Loki Stuttgart Cane Build

A while ago I got a commission to build  a replica of Loki's cane from the Stuttgart opera scene in Avengers Assemble. Biggest drawback is the shortage of decent pictures on the Internet. Anyway I found a few, but it was always going to have to be more of a pastiche than an exact replica.

I started with an oak  walking stick or cane shaft, standard item, tapered. I stuck a couple of offcuts of polyurethane foam to the top end to give a bit of extra length and to start shaping it to look something like the film prop.

 I had intended to finish this part of the build and then make the top section with the crystal. I got carried away! I shaped the foam like the top of the cane and then covered it with glass fibre and resin for strength.
Not too shabby so far.

After liberal application of filler and a good bit of rubbing down, a quick spray of primer as a guide coat to see what needs work.

I needed to to make the piece which seems to wrap part way round the top end of the cane, I thought maybe I could cut a piece of polystyrene sheet to shape and then use heat to bend it to the shape of the cane. I was wrong! Well it wasn't a complete failure, if the cane top had been a straight cylinder I would have got away with it, but there are some compound curves in there which made it difficult to get it right. Could be done with a vacuum forming machine probably but you'd need the top of the cane to use in the vac former as a form to mould the sheet to.
I went back to basics. Cut the shape from cardboard, tape it to the top of the cane where it's supposed to be then cover the cardboard with glassfibre and resin.
Next I used filler to smooth it out and trimmed off the excess glassfibre.
When the glassfibre moulding of the cover plate had cured , I trimmed it to shape and applied a layer of glassfibre to the inside, set it aside to cure again. Now cured trimmed to size, filled and sanded for a smooth finish, embellishment in polystyrene sheet attached, drilled countersunk and painted.

 Meanwhile I'd been filling,  sanding, priming and painting the cane. Grey primer, coat of flat black and then gold top coat. I'd also been working on the "crystal" I thought I would use a piece of clear acrylic sheet mould to shape to make the fron of the crystal which when fixed in place in the cane would create the space for the LED and battery.
I made a former by shaping a piece of wood and cut a corresponding shape from a piece of MDF. I screwed the acrylic sheet to the MDF, propped it on a couple of blocks, heated it with a hot air gun then pressed the wooden former in to the softened sheet.

And after some fiddling around , a trial run with the LED fitted.
I got hold of a small 12 volt battery and holder which made a nice tidy job of the installation and it's all finished