Questions of sanding, and rondo, and both together.

[Strychnine]

So I want to get things straight in my mind as far as this goes and it seems like I start to find some conflicting information, so I'd like to get some opinions.

If I am, say, working on a shin. I have pepped it, resin'd the outside and rondo'd the inside, do I still bondo the outside for detail work, or do I simply start sanding the outside and through the paper, into the rondo if need be?

What if you bondo the outside and then go through it to the paper beneath, but you achieve the look you want... do you have to have bondo on the outer faces, or will rondo work as well as far as that goes?

And then one step further: what if you fiberglassed the rondo slush for extra strength?

And now since I have you here, something partially related: what sort of power sanders are people usually using? I mean searching for 'sanding' offers ten thousand replies, so that's hard to dig through. Is a little $40 mouse Black and Decker sander going to work? Is the 120-240 grit paper they offer for it a wide enough range for the job as far as smooth, good quality costuming is concerned? Thanks for your time.

 

[tmccarty23]

Now this is a good question.

One thing you have to understand, is there are so many ways to do this, it's not even funny. Bondo does make detailing a bit easier and "cleaner", but some people just add about five or so layers of resin on the exterior and sand that down. The thing with Bondo, or any body filler, is it adds weight...fast. Some people do sand down through the paper and into the rondo, it won't hurt and long as you don't sand down too deep and compromise the structural integrity.

Same with sanding through the bondo on the outside. A lot of people just rondo the exterior of their pieces and it works great. Bondo is simple one option out of many.

I wouldn't recommend both fiberglassing and rondoing. It's kind of unnecessary. It will just add bulk and not really any more strength than one or the other separate. If you want to, it's your project, go right ahead.

I personally use lots of sanding techniques and tools. I use a combination of my B&D Mouse, sandpaper ranging from 60 gt, 100 gt, 220 gt, 400 gt, and 800 gt, and many files and rasps of all shapes and sizes. The Mouse is amazing and cuts the sanding time down immensely on large areas. All the rest are mainly for detailing.

If you don't go any finer than 240, your end project will not be super smooth, like you would want if your are costuming. I would go with an 800 gt or 1200 gt just right before you paint. This will make it super smooth.

I hope this helped you out. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and I hope to see your project soon.

 

[Strychnine]

Thom, thanks for an awesome and informative reply. If I'm feeling spunky I may just start throwing pictures around, but I prefer to make sure I haven't made an ass of myself first.

My plan for this is to learn what I can making this set of armor, and then as I go, upgrade pieces in terms of detail and my own know-how bit by bit, swapping pieces out until I have made a second set that is really up-there. I think resin-outside and rondo inside seems the way to go, at least for this run. Again, many thanks.

Also: badass knife.

 

[tmccarty23]

You're very welcome.

Exterior resin and interior rondo is how I did my ODST helmet and it is working out great. Thanks for the compliment on my knife.

(BTW, try and avoid the swearing, it's one of the forum rules. Just don't want to see you receive a warning.)

 

[Burns]

Yeah, you definitly want to chose one or the other. either add bondo and sand it smooth, or sand the paper all the way off. if you sand the outside and clip the paper through the bondo and fiberglass, that fuzzy spot won't paint over, it'll have to be re-covered. a saving grace however, is if you choose to make your project look battle worn.
i made a halo 3 master chief. for the "i just dropped in from space" look, i intentionally diddn't sand it perfectly smooth. i then used O.D. green primer, then i gobbed black spray paint on it and immediately wiped the black off with an old sock. then i used a clear paint over the top (the color i used for the top was a pearly/metalic lime green) for the final step i sprayed silver paint on to a brush and tapped the edges giving it a worn metal look.
if you check my facebook (my email is thecircleoffifths@yahoo.com) you can see a step by step in the "costume making" photo album.
good luck man. feel free to PM me if you need help.

 

[S1l3nt V1p3r]

With pep, you encounter many polygons and sharp edges. Those edges might need to be smoothed out, or be as they are. I have three different levels of smoothing I can illustrate.

 

[Strychnine]

Well dam-- I mean... darn. I was trying to edit the post to remove the cursing but the browser just hangs. Sorry mods! Won't happen again.

Burns: Thanks for the offer, and you'll probably be taken up on it. Hitting up your FB soon as I finish this post, to also say...

S13nt, as someone who is a visual learner, that is the heezy. One question though: on the bottom left method (aka the lord's way, it seems), what do you do first? The sanding or the bondo? I would ASSUME you have to fondo/fg the underside first before you sand off that peak, otherwise, dur, there's nothing there but a big hole where a corner used to be, but I could be missing something. Asumming further there's something underneath that corner, you're still suggesting a layer of bondo on top as well, just not as much, so that the finished outer surface will be a mixture of the rondo beneath and the bondo above, correct? I understand the theory, it's well presented, but the devil's in the details for an anal person like me. I absolutely *loathe* to try anything without learning as much as I can first. I'm not a trial and error kinda guy; I lose heart quickly when I'm bumbling through things.

That said, just to clarify between what you and Burns said... is it or isn't it okay to sand through the resin (and thus my pep paper) and to the rondo beneath? Not sure if Burns meant that you run into that issue only if you leave paper exposed, or that for whatever reason it's hard to sand through the paper layer...

 

[Burns]

i guess the point is paint hides a great deal, but there is no painting over exposed paper.

 

[ventrue]

With pep, you encounter many polygons and sharp edges. Those edges might need to be smoothed out, or be as they are. I have three different levels of smoothing I can illustrate.

That is one awesome illustration!

 

[savage22]

when i did my jorge helmet I did rondo on the inside, rondo on the outside. sanded outside, rondo again. sanded outside rondo again. rondo to low spots sand it again, repeated till smooth. worked great.

 

[S1l3nt V1p3r]

Well dam-- I mean... darn. I was trying to edit the post to remove the cursing but the browser just hangs. Sorry mods! Won't happen again.

Burns: Thanks for the offer, and you'll probably be taken up on it. Hitting up your FB soon as I finish this post, to also say...

S13nt, as someone who is a visual learner, that is the heezy. One question though: on the bottom left method (aka the lord's way, it seems), what do you do first? The sanding or the bondo? I would ASSUME you have to fondo/fg the underside first before you sand off that peak, otherwise, dur, there's nothing there but a big hole where a corner used to be, but I could be missing something. Asumming further there's something underneath that corner, you're still suggesting a layer of bondo on top as well, just not as much, so that the finished outer surface will be a mixture of the rondo beneath and the bondo above, correct? I understand the theory, it's well presented, but the devil's in the details for an anal person like me. I absolutely *loathe* to try anything without learning as much as I can first. I'm not a trial and error kinda guy; I lose heart quickly when I'm bumbling through things.

That said, just to clarify between what you and Burns said... is it or isn't it okay to sand through the resin (and thus my pep paper) and to the rondo beneath? Not sure if Burns meant that you run into that issue only if you leave paper exposed, or that for whatever reason it's hard to sand through the paper layer...

Yes, it IS okay to sand through the paper. The Rondo / Fiberglass will be a few mm's thick (Thicker where you need to sand more, of course.)

The lower left method requires you to sand down through the paper, giving it a semi-smooth edge. Then you Bondo on the sides, finishing the smoothness of that edge.

If you were to sand through the Rondo/FG on the inside, its a quick fix really. You just grab some Painters Tape and seal the hole. Then you patch the hole from the inside with more Rondo/FG. (Preferably along the whole length of said edge, since you'll sand more along the way.)

Hope this clears that up!

 

[Strychnine]

Awesome. Well I've finished the topcoat of resin, so this info all came just in time. Gonna let it dry off, check out some sanders online, and then it's rondo time. Thanks again chaps!

 

[tmccarty23]

No prob, we're happy to help and we look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[sonic sod]

hey guys i was wondering how i make rondo what amounts of bondo with resin and do i use bothe hardeners or 1 and how much of each material thanks if you could reply im pm

 

[ventrue]

hey guys i was wondering how i make rondo what amounts of bondo with resin and do i use bothe hardeners or 1 and how much of each material thanks if you could reply im pm

You should watch Ben Streeper's Rondo video, it's really good, will answer all those questions and as an added bonus even show you how it's done.

 

[vv7]

what sort of power sanders are people usually using? I mean searching for 'sanding' offers ten thousand replies, so that's hard to dig through. Is a little $40 mouse Black and Decker sander going to work?

Last holiday season wally-mart had this B&D mouse sander for $20 (bright orange with traingle pad). I think it was meant to be a cheap gift exchange type of deal. Anyway,I picked one up Dec 27 for for $15.00. Works great. with 80 grit, it will sand down 1/8" of bondo in seconds. Cool thing is... holiday season is right around the corner again and you can bet wally-mart will have pallets of these sanders again.

 

[Strychnine]

Hey guys, just wanted to bump this for those of you watching it and lending me your time. I threw a link to my in-progress thread in the signature. Thanks again for everything!