: Disclaimer

About 23.72% of this is original. If you would like to see where my inspiration came from, click the link. It's cheaper and probably less work.

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Keyblade-from-Kingdom-Hearts-Cheap/

Step 2: First Thing's First

To start, you might want to print out the first image. I personally found the parts too small by default, so crop and stretch the images to take up a full page for the handle and blade. Cut out the pieces, obviously, and reinforce them with tape. These will be your basic outlines when cutting the foam/whatever higher end thing you can afford that I could not. Then, you want to gather the tools and materials. You will need the following-

- 1 inch PVC

-1/2 inch PVC

-Gold and silver spray paint

-Blue regular paint

-Black electrical or athletic tape

- Hot glue, PVC glue, or spray adhesive

- 2-4 foam boards

- 4 layers of the blade

-8 layers of the handle (2 pieces, 4 layers each)

-60 to 220 grain sandpaper

-Hacksaw or pipe cutters

-1-1/2 inch PVC adapter

-Bottle cap

-One of those small aquarium rocks

-Drill with 1/2 inch saw bit

-Drywall spackle

Step 3: Finally, You Start.

It took about 3 hours with a pairing knife and some Buffy playing in the background, but the first step you'll need to take is cutting out the handle and blade. If you can figure out how to get the chain and Mickey charm attached, more power to you. I could not, so I just did the two parts. Cut enough times along the outlines (hopefully you traced onto the foam) so that each part is made of 4 layers of foam. After that, hot glue the layers together. Congrats, you got done with part of this!

-Sorry for lack of pictures-

Step 4: Work the Shaft

Next, you'll need to cut the PVC. Cut the 1/2 inch into 2 sections, 1 about nine to ten inches and and the other about 3 feet long. Connect the two with the 1 inch to 1/2 inch adapter and ta-da, you have the basis for your Keyblade. Next, you'll want to cut about a two and a half section off of the 1 inch PVC, which will be the bottom guard. Paint your adapter and guard gold and you can take a break by looking at some awful fanart of Riku and Sora.

Step 5: Don't Forget the Handles Dude-man-bro

You have to spackle the foam parts on the side, and if you have the low quality foam I did, on the whole thing. Slather them in that creamy white stuff. Good job buddy. Lay out the parts like shown above and then adjust the lengths of the pipe accordingly. Un-attach the longer PVC and your next task is spray painting the long shaft, like so. Tape the smaller piece black and glue on the guard. Now you have, the handle. Well, after you glue on the bottle cap. You did it? Really? Good job again! You can paint some stuff next.

Step 6: MAKE IT RAINNNNNNNNN (paint)

AIGHT NOW YOU GOTTA PAINT THE FOAM/SPACKLE MESSES

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNN TIMES

But really, just paint one face and the sides one day, the next you get to paint the other side of each. Be sure to sand everything you need to best you can (I used 60 grain and then 220). Key is silver, and the handles are gold with 1/2 inch black circles in the wider areas. Unless, of course, you didn't buy low quality foam, in which case drill a 1/2 inch hole where you would normally paint it. The holes are optional though, I didn't do them because this is for a class Use either blue paint or, if you can't get real paint, a few layers of blue nail polish, to paint the tiny area of the upper guard as shown. Glue on the parts with hot glue, put on something to cover the end of the shaft (I used an aquarium rock painted silver) and you have a complete Keyblade. Hooray!!!!!!

Step 7: Congrats!

Now you too can slay Heartless/Nobodies/Unversed/Whatever is thrown at you in KH3 (this was published prior to the release of Kingdom Hearts 3). Good job! Go have fun bud. Give yourself a pat on the back too. You did great. As a reward, play some Kingdom Hearts 2. On me. Now go!