The Long Journey

[Stygmatah]

Wow impressive stuff. I love the shin pieces. Can't wait to get on to those.

My Xboxing relax time didn't last long. Thought I'd knock over one of the hand plates. That will definitely do we for today though

I'll definitely keep in mind the fibreglassing techniques you used. Sounds logical but something I probably wouldn't consider until I stuffed it up.

I might start on the helmet tomorrow. I'm itching to start it.

...and I've only just now realised that the files I've done are not the hi-def files at all but the normal ones. Grrrrrr. I've downloaded the hi-def ones and I reckon I'll stick with the arms I've done but re-do the hands. I can always carve in plenty of details when I build the arms up with filler. Grrrrr. I also printed out the helmet too. *daunted* Will crack into that in the morning.

 

[jholland311]

Looking really good! I just finished one of my shin pieces and it looks really good; I'll post some pictures when I find my camera. How to I get the progress thing for my signature? that looks really cool. I'm building the HD chest and back piece now. Shouldn't take me to long to make.

 

[Razzah]

The arm is looking great!

And I might suggest going with the normal detail. I started with the HD because I thought I could handle it... But it takes way longer. I did an HD bicep, and it took me at least ten hours over three days to finish (the cutting is by far the worst). They're very detailed, but if you're feeling up the challeng, by all means I wish you the best of luck!

 

[battlemaster111]

wait so u did use hot glue?

if so how did you get it so perfect i always end up with an infinite amount of glue strings all over the place i end up throwing away more glue then i use

 

[Stygmatah]

I've found some tips with hot glue are:-

Less is WAY more! Only use a thin strip or a very small amount.

If you can't get a thin strip, try small dots along the tab you're sticking.

While the glue is still hot press the tabs down firmly to squeeze out any excess.

If some glue does leak out, wipe it with your finger quickly and don't worry if it doesn't all come off, the motion of moving it with your finger will make it really easy to simply pull it off the model afterwards.

Make sure the glue is super hot (I have a cordless one that needs to go back on the base station after 5 minutes), makes it so much easier.

...and I think I might stick with normal def pieces from now on. I'm still an uber-noob and I made a HD hand plate and it's not how I wanted it to turn out. I think I'll simply make the detail later out of body-filler (we don't have Bondo here in Oz).

I'm not happy with the hand plate. I rushed a bit and was tired. I'm hoping that the detailing with the body-filler will make up for my past sins. I'm angry at myself because I really like my pep to look clean and tidy despite the fact it will have resin and body filler on it eventually.

My build has slowed down lately, namely because I've gone back to work and started afternoon shift after some days off and the fact I've had a stinking, rotten head cold that's laid me out flat on my back for a few days. I'm right in the middle of the AR pep build. I've done the cutting, scoring and folding and I'm on to the build. I need to get some dowel to run down both sides of the rifle on the inside and I've found a 1" piece of PVC conduit which I'll run right down the centre for strength. I'm also going to hot glue some washers at intervals inside the rifle to try and give it some weight before I seal it up then use the expanding foam technique of strengthening. So that little diversion has taken me away from my armour build for now. I have the helmet printed out and might crack into that as the first thing when I've done the AR.

The dowel should take the wibble wobble out of the AR while I get it resined and foamed plus it'll give it some rigidity on top of the other two methods of strengthening. I was tempted to use two pieces of reinforcing bar from concrete if I could get the weight right. I know the rifle (hmm from memory) was quoted on here somewhere as being 8lbs or so.

Oh and as an afterthought (this is the edity bit) I reckon I'll have some stencils on the shoulders of my armour once it's done. I don't think you can go past the good old skull as a symbol to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy. I've found a few but I'll keep looking and I'll photoshop them up and do a spray on graffiti/stencil effect.

Skull 1

Skull 2

Skull 3

 

[Stygmatah]

OK folks I made the decision tonight to crack on and do some resining for the first time ever. I was going to only do the hand plate to test the waters so to speak but realised quite soon that 150ml of resin goes a LOOOONG way so ended up doing my bicep and forearm too. I took a few pics. Hopefully the resin works. It's quite cold here in Tasmania right now (14deg C or so) and I realised afterwards that the 1ml of hardener per 100ml can be upped to 3ml per 100ml in colder weather....hopefully it doesn't stay all tacky. Anyone got any suggestions if it does?? Is it ok to go over it again with another coat with more hardener in it????

Anyway without further ado, here's a few pics I took.

My little workstation I set up at a moment's notice. An old Black and Decker work bench with a piece of builders ply screwed to a 4x2 clamped in the workbench jaws. This should allow me to use it solely for messy jobs like resin and filler.

This is the bondo brand resin equivalent I found here in Australia (you can tell it's Australian, it's called "Digger" brand), with the hardener. I had to find an old eyedropper to measure it out

Not used yet but this is the bondo brand equivalent filler I have found for my detailing. It's styrene based with a hardener so it should do the job nicely I'm hoping (fingers crossed). It was nice and cheap.

Fibreglass cloth which I'll use when it comes time, once again good old Digger brand.

My <sarcasm>amazingly accurate</sarcasm> measuring container I made up with an old kitchen container and a Sharpie (yes we actually have Sharpies here in Aus, one of the few things we do have the same). I simply measured the amounts in water then drew the line *gasp* hideously difficult....NOT! That being said it was notoriously difficult to measure out exactly 100ml of resin, I went to about 140ml...whoops.

This is the amount of resin I had left after I did an entire outside coat on the three items and I wasn't skimping either. I reckon all up I used about 6070ml of resin to do all three. A good reminder for next time not to use so much. When I first poured it I didn't think it would go far at all, boy was I wrong!

The forearm done.

The bicep done.

Handplate done.

...and this is what happens when hair meets resin, despite having latex gloves on....thank god for Acetone is all I can say.

Now I apologise that this might seem like a slide night at Nanna's house but I'm doing this as much for myself as anyone else. I want to look back and remember what I did and where I went wrong and who knows maybe it'll halp someone else out along the way.

Mental note for next time: Open the garage door to the outside world and don't open the door to the inside world....under any circumstances. Wives generally don't like the smell of resin in the house. Hmmmm...

 

[adventchildmatrix]

damn fine work mate
good to see another aussie on here
you think that 14C is cold most of my work im only doing about 10c over here in england so yours should be fine mate
thx for reminding me to pick up some FG cloth while im back in auz nxt week
keep up the good work

oh and with the latex gloves i use the extra-long doctors gloves (you know the ones they use for internal examinations)

 

[Stygmatah]

Thanks mate. I'm still unsure about the resin though. I don't think it has enough of the catalyst in it. I just went out (2hrs after it was put on) and the stuff is still really wet and the resin in the tub is still runny. How will I fix this in the morning if it's still wet? If I do a new batch with the right catalyst in it will it then react with the stuff that's already on there?? and can I add some more to the resin in the tub to make it usable? or bin it and start with a new batch?

Also is anyone else having trouble viewing the forum correctly? or is it just my browser?

 

[adventchildmatrix]

someone once told me that if that happens that i should rub some catalyst over the still wet patchs and it should allow it to dry

what is wrong with it?
if replys are coming up as a list at the bottom of the page then click on option then click on standard under the display subheading

 

[Stygmatah]

It's all good now thanks. For some reason the whole page was in a very basic font with no graphics or background whatsoever.

I went and checked the resin and it's finally setting. The stuff in the container set and the stuff on the armour is going hard. I'll do another coat tomorrow and make sure I put more catalyst in and stir it better and hopefully that'll make up for any past sins.

*fingers crossed*

I'm REALLY looking forward to the detailing stage. If I can get one arm completely finished I'll be hugely stoked as then I'll know not only what I'm capable of but it will give me a gauge on what the rest of the suit will be like.

 

[adventchildmatrix]

quick question for you mate how much is FG cloth back in auz?

good to know that the resin is setting now i think more hardener is in order for tommorows batch
peice of advice for you is to do the resining in small batchs i do my projects in 40-50ml batchs saves resin and allows you to work on one peice at a time

 

[Malechei]

This is phenomenal work. I can just tell that this will be one of the projects that ends up looking amazing. Good luck with everything.

Mal

 

[Stygmatah]

quick question for you mate how much is FG cloth back in auz?

good to know that the resin is setting now i think more hardener is in order for tommorows batch
peice of advice for you is to do the resining in small batchs i do my projects in 40-50ml batchs saves resin and allows you to work on one peice at a time

Hmmm...price....I went to Bunnings and the FG cloth there was about $20AU, maybe $22AU for a metre square. Don't you get cloth in the UK? They had rough strand mat and cloth in at Bunnings and for some reason the mat was slightly more expensive by a dollar or so but I asked the dude behind the counter and he reckoned that they both did exactly the same thing except the cloth made a smoother finish. So WTH is all that about?? Why is the scummier chopped strand mat dearer than the nice smooth cloth?? No idea. Anyone else know?

I went to all the car stores like Supercheap and Autobarn and also Mitre10 but nobody I went to had large size fibreglass stuff. They only had the piddly little kits for repair work.

I went out this morning and the resin in the tub is set hard and the stuff on the pieces is setting. Some of the larger flat areas are set but around the seams and edges it's still tacky. Could be the fact it's close to zero degrees here this morning but set to become a nice day 15degC or so, so I might open the garage door and try and sit them in some sunlight.

Malechei: This is phenomenal work. I can just tell that this will be one of the projects that ends up looking amazing. Good luck with everything.

Thanks mate that's very kind of you to say. The real test will be when I "bondo" and bust out the dremel Really looking forward to that bit.

 

[adventchildmatrix]

nah over here in the uk we only get mat and tissue
the fibreglass mat is denser and is used for really hard reinforcement most people use the FG mat for hardwearing areas like the butt, cod and boots
and FG tissue is just rubbish you need about 2-3 layers to get the strength of cloth

 

[Stygmatah]

From the tutorials I've seen on youtube, the tissue is supposed to go over the mat to take the jaggedy roughness of it, not be used as a strengthening medium. I've only ever seen someone use one layer of it over the mat and then use a fibreglass roller to get it smoothed down.

You can get the cloth in the UK. I'll PM you the link.

 

[battlemaster111]

pretty cool

 

[Stygmatah]

Well I thought I'd give my first ever fibreglassing a crack today. Hmm mixed results. I'm not sure I like the fibreglass cloth. It's VERY loosely woven and so threads come out and tend to stick where they shouldn't. I might have to invest in some mat to do the larger areas and leave the cloth for stuffing inside brims and edges. I did however have a better time with the resin today. I decided I either a) didn't put in enough catalyst or didn't stir it enough or c) both of the previous things. I do think I have to cut up my cloth smaller as well.

Anyway, I'm picture heavy so I'll throw a few up there.

My cut up fibreglass cloth all ready to be stored for later. I still need to cut it up smaller.

The operating table almost ready for the patient to be sedated.

For those of you who don't know what fibreglass cloth is, here's a relatively close up pic to show the threads etc. It's very soft and pliable like a sweater.

Here are my mum's old heavy duty fabric scissors. They went through the cloth like a hot knife through butter but I'm doubting it's doing the blades any good. Good thing she'll never see this haha she'd be horrified.

Here's me in all my glory (and gear), after the fibreglassing.

Here's the finished result with what resin I had before it went like jelly. I'm going to have to do some serious sanding and dremel work I think but I concentrated on removing any air bubbles.

Anyway, when that resin dries I'll go and put on some more fibreglass to the bicep. I want that lot to dry first so I can see where it needs more or needs to be tidied up before the next lot goes on.

I need to cut my measuring container down too which I'll do when the resin dries. It's too deep to dip the cloth in very well and it's messing it all up before it gets to the stage where it's ready to place. I think it needs a shallow mixing dish so that the fibreglass can be sort of wiped over the top and then applied.

Better go and fire up the dremel.

 

[Stygmatah]

Fantastic. First major stuff up. I printed out the Space Diaper and printed it out (codpiece) and even added 3 inches to the scaling for good measure and it's WAY too small. Me and my fat butt!!!

I cut the side and tried it on and showed my wife and she thinks (as do I) that putting panels in it to size it correctly would make it look far too out of proportion Not happy!!!

I suppose it's back to the drawing board. Has anyone got any suggestions for correct measuring other than guesswork now that I know the size is way too small (in terms of the regular measuring way [height in inches vs scaling etc])???

Grrr....not happy. My first major failure. I was pretty stoked with the build too, it looked sweet at the end.

I guess that's the trouble with being broad. I'm 6'2 and 100kg although not really fat.

 

[adventchildmatrix]

for the scaling i use this thread by abrant
scaling thread
enjoy

 

[Stygmatah]

Well I did it and I'm pretty stoked. I decided to make a helmet and first time it fits perfectly. It's just slightly snug right now to get on but once I trim around the head hole it will slip on and off like a dream and there's plenty of room inside the helmet for padding/fans etc. Here's some happy snaps.

It's a lo-def DF4L helmet and for those of you who are interested for future scaling:

My head is 58.5cm around measuring from above my brow and just above my ears (so the widest bit of my head) and I scaled this piece to 13.002519

Maybe that will help someone with the same sized head who wants to do that piece.

I was really happy with the way it turned out but there's one thing that is bugging me, the "fins" running down the central part of the top of the helmet are flush on the helmets I've seen but for some reason mine are risen above the flush line on top. I'll have to strengthen it and then use filler to ever so gently bring the edges of the central channel up to meet the "fins".

I reckon I might resin it over the next few days and get it all sorted ready for fibreglassing. I bought some new fibreglass mat because I'm not massively happy with the cloth just yet (I'm a bit messy).

I did the lo-def peice because I decided I would do all the detailing myself. Time will tell