Captain Canada! Do you give it an... Eh Plus?

I thought today was a good day to point out how easily the pride of America, the personification of our great (err.... our.... ok) country can become the maple syrup dripping, overly apologetic representation of our neighbor to the north.

Rather than continuing to paint a cap shield... You get to stop after the red! Forget the blue! don't do it! hooray!

It actually saves a step and swaps it out for painting the maple leaf instead.

I will say, cutting the maple leaf it a little harder than the star. Still not real hard, but definitely more cuts.

Once you get it free, it gets spun the same way a star does. Sanded as you like and then rough sanded in a circle so you get the same spun look.

Once you get that, its back to painting as usual. A light coat of red. wait for 10 minutes, another light coat, wet 10 and then finally a heavy coat. Clear coat as usual after an hour or (according to instructions) a day or later so things can cure  properly.

At some point I'll sand this one down, glue the star and its business as usual. I have to thank Nathan Fillion for this one. He did this costume a few years ago and between that and a couple of Captain America TFA posters done up like this, I've been kind of obsessed with the idea.

As always, follow The Wooden Forge on Facebook to get day to day updates and check out the Etsy shop for new products! Next week, clear coating and finishing!

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN!!!

Took a small break from shields for a few days while I finished tweaking and cleaning up the front of my latest cap build while Captain Canada sits stripped and waiting for paint. Also got in two more sleds and have an order for THE REAL DEAL aluminum spun blank coming sometime in the near future. So you ask what have I been doing in the mean time? Jumping over to DC comics and tackling batarangs!

This all started out because I found some decent bar stock and went... why not, this should be fun. So I found a template and then scaled it up because apparently the batarangs in "The Dark Knight" are crazy small... or so the internet says. Wheres the fun in that? so I moved them up to about 2 inches tall and around 5 inches wide. 

So far I've got 3 versions done with another coming and I think that will be standard for what I end up making. A completely flat black version, black with the edge bevels cleaned back to bare metal, A completely clean mirrored, and coming this weekend a fluorescent yellow version that is far from stealthy but good clean fun.

The mirror finish isn't done here, I've got more polishing to do but as of today I can clearly see myself in it, so thats fun. 

You can see in the black picture, there's the bar that I'm working with. I thought about the smaller ones too. I may still do some of those in the future as key rings. One of the main problems with making these is needing the right tools. A jigsaw and metal blade work... sort of. Lots of grinding and hand filing to clean them up, a band saw or scroll saw would work wonders here.

When it comes down to it, if you have some patience, these are real easy to make. The clean up takes the longest time but if you plan the cuts right they pop free in about a minute. 

This is what you don't want to do. Its harder once you cut it free because you have to clamp it down and things just get in the way. So cut the wing thats sticking out of the bar, and THEN cut the other wing so its free. If you're REALLY smart, you'll cut the head and ears free first as well. Those get lots of filing just because there's no good way to get in there.

So eventually you end up with this. From this point on, its just refining edges and cleaning up to whatever level you want! I won't lie, working these on a bench grinder with sparks flying, you feel like the real deal. Time to go dispense some justice. 

As always, follow The Wooden Forge on Facebook to get day to day updates and check out the Etsy shop for new products!

Exciting colors! Batman yellow, Anodized red and blue for Red Hood and Nightwing!