Official Sintra thread

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well i have a plastic supplier within walking distance.they have sintra for 30 bucks for a 4'X 8" sheet of it.im always leary about buying stuff when i have no knowledge of a product (being that i live in NYC and people love to take you for a ride in NYC just for a buck)i dont wanna get ripped off.i hate to spend 30 bucks to find out i need a industrial oven to bend it:facepalm.is there a sure fire way of telling its sintra?does it have a certain texture to it?

thanks in advance.
 
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Its hard to describe but, sintra is smooth with a almost foam like center. there is a great online retailer of sintra cheap and fast http://www.usplastics.com ..type in sintra in the search on tdh ,and appollo 50 has a direct link to it {{{{{the thread is "can't find sintra on the usplastics site"}}}}}}also order #42485 .120 thick works perfect
 
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thanks everyone.i was going to order from US plastics but last time i checked they were out of stock on .120 sintra:(
 
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hey i have an idea, can you create a stuck thread here with an important info like

the real name of :
SINTRA
BONDO

and the other stuff we used to make our suits.

what do ya think :)

Sergio
 
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I second that. It's a nightmare trying to get all that stuff over here in the UK when we only have brand names to go on.

Please.

Si
 
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I agree. Let's try whenever we post something to give different names for the stuff we use for the costuming, even though it sounds like if we are retards or something, but at least to have consideration for the members who lives outside the continental US, sometimes they have the same stuff with different name.

Robert
 
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Ok, here are three;

Bondo- polyester/styrene resin which needs a cream-hardener. This two-part mixture is used primarily in automotive body work to repair and smooth dents. It's plastic uncured nature allows for spreading and smoothing until hardening begins. Cures quickly. Sands and paints exceptionally well. The Bondo brand is usually gray resin and red cream hardener. A pinkish/light reddish color results when mixed, indicating the product is ready to apply.

Plywood- MDF

JB Weld- Another two-part product used in many applications. It consists of a cream hardener and a steel-impregnated cream. When these are mixed in even amounts, the aliphatic/polyamine/polyamide/epoxy resin produces a very durable and workable result. Does not conduct electricity, maximum temperature is 600F, and has a tensile strength of 3960 PSI. Strong enough to make minor repairs to motor parts, machinery, etc. Drillable and machineable. Long cure-time. Less strong, but faster curing, is JB Kwik.

Hope this helps.
 
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So I wanted to know if anyone has used this method and if it worked at all.
I was thinking of try a quasi-vacuum form setup without using a vacuum at all. I thought of heating the Sintra in a tray with water, laying it over a sculpt of armor and then using a heat gun to get it to soften up even more and hopefully pick up some of the smaller details. (Can you tell I love long, run on sentences?)
I've never used it so I'm not sure I have the full understanding of it's properties and just how easy it is to work with. I know Mirax and several others have used it, but in general, it sounds like most people heat it up and just bend it. Not very detail oriented. I know you can come back to it and simulate damage and all, but I'd like to do it all in one step if possible.
You may be wondering by now why I want to know this, I need to produce a few sets of chest armor for some friends for a small film and I'm looking for the cheapest solution. We will end up damaging them pretty badly so I need a several back up sets.
Have I bored you enough yet? Any personal experiences would help me out in making a decison as to whether or not I need to buy a freakin shop-vac and an electric oven.


;) Love,
Geoff
 
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I have no experience with this type of work, so this is all just my opinion:

I believe that most sintra is thick, at least from what I've seen. Most heat guns will not get THAT hot. I don't think it will be possible to heat the sintra enough with a heat gun that it would become pliable enough to be sunk over a mold. I just don't think it could happen.

ABS/Styrene is much much thinner, I think maybe even less than half as thick in some cases. And vacuform tables, I believe, get VERY hot. It's the negative pressure from the vactable that does the forming and pulling. Without that pull I don't know how well it could work.

Depending on the thickness you may be able to heat it up and sort of hand-pull the sintra over the form, at least getting the desired bend and shape. I don't think I would expect it to get much detail though.

If it's for a movie and you have a good painter you might just try posterboard. It's very cheap, easily replaced, and easy to form. Just apply velcro where you want it to go and it's so pliable that it will be held easily to the vest etc. It's thick enough to hold a crease as well. If it's painted properly I imagine it would do the trick.

Crazy maybe, but certainly worth a thought,

Phil
 
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I made my armor from .10 gauge sintra and used the
hot water method to bend and shape it. From my experience
working with it, I don't think you can get any fine detail
out of it by trying to heat form it. The heat gun should
get hot enough for you to shape it, but if you are trying
to apply dents & dammage, my advice would either use a
dremmel after the shaping...or maybe a "stamp" of some
kind to stamp dents into the heated sitra.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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Sintra and other thicker plastics won't work that way. You need a very strong vacuum to vacuumform. Otherwise, the details on the plastic are too "soft" or just don't come out. The plastic will not "pick up" the details just from laying over the piece.

You don't want to be heating sintra up that much with a heat gun, anyway. It's very dangerous if you burn it.

There IS a thinner plastic that you can use with a heatgun. I don't know if it will work for you, though. I don't know what it's called, but I know somebody used it to make the mouthpiece on his tusken raider. If I remember right, it's sort of a shrinking or shrink-wrap plastic. Thicker than a piece of paper, but not all that thick.
 
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i may have a problem here, i have 1/8" sintra that im planning to use for my chest armor.i have had success using sintra for my gauntlets (i used the hot water method).i dont have a pot large enough to fit the armor peices in.if a heat gun wont work how am i supposed to bend these peices?...my kitchen oven perhaps:confused
 
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I actually used a heat gun to form my first set of sintra armor...it will work to a small extent but won't really pick up much detail. However, don't get the heat too close to the sintra as it WILL burn...I learned that the hard way :rolleyes.
 
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A heat gun will work to bend the pieces, but Sintra won't be able to pick out the fine details that way. Just make sure when you use the heat gun you heat the plastic from the back side, so that the heat doesn't damage the part you want the public to see.

Another thought, this won't work for details either, but... if you have a tray of water the piece will fit, you could try just buying an infusion heater to get the water to the right temperature (it's a little metal heat coil with a plug on it). You can usually find them with tea supplies in a grocery store or Wal-Mart type place. You just plug it into the wall, and then, against all conventional wisdom regarding electrical devices and water, put the coil into the tray.
 
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I used a heat gun and boiling water(not at the same time silly) to form my armor. I used the heat gun for more precise bending.
Like was said before, sitra will burn and releases dangerous fumes when on fire;)
 
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