The Soul Calibur series is somewhat unique in its focus on weapon-based combat rather than the hand-to-hand seen in most other popular fighting series such as Street Fighter and Tekken. This makes its cosplaying both more difficult and more impressive, as these handmade replicas show. Based off the weapon and armor of Cassandra, these replicas made by artist Harisson Krix of Volpin Props look remarkably realistic and are just the sort of thing needed to effectively pull off a costume of the character.
The first is Cassandra’s Digamma Sword, which was pieced together out of wood (with a steel core) and painted beautifully with metallic paint to make it look almost frighteningly realistic. Through some creative use of vinyl decals and silicone molds, the artist was able to make it look as if the sword itself is engraved with Greek letters when in fact they’re simply part of the brown-gold accent that runs along the blade’s length, able to be easily re-created at will from the mold. As pretty and shiny as it looks at this point, weathering techniques were used to make it look more “used” and less “toy-like”. Blue leather wrapped around the handle serves as a grip and a final accent to really make this sword impressive.
Next, we can see the metal pauldrons that Cassandra wears, no doubt another difficult part of the costume to get right. A wire mesh was used to get the basic shape, and then covered with Apoxie Sculpt to make it more solid and make the shape more clear. More is used to create and shape the filigree which at first takes on a very terracotta look and then smoothed out with brown primer. This was used to create a mold, allowing the artist to make as many of these as desired and to ensure that both pauldrons look the same. Soon enough it’s painted and weathered to look suitably metallic, along with the arm band, and the final product truly looks like a heavy duty piece of metal armor.
Lastly, Cassandra isn’t complete without her Nemea Shield, created with a wood base and a chunk of foam to serve as the main curved body of the shield. Clay was used to create the shield’s emblem and at that point, all it takes is a beautiful paint job to make the shield vibrant. On the reverse, you can see that it’s quite detailed as well, along with two straps to hold the shield correctly.
Hopefully, at this point, you’re aching to see more Soul Calibur weapons re-created, but unfortunately he hasn’t created more. Luckily, he’s done many other remarkable works of art which we’ve covered, such as this Portal Gun and the Daft Punk Helmet that took over a year to make.
