How to Make Harley Quinn's Hammer.

My wife wanted to dress as Harley Quinn this Halloween and I offered to make her the hammer from the comic books.

This instructables was made with everything that I already had.
It was also a very quick build as I wouldn't have too much time to build it before Halloween.
This hammer could have been made differently or better but this is how I made it.
Hope you enjoy reading.

Tools.

Cutting blade.craft knife or scalpel.

Ruler, tape measure or tailors measuring tape. (flexible measuring tool)

Paint brushes.

Materials.

Large cardboard tube.

Broom handle or long dowel.

Small / medium card board tube. to fit over the broom or dowel.

EVA foam 10mm thick and 5mm

mount board 1.5mm card.

Glue. PVA/contact adhesive/epoxy

Acrylic paint.

The head of the hammer is made from some cardboard tube. 159mm diameter.

I had a length of this tube already. I measured around 400mm and cut the tube along that line. this gave me the main body of the hammer.

Using some scrap EVA foam i drew a circle the size of the internal hole of the tube and cut it out twice to act as a bung for the end of the tube.

For where the handle of the hammer goes through the hammer head i found the center of the length of the tube and drew a line around the tube. This will be used to measure around the tube to get the circumference of the tube.

This measurement was then divided into to two to find the top and bottom point of where the handle will go through the hammer head.

At these points i marked it and drew a hole ever so slightly smaller than the handle so it will have a tight fit.

Once i had the circle for the handle i started to carefully cut some spokes and then cut around the circumference and pushed the wedges into the tube, i did this for both holes on opposite sides.

I had a smaller tube which i cut to the diameter of the main tube and this will be pushed into the tube over each hole, i drilled four holes through the smaller tube, and when the Broom handle that im using as the hammers handle is inside, i drilled matching holes in the broom handle.

Using some 5mm dowel cut to slightly longer then the diameter of the small inner tube, these dowels are used as pegs to hold the broom handle inside the main tube securely. this bit is a little fiddly but i put the small tube inside the main tube and then inserted the handle into the main hole. I lined up the drilled holes in the tube with the handle by looking through them while holding it up to a light so it shines through all the holes. Once it was all lined up i pushed the pegs through all the holes and glued them in place. once glued i wrapped the whole small tube with tape ( i forgot to photograph this part. )

At this point the handle is very secure in the tube. the main tube will not move up or down the handle and will not tip forward or back. although it will rotate around the handle.

To stop the tube rotating around the handle i poured some PVA glue into the gaps and joins at the bottom and top of the small tube, spinning it slowly inside the main tube to get the glue all around the joins. Once that glue dried it is very secure and stops all movement of the handle inside the hammer head.

For the details of the hammer i used some thin EVA foam cut into 30mm wide strips. These strips were then glued onto each end of the main tube, slightly set back from the edges.

Using the thin EVA foam i cut out 4 hexagons (i glued two together
to make it thicker) to go around each end of the handle going into and coming out of the hammer head.

I then painted a few coats of PVA and water over the whole head of the hammer to seal the EVA foam so it can be painted.

Once it had dried and everything was sealed i moved on to some more details. I put these details on after the sealing as the card parts dont really need sealing to be able to take paint.

I cut some small card discs and glued two together to glue onto the EVA strips to look like nails or brads holding the strip on the hammer. I glued these discs onto the thin EVA ring at semi random places. i left around 35/40mm between each disc. on each end of the hammer i started the discs at different places to make it more random and cobbled together.

On one end of the hammer i am putting Harley Quinns logo so i cut 8 diamonds out of mount board 1.2mm thick and have glued two layers together to make a raised detail on one end.I glued these diamonds onto one of the flat ends of the hammer.

On the other end of the hammer I carved "your face here" so i sketched out where i wanted the words to be and carved them out with a scalpel. I cut into the foam at an angle with the knife on both sides of the line this leaves a little valley in the foam. on the rounder letters i cut them bit by bit in the same way. They came out a little hacked and choppy which is what i wanted as i wanted it to look like it had been carved out with a knife in a hurried fashion. (i forgot to cut the letters before i painted the hammer white so i had to repeat the glue stage on just the cut words)

When I had all the details glued on and set in place i moved on to panting the hammer.

I started with a couple of coats of white paint to seal the foam even more and give a uniformed colour to start painting on.

I mixed up a lot of mid level brown paint and painted all the parts that are meant to be wood. I did two coats of this color. one as a base and the second coat was painted on quite thick and when painting i painted with brush strokes in the direction of the grain that would be on the wood. the ends were painted in circles and the sides front to back.

I painted them thick so the brush marks would stay in the paint and make it look like grain.

Once this had fully dried (which took a while as it was thick) i split the unused mid brown paint into two lots and lightened one and darkened the other.

Using the light Paint i painted the ends of the hammer. Again painting in circles to mimic the grain. I did a couple of coats but i didnt want to cover it too well so the mid brown shows through a little bit to give depth to the painting. When i was painting the end i did not paint the end of the cardboard tube, I just painted the EVA foam disc. so that the thickness of the card tube looks like the thickness of the bark from the log. This was left the mid brown colour.

Using the dark paint i painted the sides of the tubes. Again front to back mimicking the grain, and again not covering the mid brown too much .

The thin EVA bars around each end an the top and bottom nuts i painted a very dark grey/charcoal colour. I gave these a couple of coats to make sure they were coated properly. i painted these parts last as when painting the sides it was inevitable that i would get the brown paint on them .

When all the paints had dried i moved on to the end details of the hammer.

I painted the Diamonds a red, it takes time and a steady hand to paint the sides of the diamonds without getting it on the brown so take your time.

For the words i just thinned down some paint slightly and with a fine brush painted it into the valleys of the words. on a couple of occasions i got a bit of paint outside the lines but it can be wiped down very easily with a wet cloth or paper towel.

Using the dark brown I darkened it and watered it down. (Just a little thicker than water)
With this wash mix I painted the hammer head bit by bit, painting the wash on and rubbing it off with a paper towel and then dragging some crumpled news paper across it. I did this in the direction of the grain again.
I did this for all the brown "wooden" sections.

On the charcoal "metal" parts I used some silver paint to highlight the edges of the rivets and the strap. This makes it look like painted metal that has had the paint chip off and rub away in use.

When all the paint had dried I gave the whole hammer head a coat of clear coat mat spray to protect the painted parts.

When all the paint has dried the hammer is complete, you have your Harley Quinn hammer.

Now it's time to go clobber the Bat Man.

Thank you for taking the time to read my instructable. If you have any questions please ask and I will try to answer them.

Also if you think this is prize worthy please vote for me in the competition