Harley Quinn Hammer Tutorial

Hey everyone! Welcome to my first go at a tutorial.

Over time, before I started this project I researched and researched.... and researched. So many different tutorials for making large props, Harley Quinn hammers, different techniques for painting and creating details. So here is how I compiled my knowledge into my Harley Quinn Hammer. (Sorry I don't have any specific one I followed to make mine, I just kind of mashed together into what I thought would work best and I'm pretty proud of my first large prop!)

Minus the blood, I used this image as my reference for my hammer.

Here's the part where I should probably talk about all the ingredients to my concoction;

-1 large cardboard tube- I cardboard film tube but a cement tube will work just as well and is easier to obtain/cheaper, which you can find at Home Depot.

-1 Yoga Mat- Must be a thick EVA type foam, I bought mine off Amazon for under $10

-1 Cardboard box/sheet

-Painter's Tape

-Spray Paint

-Dremel Tool- For cutting and detailing.

-Sandpaper-fine to medium grit

-Any type of sturdy glue- I used E6000 glue, which can be found at Walmart or any hobby store *just be warned it takes awhile to dry*

-Fiberglass Resin- To smooth out the lines on the tube, and solidify the side faces of the hammer head. Can be found at Home Depot or on Amazon for about $18

-Disposable brushes and cups for the Resin (only good for one use)

-1- 1.5 in. PVC Pipe- Home Depot

-1- 1.5 in PVC Pipe Cap- Home Depot

-If you want your hammer to be able to come apart for easy transport, here's the few pieces that get a little tricky and take a bit to figure out; The top connecting pieces that join the head of the hammer to the handle. Located near where I found my PVC pipe is what seems like a wall of different PVC pipe connections that you can choose from to achieve what you what you want. The workers of Home Depot probably thought I was crazy standing there for 20 mins. debating how I wanted it to attach and look.

**When getting caught up in craft goodness, we sometimes forget to take extra precautions to protect our own well being. Please Please PLEASE be sure to use all safety precautions, such as where a mask and glasses when using a dremel tool or work in a well ventilated place and use some sort of mask when using resin or spray paint. If you don't know a lot about using tools or products, please don't hesitate to look it up real quick or message me for help!**

This following part is OPTIONAL if you want your hammer to be able to break down for easy transport:)

Game Time!

So what you're looking at above is how I decided to make a connecting piece to pop the handle into.

1. There are two small white PVC connecting pieces that fit together snugly, so I measured a circle for the two pieces to connect, still grip the cardboard tube so it wouldn't just slide through, and still be sturdy to support the weight. This is where you will have to alter your design to suit the materials you're using and how you want yours to look.

2. Once I measured and drew out the hole for the pieces to connect through for where exactly I wanted the handle, I dremeled the hole and connected the pieces together creating an insert that would fit my handle and still come apart for easy transport.

All with the help of my cat (Tyrion) of course,

Placing the cardboard tube on the yoga mat, I traced the circles for the ends of the hammer.

I used sharpie to trace the inside circle to ensure once I'd cut them it'd be a tight fit.

Trace 4 circles total.

Because the foam is still a little flimsy, this is where sandwiching a layer of cardboard between circles of foam helped, I glue all circles together. After gluing you should have two circular pieces that look similar to the image above.

Once I had my end pieces done, I glued them in place. they should fit pretty snug.

Then I measured the PVC pipe to the length I wanted it and cut it down using a dremel tool. Once I did that, I popped the PVC pipe cap on the bottom end, leaving the other end open to pop into the head piece.

Now is for the fun part... heh...

Fiberglass resin. Some patience is required.

Depending on the end result you want, this may or may not be necessary.

But for the face sides of the hammer, I felt it was especially beneficial to coat with resin to harden the face of the foam, and to make it easier to texture. Added bonus that it made it sturdy.

I won't go into detail on how to use fiberglass resin, at least not in this tutorial, but definitely look it up if you haven't used resin before.

This tutorial was very helpful to just get a basic idea (also great to know to use for any armor)

Any-who, I did several coats, sanding inbetween to make it smooth in areas that it may have clumped weird, this was due mostly to being a noob and learning as I go. But just be sure to work fast when applying coats of resin, depending on temperature and how much hardener you add to your resin it can dry fast!

After some patience, energy drinks, comfort food... it was ready to be painted.

I taped off the handle with designs based off of reference pictures and started painting using spray paint.

I used matte spray paint found from Home Depot, they have good quality/affordable paint with such a large variety! I payed about $3.50 for a can.

Be prepared to be covered in soooo much dust. My dark clothes were practically white!

Once I had the head of the hammer a solid white, I taped off the lines and started to add in the texture details.

Using the dremel, I started to add the wood texture along with some battle damage. Because lets face it. Harley isn't caring this thing around for funsies.

Since using a cardboard tube has a nice brown wood color, conveniently, once you dremel the details in, it reveals the cardboard as if it were to be real wood that were painted.