Grrr! We're freelancers! Red vs Blue WIP

[Sara]

Thanks so much guys, I think I'm going to end up with a huge ego if I keep posting here

Y'all are doing an amazing job. It's nice to see someone using the glass/bondo method again. I would hate to see it become a lost art around here. This is a thread that I plan on keeping track of. Keep up the good work.

I love the foam builds but I agree, I love watching a glass/bondo build come together and I'd hate to see it die out as a medium.

Made a bit of progress this weekend, I finally filled the brute shot with foam. It had to be filled with something before I could start any body work on it because resined paper doesn't provide enough resistance for sanding.

I really want to mold and cast it when it's done and it seemed like that would be easiest if I broke it down into a few pieces. I also had to break it up a bit to get the foam in there so I cut it into the pieces I wanted to mold it in and got fillin'

The thought occurs that it would have been much simpler to just build the pep file that's already sectioned but at the time I wasn't thinking that far ahead. I've sectioned the knifle into 6 pieces; the body, the blade, the 3 front attachments and the handle.

The problem with 2 part foam is that the expansion of the foam can be a bit extreme and can cause warping so to try to minimise the risk of this we buried the parts in a bin full of sand. We were hoping the sand would offer some resistance to the foam and help it keep it's shape. Here's Kristian burying the blade and 2 of the front attachments:


110 by sara sternberg, on Flickr

Honestly the blade needed to be buried a little further down, I had to support the top part with my hands once the top started foam-sploding. The sand worked pretty well, I was really concerned about the blade twisting and thankfully it didn't, the paper faces have all bowed outwards and it's going to take quite a while to sand them back down. Here's one end of the blade filled with foam, I've sanded down one side here and you can see that the other is still really bowed out:


118 by sara sternberg, on Flickr

Here you can see my sanding efforts so far:
All the paper has got to go, it's only going to cause problems during bondo otherwise.


122 by sara sternberg, on Flickr


1 by sara sternberg, on Flickr

Not sure if you can see it in the photos but the sand has caused a bit of a problem. While the brute shot didn't feel tacky (resined months ago) apparently it still was and now it's got a layer of sand on it that doesn't want to move. I'm not too worried about it because this piece is getting sanded all over anyway, I'm just glad I haven't foamed the body yet, I don't fancy scraping sand out of all those tiny details *shudder* Thankfully Bubbles came up with a solution so that the body doesn't get sandy, it'll be put in a bin liner before it gets buried. Live and learn I guess.

If anyone's interested I'll try to take some more photos of the process tomorrow when I foam the body, I had a run in with a glue gun this afternoon so I was struggling to work a camera (ouch)
Anyway, it's pretty exciting to finally be playing with the brute shot, it's going to be hard waiting to finish my chest piece and Maine's helmet before I can really go to work on it.

Cheers guys
Sara

 

[demo084]

great idea burying the pieces to prevent expansion. If I was going to do a mold I'd probably use plaster of paris (POP). I know it's brittle but it is easy to form once it sets up and wouldn't cause anything to warp. Just a thought though.

 

[Sara]

Don't know how but plaster completely slipped my mind, that probably would have worked quite well for the blade and attachments, the body would've been pretty heavy though. Hmmm, just goes to show, if in doubt refer to the 405th... before you make a Foam-splosion!

 

[thorn696]

Quick question...

2 part foam

Are you talking about 2 part cold foam? or are you using a can spray foam?

If it is a true 2 part cold foam. You can tweak that amount of part A to part B to get a harder, less expanding, mixture. I have done this to make teeth for Zombie makeup and it works well.:cool

As always Loving your build.

 

[Sara]

it's 2 part cold foam, this was my first time using it. I'm feeling a bit more courageous now so I might have to try experimenting with it, thanks for the tip

 

[BeanwaterFox]

Wow sand was a fantastic idea! Nice!

 

[Skullptura]

Yup. I would never have thought of using sand like that. I love the 405th lol!

 

[demo084]

It's projects with high detail and attention to the small stuff, like this one, that make this site so awesome. The talent is endless and you can find 100s of techniques that work.

 

[spartansonny]

nice technique and progress sara! keep it up!

 

[D008ie360]

Good idea with the sticks makes it a little easier for shape building nice one

 

[Sara]

Update!

Did some work on the back today, to start with I finally finished off the detail that I start back on page 5&6. It looks pretty average in this photo but it's looking pretty good in person.



And I've also started working on the detail that runs down the centre of the back. It was a bit covered in fibreglass runs, not to mention tedious to try to get in and sand so I've cut it out. I was planning on building it out of bondo separately and then adding it in but now I think I'm going to make this piece out of foam. I'm also going to cut out the similar piece above it and foam that too.



'til next time

 

[Ghost01]

You have some serious bondo skills and some serious patience. Your build is looking phenomenal!

 

[Sara]

wow, thanks

 

[demo084]

Amazing as always. Hoping my bondo work will look at least half as good as yours.

 

[Charlie117]

Am still having trouble understanding your how to detail armor even though you have detailed pictures with before and after and still i don't get it because some of the members here do details difrently than you. Where am stuck is when you start drawing the details , then you place clay?? and cover that piece of clay with bondo?? and start sanding around the piece and then you start working on the piece so it looks 3d mensional like sticking out the armor??? I want to try this with craft foam , with a couple of layers so it can stick out more but i dont think craft foam will hold up to bondo. It does hold up to resin ( it doesnt eat it ) but bondo is another story. But your bondo , detailing and sanding it's youst too perfect i mean ive never seen such a thing and beleive me, this site has plenty of very talented people but ive never seen this never. Exelent job 1+ subscriber

 

[Sara]

Thank you very much Charlie117

To apply detail I start by sketching it out on the armour, then I mask off the section and apply some bondo. While to bondo is still wet and hasn't started to sure at all I start to pull the tape off. It does make a mess of the edges but as long as you remove the tape carefully you should still be able to see your sketch a bit. Once the bondo goes rubbery I carve it back to this line. I let the first layer harden and then I apply another, this time without tape. Once the first layer is hard you can use it as a guide for carving the next layer. it usually takes a couple of coats of bondo, but everything always does. There's also quite a bit of sanding where needed and spot putty once it's done.

Hope this helps
I really have to find the time to make a video, I just want to find something to detail that hasn't been covered in tuts before so I'm not wasting anyone's time going over the same ground.

 

[Charlie117]

Haha dont worry, you wont dissapoint nor waste someones time doing this. Cant wsit for a video , go for it for real even if its a handplate haha i really dont mind as long as am seeign the technique.

Thank you very much Charlie117

To apply detail I start by sketching it out on the armour, then I mask off the section and apply some bondo. While to bondo is still wet and hasn't started to sure at all I start to pull the tape off. It does make a mess of the edges but as long as you remove the tape carefully you should still be able to see your sketch a bit. Once the bondo goes rubbery I carve it back to this line. I let the first layer harden and then I apply another, this time without tape. Once the first layer is hard you can use it as a guide for carving the next layer. it usually takes a couple of coats of bondo, but everything always does. There's also quite a bit of sanding where needed and spot putty once it's done.

Hope this helps
I really have to find the time to make a video, I just want to find something to detail that hasn't been covered in tuts before so I'm not wasting anyone's time going over the same ground.

 

[bubblycarolina]

Time for a Carolina update!

I have been working on the neck detail over the past couple of days, adding in the detail that was missing in the pep, using the same technique me and Sara have been using for the other detail.

Thanks again to everyone for all the encouragement!

BubblyCarolina =D

 

[TheReconSpartan]

wow! this looks more detailed than the people wearing it in RvB!!!Keep up the extraordinary work on these. What are you going to do for Maine's visor? I was thinking different layered sections of various gold motorcycle visors so you can see through the whole thing instead of a tiny piece of it. But hey that's just me.

 

[Spartan_127]

Everything is looking great. The attention to detail is awesome. Can't wait to see more.