The Hacksmith Making Frostmourne's Aura Come to Life

2018-08-17 | By The Hacksmith

License: See Original Project

The Hacksmith team has made a few projects based on items in Blizzard games, but this is the first one from the Warcraft universe. If you’ve played Warcraft 3 or World of Warcraft, you’ve probably seen Frostmourne, the most iconic sword from the world of Azeroth (sorry, Ashbringer and Thunderfury).

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Warcraft, Frostmourne was a runeblade that trapped the souls of its victims and bent its wielder's will to serve the Lich King. Frostmourne turned the once noble paladin, Prince Arthas, on the path of darkness, eventually merging him with Ner’Zhul, the Lich King. The merging of Arthas and the Lich King made for a big bad boss so powerful that it took an entire World of Warcraft expansion to defeat him. Blizzard’s developers decided that Frostmourne was too cool for players to have, so players could only make Shadowmourne, an axe from the shards of its remains.

Watermelons stand no chance against the might of Frostmourne!

In order to do such an epic blade justice, the team wanted to make something sharp with enough weight to cut through things with ease. It also needed to emit the same frosty, shadowy aura that the sword produces in the game. See how it was done in the video below!

The Circuit to Make Frosty, Shadowy Mist

In order to make a sword hilt that shoots blue mist, you need three main ingredients, an LED strip, an air pump, and an electronic vaporizer (like the ones in e-cigarettes). Two 7.4V LiPo batteries power the 12V LED strip (frosty blue colored, of course), which are regulated by a battery management system. The blade also has a charging port, so you can plug Frostmourne in to recharge when you’re not collecting the souls of enemies on the battlefield. A 5V-30V boost board is used to get enough power to the air pump, so it can propel the blue mist far enough to strike fear into the hearts of the living. The electronic vaporizer is powered by its own 18650 Li-Ion battery and emits nicotine-free vapor (cherry flavor!). You can check out the circuit below in Scheme-It!

The vapor comes from the runes, which are illuminated by LEDs

Schematic and BOM

More Hacksmith Creations From Blizzard Games

While this is the first project from the Warcraft universe, the Hacksmith team has made multiple projects from Overwatch on Maker.io if you’re jonesing for more Blizzard creations!

• Making Zarya’s Particle Cannon Real
• Torbjörn's Turret From Overwatch Made Real