Re: Frozensnot's Mark VI w/ duel SMG's (HD pic heavy)
UPDATE TIME
With only a week and a half left before I leave for college, I kicked this build into high gear. I first started by playing the Metal Gear Solid Series for the first time, *doh*! Certainly not the best way to make armor but I couldn't help myself once I started the first one
. But I did manage to prioritize my time by working on my armor during the day and saving the Metal Gear Solid series for the night.
Anyways, for this update I'll mainly be focusing on my newly formed visors, more specifically vacuum formed visors. I've gotta say that doing this for the first time seemed quite daunting. Lucky for me though, I was able to come out with four pretty dang good looking visors.
Here is the setup. I have my custom heat box, the vacuum table, the buck, and the frame to hold the plastic.
Here is a close up of the heat box.
This is where I found my heater. It's an Optimus H-9010 Wall Mount Utility Heater. It's rated at a max of 1500 watts (the box says 1500w but amazon says 1200w so I'm not sure which is the right one) and uses quartz heating elements. I wanted to make sure the heater didn't have a fan and the wattage rating was high enough, so that is why I went with this one.
I used 1/2" premium mdf for the actual box and lined the inside with aluminum foil and some type of aluminum tape I found. For the maximum heat and proper distribution of heat, I measured my box with two different dimensions. Two faces of the box are 18"x22" and the other two faces are trapezoids which measure out to 18"x12"x18" (basexbasexheight).
The heat box creates a nice even heat and works great for my current setup.
Moving on, instead of using wing nuts like XRobots uses, I opted for using clamps. I can easily remove the plastic and insert another sheet easily. It's more efficient in my opinion. For keeping the clamps on I first used JB Weld but I found that the adhesion was not strong enough. I also know that using screws in thin mdf is not the greatest idea because it splits easier. I wasn't left with much of a choice so I ended up screwing the clamps on.
For the suction I used a dyson and hooked it up to a pvc pipe. I can't exactly remember the size so if anyone is interested in the size of pvc pipe I used, I can add it in later.
Let's not forget the buck
!
Doing this for the first time kind of stressed me out not knowing how long to heat the plastic up for. I made sure to time how long I kept the plastic heated so I could gauge how long to heat the plastic. Lucky for me, my first attempt was a success! The time came to about 115 seconds.
After the plastic had cooled off enough, I removed the plastic and cut out the visor with a stanely knife.
Three attempts later, I ended up with four visors. I'm pretty stoked I didn't mess up a single sheet of plastic! Beginners luck I guess, haha.
In the next couple of days, I will be dyeing the visors and give them a mirror finish. I'm going for a more orange visor. It would be cool to test out other colors but for now, I'll stick with the classic orange.
I also managed to install lights into the majority of my armor besides my helmet. I'll take pictures of the lights when the helmet is done. Besides, I put up enough pictures as it is
. I'll try and keep these next few updates focused on the visor.
In any case, Thanks for stopping by!
