Well, I know it's been awhile folks and, this update here is rather long and drawn out.
The part that I have been paying attention to the most lately has been the left forearm (the right forearm is semi-assembled as well, all seams bondo'ed and effectively knocked out).
I removed quite a bit of plastic from both halves not only in width, but length as well. In cutting back the length, I did in fact loose the undercuts, which the faux "thickness" of the piece was lost as a result.
In the following images, I highlight the procedure that I have been utilizing to restore thickness. In fact this procedure will be utilized on the legs, biceps, etc. any part that requires it, as you will all see in future updates.
The first image shows where I begin to shim the two-halves. This time I shimmed the leftside forearm differently than the rightside. Rather than cutting the shims as one piece (the entire legnth of the actual forearm) I cut the shim into 3 seperate pieces. The reason I did this was to create small gaps between the individual shim pieces, so Bondo would seep through to the inside, in a way creating a "bondo" rivet which I then sanded down. I am skinning the inside of these pieces with multiple layers of thin sheet styreene, so the bondo will ultimately go unseen:
Front, small shim clipped:
Rear shim glued and clipped till dry, front pieces super glued (used small dusting of baking soda as an accelerator, a CGClone trick
) :
The piece effectively shimmed:
Test fitting. You can see the small gap between the rear and middle shim:
Prior to applying Bondo to the respective seams, I sanded the whole part down with 220grit, hitting the seams areas with 180grit for better Bondo adhesion:
All right, here is bit of a fast forward in the process, as you can see in this image, the bottom seam has been "knocked" out. I used 120grit to fight down the excess, un-needed Bondo, then 220grit to finish off the seam. Note the highly accurate, curved "tapered" effect on the left halve.
The top seam effectivley knocked out:
Here I begin to focus on building-up the thickness of the part. I am super gluing solid round , styreene rod, along the interior curvature of the part. This will act not only as a foundation for the styreene sheets I will be the skinning the interior with, but as base for expoxy putty that will be applied. This tubing also helps add strength too
I can't recall the width of this rod styreene, and I will have that info soon (note experimental interior "greeblies" from previous updates have been removed):
Styreene rod in place on the front of the piece. Note first layer of sheet styreene in place:
Here is the part, after the first go around of puttying, filing and sanding. I am using an epoxy putty I have never tried before, that I found at OSH. I will post the brand later. Great stuff to work with. Here I think you all can see what I attempting to do. The part is probably at the 50% completion stage at this point. The final stage (as you will see soon) will be where I capture and finalize all the nuances. The egdes will ultimately be super sharp:
Second layer of sheet styreene being traced/scored with pencil, trimmed to fit (note seam and edge areas have been dusted with a light coat of white Tamiya Fine Primer):
The goal with the forearms, is to elminate the use of foam blocks, between the forearms and the pieces thenselves. I will be using Rare Earth Magnets on the front ends of the corresponding pieces, so they don't move around, and remain exactly in place. There will be magnets precisely installed either on the body glove, or on the back end of the gloves themselves. Not sure yet. One more layer of thin sheet styreene is all thats required at this point. I can't tell you all how secure the piece feels already, minus the magnets, with no foam blocks in use. Totally stoked!