Calladar's Kat WIP

[SPRTNBD50]

thanks. and oops. there.. i work nights and can sure loose track of days.. lol

I know how you feel!

 

[calladar]

got the visor in today. wow it cut it really close on being tall enough. it will work but not much room to spare. working tonight and when i get home in the morning i am going to put it in and start filling the open area between the visor and helmet (i know there will be some). once that is done i am ready to mold.

 

[Brandon McClain]

If you have any molding questions feel free to hit me up with a pm. I must say, that bucket looks very very good. I might just have to have one. Yeah, I think so.

 

[calladar]

If you have any molding questions feel free to hit me up with a pm. I must say, that bucket looks very very good. I might just have to have one. Yeah, I think so.

thanks brandon i might have some questions. i have done molds before (box style) but nothing of this size and this way.. my silicon will be here on the 9th so i have a few days too mull it over and plan it out. i know that without some sort of game plan it can all go wrong in a hurry and either destroy the mold and waist allot of money or destroy the master and have me contemplating testing my ability too fly from tall buildings.

 

[Gamemaster]

For jumping from tall buildings I recommend a jet pack or armor lock, that or have your hologram do it.

 

[calladar]

thanks to Brandon for answering some of my questions and concerns about making a glove mold. i have now put on the silicon and waiting for it to cure.. have scouted the area and located a good building if this does not work out the way i want. now the waiting game for the silicon to cure. the weather sucks and is raining and humid as heck so i figure that is going to effect my cure rates on the silicon so sitting in for the long wait. fingers crossed.

wasn't till after i put the silicon on that i realized i had forgotten to get let alone put in an accelerator so this is going to be a couple day Wait i believe. oh well plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied.

 

[Brandon McClain]

Using rebound it shouldn't be a couple days... If you are having issues with the print layer curing you may want to try giving it a short bake in an electric oven at low temp. If that doesn't work you may have an issue with the primer. I have heard it is best to use a krylon fusion clear coat over your primer. You want to apply your layers once the silicon is tacky but doesn't stick to your finger. Hope that helps.

 

[calladar]

yea not using rebound probably should have.. using am 128.. i have used am 125 alot and had good results.. the problem with am 128 is the cure time is 16 to 24 hours without the curing agent which will lower it to about 2 to 4r hours. so just sitting back and waiting. it is starting to set now.. but not in any rush. (i am cheap and am 128 is about half the cost of rebound just have to be willing to deal with the cure rate) print layer is cured.. i am now waiting on the thickening layer.

thanks for the help brandon

 

[Brandon McClain]

For glove molds I recommend Dragon Skin 10, I like the fast. It has a really high tear strength and elongation at break is something like 1000%. It is wicked awesome stuff and about the same price as rebound.

 

[calladar]

For glove molds I recommend Dragon Skin 10, I like the fast. It has a really high tear strength and elongation at break is something like 1000%. It is wicked awesome stuff and about the same price as rebound.

yea i am sure. next order will be something else i think.. money just tight right now.. my son turns 16 in about 20 days and have the detail of car and insurance to worry about. and didn't want to drop alot until my budget got used to the added expense.

 

[timecon]

this is a really great build so far loving the robo arm the best

 

[calladar]

this is a really great build so far loving the robo arm the best

thanks timecon.. have some more to do to the robo arm.. want to make it look like there is a hydraulic cylinder inside the bicep and add some wiring and some el-wire.

while waiting for the stinking silicon to dry (have to make sure to get the accelerator) i worked some more on the chest piece. was able to get the detail work done and get it ready to paint..

here is the helmet before molding:

chest ready for paint:

wife couldn't wait to start painting so she broke out the airbrush:

 

[calladar]

ok... so next portion of paint work was dry and i was working on the shin pieces and wife comes walking in with most of the kit on. lol.. she said she just had to put it on and try it out. once she got it on i noticed that the shoulder pieces definitely need support to stay in place. so had to take some pics. still alot of work but coming together.

 

[Brandon McClain]

How is the helmet mold turning out? Making any progress?

 

[calladar]

How is the helmet mold turning out? Making any progress?

well.... NOT TO GOOD!!! needless to say i visited my tall building.. unhappy to report.. no i cannot fly.. but thanks to Gamemasters suggestion, Armor Lock works really well.

but i digress.. the thickening laying never cured. after checking to make sure the kids were not around i threw a down home temper tantrum, cursed alot and pouted. so i went to see where i went wrong and the only possibility i came up with was the mix, so i went to my old beat up set of digital scales and threw a nickle on it and discovered that the scales were way and i mean way off. so my 10 to 1 mixture by weight was nothing where it was supposed to be. so now that i have found the problem i have ordered a new scale and will check for accuracy every stinking time i use it.

the detail layer did set most of the way and when i peeled the mold off i found that if it had cured properly i would have been golden. so once the scales and the curing agent to speed the cure i am going to start over and try again. thanks for the help. have a couple more questions and will pm you when i get to that stage.

 

[Road Kill]

wow!! looks great, keep up the fantastic work and can't wait to see more progress

 

[Brandon McClain]

Sorry to hear that! That is one reason I prefer using materials that mix by volume. There is much less chance of error. I highly recommend dragon skin for a glove mold. Or rebound 25, but I prefer rebound for things like box mold of shapes that don't need to fold over themselves.

 

[calladar]

Sorry to hear that! That is one reason I prefer using materials that mix by volume. There is much less chance of error. I highly recommend dragon skin for a glove mold. Or rebound 25, but I prefer rebound for things like box mold of shapes that don't need to fold over themselves.

yea that will probably be the way i go next time. but still have about a gallon of the am 128 left so once i run it will think about something else. unless i get used to it and can get good with it. it is alot cheaper.

 

[Gamemaster]

Ahh the good ol' armor lock, so useless, yet so many uses

Seriously though, that Kat armor is looking premium, my wife had a look at it and after she picked her jaw up off the floor says "You know, I might take you up on that Mistress Chief offer..."

 

[HaloGoddess]

This is coming along pretty nicely. The prosthetic arm looks pretty good too.

I have FINALLY started on my Kat build. Started it before the release of Reach and obviously never finished and I am now doing it on foam. I started a thread if you wish to follow my progress.

I was thinking about airbrushing mine, but I don't feel like spending more money on the paint. I did a paint test to see how it would work on the foam and it works great WITHOUT the plasti-dip so that saves me more money. Of course I need a clear coat though or something.

Looking forward to seeing this finished.