p0rtalman said:
Do you ever sleep? Amazing stuff thor. Good luck in Afghanistan, make it home safe, we need more armor goodness.
Sleep? No. Not if I can avoid it at least.
This week I've averaged five hours a night worth of sleep. I had it set in my head that I'd be able to finish these up before I ship out, but it may not quite work out. I've got all of the molds poured for the toe caps and the forward parts of the soles, but the texturing hadn't dried yet on the heel soles so I'll have to mold them up in the morning. The silicone says it's ready to pull in six hours, so I'm trying to work my day so I can get this done. Originally I'd planned to have it done a day earlier, but I lost most of a day to car troubles (fixed) and boat troubles (never fixed) so now it's down to the crunch.
I fly out on Sunday, so tomorrow's schedule goes like so:
0?00-wake up and meet friends for breakfast.
0900ish- pull silicone jackets for toe soles, set them aside to air out, and build mother molds for heel soles.
1000-pick up one more 4lb. kit of RTV silicone at my local plastics supplier.
1100-pull mother molds, clean masters, pour silicone for heel soles.
1200-meet some family members for lunch.
1300-do some cleaning and entertain a few guests on the boat.
1500-kick everyone off the boat, put on one last coat of varnish on the topside brightwork.
1600-pull the silicone jackets for heels and set them in front of heater to air out.
1730-catch up with my grandfather in his shop.
1830-meet up with a couple of friends for dinner.
2000-pour first casting of the boot soles with donor shoe cast in.
2100-begin packing for deployment.
2200-make sure all of my paperwork is organized and easy to find for the folks who need it.
2330-Pull the first pair of boots from the molds and try them on.
2400-Post pics and/or videos of the first pair in the forum.
Whenever-finally collapse from exhaustion, the only way I can ever get any sleep at all.
Since I've decided to limit myself to one part of one project this week, this will be a pretty easy day. Usually there'd be more to do on the boat as well as research or design work for tank parts, as well as fabrication for other costume projects, managing a handful of things being bought or sold or shipped, making runs to pick up parts or materials for any of a number of reasons. This being an easy day, I've actually slated in three whole meals.
I took a handful of pictures at close of business today, but they're just more pictures of molds in progress. I figure that's all old hat until I've actually got a pair of boots to show off. In other news, I'm now using the stormtrooper poster as my myspace default pic. I'm that kind of cool.
Stay tuned. I may actually be able to pull off the boot making in the next day.