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1 + 1 = Awesome
Posted on Tuesday, August 18 2009 @ 20:14:59 Eastern

(Copied from my Destructoid blog, my second favorite gaming community.  GR cannot be replaced!)

The first 1 being Rock Band

The second 1Devil May Cry 3

I was tasked by fellow DToider SephirothX to take a standard RB2 wireless guitar for the 360 and transform it into the electric bat summoning. badass guitar scyth Nevan of DMC3. I happily took the job.




I started by cracking open the body of the guitar to see where all the boards and wires were located. Turns out that the control chips for it are stored in the lower "wing" of the body. Luckily there was enough slack in the wires and extra base posts so i just shifted it down. My friend Mr. Hacksaw got rid of those pesky protrusions so that the basic body shape was more conducive to nevan creation. Unfortunatly I have no photo of this step.

I'm really not an engineer or draftsman, so I went into this project with no more than a silhouette of what i wanted, keeping my reference images in front of me the whole time.




Since I'm cheap, I like to use cheap materials. Here's my list:

Sheets of 18x12 inch craft foam (Creatology Fun Foam to be exact), 99 cents a sheet
Needle and thread (already had it), cheap
E-6000 glue, about $3 a tube. Went through about one and a half
Acrylic paint, Basic brand is cheap
Triple Thick glaze, about $5 for a small jar, didn't use the whole thing

I started by cutting out the shapes from my loose plan and stitching the edges together with a really crappily done whip stitch, pulling tight enough to keep it together but not so tight that it would rip through the foam. Then I ran a bead of glue along both sides of the seam and smoothed it down with my finger. This creates a strong bond (stronger than the actual material) and fills in any gaps. I started with the bottom half of the guitar and marked out a flap for access to the controls. Note: DO NOT USE PEN TO MAKE MARKS!!! I found that in my last step, the glaze pulled the pen's ink right through the paint and now I've got marks that hopefully people won't notice.




Next step was the same cut-stitch-glue process, this time for the top blade.




Later on I decided to add in some real detail on the blades. Cut out some holes , made some shallow cones that are slightly wider than the holes, and glued them in place. It really helped a lot in the end.




Made a template for the middle strum bar area with holes cut for it and the whammy bar. then made some ridges with thin lengths of foam and stuck it on.




After which i made the third small blade. Same process as the others, but close on all sides to be later glued to the body at the final construction stage. Here's the first photo I have in which you can see the scale of the project so far. Here you can see the smelly basement I'm living in for the summer. Horray for living far from home and only having a job near campus! Photoshop blurred to hide the mess. (middle part excluded as it was drying)




For the neck I ducttapped (always a good choice) a pair of wooden dowels to the back of it and encased it in a tube of foam. cut out gaps for the fret buttons and use a semicircle to fill the gap. Added the side points and the new head the same way as the blades. Again, why do I seem to forget to take photos of the important part? After this, I went ahead and glued all the pieces to the body permanently.




Using my art major powers of knowing how to paint, I uh, painted it. base coat of dark blue, then built up the lights and pushed back the darks. Mixed in gloss varnish additive to make it somewhat shiny already.




After that is glazing, the easiest part. Brush on glaze and let dry. It gave it that awesome wet sports car look. Horray for final product!




I'd very much appreciate some input on this. Totally cool? Totally lame?