How're you finding it? And more importantly, are you enjoying it?
Thanks for the kind words.
For the second part of that question, I am enjoying myself greatly though I greatly underestimated the amount of time I would be able to free up for it. Progress is very slow as a result though if I would add up the hours I think I'd be surprised I haven't spend as much time as it feels like. I'm lucky if I can put an hour or two in each week. I've also moved to the balkony for the sanding work, the wife got very tired with all the dust in the house (for good reason), and that has limited my time as well as it is not as warm out as I would like and I'm dependent on daylight.
My daughter at this point is more interesting in watching things develop than participating, I guess after sanding another piece for the umpfteenth time it gets kinda boring, but the smile on her face the first time she put the chest piece on was worth gold. She's really pushing me for redoing the helmet next
For me though, this is far more about learning new skills and doing something that is far removed from my day job and I'm in the lucky position that I can afford to waste time and a little bit of money on the learning experience.
The first part of that question is much harder to answer. I've wasted a lot of aqua resin on the first two parts and it feels like an overly expensive exercise right now. Also not having build a suit with epoxy or polyester before it is hard to compare whether I've made my life a lot harder or not. I do feel after getting the knack for reinforcing the pieces and using Aqua Cote for the initial coats things improved greatly which is why, despite some stupid mistakes, the chest piece worked out a lot better. Right now I'm still having a hard time making my life easy sanding everything. I'm getting better at not putting too much resin on wasting a lot of product sanding it back down just to find out I need to fill up more bits. But I'm pretty sure that is lack of skill as a beginner then anything to do with the product I'm using. I definitely have a lot more too learn in using the proper tools the proper way
Once I finish this suit I am going to try my hand at foam to make something for my son so I can give a good comparison between those two. I know that time wise it will be way quicker then what I'm doing right now but I'm especially interested in finding out if the extra time, cost and effort of doing pepakura and resin is worth it.
As for a very quick update, I won't detail things until I've received my resupply of Aqua resin and got the locks finished but the magnets on brackets are now glued in. For such tiny magnets I might have taken ones that are slightly too strong. I don't have to fear them coming loose too easily but I have managed to pull the magnet off of the bracket. Partly in not being patient enough with the glue and forgetting to rough up the contact areas but also simply that the magnets are too strong. I think I've gotten them to stick properly now but am hoping that once incased in resin they won't come loose from the brackets again (else I'm in for a challenge to fix them more strongly).
Then, I've actually glued them in off center. This should allow me to create a natural key that self centers the lock when the two pieces come together, or so I hope.
The other part of my plan will be a bit more challenging. I plan to use the cavity in the back part of the chest piece to store batteries and possibly a small cooling unit in but more importantly, I plan to turn it into a backpack. I'm thinking about buying a cheap backpack from a toystore or something, remove the pack itself so I'm left with the straps and the backing plate, and mount the back piece on that.
The back piece can thus be put on like a backpack and the front piece just clicks on.
Not sure if it'll work and if I can hide the straps well enough or incorporate them well enough into the design but I think it will be just that much easier and more comfortable for my daughter to wear.
