Props Finally Started This...

[thorssoli]

With out trying to be too nosy, what do you think would a ball park figure (price wise) for someone looking to build their own vac table?

I don't tend to keep track of how much money I spend on these projects. If I did, it would probably kinda piss me off. You can find some really great information about building your own vacforming table from the Thurston James book titled "the Prop Maker's Molding and Casting Handbook" as well as at http://tk560.com/vactable4.html. Make sure you do plenty of research before you start buying materials. I'm not exaggerating when I say I spent ten years thinking about ways to improve upon the designs I'd found before I actually built my machine. While I'm not suggesting taking that long, I do definitely recommend taking your time.

In other news, the health pack looks like so now:


I'll be taking off this afternoon, so I won't be in the workshop tomorrow to work on this. At this rate it'll probably be Monday before I start making pulls.

 

[thorssoli]

I put about ten minutes more work on the health pack today:


So there's that.

 

[ventrue]

Ten whole minutes? Why so much? :-D

I have to say I would actually hang this thing on my wall and put my first aid kit in it. I've been looking to get rid of that ugly plastic box it came with for ages. The sad thing is, nobody would even recognise that this one is from Halo :-(

(Also... is "THOR" a Dr. Pepper flavour or did you just write your name on the can?!)

 

[thorssoli]

Ten whole minutes? Why so much? :-D

I have to say I would actually hang this thing on my wall and put my first aid kit in it. I've been looking to get rid of that ugly plastic box it came with for ages. The sad thing is, nobody would even recognise that this one is from Halo :-(

(Also... is "THOR" a Dr. Pepper flavour or did you just write your name on the can?!)

I was in the middle of making molds for my Isaac Clarke helmet and my Republic Commando helmet and painting one of my Mass Effect pistols, three of my Cthulhu statues, and six of my combat garden gnomes and I was gearing up to leave for a couple of days. With all of that going on simultaneously, there was only about ten minutes where I didn't have anything else I could do and I got to tinkering with the health pack.

My plan is to hang this thing on the wall with my first aid kit in it. I'll make a few different interiors for it, but one will be sized to fit the little case my first aid kit came in. I'm also thinking of making a "gamer health pack" that will fit a couple cans of Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos (or Funyuns as needed).

The THOR Dr Pepper can is a promotional tie-in for the movie. I got two cases of these cans when I made my last COSTCO supply run. It'll be a while before I run out of those.

 

[thorssoli]

Yesterday I finalized the last few details on my MA5C Assault Rifle:


Then I made a plywood cutout to nestle it into:


Then I built a clay mold wall:


Then I noticed that I'd forgotten the little magazine release icon:

The blue icon was made using a vinyl cutter designed to make car or boat lettering.

Then I added dimples to the clay wall for registration marks:




Then I started mixing silicone:


By the time I was done last night, the mold looked like so:


Today's goal is to finish this side of the mold as well as the first half of the mold for the magazine. Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

Today I went ahead and built up a clay matrix over the middle portion of the MA5C mold:


Then I laid up the fiberglass mothermold over the whole thing:


Once the fiberglass had set, the next step was to pop off the mothermold and clean the clay out of it:


With the clay removed, I clamped the mothermold down over the rest of the mold and poured more silicone in:


At this point, the silicone fills the void where the clay used to be. The ridges allow the bubbles to flow out while the rubber cures. Then, when it comes time to cast copies, the ridges function as registration points to keep the jacket mold properly aligned within the mothermold.

Hopefully it works. Stay tuned...

 

[vshore100]

Man that seems like a lot of work, but you make it look so easy. Awesome job.

 

[thorssoli]

So I flipped over the mold and pulled off the plywood. Then I cleaned out the clay and built a new mold wall:

Then I applied a healthy dose of mold release to the exposed silicone:


Finally I poured the print coat for the second half. Unfortunately, my clay wall wasn't quite high enough:


Later today I'll be making the clay matrix, the mothermold, and then the rest of the rubber jacket. Stay tuned...

 

[vshore100]

Are you able to reuse the clay after you have made the mold wall?

 

[BLACKULA727]

Are you able to reuse the clay after you have made the mold wall?

Yes you can. Well, I have. But I'm a noob at all this.

@ Thorssoli, Thanks for shring this process. Awesome job!

 

[thorssoli]

Are you able to reuse the clay after you have made the mold wall?

Blackula's right. You can reuse the clay. You have to be careful if there's any bits of fiberglass stuck in it or petroleum jelly wiped on it, but it's not that big of a problem. I've got a whole drawer full of dirty oil-based clay in my workshop that I use for this sort of thing. Moreover, if you set up a double boiler you can actually melt down your oil-based clay and run it through a strainer to get most of the dirt out of it. I usually don't bother though.

 

[thorssoli]

I forgot to post this before I took off on Friday, but I used the same pile of clay to make the matrix for the second half of the mold. I didn't take any pictures of it before laying the fiberglass, but here it is with the glass liad up over it:


And after I'd removed the clay and set it up for pouring silicone:


Here's a bubble burping its way out of one of the pour spouts:


I also started a simple two-piece box mold for the magazine:


I'll be back in the workshop next Monday and hopefully I'll have pulls of the AR by Tuesday night.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

I'm not sure if anybody's reading this topic anymore, but I'll just keep plodding right along.

Last night I got home from a week with the sea scouts and went straight to the workshop. The first thing I did was prep the magazine mold so I could pour the second half. Here's what the first half looked like:


Then I cleaned the clay out of the magazine well for the AR mold:


Then I propped the whole mold up so I could pour silicone into the magazine well:


Today I'll be pouring rubber into the hole for the flashlight at the other end. With any luck I should have the first pull out of this mold tonight.

I'll also be making a mold for my third Combat Garden Gnome:


Stay tuned...

 

[vshore100]

Awesome stuff Thorssoli. I hope your AR pull comes out clean. Oh...those combat gnomes are super cool man.

 

[thorssoli]

Thanks, I'm pretty proud of the gnomes.

The first pull of the AR came out well. The first cast out of the mold is always a bit rough, so I usually just call it a throw away.

First off, here's all of the parts of the mold laid out:


Here's the first pull made out of Flex-Foam-It 17:


Since I kinda rushed the first cast, I just clamped the mold instead of bolting the two halves together. As a result, the seam along the top of the rifle blew out and there wasn't enough pressure inside the mold for the foam t0 really get down into the deep details.

Here's a closeup shot showing some of the flaws:

You can also see some of the greeblies (charging handle, safety switches, power buttons) which I made a while back.

What's really cool about it is that unlike rigid resin props, you don't have to worry about it shattering when you drop it:

In other news, the magazine mold works just fine. Here's the first two castings out of the mold:


Tomorrow I'll be bolting the mold together and making proper castings. It's also worth mentioning that I've set up the mold so I can cast them with or without a removable magazine.

Stay tuned...

 

[mkshane81]

I read it every chance I get. Your work is great to watch and follow. The AR turned out great!!

-Matt

 

[tubachris85x]

I want one!

 

[Satchmo III]

This is a great thread. I love how you break down and show most of your process flow. It's all very interesting stuff and it's neat to see pros at work. Thanks.

 

[Carpathia]

Awesome, a bouncing rifle! I love the work you do thorssoli! BTW, what is that sitting on the grey milk crate? It looks like a target designator, but it could just as easily be a glue gun.

 

[thorssoli]

Awesome, a bouncing rifle! I love the work you do thorssoli! BTW, what is that sitting on the grey milk crate? It looks like a target designator, but it could just as easily be a glue gun.

I think you're talking about my Mass Effect M-3 Predator kit:

I've got a few castings sitting around if you're into that sort of thing.

I want one!

And it can be yours. Shoot me a PM and I'll add you to my list for castings. I'm on a roll making a bunch of these for a film project:

In the picture above you can see the mold (with a foam casting curing inside it), the first throwaway casting, the first not-so-great casting, and the first great casting. The lightish-red one on the right is the prototype.

Here's a closeup shot of the first great casting:


I haven't painted any of these yet. The metallic tone you see in the picture above is from some gunmetal-colored powder I dusted inside the mold. When the foam cures, it bonds to the powder and it sticks better than paint. I'll still paint it, but if the paint cracks or gets scratched, it won't be as noticeable.

Tomorrow I'll be pulling one or two more foam rubber "stunt" rifles and then I'll cast a rigid resin "hero" rifle for closeup shots. That one will have a removable magazine.

Stay tuned...