Boldspace Giant World Championship Darts

  • A giant dart prop with fake paving slabs scenically painted to blend in with real slabs.
  • A 3.5 metre high giant dart prop in Cardiff City Centre.

The brief

As with many of the projects we work on, there is very little time and this was no exception. Our client, Boldspace asked us to create 3 giant dart props to promote the Darts Championship. Each of the darts were to be placed in 3 different areas of the city and had to be installed overnight under the cover of darkness.

Project Details

It was brilliant working with Spur Creative to bring three, giant golden darts to the streets of Cardiff city centre. We were delighted with the end result and wouldn’t think twice about working with the team again on future projects! 

Alice Kennedy Senior Account Director - Boldspace

Prop process images

  1. Turning the barrel of a giant dart sculpture on a lathe.
  2. Adding aluminium foil to a giant dart barrel prior to making a fibreglass mould.
  3. A giant dart body cast in fibreglass.
  4. Fixing the flight to one of three giant dart sculptures.
  5. Three giant 3.5 metre high dart sculptures in the workshop, made to promote the 2024 World Darts Championship.
  6. Laying up fibreglass into a fibreglas mould of a giant dart prop.
  7. A primed giant 3.5 metre dart prop ready for painting.
  8. Two of three giant dart props in the workshop prior to being delivered to Cardiff City Centre.

The Process

We have experience of making giant props that are meant to look as though they've crashed into the local environment; a giant Waitrose arrow, spaceships and UFO's, and so we now know exactly what is involved. We work with a structural engineer on anything that is large and going to be placed outdoors and so, before we started manufacturing the 3 darts, we needed to know that they would be safe for the general public. It was decided that the base for each dart should weigh just under 1 tonne each. We made the bases with 20mm thick mild steel plate that measured 2 metres by 1 metre. We hid these by replicating the paving slabs in each location where the darts were to be placed. We only had photos of the existing slabs to work from and it isn't easy scenically painting to match exactly from photographs, however, we have years of experience and so managed to match them well.

We turned polystyrene on our lathe to create the shaft and barrel of the dart, then moulded and cast in fibreglass. The tip of the dart was welded to the metal base and the barrel and shaft were slotted onto this on site and fixed into position. The flights were aluminium with printed vinyl applied of the clients logo.

Project Image

A giant dart prop in Cardiff City Centre.

The Result

We had fun with this one and the darts received a lot of attention in the mainstream media and sociaol media, and our client was very happy with the result.