Grimstuff's Scratch Build Journal (building, casting, painting)
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Grimstuff
Active Hunter
Been getting all the little details and accessory doohickeys in order.
Just went with the standard chicago/post screw method for mounting the visor. Kept it simple with just a set on the edges and a set on the cheeks, the 1/8" visor material is pretty bend resistant and I was able to get it curved just perfect to fit, so it seems pretty stable with just those. The screw bases are glued to the helm interior with a 10 minute epoxy that claims to be specially blended for bonding metal to plastics/resins, dunno if it actually does but it held up pretty well to my pliers pull test, so seems tough enough.
Finally got around to getting the molds for the casio board and the RF viewport done. Just some simple 1-piece block molds, used the same Mold Star 20T silicone I used on the ear accessories.
The Casio board is from Rafalfett's shapeway's page, honestly most convenient and cost effective way to get one, highly recommend it. Thanks again rafal.
The viewport I just quickly sculpted up out of some apoxie sculpt. I cast it in the same clear polyurethene I use for the perspex block, just painting the outside black. Isn't as detailed as the real camera lens greeble, but good enough for this budget bucket.
From the start I had the idea of magnetizing the RF stalk, but honestly as I ended up finding out, it's just a bad idea. The rangefinder just ends up being too heavy with too much leverage at the end of that long stalk, even the really strong magnets I bought loose their grip too easily. Unfortunately I had already went through all the effort of installing them before I discovered this though.
So to just get it on and working, I ended up going with a bolt fastening instead. A rubber washer and a lock washer on the other side create a pretty tight mount, which still has the sponginess to allow for rotation. The magnets do help a little to lock it in the up position, but in the future I'd like to possibly look into a mechanical solution, maybe something with springs, or at least rework it to be more inline with the popular aluminum stalks for compatibility.
Magnets do work pretty great for keeping the ear cap on though. Can't complain there.
Just went with the standard chicago/post screw method for mounting the visor. Kept it simple with just a set on the edges and a set on the cheeks, the 1/8" visor material is pretty bend resistant and I was able to get it curved just perfect to fit, so it seems pretty stable with just those. The screw bases are glued to the helm interior with a 10 minute epoxy that claims to be specially blended for bonding metal to plastics/resins, dunno if it actually does but it held up pretty well to my pliers pull test, so seems tough enough.
Finally got around to getting the molds for the casio board and the RF viewport done. Just some simple 1-piece block molds, used the same Mold Star 20T silicone I used on the ear accessories.
The Casio board is from Rafalfett's shapeway's page, honestly most convenient and cost effective way to get one, highly recommend it. Thanks again rafal.
The viewport I just quickly sculpted up out of some apoxie sculpt. I cast it in the same clear polyurethene I use for the perspex block, just painting the outside black. Isn't as detailed as the real camera lens greeble, but good enough for this budget bucket.
From the start I had the idea of magnetizing the RF stalk, but honestly as I ended up finding out, it's just a bad idea. The rangefinder just ends up being too heavy with too much leverage at the end of that long stalk, even the really strong magnets I bought loose their grip too easily. Unfortunately I had already went through all the effort of installing them before I discovered this though.
So to just get it on and working, I ended up going with a bolt fastening instead. A rubber washer and a lock washer on the other side create a pretty tight mount, which still has the sponginess to allow for rotation. The magnets do help a little to lock it in the up position, but in the future I'd like to possibly look into a mechanical solution, maybe something with springs, or at least rework it to be more inline with the popular aluminum stalks for compatibility.
Magnets do work pretty great for keeping the ear cap on though. Can't complain there.
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Grimstuff
Active Hunter
Forgot to update the thread, but I'm proud to say that this guy's been been done for a good little while now.
A few shots there of both natural lighting and full-white/color-corrected lighting there. I've been color-correcting throughout the thread so far, but the natural look definitely has a good style about it.
A few shots there of both natural lighting and full-white/color-corrected lighting there. I've been color-correcting throughout the thread so far, but the natural look definitely has a good style about it.
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Grimstuff
Active Hunter
Having never done a paint-up of anything this detailed before, it was a definitely a learning experience. I can spot tons of mistakes and missing details and could probably spend another month on it, but I think as a whole it's pretty alright for the quality level I was targeting. And I've kept my friend waiting long enough.
Thanks everyone for following, and glad I could help anyone if any of my posts did. I might to one more paint-up thread after this for my own personal helm, but as for now I'm tinkering away on my next project:
Thanks everyone for following, and glad I could help anyone if any of my posts did. I might to one more paint-up thread after this for my own personal helm, but as for now I'm tinkering away on my next project:
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Grimstuff
Active Hunter
*spongebob 1 year later card*
So I've been doing pretty well selling these buckets for a while now (link in profile /shilling), enough to have to retire the original mold. So with over a year of more experience in my belt I did the new mold a little bit different which I think might be valuable to share.
This time around I decided to do a 1-peice glove mold instead of the 2 part I did before. I also made the mold about double the thickness of the old one, with particular thickness around the cheeks and ears to avoid any warping. I want this thing to preserve it's shape until the silicone cracks and dries to dust.
Now naturally this would be pretty much impossible to demold regularly, but I was able to utilize the visor space to create a slit that allows me to open it up a little, I used a blade with a few bends in it to give some alignment channels in the silicone. It still takes a bit of elbow grease to get it out, but it does come out, and most importantly: with no mold lines!
So they come out pretty much done. Nothing needed but a bath to remove the mold release oil. Much more convenient than sanding out those mold lines.
So I've been doing pretty well selling these buckets for a while now (link in profile /shilling), enough to have to retire the original mold. So with over a year of more experience in my belt I did the new mold a little bit different which I think might be valuable to share.
This time around I decided to do a 1-peice glove mold instead of the 2 part I did before. I also made the mold about double the thickness of the old one, with particular thickness around the cheeks and ears to avoid any warping. I want this thing to preserve it's shape until the silicone cracks and dries to dust.
Now naturally this would be pretty much impossible to demold regularly, but I was able to utilize the visor space to create a slit that allows me to open it up a little, I used a blade with a few bends in it to give some alignment channels in the silicone. It still takes a bit of elbow grease to get it out, but it does come out, and most importantly: with no mold lines!
So they come out pretty much done. Nothing needed but a bath to remove the mold release oil. Much more convenient than sanding out those mold lines.
