1:1 Scale Magic Wand

I've been intrigued with the idea of making a "truescale" magic wand for a number of years now. I would see them at GenCon every year and some pictures online and occasionally at a store and think "that's pretty cool, but I'll never get around to figuring out how to do that." I'd go down the youtube rabbithole of crafty videos where they were making wands for Harry Potter cosplay or kid parties and think the same thing.

About 6 months ago I started using a couple of old hot glue guns that my Grandmother had. They weren't bad but they weren't great either. Both of them broke in the span of a couple of weeks in mid-December so I picked up a cheap new one from a fabric store.

About a week ago I decided to put all that stored hot glue wand making knowledge to work and grabbed a couple of chopsticks, masking tape, and the new glue gun. These were the kind of chopsticks you break apart, so I did and hot glued them together so they overlapped a couple of inches. Next I used a lot of masking tape to help bulk up the holding end and give it a more tapered shape from tip to handle.

Then came the hot glue. I didn't have any plan at all except to get lots of nooks and crannies. After the glue was in place it looked kind of good but this picture doesn't really show that. It turned out to be almost right at 13 inches long.

A couple days later I started the painting process with a rubber glove to hold it so I wouldn't get too much paint on my hands. A couple of coats of black and I was ready to go with actual colors (mostly browns).

I drybrushed some dark purples (I think one was passion purple and the other African violet) then moved on to browns. The final top layers were a matte sealer that I use on miniatures to help protect it from normal use. I don't cosplay so 'normal use' will be vanquishing things that should not be on our plane of existence whenever that's called for.

I really like how this wand turned out and I think I may try my hand at a few more eventually (there's an old thick long paintbrush that's just begging for this treatment). I should probably come up with a name and background for this wand- for now it's origins remain shrouded in mysterious shadows...