Anyone else frustrated with sintra when they first started working with it?

[B4N3S4W]

Hi. So a while back I def a heavy infantry mandalorian suit in 10mm Eva foam. I want to do a second version, in sintra, but sintra is proving nigh-on impossible to work with.

It won't stick with super glue (I'm using loctite professional) and it's hard to cut and shape. It doesn't do compound curves very well either.

I'm extremely frustrated with the material, but I refuse to give up on it. Even after 3 failed chest pieces.

 

[bigkidbiggertoys]

Are you sanding the mating surfaces before gluing? What about using an accelerator? Also, the glue viscosity can make a difference. If the pieces are ill fitting then a gel CA glue will be your best bet.

You can get compound curves if you use a proper form. I made all of my Jango armour masters using Sintra. I used boiling water and dipped the only the area I wanted to work on and locked it in place with ice water. I never had luck using a heat gun as it tends to heat up too large of an area.

 

[B4N3S4W]

Are you sanding the mating surfaces before gluing? What about using an accelerator? Also, the glue viscosity can make a difference. If the pieces are ill fitting then a gel CA glue will be your best bet.

You can get compound curves if you use a proper form. I made all of my Jango armour masters using Sintra. I used boiling water and dipped the only the area I wanted to work on and locked it in place with ice water. I never had luck using a heat gun as it tends to heat up too large of an area.

I may try the boiling water method, because that's been a recurring theme in every thread.

And the pieces are somewhat ill-fitting because I have a somewhat unsteady hand. I did order a bandsaw and a belt sander since I had some extra cash. So maybe those will help? And Gel glue I didn't think of. I'll try that, too.

 

[Mythos Fenn]

When it comes to heating and forming sintra, I actually place my plates in the oven on the lowest heat setting possible. It's the easier way to heat up larger areas - specially full chest plates in order to form them to your body better.

As for cutting the sintra, it's best to use a very sharp box cutter and a ruler (for straight edges) and just make multiple passes. More aggressive cutting techniques might cause the cell structure of the plastic to crack and and dremel cutting blades can tend to break when attempting to cut around corners or curved edges due to forces being applied to them when they are at an angle.

Question - what or why are you needing to glue the sintra?

When it comes to better bonds for pieces that take more abuse, E6000 or epoxy putties are generally the better options.

 

[B4N3S4W]

When it comes to heating and forming sintra, I actually place my plates in the oven on the lowest heat setting possible. It's the easier way to heat up larger areas - specially full chest plates in order to form them to your body better.

As for cutting the sintra, it's best to use a very sharp box cutter and a ruler (for straight edges) and just make multiple passes. More aggressive cutting techniques might cause the cell structure of the plastic to crack and and dremel cutting blades can tend to break when attempting to cut around corners or curved edges due to forces being applied to them when they are at an angle.

Question - what or why are you needing to glue the sintra?

When it comes to better bonds for pieces that take more abuse, E6000 or epoxy putties are generally the better options.

Forgot to respond to this. But some of the parts are pretty heavily angled, and require beveled edges to be glued together, but I always seem to take a bit more than I intend to with the bevels, and cause the pieces to not make contact.

 

[Mythos Fenn]

What chest pieces are you trying to make that require beveling of the sintra? Sounds like you're not making traditional/classic Mandalorian style plates. Is that correct?

Once we know what you are trying to make - we may be able to assist more.

 

[B4N3S4W]

What chest pieces are you trying to make that require beveling of the sintra? Sounds like you're not making traditional/classic Mandalorian style plates. Is that correct?

Once we know what you are trying to make - we may be able to assist more.

Oh! Sorry. Yeah, I'm working on the heavy infantry mandalorian plates. Using 6mm sintra. But I'm down to my last sheet of 6mm. So if this one fails, then I'll probably go either legacy or classic and just try to make it as heavy looking as possible.

 

[B4N3S4W]

What chest pieces are you trying to make that require beveling of the sintra? Sounds like you're not making traditional/classic Mandalorian style plates. Is that correct?

Once we know what you are trying to make - we may be able to assist more.

Here's what I've managed so far. I'm actually extremely happy with it. What do you think?

 

[Mythos Fenn]

Oh nice! yeah, that's shaping up nicely

 

[B4N3S4W]

Oh nice! yeah, that's shaping up nicely

And here it is after sanding and throwing down some paint/primer