MOW Gauntlets for beginners (like me!)
- Thread starter Necronaut
- Start date
Necronaut
Hunter
Now it's time to start puttying the screws. I used Bondo glazing putty to do this. I laid down some on a few strips of masking tape for easy disposal when finished. I also mixed in some nail polish remover to thin it out a bit.
I used a metal spatula to spread it on like peanut butter. Cleanup is as easy as wiping off the excess with a paper towel moistened with the nail polish remover.
When finished, simply peel up your masking tape 'palette' and toss it in the garbage. Easy!
I used 300 grit sandpaper to sand off the excess. It took me a few applications (this isn't the last one) to cover up the scars from the cutting disc. By dishing into the screws a little when grinding them down a few posts back, it should create a nice bowl for the putty to sit inside and completely cover the screws.
Necronaut
Hunter
Now, I have jumped forward a little with the right gauntlet. It's been primed with a 'filling' automotive primer already and I'm in the process of filling all the little pinholes in the resin. I'm using a scale modelling product called Mr Surfacer. It's kind of like a paintable putty. It's acrylic resin powder mixed into a lacquer paint. You brush it into small cracks and gaps, let it dry, and sand it smooth. I haven't sanded it off yet, but I think that it's just covering up the pinholes, rather than filling them up. I'll be going at this gauntlet on Sunday with an orbital sander and some sanding sticks to see how my pinhole filling job went. If Mr Surfacer doesn't do the trick, I've heard that you can also thin down some PVA (white school glue) with water and use that to fill pinholes in resin. It sands smooth too.
My left gauntlet is not going so smoothly. I applied two layers of fiberglass mat to the insides of these things, and the heat ended up warping the left bottom gauntlet half too much. I tried correcting it with heat, but it just won't stay in the shape I need it to close flush with the upper gauntlet half. I got Christian from MOW to send me another gauntlet half, and it came in last week. Right now, it's at school setting up after its first fiberglassing. I made sure that it will cure up in its proper contour using a form. It's only going to get a single layer of mat on the inside and a few strips of cloth on the edge where it will be hinged.
My left gauntlet is not going so smoothly. I applied two layers of fiberglass mat to the insides of these things, and the heat ended up warping the left bottom gauntlet half too much. I tried correcting it with heat, but it just won't stay in the shape I need it to close flush with the upper gauntlet half. I got Christian from MOW to send me another gauntlet half, and it came in last week. Right now, it's at school setting up after its first fiberglassing. I made sure that it will cure up in its proper contour using a form. It's only going to get a single layer of mat on the inside and a few strips of cloth on the edge where it will be hinged.
Necronaut
Hunter
Question: I'm trying to find a suitable green paint for the gauntlets, and I have picked up a couple local possibilities: Testors Field Green (through an airbrush) or Krylon Italian Olive spraybomb. I haven't gotten to my last (and furthest away) hobby shop (which carries Humbrol/Pollyscale paints as well as Testors). I really want an enamel paint for my hard parts. Are either of these color of any use, or should I hold out for or order the Testors RLM62?
thebeans
Hunter
When i get around to doing my gaunts i may paint them with humbrol green 78 , I've seen a thread or two on this gauntlet color matter, sorry i dont have a link for you, but they came out pretty nice with 78 plus some weathering and they grey details, hope this helps. Nice job on this gaunts build BTW
I use humbrol 78. I have also used Rustoleum satin spruce green in the past, but i liked the Humbrol color better, so thats what i use for the gaunts now. Italian olive is too brownish. IMO it is only good for the ROTJ bucket top. You really shouldnt use it on any ESB parts unless its for weathering purposes.
Necronaut
Hunter
I'll be getting back on the gauntlet horse soon here, folks. I've been getting a little carried away with assembling and painting up my new RKD armor. As well, I wanted to make sure my sanding and filling job on the right gantlet was acceptable before blabbing about how I did it. I'll post a WIP on the filling and 'body work' on the left gauntlet in a couple weeks, using the same process.
Punisher187
New Hunter
This thread is one of the best I've seen. Do you strap down the tops of the gauntlets when you fiberglassed them so they wouldn't pop up out of the jig you made ?
Necronaut
Hunter
Before I wrapped the fiberglass around the insides, I heat-molded the gauntlet halves with some hot water so that they lined up. After building the jig at the proper angles, I placed the gauntlet halves in the jig and marked how far to push them into the jig front-to-back.
After the fiberglass was laid I pushed them into the jig, lining them up with the marks I had made. They stayed in the jig just fine as the resin set without me having to strap them down.
Once again, the armor thing's been consuming my life. I've been on a seemingly neverending quest to find the right color out-of-the-jar for my armor. I've settled on MM euro dark green. It seems to have that mint green tone with a hint of blue to it, unlike the yellow or olive-tinted medium and field greens I've been experimenting with.
Now that my metal gauntlet rocket's arrived, this may be the kick in the butt I need to just get on and finish them!
After the fiberglass was laid I pushed them into the jig, lining them up with the marks I had made. They stayed in the jig just fine as the resin set without me having to strap them down.
Once again, the armor thing's been consuming my life. I've been on a seemingly neverending quest to find the right color out-of-the-jar for my armor. I've settled on MM euro dark green. It seems to have that mint green tone with a hint of blue to it, unlike the yellow or olive-tinted medium and field greens I've been experimenting with.
Now that my metal gauntlet rocket's arrived, this may be the kick in the butt I need to just get on and finish them!
Necronaut
Hunter
Hey gang, a little update on some work I did tonight. I kinda lost my mojo on this over the spring when my armor arrived. It's almost done, and it'll be a while before I see my CC GMH, so I thought I'd finish these gauntlets off....
These resin parts are pitted with tiny micro-bubbles and pinholes. I spent a couple weeks sanding, filling, sanding, filling, etc. until the surfaces were smooth and the bubbles were filled. I started with a coat of DupliColor Adhesion Promoter on all the resin parts. It's a product used in auto-body shops to make sure that paint will stick to plastic. After that, I sprayed several coats of automotive filler primer. It's used to fill small imperfections and prime the surface of your work for finish sanding or paint. I sanded the parts flat, gave them a good scrub, then set out to fill any remaining micro-bubbles & pinholes. I use a product called Mr Surfacer for the pinholes and small gouges. It's a semi-thin, paintable liquid filler for tiny gaps and imperfections. It still took a couple weeks to find and fill all the remaining surface imperfections that will show for all the resin bits of the flamethrower. Once I was satisfied that I had caught them all, they got another round of primer.
As you can see, I've went ahead and sprayed a few coats of white on these parts. I'm in the process of masking them off for black paint.
I use Tamiya Tape for all of my masking. I was big into plastic model kits before I started this project (I needed the break from models anyways
). I used a sharp hobby knife with a brand-new blade to trim all of the panels on the whipcord launcher. As for the sides...
I sanded off the sides of the whipcord launcher and am using styrene sheet to remake them. It's thin enough that I can trim the styrene with scissors for a rough cut.
These resin parts are pitted with tiny micro-bubbles and pinholes. I spent a couple weeks sanding, filling, sanding, filling, etc. until the surfaces were smooth and the bubbles were filled. I started with a coat of DupliColor Adhesion Promoter on all the resin parts. It's a product used in auto-body shops to make sure that paint will stick to plastic. After that, I sprayed several coats of automotive filler primer. It's used to fill small imperfections and prime the surface of your work for finish sanding or paint. I sanded the parts flat, gave them a good scrub, then set out to fill any remaining micro-bubbles & pinholes. I use a product called Mr Surfacer for the pinholes and small gouges. It's a semi-thin, paintable liquid filler for tiny gaps and imperfections. It still took a couple weeks to find and fill all the remaining surface imperfections that will show for all the resin bits of the flamethrower. Once I was satisfied that I had caught them all, they got another round of primer.
As you can see, I've went ahead and sprayed a few coats of white on these parts. I'm in the process of masking them off for black paint.
I use Tamiya Tape for all of my masking. I was big into plastic model kits before I started this project (I needed the break from models anyways
). I used a sharp hobby knife with a brand-new blade to trim all of the panels on the whipcord launcher. As for the sides...I sanded off the sides of the whipcord launcher and am using styrene sheet to remake them. It's thin enough that I can trim the styrene with scissors for a rough cut.
Necronaut
Hunter
Once the pieces were cut out, I trimmed them to fit the whipcord launcher sides, with about a 1 mm gap between the edge of the launcher and the plastic trim. These pieces are going to get a coat of white paint to match the white paint on all the other pieces.
Everything's ready for some more white paint! But why did I bother masking off the white panels and parts, you ask? Paint bleed. It might be a symptom of my own sloppiness, but if I mask off a part for painting a new color what inevitably happens is that the new color always runs under the tape here and there. By spraying the underlying color after masking, whatever bleeding potential there might be gets blocked by this final application of the original color. I may still get paint bleed, but it will be the original underlying color. It makes it so much easier to deal with.
I am using Humbrol paints through a Paasche Talon airbrush. My little workstation could use some cleanup, but whatever :rolleyes . I much prefer using Testors MM enamels (I find them more durable once dry), but I am committed to using Humbrol paint schemes for when I paint my helmet this summer. Better get used to them. I am thinning the Humbrol enamel at about a 2:1 ratio of paint to thinner. I started with a 1:1 ratio, but it always came out too 'wet', thin, and runny.
Here's some of the flamethrower parts with their white paint. This is about 4 or 5 coats of Humbrol gloss white.
Seeya soon!
Necronaut
Hunter
Quick update. I know you're all looking! 
I put down some Humbrol gloss white on the parts after masking to prevent the paint bleed. Here they are. Once it had dried for about 24 hours, I sprayed a couple coats of Humbrol gloss black and allowed it to dry. After removing the mask...
Ta da! No paint bleed at all! I painted all the flamethrower barrels and gas chambers silver with a Tremclad spraybomb as well, just like my armor.
Matty Matt found a guy on Etsy who makes these replica dental expanders, so I bought a couple. They have a giant hole in the middle, so I epoxied a finishing nail through it. It'll get glued into a hole drilled into the gauntlet. Rather than go through the trouble of airbrushing brass paint and cleaning the airbrush, I just dipped the part into the paint pot and wiped the excess away with an airbrush cleaning q-tip.
I used Gunze Mr Metal Color: Brass for the dental expander paint.
I got a REALLY nice pressure-cast of a Casio keypad thrown into my RKD/IOA armor purchase (Thanks, RKD ), and here it is with the same Tremclad silver paint used on all my other metal bits.
I used Tamiya clear acrylic paints to paint the keypad buttons. Hopefully I got the orientation right.
Looking at the ESB pics, I found that the red bits of the flamethrower are more orange-ish. I used equal parts of Humbrol orange 132 and red 19. In the airbrush paint cup, it looks perfect. With a couple more coats, it'll pop on these parts. We should have a finished flamethrower within a couple days, folks!
I put down some Humbrol gloss white on the parts after masking to prevent the paint bleed. Here they are. Once it had dried for about 24 hours, I sprayed a couple coats of Humbrol gloss black and allowed it to dry. After removing the mask...
Ta da! No paint bleed at all! I painted all the flamethrower barrels and gas chambers silver with a Tremclad spraybomb as well, just like my armor.
Matty Matt found a guy on Etsy who makes these replica dental expanders, so I bought a couple. They have a giant hole in the middle, so I epoxied a finishing nail through it. It'll get glued into a hole drilled into the gauntlet. Rather than go through the trouble of airbrushing brass paint and cleaning the airbrush, I just dipped the part into the paint pot and wiped the excess away with an airbrush cleaning q-tip.
I used Gunze Mr Metal Color: Brass for the dental expander paint.
I got a REALLY nice pressure-cast of a Casio keypad thrown into my RKD/IOA armor purchase (Thanks, RKD
), and here it is with the same Tremclad silver paint used on all my other metal bits.I used Tamiya clear acrylic paints to paint the keypad buttons. Hopefully I got the orientation right.
Looking at the ESB pics, I found that the red bits of the flamethrower are more orange-ish. I used equal parts of Humbrol orange 132 and red 19. In the airbrush paint cup, it looks perfect. With a couple more coats, it'll pop on these parts. We should have a finished flamethrower within a couple days, folks!
Necronaut
Hunter
I slapped some Maskol onto one of the flamethrower gas chambers and sprayed it with the same red-orange of the other flamethrower parts. It took a couple coats for decent coverage, but it's finished now.
This morning before I left for work, I mixed up some JB Weld and epoxied the gas chamber parts to the forward and rear block assemblies. I let it dry all day (about 12 hours).
I've drilled out the screw holes embedded in the flamethrower mounting plate, and drilled corresponding holes to receive a couple screws to assemble these parts together. As well, I've scratched off the paint in these areas so any epoxy I apply will stick to the resin, not the weaker paint.
I'm using these large hex-head screws to put together the flamethrower and its mounting plate. The hex heads will serve as locator pins with corresponding holes in the gauntlets for them. I am making the flamethrower removable with some rare-earth magnets. I would imagine that there are more than a few people who've snagged and ripped off the barrels of their ESB flamethrowers on troops and such. If it happens to me, no big deal; it pops right back on with no tools needed.
I'll be securing the blocks to the mounting plate with both the hex screws and some Devcon Plastic Welder.
This morning before I left for work, I mixed up some JB Weld and epoxied the gas chamber parts to the forward and rear block assemblies. I let it dry all day (about 12 hours).
I've drilled out the screw holes embedded in the flamethrower mounting plate, and drilled corresponding holes to receive a couple screws to assemble these parts together. As well, I've scratched off the paint in these areas so any epoxy I apply will stick to the resin, not the weaker paint.
I'm using these large hex-head screws to put together the flamethrower and its mounting plate. The hex heads will serve as locator pins with corresponding holes in the gauntlets for them. I am making the flamethrower removable with some rare-earth magnets. I would imagine that there are more than a few people who've snagged and ripped off the barrels of their ESB flamethrowers on troops and such. If it happens to me, no big deal; it pops right back on with no tools needed.
I'll be securing the blocks to the mounting plate with both the hex screws and some Devcon Plastic Welder.
Necronaut
Hunter
Screws are in. It feels extremely secure!
My drill's battery is dead, so I had to Dremel out the locator holes in the gauntlet with a carving bit.
Nice fit! There's a little gap from the washer built onto the hex screws, but it's not a big deal to me.
I carved out a couple recessed holes on the gauntlet to receive the magnets. To ensure that I carve the holes in the same place on the flamethrower mounting plate, I used a bit of Blu-Tac as a quick mold and pressed the flamethrower onto the gauntlet.
Meh, it mostly worked. Good enough for me!
I'll try two of the button-sized magnets in both sides of the assemblies for now. If I need more, I can always drill another one. If that's still not enough, the locator holes are big enough for another magnet each!
So, I got on with the assembly of the flamethrower tubes. I couldn't wait! I have a ton of brass and aluminum tubes, so I was able to 'sleeve' most of these parts together for a very tight and straight fit. I just used a bunch of JB Weld for these metal part assemblies.
I really hope that the placement is correct. There's like zero reference material for this style of flamethrower. Tomorrow night, I'll be putting on the piano key bits onto the rear block of the flamethrower, and that should be it!
Cheers!
Necronaut
Hunter
So, 'tomorrow night' was in fact the next night. I am just now getting to uploading the pics and telling the story...
Gluing these blocks onto the flamethrower wouldn't be good enough for me. I could easily see an errant door swing knocking one of these off of the flamethrower. So I decided to reinforce the bonds a bit, by 'pinning' them into place. I drilled a couple holes into the underside with a small model-making pin vise. I have a bunch of scratch-building brass wire around, and it fit the bill perfectly for this job. I snipped off a couple pieces.
After mixing up a batch of JB Weld, I dipped one end of the brass rod in and stuck it in place. The holes I drilled are a little oversized compared to the wire, only so I have some positioning & 'wiggle' room when doing final assembly.
Pins are epoxied in place...
...for all the blocks. I also drilled corresponding pinholes in the black block on the flamethrower. To do this, I 'eyeballed' the position of each pinned block and simply pressed down. The pins made marks and dents in the paint, which I drilled the holes through. Once this drilling was finished, I mixed myself up a batch of DevCon Plastic Welder. Notice that the undersides and mating surfaces of the parts have been scraped of paint all the way down to bare resin. This is so the Plastic Welder will bond to the resin and not the weaker-bonded paint.
Ta da! One finished flamethrower. Hope it passes muster here on TDH! As for the whipcord launcher, I used CA/Krazy glue to glue the plastic cutouts to the sides. I had some styrene strip (used in my model-making) that I cut up to use for the 'front' of the whipcord launcher, also attached with CA glue. As well, the leftover JB Weld was used to epoxy the BBQ lighter (see many posts previous for details on that) into place.
Here are the finished pieces. The whipcord launcher has the nubs on the back end of it. They are supposedly late 70's era dental files. There is a TDH member around here who still has some if you're interested in buying the real thing. In my opinion, it's just another easily snagged and lost piece of the costume during a troop. I elected to leave them as is (for now... :rolleyes )
I painted both of them with Citadel Paints Chainmail from Games Workshop, a miniature wargaming company. The wrist-most one got an overcoat with Citadel Mithril Silver, while the elbow-most one got two coats of Tamiya Clear Red.
Cheers!
Gluing these blocks onto the flamethrower wouldn't be good enough for me. I could easily see an errant door swing knocking one of these off of the flamethrower. So I decided to reinforce the bonds a bit, by 'pinning' them into place. I drilled a couple holes into the underside with a small model-making pin vise. I have a bunch of scratch-building brass wire around, and it fit the bill perfectly for this job. I snipped off a couple pieces.
After mixing up a batch of JB Weld, I dipped one end of the brass rod in and stuck it in place. The holes I drilled are a little oversized compared to the wire, only so I have some positioning & 'wiggle' room when doing final assembly.
Pins are epoxied in place...
...for all the blocks. I also drilled corresponding pinholes in the black block on the flamethrower. To do this, I 'eyeballed' the position of each pinned block and simply pressed down. The pins made marks and dents in the paint, which I drilled the holes through. Once this drilling was finished, I mixed myself up a batch of DevCon Plastic Welder. Notice that the undersides and mating surfaces of the parts have been scraped of paint all the way down to bare resin. This is so the Plastic Welder will bond to the resin and not the weaker-bonded paint.
Ta da! One finished flamethrower. Hope it passes muster here on TDH!
As for the whipcord launcher, I used CA/Krazy glue to glue the plastic cutouts to the sides. I had some styrene strip (used in my model-making) that I cut up to use for the 'front' of the whipcord launcher, also attached with CA glue. As well, the leftover JB Weld was used to epoxy the BBQ lighter (see many posts previous for details on that) into place.Here are the finished pieces. The whipcord launcher has the nubs on the back end of it. They are supposedly late 70's era dental files. There is a TDH member around here who still has some if you're interested in buying the real thing. In my opinion, it's just another easily snagged and lost piece of the costume during a troop. I elected to leave them as is (for now... :rolleyes )
I painted both of them with Citadel Paints Chainmail from Games Workshop, a miniature wargaming company. The wrist-most one got an overcoat with Citadel Mithril Silver, while the elbow-most one got two coats of Tamiya Clear Red.
Cheers!
Syper
Active Hunter
I love all the details and many pics you’re sharing with us Brother. You’re doing a great job and I can tell your having a blast too. Your build inspired me to get off my *** and start my own gauntlet build. It’s a tone of work but I was having so much fun, I only regret not taking more WIP pics like you have. I just need to attach hoses and I’m done. I’ll have pics on my build soon.
Take care Mr.
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/sypers-pre-pro-2-build-47403/
Take care Mr.
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/sypers-pre-pro-2-build-47403/
Necronaut
Hunter
The biggest challenge for dealing with resin is the micro-bubbles. Thank goodness for model makers and prop makers who use pressure-casting for their resin parts. However, not everyone is able to employ this technique. These gauntlets, for example, are very well-made but riddled with bubbles from the mixing and pouring of the resin that makes them up. This is no slight against the casters, it is just a fact of life when dealing with cast resin that I have dealt with successfully using the following technique.
This is an example of the bubbles present in a lot of resin casts (and this is after three coats of filler-primer). They are not pretty. I aim to get rid of them. Now, the parts have already been scrubbed clean of mold residue using Simple Green before painting. I gave them a sand with some 220-grit sandpaper by hand to get rid of any built-up or high spots and outstanding bits of resin and washed them again. Anytime I do a wash, I use a soft scrub brush on all the surfaces. After they dried, I started the primer step with two coats of Dupli-Color Adhesion Promoter. It is meant to make sure that paint and primer will actually stick to plastic, which can be kind of tricky. It's a commonly found product in the auto body aisle of the local Canadian Tire. Check your local automotive DIY store for this product.
After two coats of the adhesion promoter spaced about 5 minutes apart, I sprayed three coats of automotive filler primer, spaced about 10 to 15 minutes apart. It's a little different than regular primer. It's a little thicker formula so that it quickly builds up a very thick coat of paint that can be sanded flat thus filling in any minor scratches, gouges, and other imperfections. Primer tends to dry very quickly, so you can coat one half of your part, then turn it upside down to coat the other side.
In terms of filling in any micro-bubbles, filler primer helps but it won't completely eliminate them. Once the paint has dried for about 24 hours, i take them home and use a product called Mr Surfacer to fill in the remaining micro-bubbles:
This is an example of the bubbles present in a lot of resin casts (and this is after three coats of filler-primer). They are not pretty. I aim to get rid of them. Now, the parts have already been scrubbed clean of mold residue using Simple Green before painting. I gave them a sand with some 220-grit sandpaper by hand to get rid of any built-up or high spots and outstanding bits of resin and washed them again. Anytime I do a wash, I use a soft scrub brush on all the surfaces. After they dried, I started the primer step with two coats of Dupli-Color Adhesion Promoter. It is meant to make sure that paint and primer will actually stick to plastic, which can be kind of tricky. It's a commonly found product in the auto body aisle of the local Canadian Tire. Check your local automotive DIY store for this product.
After two coats of the adhesion promoter spaced about 5 minutes apart, I sprayed three coats of automotive filler primer, spaced about 10 to 15 minutes apart. It's a little different than regular primer. It's a little thicker formula so that it quickly builds up a very thick coat of paint that can be sanded flat thus filling in any minor scratches, gouges, and other imperfections. Primer tends to dry very quickly, so you can coat one half of your part, then turn it upside down to coat the other side.
In terms of filling in any micro-bubbles, filler primer helps but it won't completely eliminate them. Once the paint has dried for about 24 hours, i take them home and use a product called Mr Surfacer to fill in the remaining micro-bubbles:
