art-of-swords:

Pia-kaeta Dagger & Scabbard

Materials: Ivory Handle, Parcel-Gilt Silver Mounts, 

Location: Kandy, Sri Lanka

Period: 18th century

Dimensions: Length when sheafed: 34cm; length of blade & hilt alone: 29.7cm

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Examples of piha-kaeta daggers from Sri Lanka are not difficult to come by, but excellent eighteenth century examples are relatively rare. This is a superb example. The hilt is of ivory finely carved and detailed with a liya-pata pattern. The end is encased in a broad rounding of silver that has been chased with typically Ceylonese scrolling foliage and fruit motifs. From this is emitted a rounded tang button. The hilt is further embellished with six applied silver scrolling leaf motif plaques.

The blade is straight with a single edge. It is inlaid on both sides with vegetal motifs in brass; is inset and overlaid with sheet silver that has been chased with swirling flower bud and foliage motifs; and encased in a thick silver section that has been chiselled with extravagant, leafy patterns and engraved with more foliate scrolls that has then been parcel gilded providing an elegant and fine contrast between the gold and silverwork.

The top of the blade is further decorated by chased silver sheet that has been let into the blade. The scabbard is of two halves of grooved, light wood, the upper part of which has been encased in thin, high-grade silver sheet that has been embellished with filigree and pearled silver wire borders.

This piha-kaeta is in excellent condition. There are no significant losses with any losses largely being restricted to fritting to the edges of the silver overlay. There is a minor repair to one side of the tip of the wooden scabbard. The piece has a wonderful patina, particularly the ivory hilt which has a warm, golden hue. Overall, it is a very fine example.

Source & Copyright: Michael Backman Ltd

Texturing and sculpting in Zbrush went brilliantly, however, I got sabotaged by my own poor UV mapping, therefore the model imported very poorly in UDK. I may fix this in time, but, considering there are two hours left for the competition submission, it’s pretty much done.

Quick previews of the Darksiders axe.

A few hours of work and a Maya crash later…Oh well.

art-of-swords:

Fantasy Swords

Steampunk Sword: Ibaraki by TamonteN

I have always found swords with pistol grips interesting, however, I think this is not a great example. It’s a bit of a mongrel between a (rather uniform) machete blade and a katana grip and guard. While personally not my favourite sword, I can appreciate the craft behind a katana. However, it does not seem to fit the setting it is supposed to be a part of (steampunk), especially the guard.

I am not antirely sure what to say about the addition of the gun. While it has certainly been done before, the overall form of the weapon would prevent it from being of any kind of use. Notice that the weapon is roughly rifle-shaped: the hilt can be held against the shoulder for firing. However, one would need to use an extra hand for support, along the body of the rifle. This would be somewhere in front of the trigger, along the blade. While blades can be held (even while sharp), the recoil action of firing the gun would probably injure (if not sever) the user’s hands. Otherwise, it could be fired one-handed, but the blade would be rather heavy, making it very difficult to aim.

I think this design could be improved by chaning the katana elements and rethinking how the user would fire the weapon.

art-of-swords:

Fine Turkish Qama or Kindjal with Silver and Niello Decoration

A magnificent example of a large Kindjal or Qama shortsword from Turkey, most likely the Trabzon region on the North Black Sea coast. The rugged shortsword of this area is typified by this extremely fine quality kindjal, the large silver mounts are exquisitely engraved and decorated with inlaid niello work, showing the close connection this region had with the art styles found on Caucasian weapons, the kindjals, pistols and swords.

Large kindjals of this type with strongly angular hilts are often found with the lower mounts or chape made of plain iron to protect the sword blade within, this example has a large silver chape decorated en suite which is more unusual to find. Both sides of the hilt have large silver shaped rivets of different styles to each face, the grip is wrapped with silver wire, the hilt tightly fitting into the silver upper mount of the sheath.

One side of the sheath has a large motif inlaid in niello with a trophy of arms above which is a tughra marking of the Ottoman Sultan. The centra section of the sheath originally of fine velvet now worn almost smooth from age. The large wide steel blade is magnificently made with multiple fullers with panels of floral engraving, one side deeply inlaid in gold with a calligraphic makers mark to it. A most beautiful example dating to the 19th century.

Source: Ashoka Arts

A gorgeous example of form and function coexisting.

art-of-swords:

Bejeweled Sword & Dagger Hilts

Examples of extreme ornamentation. By this point, these weapons are purely ceremonial or symbols of status. Were they to be used in combat, the precious stones could be easily lost. However, they are beautiful examples, nonetheless.

art-of-swords:

Different type of sword hilts

art-of-swords:

Roman Spatha

Source: Medieval Arms

A few rather interesting pommel shapes.

Current progress on the Darksiders 2 weapon design challenge on the Polycount forums. Here are the competition’s requirements:

For this contest you will be creating a Mace, Axe, or Hammer that would fit in the world of Darksiders. One entry from each category will be chosen to be included in the release of Darksiders II! — That’s right! Not in a future DLC release or a digital download of any sorts – the winning entries will be shipped with the game when it launches!

Contest Rules

• Create a mace, axe or hammer that would fit in the world of Darksiders.
• Design must be original and cannot contain elements from copyrighted works, reference to other IP, or use of any image that you do not own.
• Design must fit within the themes of Darksiders (More info on themes below)
• All submissions are to be showcased in a single jpeg. The image must contain a render of the final weapon with and without wireframe, and must display your diff and norm texture flats. This jpeg should be of a reasonable resolution.
  • This is a real-time challenge. You may use any real-time renderer (UDK, Crysis, etc.) but you must not use any post-processing effects or advanced (read: “fancy”) rendering techniques. Vigil wants to see your artwork as naturally as possible.
• Top 3 weapons as chosen by Vigil in each category will be asked to submit their models for final assessment.
• Winning entries will be asked for all source materials used in the creation of the assets.
• One weapon from each category will be chosen to be included in the ship of Darksiders II
• One artist per weapon/entry only. An artist may submit an entry for each of the 3 categories.
• Submissions must be made to the submission thread no later than 11:00am CST on March 26, 2012

Weapon Specifications

• Poly Budget: 1500 triangles
• Texture Budget: 512×512 Diff, Norm, Spec (Emissive map optional)
• Weapon must match supplied proxy dimensions and scale.

Unfortunately, this does not carry through in the illustrations, but the center piece of the axe head is a pair of skeletal hands tearing the skull apart. Carrying on with painting tonight, hopefully starting modeling tomorrow.

The competition thread can be found here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96235