Armor progress

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 8, 2005

• #21

It's from smooth-on.com . The plastic is: C-1509 semi rigid casting resin.

It takes about 3 hours for it to set up and then about 16 hours before you can pull it out of the mold. If you can rig up some sort of roto-caster, you can get it to do a hollow shell. I could probably modify a mold to fit in the roto-caster I made for the shins:

I've since put a motor on it so I don't have to rotate it by hand for 3 hours

 

judz dwedd

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 8, 2005

• #22

Maybe I could rig the mold in my lathe, and spin it for 3 hrs on low speed.

 

judz dwedd

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 8, 2005

• #23

Smoothcast 60D has the same shore hardness, and only has a 3 minute pot life/10 minute demold. I could rotocast that by hand.

 

sithlord23

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 8, 2005

• #24

Man, that is looking awesome! can't wait to see more!

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 8, 2005

• #25

Thanks sithlord!!!


Judz, that might work. I haven't used the smooth cast 60. I've used the 10 and the 25. You might want to email them and see if it is similiar to the 1509 or at least do what you want it to do.

I just finished pouring the last hydrocal piece that I will use for vacuum forming the top / silver plates on the armor.

Here is a little of the process :

** I built a clay wall around the fiberglass I made earlier:

** This is the hydrocal piece I poured over the fiberglass:

** Then build another clay wall around that hydrocal piece and grease it up with vaseline to pour more hydrocal on top of that:

** Then I have a positive hydrocal piece to vacuumform off of. It's still fresh so I need to wait a day and then do some sanding and clean up:

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 9, 2005

• #26

O.K., I made some more progress:

Here is the first pull on the vac table:

And trimmed:

Sitting on top of the fiberglass pieces:

They need to be trimmed a little but I'll wait until the leather is on. Also need to carve the lettering. I'm debating whether or not I should carve the lettering into my vacuum -forming buck (buck is the term for the casting I'm vac-forming over )

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 10, 2005

judz dwedd

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 10, 2005

• #27

Damn red x's ! I really wanted to see those pics.

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 10, 2005

• #28

I hosted them somewhere else... for now

do they work now?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 10, 2005

judz dwedd

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 10, 2005

• #29

Ooooh yeah!...and they look miiiiiighty fine.

How thick is the plastic? Thick enough to engrave the lettering into?

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 10, 2005

• #30

The plastic I had on hand is .065 ABS (1/16"). I will use 1/16" styrene normally though. It will most likely be a little tough to carve the lettering into. This is why I will experiment with carving the lettering into the hydrocal...... I'll have to see how it turns out either way

 

Mr Fett

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 10, 2005

• #31

Excellent, MonCal!

 

judz dwedd

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 11, 2005

• #32

Well, if it's that thin, you could cut the "letters" out of the pieces, and back it with more styrene.

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 15, 2005

• #33

So Judz, do ya got any progress pics of your gauntlets / hand guards ?

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 16, 2005

• #34

I carved out the lettering in the armor plates tonight. Now I just need to get the leather dyed so I can assemble them...... oh and rub n buff the abs pieces

 

judz dwedd

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 17, 2005

• #35

Ooh yeah, that's lookin fine. Don't have any gaunt pics yet. I had to start over, because what I was initially working on was turning out to be too large. I'm on the right track now though.

 

Seven

Well-Known Hunter

• Feb 17, 2005

• #36

It looks like the lettering is a little low on the armor...but otherwise it looks very clean cut.

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Feb 17, 2005

• #37

The angles aren't even the same but since I'm holding the armor a little low compared to my ref. pic I scaled up to size, the lettering should be close. This meaning if I could tip the top of my armor back similiar to the real pic behind it, then the lettering and the bottom shape of the armor should line up.

 

MaulMaus

Active Hunter

• Feb 18, 2005

• #38

Lettering looks great... though a little low to me also. Did you try holding it up on a person... to see if it looks right?

 

MonCal

Active Hunter

• Mar 13, 2005

• #39

Finished the armor

I still need to take pics of the harness that is fully attached and enclosed inside the vest.

Dye the leather and glued onto the fiberglass:

Cut out the unnecessary leather so the top piece can be glued directly to the fiberglass:

Some weathering and rub n buff under the letters:

Vacuum formed piece weathered, rub n buffed and glued on:

Added some more dyes to the leather for weathering:

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 13, 2005

obi sean kenobi

Well-Known Hunter

• Mar 13, 2005

• #40

dude that is frickin amazing!!!!!!!!!