Thorssoli's MkVI Costume Buildup
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Overlord Ian
Well-Known Member
Welcome back spartan!thorssoli said:
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spartan 132
New Member
A welcome return good sir spartan 
i eagerly anticipate your return to the perverbial factory floor
i eagerly anticipate your return to the perverbial factory floor As others have mentioned, glad to hear you're back safe and sound. I also had a few questions that I don't think have come up in this thread yet.
Way back when you were building the mold for your chest and back pieces, you started off with brushing on a layer of silicone followed by a layer of clay (to be filled in later with more silicone) as a void between the 1st layer of silicone and the mother mold.
I know that silicone sticks to itself (from reading, not actual experience yet), but I was wondering if the connection would still be as solid as if you had applied the 2nd layer of silicone while the first was still tacky as opposed to when it completely cured (I'm assuming it completely cured by the time you poured the 2nd layer of silicone between the 1st layer and the mother mold). Is there any danger of delaminating when pulling the mold off the master or any subsequent casts?
If there is a danger of delaminating, I was also thinking, would it work if you applied clay directly to the master from the get go and created the mother mold before applying any silicone? That way, you pour all of the silicone for the jacket mold in one step. Or is there more of a danger of air bubbles interrupting the silicone from picking up all the details? Although now that I think of it, I you did this for your boots. Would there be any issues doing it this way for larger, more detailed pieces like the chest and back?
My apologies if this is already covered in the book you recommended, The Prop Builder's Molding & Casting Handbook. I'm still waiting for a copy to be transferred from the main branch to my local library. I'll probably end up buying though. I checked out a few pages from Google's book preview feature, and it was quite informative!
Way back when you were building the mold for your chest and back pieces, you started off with brushing on a layer of silicone followed by a layer of clay (to be filled in later with more silicone) as a void between the 1st layer of silicone and the mother mold.
I know that silicone sticks to itself (from reading, not actual experience yet), but I was wondering if the connection would still be as solid as if you had applied the 2nd layer of silicone while the first was still tacky as opposed to when it completely cured (I'm assuming it completely cured by the time you poured the 2nd layer of silicone between the 1st layer and the mother mold). Is there any danger of delaminating when pulling the mold off the master or any subsequent casts?
If there is a danger of delaminating, I was also thinking, would it work if you applied clay directly to the master from the get go and created the mother mold before applying any silicone? That way, you pour all of the silicone for the jacket mold in one step. Or is there more of a danger of air bubbles interrupting the silicone from picking up all the details? Although now that I think of it, I you did this for your boots.
Would there be any issues doing it this way for larger, more detailed pieces like the chest and back?My apologies if this is already covered in the book you recommended, The Prop Builder's Molding & Casting Handbook. I'm still waiting for a copy to be transferred from the main branch to my local library. I'll probably end up buying though. I checked out a few pages from Google's book preview feature, and it was quite informative!
I have a question about how you poured your resin into your chest piece. Did you make walls inside of it to seperate it into sections? Or did you pour the resin into it as a whole? I ask because I royaly screwed mine up. I made the chest piece, put some fiberglass around the edges where I knew it would be thin, and then cut it into two pieces. That was the mistake. I then poured the resin into the front half. It cures, I bring it up to my bacl half and... they don't match. I thought the fiberglass and support struts were enough, but apparently they weren't. The only way i see to avoid this is to leave the whole thing together when you pour the resin, but if you pour it into every area of the chest at once, it will drip like crazy when you turn it. so I was wondering if you seperated the inside in to sections.
Wow, that turned out to be a lot longer than i intended...
Wow, that turned out to be a lot longer than i intended...
Remraf said:
I left the whole thing together as one piece. Then I poured resin in the back portion of it and sloshed it around a bit to get the inside of the back covered pretty well with a fairly thin coat. Then, once it had gelled and almost completely hardened (about five or ten minutes with urethane casting resin) I turned it over and did the same thing with the front. Repeat this step two or three times for the sides, top, bottom, front, back, and so on and you should end up with a nice stiff coating over the entire thing that will hold up to the next few steps in the process.
NOTE: I use casting resin at this point in the process because it's a quick and easy way to make my pieces sturdy enough to survive the final fairing, shaping, and detailing before I make molds of them. Many of these pieces do not survive much past the moldmaking stage (main exception being my prototype MkVI helmet which I later painted pink) or else they end up being uncomfortably heavy or unacceptably brittle. I would recommend using the fiberglass method if you are planning on making your pep pieces into wearable finished pieces. My final castings that come out of my molds are made using casting resin with all sorts of different additives mixed in to make a stronger and lighter finished product. In short, stick with the cheaper, easier-to-find fiberglass and cut the pieces apart after you've reinforced them.
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I'm in a hotel in DC with my wife for a while since she's got some work stuff to take care of here.
Well I suppose it's not much of an update, but I have now started my THIRD size for the torso armor. The "my size" version was built to a height of 42.0cm, the "XL" size (the one I built in Afghanistan) was built to a height of 46.2cm and came out way too big for any real practical use. So in order to make one that would fit someone larger than me but still within the realm of normal, I chose an in-between size. I'm still working out of a hotel room, but I've cranked out another copy of the torso armor with a 44.0cm build height.
Here's a quick shot of it in progress:
I've started sneaking out onto the roof of the hotel to do the fiberglass work (it's out there right now) so I should have a few more pictures to show off sometime tomorrow.
Stay tuned...
Well I suppose it's not much of an update, but I have now started my THIRD size for the torso armor. The "my size" version was built to a height of 42.0cm, the "XL" size (the one I built in Afghanistan) was built to a height of 46.2cm and came out way too big for any real practical use. So in order to make one that would fit someone larger than me but still within the realm of normal, I chose an in-between size. I'm still working out of a hotel room, but I've cranked out another copy of the torso armor with a 44.0cm build height.
Here's a quick shot of it in progress:
I've started sneaking out onto the roof of the hotel to do the fiberglass work (it's out there right now) so I should have a few more pictures to show off sometime tomorrow.
Stay tuned...
Alright, as promised, here's a shot of the finished pep for my large size torso armor:
Here's the ab plate with the beginning of the fiberglass going in:
And here's the overly-gooped inside of the back:
If I were planning on wearing this piece, I'd be appalled at all of the extra weight in resin I've dumped into this part. If it were a boat, it'd be too heavy and brittle too. Since I'm only trying to build it up enough to survive the trip back to California, I'm mostly just trying to use up all of the materials so I don't have to throw them away or drive them cross-country.
I've also gone ahead and written up an abbreviated history of the project in my blog. Check it out if you want, but if you've been following this thread there's nothing new in there.
Here's the ab plate with the beginning of the fiberglass going in:
And here's the overly-gooped inside of the back:
If I were planning on wearing this piece, I'd be appalled at all of the extra weight in resin I've dumped into this part. If it were a boat, it'd be too heavy and brittle too. Since I'm only trying to build it up enough to survive the trip back to California, I'm mostly just trying to use up all of the materials so I don't have to throw them away or drive them cross-country.
I've also gone ahead and written up an abbreviated history of the project in my blog. Check it out if you want, but if you've been following this thread there's nothing new in there.
SNIPER 118
Member
Wow you just dont stop do you well I hope you dont have any problems
Loves hina
Jr Member
Amazing work man. Im lovin this armor build-up
Not much of an update, but I haven't posted in a while, so here goes...
I've added the details to the front of the neck opening on the latest copy of the chest armor:
Then I cut the two halves apart:
Now the two halves nest together, which will make them easier to pack/store when we get started on the next leg of our trip:
Since I have a rattle can of primer handy, I went ahead and sprayed it. I peeled a bit of the paper off so that it would be easier for the bondo to stick to it once the paint dried:
Finally, I've noticed some flaws in the details in the big boxes on the back. I've decided to cut out these sections on either side and make replacements using plastic sheet stock:
I've also started working on a notching arrangement which will keep the front and back halves in place while the armor is being worn, but I'll have to post about that later after I've finalized the design.
Meanwhile, I've started on yet another unrelated project. This is a child-sized Fett helmet for my nephew:
I've added the details to the front of the neck opening on the latest copy of the chest armor:
Then I cut the two halves apart:
Now the two halves nest together, which will make them easier to pack/store when we get started on the next leg of our trip:
Since I have a rattle can of primer handy, I went ahead and sprayed it. I peeled a bit of the paper off so that it would be easier for the bondo to stick to it once the paint dried:
Finally, I've noticed some flaws in the details in the big boxes on the back. I've decided to cut out these sections on either side and make replacements using plastic sheet stock:
I've also started working on a notching arrangement which will keep the front and back halves in place while the armor is being worn, but I'll have to post about that later after I've finalized the design.
Meanwhile, I've started on yet another unrelated project. This is a child-sized Fett helmet for my nephew:
ShinigamiNG
Active Member
Wow, I was just reading through this whole thread, and in one of your very last pictures I noticed the hacksaw sitting there. Why that NEVER occured to me as a good tool for cutting my armor in pieces i will never know lol. It seems genius now that I think about it. Thanks for helping me out without even trying, lol.
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