Koda Vonnor

I primed and polished the bell down to 600 grit, and added the soft urethane edge beading. I have to say it's not that easy to superglue a flexible piece to an edge and get it perfectly straight. The glue sets up too fast. Also any variance in pressure as I held the edging down caused some ripples in the edge contour. After looking at it though and comparing it to the CG model I think it may be better a little crooked. Plus, whatever corrections I cannot make on the final hard masters I can blend in with the weathering. It's finally starting to look like something. As always, more views at the bucket. ~ Vonnor

Dziękuję panu.

This shows more the sequence of casting the flexible edge bead for the shoulder bell. I used Smooth-On Reoflex40 urethane rubber for the castings. I might have used 60 as the 40 is still VERY soft and flexible. One thing I found is that plain old superglue (cyanoacrylate) is the schiz for sticking flexible urethane to plastics like the Bondo. Also note while pouring I left a bit of a meniscus (concavity) on the surface to help the edging pull down flush on the model. Finally a mock-up of the soft edging idea. Way better edge than I could ever sculpt. Again this is only for building the left/right hard models which will be cast resin. I will cut the respective rear corners off each resin hard model and build the edge back up, then take final production molds. Yada yada blah... ~ Vonnor

Small update: I made the junk mold for the left handguard hard model, seen behind the mold for the shoulder bell edge bead. I got a piece of half-round 1/2" acrylic rod (shown), taped it to the edge of a level and made some posterboard walls. I put in some Rebound25 mold rubber and it's now setting up. I used the level to be sure the mold comes out level for the urethane rubber pour, plus it was the perfect width and a guaranteed flat surface. Not sure what happened to the photo, but the Rebound25 is bright orange. ~ Vonnor

Between earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and other assorted family responsibilities, I didn't get much done this week. Here is the (almost) completed sculpt for the left handguard, shown against the right for reference. The symmetry is not perfect as the hand positions were somewhat different during life-casting. If you look closely at the right hard model you can see a pencil line along the edge. Having failed to accurately account for the thickness of the leather gauntlets, I will need to take off some of the handguard thickness. I made the left a little thicker as well to allow for that. I'm not overly concerned that the two handguards will be 3/32" different in thickness. It won't be noticeable in production. More next week... ~ Vonnor

Thanks Pam. I'll check into the sulfur issue.

Actually I never tried Super-S. How much work time does it give you? Does it adhere to fiberglass/Bondo? I was using oil clay. ~ Bill

This is my idea for adding the edge bead to the handguards. Something that will be very easy to sand down on the production pieces. I will have to scrape off this first go-round and slope the edges down a bit more before I add the clay bead, so I can better recreate the look of the CG model. I also sanded the bell down to 600 grit. It's not perfect curves but it's closer that the TFU version. With the weathering on it will look OK. I was going to use clay for the edge bead on the bell too, but decided it would be too hard to get it uniform width and thickness. I have a piece of acrylic half-round bar 1/2" dia. coming this week. I will take a mold of that and cast a 40A urethane rubber bead and glue it to the hard model, using clay to fill any gaps. I'll make an interim clamshell mold of the edge-beaded bell and pull two castings. These I'll do the corner cuts to and make two more clamshell molds for the production pieces. And yes, I bought a gallon of Rebound25. More stuff next week. ~ Vonnor

Not to be told by the photo, I actually did a lot this weekend. I reinforced the inside undercuts on the bell with bondo, finished shaping the shoulder bell and right handguard hard model and primed it for polishing, did the rough clay-up on the left handguard, filled in some low-spots on the bell, ground a flat edge around the bell for the half-round edging, and last but not least, ran out of time. More later... ~ Vonnor

Thanks very much, Katie. I like your little Japanese smiley.

Here are the rough break-out hard models for the shoulder and right handguard. I will clean them up today at a 501st armor party. ~ Vonnor

I had a window from 10am to 12noon in which to do the shoulder bell, as once again the skies opened and clear odorless liquid fell. This is the same method as the handguard above: - Gel-coat (50/50 Bondo/resin - "Rondo" in some circles) - 3 layers of fiberglass cloth - Gel-coat Was a little bit harder to get the initial gel-coat to stay up in the undercuts, but I can always do some edge filling after I crack it out later tonight. ~ Vonnor

Since today was supposed to be cooler and no wind or rain (10%) I decided to lay up the fiberglass hard models for the R handguard and the shoulder bell. Right now it's 10am EDT and I should be doing the bell, but even 10% hits the dice roll once in a while. It's raining steadily and while I wait for the unforecasted rain clouds to go somewhere else, I took a couple pix of the handguard layup. This is a homemade gel-coat of 50% bondo and 50% resin dabbed in the mold (after mold-release applied to the mold) with a brush and kinda rolled the mold around so it didn't pool in any particular spot. The gel-coat kinda rounds off the hard angles a bit and helps the cloth fit into corners. After the gel got tacky (about 10 min) I brushed in some mixed resin/hardener (I used about 6 drops in one ounce) and pushed in a scrap of fiberglass cloth. Continued laying in the cloth pieces overlapping the previous piece a bit and overlapping the edges as seen. Did only three layers total as this is just a hard model and will not be used in production. Lesson learned: I first tried to push in a big piece of cloth but it was too hard to press it into the corners without pulling it away from an opposite corner. Luckily the resin mix was "cold" (slow-set / less drops of hardener) on the first layer so I had time to rip out the big mess and cut smaller cloth pieces before the resin got goopy. After three layers of resin/cloth I mixed a little more homemade gel-coat and brushed that into the edges and back, to kinda reinforce the model. Notice the big glob in one spot? That's 'cause I mixed that coat "hot" and it started to harden before I was finished brushing it in. Hopefully the rain will let up and I can do the shoulder in a few minutes. ~ Vonnor

TFU2 Rahm Kota boots by Daniel Olivera of JDOS Producciones on the way. ~ Vonnor

I smoothed out the surface a bit using isopropyl alcohol and added mold walls around the edges, flaring them outward a little to make accessing the undercuts easier when I do the fiberglassing. Hot-glued a cardboard wall around the whole thing and sprayed it with Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic. I supported it with one end higher to help keep bubbles from forming in the undercuts as I poured the plaster in (I did get a bubble but not too bad). Mixed up some Hydrocal White a little thicker than normal and poured it into the walled-off area. It came out pretty clean and smooth. I'm going to wait on the fiberglassing until the weather cools down some. That's enough for today. Tomorrow I start on the arms. ~ Vonnor

Thanks Pam! I was always meh about Math in school too, and didn't think I'd use any of that IRL. Now I find myself doing the "(size-of-blah-on-me X size-of-unknown-on-reference) ÷ size-of-blah-on-reference = size-of-unknown-on-me" in my sleep. Doesn't always work verbatim though, since I had to adjust this piece a half inch for my own body, but it's still the best starting point in town. ~ Bill

Took a couple pix of the shoulder sculpt with the final edge cuts to check the symmetry, and a size comparison to the TFU Kota bell. Just have to do some final smoothing with rubbing alcohol and will be ready to take a mold. I'm going to put the edge bead on the hard model. ~ Vonnor

I laid some clay onto a plaster cast of my shoulder, just to rough-in the contours. I printed out templates from Turbo-Cad to check the curves. No edge bead yet. The original scaling was based on the length of the 3D model's arm compared to my own. Note the bottom corners come very close to the curve of my chest and back. and the bottom side is even farther off the arm than the 3D model. I will likely have to rescale the sizing a bit to allow clearance off the breastplate and backplate, while preserving the "floating" distance off the arm. This will not be too difficult as most of the clay is already on the armature. These are things you sometimes have to adjust for during a build. I will rescale the blueprints and contour templates and add more clay tomorrow. Still need to do 4-5 cross-section templates as well. Project's finally got some "Mo." ~ Vonnor

Small update: I went over the reference pix looking at the shoulder bells today. Although they are definitely not symmetrical I chose to make them such. This will save a bit on sculpting (one sculpt instead of two). In scaling them I went a half inch bigger than the references suggest, and will "buldge" the side curvature out a fraction more than the references show. Here is the template sketch, scaled to my own height. Clay to be laid up this weekend. ~ Vonnor

Thanks Maestro. Some focused thoughts: The build path in my mind is follows: - R-handguard hard model - L-handguard sculpt/mold/hardModel (using contour gauge / measures from R model - Wrist-clip sculpt/mold/hardModel (only one needed as this is symmetrical) - L forearm... ...was going to build the arms symmetrical, but upon closer inspection will need separate builds for L/R. The natural rotation of the arm at rest is quite apparent in the 3D images and without a bit of a skew in each armor set it would severely restrict normal arm rotation. The gauntlets must hold snug at the wrists (oval x-section) and taper to a circular section near the elbow because of the relationship between hand guard, wrist-clip, and gauntlet. This would cause the elbow guard to bite into my upper arm when the palm is rotated inward without that slight twist in the design. It is more work but will also be more accurate. I am looking at clay sculpts for just the two main gauntlet halves. The elbow-point guard and back-of-forearm plate will likely be heat-formed Sintra for the hard-model. I have a grid frame already set up to sand in the waffle pattern on those before I bend them to shape. The production pieces will be semi-rigid urethane resin pour from a rubber clamshell mold. - Shoulder sculpt/mold/hardModel... ...will do one symmetrical bell w/o the rear corner cutout. At the hard model I will add the edging and take two additional interim casts, each will have the respective R/L corners cut off and the edging built back up w/Bondo. Then will take two prod clamshell molds. - Leatherwork/belts... ...will likely do the soft parts at this stage. I need to see where the main belt will ride in order to scale the belly plates which in turn determine the scaling for the breastplate/backplate... Mel Matson will build the main belt and top half of the bandoleer. I will make the loin and hip pads from pull-up leather layered with thin batting and stretch twill backing. One challenge for the torso bust will be seeing that the belly-plates wrap around it smoothly. I can squish the flesh-rolls a bit with the Sintra wrap (which will snap-closure at the spine) on my body, but the non-squishy rolls reproduced by the Hydrocal will not be as yielding. I may have to build the belly-plate and wrap up in it before making the torso bust. Then the belly-plate will be already in the bust and I can sculpt the chest/back right on that... still figuring it out. I'll add more thoughts later ... am out of time for now. (continued) - Belly plate(s)... ...measure circumference of my waist at top of leather belt and again at a point high enough on ribs to insure belly coverage upon shoulder shrug/arm raise. Build tin mandrel (like for the Kota1 gaunts) and heat-form sintra around the mandrel. May be a complex curve cut on the sintra depending on torso taper from waist to ribs, will use poster board for template. Belly plate(s) ends will join at spine and be held with a snap panel. Needs to hold considerable shear force when worn so will epoxy snaps to another sintra strip. Entire piece to be padded with soft 6mm neoprene backing. - Belly control box, bandoleer buckles to be machined PVC. - Breastplate/Backplate... ...clay sculpt. Torso bust to have belly-plates already cast into it. Leave space for 12mm foam padding at bottom edge and shoulder tops. Allow for slight foam compression at shoulders when scaling height. Armor assembly to float above belly-plate(s) to allow some bending/twisting. Sculpt as one piece joined flush at shoulder tops. Two-piece Hydrocal junk mold for fiberglass lay-in. Hard model to be cut in two at shoulders. Prod pieces to be poured semi-rigid urethane with snap-panel joins at top of shoulders (may need to do fiberglass prod pieces for thinness and weight). Side panels will be either cut corrugated rubber floor matting, or silicone rubber casting of same. Make texture-matching "V"-cut slot clips on sides of breastplate/backplate that soft panels will slide into to close. - Bandoleer... ...Top half will be black leather and run between the two square-ish buckles and over the shoulder. Metal cylinders to be machined (ElvisTrooper?) and held w/ leather strap. Will make shoulder strap-pad from neoprene. Saber holster frame - not sure yet. May be bent sheet-metal with some machined parts, or sheet plastic with some sculpted/cast parts. Holster lining - sculpt contours on a tube and lay-up thin FG over hard-casting of contour. Finish like weathered leather and lace up with string or floss then paint string with resin. Lower sections - template the curves then glue small cut strips (the Maestro's Q-tips above) side-by-side along templates. Take molds, cast hard-models, shape/smooth models, make rubber molds, pour prod pieces in semi-flexible urethane. Glue to square-ish buckles. Leather connector strap at waist. - Leg Strap... ...Because the leg strap positioning is not at the narrowest point of the thigh it is not likely to stay in position on its own through normal movement, and because there is some fabric looseness shown above the strap it cannot be attached directly to the pants fabric. Attach magnetic strip (fridge-magnet stuff) to back of leather leg strap. Doctor up a pair of "bike" style UA shorts with a slot holding matching magnetic strip. Wear bike shorts under costume. Magnet sticks to magnet through pants fabric. ~ Vonnor

I was sculpting some parts for my niece's Princess Zelda costume this past month. Finally got back to Kota. I put up cardboard walls all around the sculpt, with some "ceiling" panels on the ends to form little pockets around the undercuts at the thumb and pinky sides of the hand. I sprayed clear-coat acrylic on the whole mess, then pushed in a water-clay barricade down the middle and kept it very wet while smoothing the edges with a shaping tool. The mold had to be in two pieces as the undercuts would prevent removal of a one-piece mold. I poured in Hydrocal in the little pocket and rolled it a bit to prevent bubbles in the undercut, then sort of dribbled the plaster in little by little. As the mix in the cup started to thicken I scooped it out by hand and mounded it up in the middle. I let that set up for about 30 min then carefully pulled off the clay center-wall. You can see the residue from that in the pix. I cleaned up the plaster join surface and the keys (dimples and ridge) with a metal tool and brushed a coat of Vaseline on the plaster so the fresh pour wouldn't stick, then basically repeated the mix/pour for the other side. I'll use some acetone to clean up the Vaseline and glue the two halves together for the fiberglass lay-in. More to come... ~ Vonnor

Would you like that to go, Maestro?

I love to see new Starkillers. It gets my name in lights. ~ Kota (that's destory and I'm stickin' to it.)

I look forward to seeing it. ~ Koda "Old Man" Vonnor

Weekend update: I didn't get to the fiberglass stage (woulda been too hot to mix the resin anyway), but I did put the sculpt on a bit of a diet. Thinned the edges and did a little bit of smoothing. I also cut out the thumb-side notches and sprayed the whole mess with clear-cote. Normally you'd want to do a lot more smoothing of the clay before taking the first mold, but I'm finding that my eyes are not as sharp nor my hand as steady as they were a few years ago. It will be easier for me (but take longer) to sand and smooth the plastic hard model before I make the production mold. Samples (more in my PhotoBucket): Next is to pop this in the fridge for a while to harden up the clay, then put the mold wall barrier on it and some cardboard walls around it to make a 2-piece junk mold (one piece on the pinky side and one on the thumb side). I will put the edge beading on the hard model. Stay tuned. ~ Vonnor