Sir Tsaboc
Member
Now here's a build I've been meaning to work on for months now. I didn't start a thread and update it step by step so here's the whole kit and kaboodle.
I commissioned Vrogy to model the dagger for 3d printing, at which he did an excellent job. This was my first time experimenting with 3d printing, so everything was quite new to me. I encountered a few problems when trying to get it printed through Shapeways, since it was considered a weapon, so Chris Myles of Ammnra Creations suggested adding a "safety tip" to the model to make it harmless when printed. It worked! After a couple months of waiting and planning, the print arrived.
I should mention that this is indeed only half the dagger. It saved quite a bit of money to just get half of it printed. This will be resolved during the molding stage.
Shapeways SLS Nylon has a textured and powdery surface when printed, so I went in with spot putty, sandpaper, and filler primer to get it nice and smooth.
I used an angled medium and fine sanding sponge on the spot putty to get all the crevices. The little "buds" running down the center of the blade were particularly tricky to get, so I used needle files for those.
The dagger was then sprayed with 3 layers of filler primer to fill in any microscopic imperfections, then thoroughly wet sanded with 800, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper. When all seemed satisfactory, I prepped for molding by creating a mold box out of lego bricks. Legos are AWESOME for molding since you can get the same shape every time, and it's adhesive free. I bought little acrylic half spheres from tap plastics and super glued these to a sheet of foam board, along with the dagger half.
Stop!
Rubber time!
With one half of the mold completed, I poured several casts of just the half until I got one that was perfectly flat. I combined this half with the prototype half and remolded the dagger.
After pouring a few test casts and working out the air bubble kinks, I deemed the mold worthy enough for some special resin.
Eric Jarman gave me good pointers for this step, as I wanted to replicate the glassy/textured look of the dagger in game. I used Epoxacast 690 combined with blue dye and metallic green powder. This epoxy has a 24 hour cure time and 5 hour pot life, so I had to constantly turn the mold to make sure the green particles didn't all settle at the bottom.
But after a few trials I got something decent!
I painted this cast up with acrylic paints and gave it a little weathering to get this.
I am by no means done yet, since this one was only a test! I'm about to try out some pigment/cold casting when my next shipment arrives. Stay tuned!
I commissioned Vrogy to model the dagger for 3d printing, at which he did an excellent job. This was my first time experimenting with 3d printing, so everything was quite new to me. I encountered a few problems when trying to get it printed through Shapeways, since it was considered a weapon, so Chris Myles of Ammnra Creations suggested adding a "safety tip" to the model to make it harmless when printed. It worked! After a couple months of waiting and planning, the print arrived.
I should mention that this is indeed only half the dagger. It saved quite a bit of money to just get half of it printed. This will be resolved during the molding stage.
Shapeways SLS Nylon has a textured and powdery surface when printed, so I went in with spot putty, sandpaper, and filler primer to get it nice and smooth.
I used an angled medium and fine sanding sponge on the spot putty to get all the crevices. The little "buds" running down the center of the blade were particularly tricky to get, so I used needle files for those.
The dagger was then sprayed with 3 layers of filler primer to fill in any microscopic imperfections, then thoroughly wet sanded with 800, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper. When all seemed satisfactory, I prepped for molding by creating a mold box out of lego bricks. Legos are AWESOME for molding since you can get the same shape every time, and it's adhesive free. I bought little acrylic half spheres from tap plastics and super glued these to a sheet of foam board, along with the dagger half.
Stop!
Rubber time!
With one half of the mold completed, I poured several casts of just the half until I got one that was perfectly flat. I combined this half with the prototype half and remolded the dagger.
After pouring a few test casts and working out the air bubble kinks, I deemed the mold worthy enough for some special resin.
Eric Jarman gave me good pointers for this step, as I wanted to replicate the glassy/textured look of the dagger in game. I used Epoxacast 690 combined with blue dye and metallic green powder. This epoxy has a 24 hour cure time and 5 hour pot life, so I had to constantly turn the mold to make sure the green particles didn't all settle at the bottom.
But after a few trials I got something decent!
I painted this cast up with acrylic paints and gave it a little weathering to get this.
I am by no means done yet, since this one was only a test! I'm about to try out some pigment/cold casting when my next shipment arrives. Stay tuned!
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