Following my Mojlnir build a while ago, it was recently suggested I have a go a creating Thor’s newest weapon from Infinity War; Stormbreaker. This is an interesting weapon as it combines both organic and inorganic parts. I looked forward to having a go at building it and began as soon as I could.
As usual, I first created a scale blueprint to work off. This proved to be quite a challenge as there are very few reference images. I managed to gather up some screen shots, pictures of toys and builds of other makers and what I noticed, was that they all seemed to be slightly different from each other : / I decided to stick as close to what I could see in film stills and use the other images to help with the scale.
For materials, the axe/hammer head would be constructed with plastic. While for the handle I choose a combination of PVC pipe, EVA foam, including foam dowels and Worbla.
Weapon head
Just before starting I made the decision that the head would be hollow to help keep the weight down. It would also need to slot onto the handle and be secured. The construction of the weapon head was split into two parts, the axe head and hammer/central section.
Axe head
The axe head was built as a hollow box using PVC foam onto which I added details with various thicknesses of syrene plastic. To create the blade bevel I cut out 20 small triangles and glued these on, leaving a gap between each which was then filled with light-weight foam board. Over this I applied a thin layer of epoxy putty and when dry, this was sanded smooth. Finally, it was covered with further sections of plastic and then filed and sanded down to an edge.
A mistake I made here was to cut the plastic covering the bevel into small segments, rather than whole pieces. This proved to be a problem when it became weirdly hard to hide the join lines. Later on to avoid wasting more time, I would remove these to and cut out new whole sections and carefully heat and bend them.
Hammer and centre
The hammer head started with front and back sections made from PVC foam. I constructed a support structure joining the two parts and then used syrene plastic to build up an outer shell. These were left overlapping in places and then filed and sanded flush. From a hole in one end I applied hot glue to the inner seems. When done, this made it feel very solid despite being hollow. The back end was done using the same process. Further details were added over the top of the main shell providing extra strength.
One thing I changed during the build was to swap out the basic disk I cut for the end. This was replaced using a more film accurate disc which I 3D modeled and printed. The runes are the same ones I used on Mjolnir which seemed appropriate.
The central section was constructed next, to mount the hammer head on. It was built so it would slot onto a PVC pipe and have 2 screws secure it in place. These would be behind the axe head, go through the pipe and into the hammer head. The head was attached with some solid pieces of PVC foam and the bevels done with mix of more plastic and epoxy putty.
Before attaching the parts together, I primed them and did some filling/sanding to tidy things up. With this done I did some work on the handle before fixing the hammer/central section in place. To attach the axe head, I drilled several holes and inserted eight plastic pins before applying glue and slotting it in place.
Handle
The core of the handle was made with 2 pieces of PVC tube connected with a coupler, and curved with a heat gun. On top of this I glued on some layers of EVA foam to build up the shape. This was done roughly and then sanded to shape on my belt sander. At this point I secured the handle to the weapon head.
Next up was creating the wood, which was sculpted over the foam using layers of Worbla. I used my reference images to help when doing this. Branches were made from 1 cm foam dowels wrapped in Worbla and when done, they were attached, heated and formed around the weapon head. A few smaller twigs were made from scraps that were heated and rolled out. Lastly using a sculpting tool, I went over the whole handle and randomly scored in some lines to add more texture.
Painting
First up was the metal which was done in dark and bright silver over a brown base coat. The darker silver was built up through various shades using a sponge. This is the same method I used on my Mjolnir build. The bright silver is simply silver leaf rub’n buff. Finally, all the metal was weathered and then I moved onto the wood.
The wood had the same brown base as the metal, which I began dry brushing to build up the colour. After short while doing this, I felt the base coat colour was a little too dark, and so I went over it with a lighter colour.
From the light brown base coat I dry brushed a series of lighter layers using a mix of brown and cream paint. Over this I applied a wash of brown and green inks and when dry, did a few more layers of dry brushing. Finally, I painted a final wash into the large gaps in the wood.
With that the build was complete. Now to do a plastics restock.
CO Art and Stuff 