Creating Selphie's Crescent Wish : Final Fantasy VIII

I know that the Crescent Wish is not Slephie's final weapon. However out of all of her nun-chucks it was one of my favorite designs! I wanted to make something that I loved the design of. When creating these I did a lot of things at the time that were very new to me so It was a learning experience. I have come a long way since creating these.

First I had to collect different reference photos. I actually had to pause the game and then take pictures with my phone. I started by drawing out my designs for the star and moon. The I began to sculpt them using sculpey.

I used a foil center to save on clay materials. After I baked the clay it became hard and I was able to sand it down smooth. However trying to get the star to stay perfectly symmetrical now became very difficult. After many hours of working on it I realized I needed to find another way to make it work.

I used bondo to fill in any imperfections and then sanded the clay smooth. Even with guided lines drawn on the star it was still too difficult to get perfect.

I came up with an idea to cut the start shape out of 2 pieces of wood. You can still see the old start there but I think the new on came out better. All I had at the time was a dremel to carefully cut the star shape out.

To get the thickness that I wanted I used styrofoam. Which is what I also used on the Sailor Moon wand and it worked very well! So i really like this method since it's easy to work with. After I cut it out I filled in all the holes with bondo. Bondo does not eat styrofoam so you do not need to coat it before doing this.

I did lots of sanding until the sides were very smooth. It was a lot easier to keep the shape of the star using this method. I decided to install quick connectors. This way the pieces can come off for easier travel and maintenance.

Back to the moon! I did the this exact same process for the star but I will just be showing the moon since it is the same. I just did a 1 part silicone mold for both objects so that I was able to cast this out of plastic.

Now that the moon is cast it a solid piece that I can dremel into so that I am able to add in the quick connect pieces. To clean-up around the edges to make it look more seamless I used Bondo.

I bought 2 wooden dowels for the nun-chucks. Dremeled out a bevel on the ends to add the quick connectors the same as I did for the moon and star. I cleaned up the edges with bondo. After priming and painting both wooden dowels white I taped off the design to paint in the silver.

For created the 2 top pieces I lathed a wooden dowel for the shape. I used spray paint filler and sanding to sand out the wood grain texture. I still drilled in the hole but covered it with clay for the mold process.

I submerged the half into clay first adding in a gate and registrations for the mold. for this piece I am creating a 2-part mold. So once it is done I am able to cast 2 identical pieces.

I used gold leaf rub n buff to color the pieces. I used smooth cast for the resin. After that I covered everything in a clear-coat. To finish off the weapon I added in real chain just for a realistic feel.

Finally here is the finished product! I currently have it hanging up in my studio. You can check out my Selphie costumeas well!