tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51939474869631569012024-03-13T22:14:46.913-04:00Overworld DesignsMichelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-59740181956546974682019-02-21T09:10:00.004-05:002019-03-13T09:31:48.826-04:00Combine Metro Cop (Half-Life 2) Part 3: Fabric Parts and Final RevealWith the helmets, weapons, radios, and other props finished for the Metro Cops, the last thing we needed to put together was the flak jackets, the arm bands, and modifying the base garments. The flak jackets took by far the most work, but as they are one of the more immediately recognizable parts of the character, they had to look right.<br />
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Full disclosure: I had very little to do with this part of the build, as my sewing skills are near zero. Nearly all of this work was offloaded to my friends Jeanette at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/cogdellcreations/" target="_blank">Cogdell Creations</a>, and Julia at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/crazy8cosplay/" target="_blank">Crazy 8 Cosplay</a>, and all of the embroidery work was done by my friend Liz at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/myouricosplay/" target="_blank">Myouri Cosplay</a>.<br />
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The base of the flak jackets was a sleeveless winter vest, which was mocked up so that the quilting pattern could be drawn and stitched. After this mock up was modified, I took reference photos of it and digitized it so that we could make patterns from it. Because there was going to be 9 of us in these costumes and we ran the gamut of sizes, I made patterns in several sizes.<br />
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Finding the right fabric was a real chore, since the game texture is so low resolution that any pattern on it is nearly indecipherable. The color was also hard to pick, being somewhere between a dark blue and a bluish grey. I settled on this dark blue-grey upholstery fabric that had a coarse and visible pattern on it, that somewhat mimicked real world flak jackets. I also chose a bright white with a similar pattern for the chest detail, and the shoulder caps.<br />
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The base garments were off-the-rack police style shirts and pants. The shirt color was LAPD Navy, which complimented the blue of the flak jacket fabric nicely. The shirt had 2 white stripes added to the upper arms. The pants were olive green Dickies, which we modified by adding the thick white stripe down the side of the leg. The gloves were black airsoft gloves I found on Amazon that looked close enough and were cheap enough in bulk.<br />
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The flak jackets were quilted with a quilting batting, in a similar manner that the Colonial Marine abdomen pads were made. The back of the neck had a "C17" logo embroidered on it, and the arm bands were embroidered as well. These were fitted with velcro to make putting on and off easier, although in the future I may modify them to permanently attach as the velcro caused them to slide down often.<br />
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With the final parts done, and the checklist of everything gone through a dozen times to make sure nothing was forgotten, we headed off to Dragon Con where I revealed the group. It was a pretty big hit, especially with fans of the game series.<br />
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I liked watching people try to figure out what we were, and then their face light up as they recognized us. I also entered the Video Game Cosplay Contest last minute, and won the SFX category, which was neat and unexpected.<br />
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And then 2nd place in the Atlanta Maker Faire Cosplay contest, which was also neat.<br />
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I still need to finish the Solider and the Elites. But that will be a project for another day. Thank you for reading!<br />
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More from this build: <br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1: Helmets</a><br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2: Weapons and Accessories</a><br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-3.html" target="_blank">Part 3: Fabric Parts and Final Reveal</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZeP1KJs4u4" target="_blank">Watch the build documentary on YouTube</a>Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-5099310762833427622019-02-11T07:59:00.000-05:002019-03-13T09:31:33.756-04:00Combine Metro Cop (Half-Life 2) Part 2: Weapons and AccessoriesThe Combine in Half-Life 2, and the Civil Protection especially, have some very distinct and iconic elements to them. During the build, I kept telling my team that the costume was basically three things - the helmet, the Stun Stick, and the voice, and that everything else was just window dressing. The helmets were already a slam dunk, so it was on to the rest of the parts.<br />
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One major component of the build was the voice modulated radios. The Combine
have such an iconic sound to them that it was critical that it somehow
be included. I didn't want to use a low quality voice modulator, because
A.) they never sound "right" and because the sound is so distinct I know I'd never be able to actually get them sounding right. And B.) the Combine's voice modulators make them almost
unintelligible, and I didn't want people confusing me asking them to
move away or stand back as part of a performance.<br />
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Instead, I opted for the
next best thing I could: I used the real game audio.<br />
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During the early "pre criminal" part of the game, the Civil Protection are docile and you can observe them walking around. They play random radio chatter throughout the game, but you get the clearest vision of it during this opening section of the game. They have these radios on their belt, and I decided to use them to house an Arduino and some audio components from Adafruit. The electronics build part of this is pretty straight forward - an <a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/50" target="_blank">Arduino Uno</a> using an <a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/94" target="_blank">Adafruit Wave</a> shield and a <a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/987" target="_blank">3.7W amp</a>, fitted on to a prototyping board for easy packaging.<br />
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Three of them isn't necessary for the build, but I wanted three of us to have radios for some fun sounding cross chatter, so I bought three of everything.<br />
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I used Fusion 360 to build a case for the electronics and made it look as close to the game radio as possible, although it did wind up being a bit larger than I would have liked. The real workhorse is the code that I wrote; in the game, the Combine radios use randomly generated "sentences" based off of rules in a sentences file and words and sentence fragment sound files. My code emulates that radio logic, building a sentences and playing the sound files extracted from the game.<br />
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The result is as authentic of a Combine radio as you can get.<br />
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More or less finished up the Combine radios. These use a Wave Shield and Amp from <a href="https://twitter.com/adafruit?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@adafruit</a> to play procedurally generated radio strings. I really think this is going to put our Combine cosplay over the top! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hl2?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#hl2</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hl2cosplay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#hl2cosplay</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/combine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#combine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/steam_games?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@steam_games</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dragoncon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#dragoncon</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dragoncon2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#dragoncon2018</a> <a href="https://t.co/szALc0IUqq">pic.twitter.com/szALc0IUqq</a></div>
— Michelle Sleeper (@msleeperdotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/msleeperdotcom/status/1032655476712988672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Then it was time to build the weapons. The Stun Stick was a deceptively simple part of the build. Early in the game the Metro Cops you meet use these electrified billy clubs to keep the local population in line, and assist in local aluminum can cleanup.<br />
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As with most parts of this build, I started by extracting the game model to use as a reference - only this time, there was a bit of a snag. The player never actually gets a hold of the Stun Stick, so all that exists is a very low resolution "world model".<br />
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After digging deeper, I actually found 2 useable "view models" of the Stun Stick - one from Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, wherein some players play as the Combine and use the Stun Stick in lieu of the crowbar. And another in the game files of a cut weapon. The next problem is that these 2 view models were very different from one another. With the only definitive version being the low resolution world model, I decided to create an idealized version of the Stun Stick using elements from all 3 versions.<br />
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This was designed in Fusion 360 and printed on my fleet of 3D printers. It was designed to fit around a 3/4" PVC pipe, so that the only parts that needed to be molded and cast were the head with the flanges, the cross guard, and the pommel. This helped keep the weight and the cost of making them down, since I didn't need a large mold or a lot of resin. The Stun Stick heads were molded in a 2 part block mold, and the pommels and cross guards were molded in an open block mold together.<br />
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Once all of the Stun Stick parts were cast up, they were primed and painted in a base coat of dark metallic paint, and then the flanges were masked off and painted bright "safety orange". The bright color really made them pop.<br />
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The Metro Cops also carry pistols on them, which are nothing more than an H&K USP Match with a giant compensator on the end of it. Rather than spend a ton of time 3D modeling, printing, and sanding and finishing one of these, instead I opted to find a low cost 1:1 scale airsoft replica and use that as a base. The only thing I needed to fabricate was the compensator, and after a day's work the pistol was ready to mold.<br />
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The pistols were also molded in a 2 part mold. The pistols are a matte black with a bright metallic slide, so like the helmets I decided to cold cast the pistols. I wound up cold casting the entire weapon, which made weathering it as easy as gently scraping, scratching, and sanding away the paint to reveal the metallic under layer. Painting and weathering was as easy as masking off the slide, painting the rest of the gun matte black, then scuffing and scraping away the paint where I wanted obvious signs of wear.<br />
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A last minute detail I added was the big metallic belt buckles. These were thrown together in Fusion 360, then printed, cleaned, molded, and cold cast just like the pistols. Unfortunately this was such a last minute detail that I failed to get any pictures of the entire process.<br />
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All that's left after this is the flak jackets and putting the costumes all together. <br />
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More from this build: <br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1: Helmets</a><br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2: Weapons and Accessories</a><br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-3.html" target="_blank">Part 3: Fabric Parts and Final Reveal</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZeP1KJs4u4" target="_blank">Watch the build documentary on YouTube</a>Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-59447178822253633132019-02-04T10:42:00.002-05:002019-03-13T09:31:17.266-04:00Combine Metro Cop (Half-Life 2) Part 1: HelmetsThe Half-Life series has always been one of my favorite game series, and Half-Life 2 in particular has a special place in my heart. After all, it's the reason the first prop I ever built was the Gravity Gun. From the beginning I knew I wanted to some day do a group of Combine from Half-Life 2, and I knew I wanted to do them the right way.<br />
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Nine months later, I feel like I succeeded. Well, on the first group of Combine at least.<br />
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Let's go back to the beginning. Early in 2018, I contact a friend of mine <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theboxyboxes/" target="_blank">Alex Winslow</a> to see about getting some high quality 3D models made of the various Combine helmets - the Civil Protection (AKA the Metro Cops), the Combine Soldier, and the Combine Elite. After taking a ton of references from the game, pulling the game model and materials, and throwing in some of my own personal design ideas, Alex delivered these models to me.<br />
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They were perfect.<br />
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I immediately set out 3D printing the Civil Protection helmet, using a combination on FDM and SLA printing. For those of you who aren't familiar with those terms, FDM is the typical plastic printing that you see most people have in their homes or workshops. SLA printers are less common, although they are certainly gaining popularity. They use a UV curing liquid resin to print parts and the print quality is exponentially higher.<br />
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I used SLA printing on some of the incredibly fine details for the Metro Cop helmet, specifically the "ears" as well as the gas mask parts. The rest of the helmet was printed in ABS on my fleet of FDM printers. A couple days later, and I had the base helmet finished.<br />
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From here it was a typical round of body shop work on the helmet - sand the base print, apply filler primer to fill any remaining print lines, sand the primer down smooth, add spot putty to any left over imperfections. I knew I wanted to cold cast these helmets to give them a realistic metallic luster, so I also went ahead and applied a wet sandable automotive primer and wet sanded the helmet to a glossy finish.<br />
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Having gotten familiar with the limitations of FDM printing, I had planned from the beginning to use model making techniques to add in additional details, and use the 3D print as a base form. On the back of the helmet are these rib and dome detail sections. Rather than 3D model and print them, I used thin pieces of styrene tube and some half dome scrapbooking accents to add the details I needed. The result was exactly what I had hoped.<br />
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After several rounds of priming, sanding, and filling, the helmet was ready to mold. Having just one Metro Cop would be fun, but having a whole squadron of us would be even better. Molding and casting the helmet presented some challenges, since again I knew I wanted to cold cast the final helmets, which would limit where I could have seam lines. The helmet also has a very pronounced "duck bill", so the mold would be very deep and difficult to pull out from.<br />
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In the end, I opted to create a 2 part brushed on mold, with a 3 part mother mold. The 2 part mold would hide the seam between the 2 halves of the cast, and the 3 part mother mold would allow me to more easily remove the "duck bill" from the mother and the cast from the mold.<br />
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Several days later, the mold was finished and the first test cast came out flawlessly, I started production on the run of the helmets. The helmets were made by first brushing in a coat of aluminum powder to give the cold cast metallic effect, and then by mixing and pouring several small batches of roto casting resin (Smooth Cast 65D from Smooth-On). A final coat of more rigid resin (Smooth Cast Onyx from Smooth-On) was applied last, to help the helmets avoid warping over time as 65D has a tendency to do. <br />
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The detail parts that were printed on the SLA printers needed nearly no cleanup, and so went straight to silicone. These were created using simple 2 part block molds, and would be cast solid. The ears were cast in a semi-translucent resin (Smooth Cast 326 from Smooth-On) with a small amount of green tint added. The ears in the game give off a faint glow, so I wanted these to be translucent so that I could back light them once installed in the final helmets. The gas mask details were also cold cast with aluminum powder and a regular casting resin (Smooth Cast 300 from Smooth-On).<br />
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With all of the casting was complete, the set of them were cleaned of their flashing and excess resin (such as where the lenses needed to go) using a rotary tool. The "neck seal" of the helmets were masked off using masking tape and plastic wrap, then painted in a flat black. The lenses were created using some smoked acrylic that I had on hand in the shop, cut in to shape and glued in to place using cyanoacrylate glue. The gas mask and ear details were fitted and glued in to place using epoxy. The helmet fronts and backs were attached together using velcro along the ridge line, where the front seats underneath the back.<br />
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Lastly, the helmets were given a wash in watered down black and brown acrylic paint, which was then quickly wiped away, leaving grime and dirt in the recessed areas. Then the helmets were polished using #000 steel wool, which brought the metallic luster of the helmets to life. It's actually incredible how different lighting conditions can make the helmets look completely different from one photo to another.<br />
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I was very happy with how they turned out, and I really felt like I had brought the Civil Protection to life with this build.<br />
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After the helmets, it was on to all of the weapons and accessories.<br />
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More from this build: <br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1: Helmets</a><br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2: Weapons and Accessories</a><br />
<a href="https://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2019/02/combine-metro-cop-half-life-2-part-3.html" target="_blank">Part 3: Fabric Parts and Final Reveal</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZeP1KJs4u4" target="_blank">Watch the build documentary on YouTube</a>Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-35056930967771159982016-03-01T17:40:00.000-05:002016-03-01T17:40:16.873-05:00Building a RepRap WilsonI really love 3D printing. I enjoy the end results as much as I am interested in the technology behind the machines themselves. Having a background in 3D design, it was obvious to me that 3D printing was something I was going to get interested and involved in. But had you told me 5 years ago that I would be building them from scratch, I'd have a hard time believing you. Unfortunately for past me, I've done just that - since November, I have built three printers from nothing.<br />
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My journey of self built printers began last year when I started researching various Prusa i3 designs. I had a few things I needed from a printer - it had to be reliable, it had to be sturdy, and it had to have high print fidelity. For these reasons, I wanted a printer frame built from aluminum extrusion (and it didn't hurt that I had a bunch on hand already). I also wanted it to be as close to a full RepRap as possible - no acrylic or machined parts. Some people might consider this a negative, but don't forget I am an enthusiast in the tech as much as I am the finished results.<br />
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After doing some research, I settled on an Adapto printer - it had a large build volume, it was built entirely from 2020 aluminum extrusion, and all of the parts were printed. I put together the aluminum bits and started printing things, and I ran into a few snags. The first of which is that the threaded rod I had on hand was larger than what the design called for. While that isn't a big problem - it's simple enough to modify the designs - the new printed parts began having problems where the captured nut would physically intersect where the linear bearings would be. Or in simpler terms - I would have to start majorly redesigning the printer, or buy all new parts, if I wanted to use it.<br />
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I was a little frustrated with the process, and around this time, the Colonial Marines group build at Freeside began to consume all of my free time. I had set the Adapto on the shelf to pick back up, where it was untouched for most of last year. Once the group project and the various events for the year was over, I started researching some other RepRap designs. I was planning on rebuilding one of Freeside Atlanta's printers into a new usable design, and came across the Wilson TS. I did an inventory of all of the parts I had on hand, and it turns out I had everything I needed to convert my Adapto to a Wilson.<br />
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I was building The Kraken and my Wilson in tandem and the build was a breeze. The instructions online from mjrice are pretty good - his videos are for the 10mm smooth rod version instead of the 8mm ones I was building, so parts differ a bit - but having put together both my Folger Tech 2020 i3 and doing a lot of work on my LulzBot AO-101 and Freeside's AO-100, I knew my way around how to put a printer together.<br />
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I did decide to make a few modifications right away. The first of which is to help the structural support of the machine by adding in some hidden corner braces in all of the 2020 corners, and L brackets where the X-axis and Y-axis frames meet. This helps make the printer be extremely rigid and the prints that come off of it look amazing. I also added in an inductive sensor for the Z probe to enable auto bed tramming, a feature on the LulzBot Mini that I am totally in love with. Having your first layer always be perfect without much interaction is a real dream come true, even if the initial setup is a bit of a hassle.<br />
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I purchased an LCD screen with SD card support so that I can run the printer without having my laptop connected. This is an important feature for me since I am often running all of my machines simultaneously, and I don't want to have my laptop permanently attached to them. On my Wilson I am using a RAMBo board, and setting up the LCD had some pitfalls. The Arduino board library has to be modified in order for the RAMBo to properly output to the LCD. Here's the article I found on doing just that. <br />
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I added a top-mount for my filament spool, but I may actually take this off as it seems to have created a really unbalanced load. Running the printer at the speeds I had while the spool was on the table causes it to vibrate and move around a lot. I'm going to slow down the printing a bit and try to tune the feedrate, jerk, and acceleration settings. But having a really slow printing machine isn't a lot of benefit to me so hopefully I don't have to slow it down too much.<br />
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I've only been printing on the Wilson for a couple of weeks and I'm really happy with both my Wilson and Freeside's "The Kraken". For my next printer I am going to look into the Wilson 2 which improves on the current design, and given how great of a machine this already is, I think the Wilson 2 could be an outstanding machine.<br />
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Here are some links to the parts and designs used for my Wilson builds:<br />
<ul>
<li>Wilson on the <a href="http://reprap.org/wiki/Category:Wilson" target="_blank">RepRap wiki</a>, <a href="http://github.com/mjrice/wilson" target="_blank">github</a>, and <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:255605" target="_blank">thingiverse</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/351289170039" target="_blank">Inductive sensor</a> for auto bed tramming</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/281108676591" target="_blank">Aluminum plate</a> for the print bed</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013HKZTA" target="_blank">0.03" PEI sheet</a> for the print surface</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Y7D5NQ" target="_blank">3M 468MP adhesive sheet</a> to attach the PEI to the aluminum plate </li>
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Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-84475978330456181762016-02-19T19:52:00.003-05:002016-02-19T19:53:06.764-05:00February Project UpdatesI'm at an awkward stage for all of my projects, where I'm not quite done with some of them, and not quite started enough on others to start doing write-ups. It's weird to spend an average day working on several things, and not really feel like you made much progress or have anything to show for the work, yet actually have things accomplished.<br />
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My ongoing work on various 3D printers continues. I finished building my Wilson TS RepRap printer and brought it home to my printing fleet. I also have more or less finished Freeside Atlanta's Wilson known as "The Kraken" and it should be printing soon as well. I'll be writing up a build log and review of the Wilson once I have both of them in fully working order.<br />
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I've also been tinkering with Freeside's LulzBot AO-100 (and by extension, my personal LulzBot AO-101) to work out some problems it's having. That machine is really old and has had a lot of wear on it over the years, so I've had to really show it some love.<br />
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In actual prop news, I have a handful of space guns in the works.<br />
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A few months ago I decided to start making the Quake 2 Blaster that I've had an idea to make in the back of my mind forever. I have it cast up and ready to start painting, so this should be done very soon and I'll be posting a build log.<br />
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Speaking of side projects, I've been teaching Elliott about prop and costume building, and we picked a project to learn things on. We're building a set of Marine armor from the game Natural Selection 2, and we've been 3D printing the rifle and the pistol.<br />
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As if I didn't have enough space gun projects, I printed out the Federation laser rifle from Rick & Morty. Right now it's had a first pass of primer, so there's a lot of work left on this one.<br />
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The main event this year though is the T-60 Power Armor from Fallout 4. A couple weeks ago, Mike Vrogy came up to the space and helped Elliott and I build the stilts. We're starting 3D printing and CNC production on the rest of the armor, but that's going to be a much bigger write up!<br />
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That's all for now, keep an eye for more write ups soon.<br />
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Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-27691545897496191662016-01-22T21:15:00.003-05:002016-01-25T08:07:45.238-05:00Review: Folger Tech 2020 i3 kitI had been in the market for another 3D printer for my fabrication fleet, and I had my eye on a few machines during Black Friday. I narrowly missed a great sale on a Wanhao Duplicator i3 for a cool $299, and instead I settled on a Folger Tech 2020 i3 kit on sale with an LCD panel.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e_5tl0TgRT0/VqLei5MlmNI/AAAAAAAAD2E/Gau29GRk1lc/s1600/2016-01-22%2B20.58.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e_5tl0TgRT0/VqLei5MlmNI/AAAAAAAAD2E/Gau29GRk1lc/s640/2016-01-22%2B20.58.25.jpg" width="640" /></a> <br />
<br />I had done some reading on this particular kit so I knew to expect some hurdles during it's construction. The biggest complaint that the community has - and indeed I have too - is that the build manual has several mistakes and blatant inaccuracies that Folger Tech has yet to fix. There's some simple stuff like typos of bolt dimensions - using one bolt length in one sentence and another length in the next sentence, leaving you to figure out which one they really mean. These are easy to figure out. But then there's the problem where it tells you to <a href="http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?406,512329,569248#msg-569248" target="_blank">mount the X-axis end stop on the wrong side</a>, and if you don't understand why 3D printers are put together the way they are, you'll have a difficult time understanding why it's moving in the "wrong" direction and why it won't home properly. I highly recommend reading the manual fully before starting to make sure you know what to expect.<br />
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There is an absolutely <a href="http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?406,512329,page=88" target="_blank">massive thread on the RepRap forums</a> which contain
a huge amount of information and fixes. As of this writing, the thread
is at 88 pages long and I've only managed to work backwards through about half of it. If you're considering one of these kits I recommend at least skimming through the forum thread on your own, but I've
tried to compile the biggest issues and fixes from my experience here.<br />
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One minor annoyance I had was with the T-nuts that were included. They are very tiny and difficult to work with and I kept struggling with getting them into place whenever I had to tighten down or move an element. I think they are the ones that are meant to be used after you've put a 2020 frame together, so that you don't have to disassemble everything. But that they are so small it makes them a pain to slide into place along a stretch of aluminum. Your kit may come with regular sized T-nuts, but if I were to buy another one of these kits, I would go ahead and get a bag of regular sized T-nuts just to save myself some frustration.<br />
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The electronics setup was straight forward if you've used a RAMPS board before. The build manual tells you where to connect things, but I do recommend pulling up the RAMPS schematic so you know what you're connecting to and why. This is especially the case with the X-axis end stop, since as mentioned before the build manual has some incorrect info.<br />
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The RAMPS board I received appears to have had some damage in shipping. I did testing of it and it doesn't seem to be more than cosmetic, but I did read that others had issues with poor quality soldering as well as similar damage. The good news is that Folger Tech is good about sending replacements for parts, but I'm holding off on seeing if that's necessary since I've put about 50 hours on the machine without any hiccups so far.<br />
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One problem I do have in the electronics department is that there is not a power switch for the machine. This is a pretty minor complaint, but I do like being able to power off the power supply without having to pull the plug or turn off a power strip. I found a <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:954451" target="_blank">mod on Thingiverse</a> to both add a switch and a removeable power cable which is on my list of to-do upgrades.<br />
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Folger Tech has a version of the Marlin firmware on their site to download, but it's quite a few versions behind the current release. The community again comes to the rescue, and <a href="https://github.com/therippa/Marlin" target="_blank">therippa has a fork of the latest release of Marlin</a> with the Folger Tech settings already imported. There's also a version that enables auto bed tramming if you decide to upgrade to an inductive Z sensor as well - which I went ahead and added to my build, and in general I can't recommend enough.<br />
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Speaking of the Z-axis, the stock Z end stop leaves a lot to be desired. It's difficult to get it really zeroed in since it's attached to the smooth rod. There's a lot of options on how to fix this, and I went with a solution similar to what I've seen on other machines. I printed a part that <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1121948" target="_blank">attaches to the X motor mount points</a> and puts an M3 bolt in the path of the Z end stop. This way you can easily tighten or loosen the bolt to raise or lower the contact point by small increments. I also printed a thumbscrew head for the bolt to make it even easier. Of course, if you are using auto bed tramming, you won't need to worry about this.<br />
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The Z-axis is driven by a M5 threaded rod, which seems pretty rickety compared to other machines I use that have M8 or larger lead screws. There is a popular mod for this machine to use <a href="http://www.banggood.com/3D-Printer-300mm-Lead-Screw-Z-Axis-8mm-Screw-Pitch-p-980650.html" target="_blank">M8 lead screws</a> and there are several parts on Thingiverse ready to convert it over if you're so inclined. It seems like a great modification and I may switch to that in the future, but I'm not excited about having to basically completely disassemble the machine just to install it. If you decide to stick with the stock M5 threaded rod, there's also an <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:694575" target="_blank">anti-backlash hack</a> if you want to get the most out of your stock parts. Otherwise, if you want to upgrade to a bigger threaded rod, plan on doing that during your initial build and save yourself some time.<br />
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The last problem I had with the Z-axis is that it is simply shorter than is advertised. Folger Tech's site says it has a 7" build height, but the machine really is only able to get about 5" with the Z-axis printed parts. I did find a mod on Thingiverse for <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:936437" target="_blank">Z motor stand-offs</a> that regain the extra 2", but I'm really just confused about why it's advertised with that size. My printing volume with this hack is 200mm x 200mm x 160mm.<br />
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I've seen others who have moved the Z-axis steppers to the bottom rather than the top, and again that's something I may do in the future since the top of my machine is already pretty cramped. Between the spool holder and the LCD mount, the steppers would be nice and out of the way on the bottom.<br />
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Aside from all of that, I really am quite happy with the printer. The prints coming off of it are an excellent quality and I really have no complaints in that department. I've printed all of the modifications to the machine on itself, so it's a "true" RepRap printer in that regard. One of the first mods I made was a different filament mount, a top mounted bearing spool holder to replace the side mounted one. If you don't use a bearing driven spool holder, I can't recommend them highly enough, it reduces any filament drag artifacts from your prints.<br />
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The overall construction is great, the all aluminum frame and the corner brackets make the whole chassis incredibly rigid. This really shows through in the print quality. One thing I especially like is that it uses almost zero laser cut parts, the only ones included are to hold the Z-axis smooth rods in place. Everything else is metal-on-metal contact, or standard 3D printed RepRap parts.<br />
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I did go ahead and buy some cable management to tidy up the mess of wires. Back in my PC case modding days I used the nylon flex tubing "Techflex" religiously, so I used that for as many of the runs as I could. I also bought some drag chain for the X and Y axes to minimize issues with cables tugging or crashing into the print. Plus it makes the printer look a lot more clean and professional, which is nice.<br />
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The deal I got included an LCD screen, which I primarily use for the SD card reader since I don't like having to keep a computer attached to my printers at all times. It doesn't come with a mount or a bezel, but thankfully you already have a 3D printer to make one. There's a lot of options available depending on where you want to place yours. I may find a different location for mine since it's a tight fit between the spool holder and the LCD panel on the top. As always, be sure you <a href="http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?406,512329,580949#msg-580949" target="_blank">check your firmware</a> to make the necessary changes to activate the LCD panel and SD card reader!<br />
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For the price, this kit really can't be beat and I'm already very happy with it. I would hesitate to say it's great for beginners, but if you're someone who has some hands-on experience with a 3D printer - using one at school or work - and you want to make the jump to buying your own, this would be a good machine to pick up.<br />
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Here's a few collections of parts that I recommend looking in to if you're considering buying this machine, or if you already have one and want to fix some of the common bugs with it.<br />
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<a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/QuadBert/collections/folger-tech-2020-prusa-i3/" target="_blank">Collection of upgrades on Thingiverse</a><br />
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<a href="http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?406,512329,571421#msg-571421" target="_blank">Collection of upgrades on the RepRap.org forums</a>Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-43531264802969132562015-11-10T18:31:00.000-05:002015-11-12T15:59:07.038-05:00Review: LulzBot Mini 3D PrinterBack in March, <a href="http://freesideatlanta.org/" target="_blank">Freeside Atlanta</a> won a LulzBot Mini 3D printer during a hackerspace giveaway they were running. We already have one of their older machines, an AO-100, so we were very familiar with their printers and how easy they were to use. I've used several of LulzBot's printers before - I own an AO-101 myself - and I was really interested to see what the Mini brought to the table.<br />
<br />
As I said in my <a href="http://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/09/review-3d-systems-cube-3d-printer.html" target="_blank">Cube 3D review</a>, I really dislike the idea of "just press go" type of machines. 3D printing is still too young of a technology for mass adoption, and pushing fickle equipment on to the unsuspecting masses will put 3D printing in a negative light.<br />
<br />
Having said that: the Mini is probably the best printer I've ever used.<br />
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<br />
The Mini's name comes from it's generally small build platform of roughly 6" cubed. Normally this would really deter me from using it as I am generally printing large costume pieces, but the small printing volume is the only negative I can possibly say about the machine. The machine comes fully built and ready to use, the frame is attractive and everything is very well constructed. It took us about 20 minutes between unboxing and pulling our first print off of the bed.<br />
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<br />
<br />
Included is a LulzBot branded install of Cura which has all of the settings for the Mini included, so the time between unboxing and printing was incredibly fast. There are several preset quality options, and the highest detail option at 0.1mm produces amazing results. You can go under the hood and tweak all of the print options, but the default settings produce great objects on their own.<br />
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<br />
But really, the two best features are the PEI printing surface, and the self leveling bed.<br />
<br />
PEI is a bit of a new development in the 3D printing world. It is an "aerospace grade glass fabric polyetherimide (PEI) composite" that requires virtually no prep to use in 3D printing. It replaces the usual glass print surface and is adhered directly to the silicone heated bed on the Mini. Unlike printing on borosilicate glass, which you need to apply either kapton tape or ABS juice or purple glue stick to really get large prints to adhere, PEI bonds to both ABS and PLA when heated with no additional work needed. <br />
<br />
For example, we 3D printed the entire Xenomorph head - around 38 prints total at ~5 hours each - and didn't have anything come detached from the bed and only very minor lifting on 1 or 2 very long prints.<br />
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<br />
Once the surface cools, your prints will come loose with very little effort, and only large flat objects need to be pried off using a clam knife. Occasionally I will clean the surface with denatured alcohol to get rid of any
dust or skin oils left over from the bed being touched while removing
objects, but that's the most maintenance I've had to do.<br />
<br />
However, after about 500 printing hours being put on it, the surface has started to bubble and should probably be replaced soon. I am chalking that up to having 20 or so people at the space using it, and not everyone treating it as delicately as they should. If you are using it yourself and you treat the machine with respect - and especially waiting for the bed to fully cool down so the PEI releases it's grip - I doubt you'd have the bubbling problem.<br />
<br />
The self leveling bed is fantastic, and virtually negates the need for any maintenance and upkeep. Unlike printers like the PrintrBot Play which use a magnetic sensor, the Mini uses electrical signal sent through the print head. In the corners of the printer are 4 metal discs, and the machine uses the change in voltage to measure when the nozzle has made contact.<br />
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<br />
On my printers at home, keeping the bed in level is the biggest struggle and the cause for any real printing issues I have. When I am building a space gun or some sci-fi armor and I'm planning on putting 200+ hours on the machines for just a single project, reducing the down time between jobs is a life saver. Using the Mini, I know that the bed will always be perfectly level and my props will come out pixel accurate to the 3D models.<br />
<br />
The Mini comes with a 0.5mm nozzle, which compared to the 0.35mm nozzle I use at home, I was worried that the print quality would suffer. But between the PEI bed and the self leveling feature, and the rock solid construction of the body and mechanical elements, the actual print quality print for print is some of the best I've seen off of an FDM printer.<br />
<br />
I'm debating on whether or not I want to buy one for myself, but I am strongly leaning towards doing so. My only reservation would be to wait until the stand out features of the Mini make their way into the TAZ line of printers from LulzBot, which I'm sure is inevitable. Having a 300 mm x 300 mm printing surface on PEI with a self leveling bed would make them the only FDM printer I'd ever want to use again.<br />
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If you want a printer that is reliable and doesn't require frequent upkeep, then I can't recommend this printer enough.Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-92131708542668923792015-10-21T09:12:00.001-04:002015-11-11T07:50:04.690-05:00Furiosa's Bionic Arm (Mad Max: Fury Road)<i>This post originally featured at <a href="http://www.tested.com/art/543149-how-i-built-furiosa-cosplay-prosthetic-arm/" target="_blank">Tested.com</a></i><br />
<br />
Last year, I was talking with a friend of mine about some of our
"holy grail" projects. I told him that it was one of my dream builds to
make a T-800 Endo Arm, as an actual prosthetic for an amputee. You know
the scene: in Terminator 2, Arnold cuts off the skin of his left arm to
expose his robotic endoskeleton.<br />
<br />
I told him how it would be a
dream project to build an Endo Arm like in this scene, for someone who
is missing a limb. I've met or been made aware of a few people over the
years who used their unique body attributes in their costumes, but I
never had the chance to connect with someone.<br />
He said he wanted to introduce me to someone. This is Laura.<br />
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Laura
is a left arm transradial amputee, meaning that she is missing her left
arm below the elbow since birth. She's also really into cosplay, and
living in Atlanta, she has been a "featured zombie" on The Walking Dead.
You've probably seen her in the shambling hordes.<br />
<br />
We met and I
told her about my idea and what we could do, and she was enthusiastic. I
felt really lucky because this really was one of my dream projects! She
said she had done a few costumes in the past that incorporated her arm,
but nothing really to the scale of what we planned. The idea was to 3D
print a CAD design for the Endo Arm and possibly wire it up to an
Arduino and some sensors and servos to make the fingers open and close.
It was going to be a fun and really challenging build, and I was really
looking forward to getting it started.<br />
<br />
And then, Mad Max: Fury Road came out and changed <i>everything</i>.<br />
<br />
You might have read <a href="https://ljvaughn.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/my-reaction-to-mad-max-fury-road-and-the-utter-perfection-that-is-imperator-furiosa/">Laura's blog post</a>
on her Tumblr that went viral a couple weeks after Fury Road hit
theaters. To quote Laura's blog post, "If I don't cosplay this character
immediately I'm pretty sure all my friends will riot."<br />
<br />
We
had a short conversation at MomoCon here in Atlanta and I asked her
permission to build her the Furiosa arm as a real actual prosthetic,
much like we were going to do for the T-800 Endo Arm and she couldn't
have been more thrilled. Our plan was to finish it for Dragon*Con 2015,
and we both couldn't wait to get started.<br />
<br />
During our planning for the Terminator Endo Arm project, I took a 3D scan of her using an Xbox Kinnect and a software called <a href="http://skanect.occipital.com/">Skanect</a>.
It allows you to easily get a rough 3D scan of a person or an object.
It's not high enough detail to look photo realistic, but it's enough to
get basic proportions. I use this myself to scale Pepakura files and do
other digital sculpting where I need to have the proportions of a person
or a thing. We tried getting a 3D scan of Laura's arm and the results
were all right. It was just enough to use for scaling and "subtracting"
her arm from the Endo Arm model.<br />
<br />
When we shifted gears to Furiosa,
I decided the first thing to do was to get a plaster cast of her arm,
because the prosthetic would have to actually fit her, and there was no
way for me to "try on" the prop myself while building it. After an
afternoon at the shop, I had one of the weirdest casts I've ever made,
but it was exactly what we needed!<br />
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<br />
At this point I got a lot of help from Adam Greene of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PixelBashProps">Pixelbash Props</a>,
who took a higher detail 3D scan of the plaster cast, and assisted by
creating the 3D model used for the build. Laura and I agreed that we
should 3D print the arm to cut down on as much weight as possible. I was
worried that if it was too heavy that she wouldn't be able to lift it,
or she would become fatigued after wearing it for a short period.<br />
<br />
The pieces were 3D printed on my home 3D printer, as well as the printers at <a href="https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Info">Freeside Atlanta</a>,
the non-profit hackerspace that I work from. After a few long prints--a
total of about 30 hours print time--everything was ready to be cleaned
up and assembled.<br />
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<br />
The
process of cleaning up a 3D printed prop is pretty simple: Rough sand
the surface to get rid of some of the print lines, then (in the case of
an ABS print) use "ABS sludge"--a thick mixture of acetone and ABS--to
coat the surface. This acts like a body filler and will help fill in the
remaining gaps, but as the acetone evaporates, the ABS bonds to itself,
so you have a single rigid object. The part is then sanded again with a
finer grit sandpaper, and coated in a thin layer of spot putty to fill
in any remaining pits or print lines. After that dries, the excess is
sanded off, and then primed for painting.<br />
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<br />
Once
the 3D printed parts were cleaned and roughed together, I designed and
laser cut the mesh screen for the fingers. It was cut out of 3mm acrylic
and heated with a heat gun, and then bent to shape around the fingers.
Since building this I've discovered the actual prop likely used a
motorcycle exhaust baffle, but the acrylic worked out great for us as it
was lightweight and readily accessible.<br />
<br />
There are two wrenches in
the arm, one attached to the "pinky" finger and one lashed to one of
the forearm pistons, that needed to be fabricated. I rummaged through
the autobay in the shop to find a couple of wrenches that were of
suitable size, and then molded them in Mold Max 30, one of the molding
silicones that Smooth-On produces. I wound up casting these out of <a href="http://www.smooth-on.com/index.php?cPath=1210">Smooth Cast 320</a>,
but my original plan was to use a light and flexible foam. That turned
out to be unnecessary since the resin ones were small and light enough
to not cause issues.<br />
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<br />
The
hand and the finger grilles were hit with a primer, and then a base
coat of matte silver. I then did a light dusting with a darker metallic
paint for the the lowlights and to bring down the "shiny and chrome"
factor. After all, Furiosa's arm is a functional piece of equipment and
has a lot of wear and tear from being out in the Wastelands!<br />
<br />
Laura
came in for a test fitting, and for us to size and finish the strapping
system for the arm. Scrap leather and spare belts were cut down to size
and riveted together for the harness. Laura sewed the shoulder pad
which goes underneath the pauldron, and we attached those together.<br />
<br />
<div class="embed-cage embed-type-image embed-position-center" data-id="82019" data-large-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073960.jpg" data-small-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/56-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073959.jpg">
<a href="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/82019-2015-08-30-21.jpg"><img src="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073960.jpg" data-sizes="{"1024": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/65-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073961.jpg", "1280": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/66-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073962.jpg", "1680": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/68-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073963.jpg", "1920": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/70-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073963.jpg", "640": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/63-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073961.jpg", "320": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/61-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073960.jpg", "1440": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/67-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073962.jpg", "800": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/64-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073961.jpg", "480": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/62-82019-2015-08-30-21-1443073960.jpg"}" /></a></div>
<br />
For
the support pistons, I used some 6mm fiberglass rod laying around the
shop, and 3D printed connecting joints for them. Those were then bolted
on to the 3D printed arm, giving the wrist a range of motion. In other
words, Laura will be able to pose the wrist.<br />
<br />
The two wrenches came
out really well. The small one was attached to the pinky finger, and
the other was wrapped tightly to one of the support rods with some
leather cord. Fun fact: I believe the leather cord is there to cover up
the manufacturer of whatever wrench the prop crew cast off of, because
it's placement is exactly where you would expect to read "SNAP-ON" or
something. So, I followed suit and covered up the name with the leather.<br />
<br />
<div class="embed-cage embed-type-image embed-position-center" data-id="82020" data-large-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82020-img_2232-1443074073.jpg" data-small-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/56-82020-img_2232-1443074073.jpg">
<a href="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/82020-img_2232.jpg"><img src="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82020-img_2232-1443074073.jpg" data-sizes="{"1024": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/65-82020-img_2232-1443074074.jpg", "1280": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/66-82020-img_2232-1443074075.jpg", "1680": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/68-82020-img_2232-1443074076.jpg", "1920": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/70-82020-img_2232-1443074076.jpg", "640": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/63-82020-img_2232-1443074074.jpg", "320": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/61-82020-img_2232-1443074073.jpg", "1440": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/67-82020-img_2232-1443074075.jpg", "800": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/64-82020-img_2232-1443074074.jpg", "480": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/62-82020-img_2232-1443074074.jpg"}" /></a></div>
<br />
Then
it was on to weathering, which is my favorite part of any project. I
did a few light washes in black and various tones of yellow, orange, and
brown, but I wiped most of it away to keep it looking metallic. The
movie has an orange filter applied to most of it, so I relied on B-roll
and behind the scenes photos for true to life colors. The arm isn't
rusted as much as it is worn down and dirty, but I did apply some light
rust around the bolts that connect the finger grilles and the other
hardware attachments.<br />
<br />
<div class="embed-cage embed-type-image embed-position-center" data-id="82014" data-large-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82014-img_2222-1443073703.jpg" data-small-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/56-82014-img_2222-1443073703.jpg">
<a href="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/82014-img_2222.jpg"><img src="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82014-img_2222-1443073703.jpg" data-sizes="{"1024": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/65-82014-img_2222-1443073705.jpg", "1280": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/66-82014-img_2222-1443073705.jpg", "1680": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/68-82014-img_2222-1443073706.jpg", "1920": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/70-82014-img_2222-1443073706.jpg", "640": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/63-82014-img_2222-1443073704.jpg", "320": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/61-82014-img_2222-1443073703.jpg", "1440": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/67-82014-img_2222-1443073705.jpg", "800": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/64-82014-img_2222-1443073704.jpg", "480": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/62-82014-img_2222-1443073704.jpg"}" /></a></div>
<br />
The
shoulder was designed in CAD from looking at stills from the film, then
laser cut out of EVA foam. There is what appears to be a model plane
engine on the front, so I grabbed a random DC motor from the shelf and
glued that in. The pull strap I quickly 3D printed based off of product
photos for a weed wacker. Then the whole pauldron was weathered as well.<br />
<br />
<div class="embed-cage embed-type-image embed-position-center" data-id="82013" data-large-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82013-img_2226-1443073671.jpg" data-small-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/56-82013-img_2226-1443073671.jpg">
<a href="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/82013-img_2226.jpg"><img src="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82013-img_2226-1443073671.jpg" data-sizes="{"1024": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/65-82013-img_2226-1443073672.jpg", "1280": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/66-82013-img_2226-1443073673.jpg", "1680": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/68-82013-img_2226-1443073674.jpg", "1920": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/70-82013-img_2226-1443073674.jpg", "640": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/63-82013-img_2226-1443073672.jpg", "320": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/61-82013-img_2226-1443073671.jpg", "1440": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/67-82013-img_2226-1443073673.jpg", "800": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/64-82013-img_2226-1443073672.jpg", "480": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/62-82013-img_2226-1443073671.jpg"}" /></a></div>
<br />
There
are three cables connecting the shoulder to the arm: a braided metal
hose, a clear/yellow tinted tube, and a brake cable. I got similar
looking things of each and bolted them on to the arm, and attached them
on to the shoulder end.<br />
<br />
She also wanted me to make the belt buckle
emblem, which I quickly 3D printed up, and cleaned and weathered. I
grabbed this model off of Thingiverse, which you can <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:943629">download here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="embed-cage embed-type-image embed-position-center" data-id="82012" data-large-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073572.jpg" data-small-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/56-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073572.jpg">
<a href="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/82012-2015-09-04-16.jpg"><img src="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073572.jpg" data-sizes="{"1024": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/65-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073574.jpg", "1280": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/66-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073575.jpg", "1680": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/68-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073576.jpg", "1920": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/70-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073576.jpg", "640": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/63-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073573.jpg", "320": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/61-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073573.jpg", "1440": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/67-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073575.jpg", "800": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/64-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073573.jpg", "480": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/62-82012-2015-09-04-16-1443073573.jpg"}" /></a></div>
<br />
I
met up with Laura at Dragon*Con and delivered the prop to her in her
hotel room. We did some final fitting of the prop on Saturday so she
could wear it to the costume contest, and to make sure everything was
100% for the big Fury Road photo shoot on Sunday afternoon.<br />
<br />
<div class="embed-cage embed-type-image embed-position-center" data-id="82011" data-large-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073495.jpg" data-small-url="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/56-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073495.jpg">
<a href="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117.jpg"><img src="http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/55-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073495.jpg" data-sizes="{"640": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/63-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073496.jpg", "320": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/61-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073496.jpg", "800": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/64-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073496.jpg", "1000": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/70-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073497.jpg", "480": "http://files.tested.com/photos/2015/09/24/62-82011-3dp_furiosaarm_cosplaywives-e1442291364117-1443073496.jpg"}" /></a></div>
<br />
That
about wraps it up! It was an incredibly fun and rewarding build and I'm
happy I can scratch one of my dream projects off of my list.Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-88089857666222600552015-09-11T21:32:00.002-04:002015-11-04T13:31:14.611-05:00Dragon Con 2015 Wrap-UpAnother Dragon Con has come and past and I was extremely busy this time around! I'll be posting more in-depth recaps and build logs, but for now I just want to say thanks to everyone I had a good time with and that it was a great weekend for me.<br />
<br />
The Colonial Marines & Xenos project was finished and I'm very happy with how our costumes turned out.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="5" style="background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
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<a href="https://instagram.com/p/7Q2MZCFFmN/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">#dragoncon #dragoncon2015</a></div>
<div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">
A photo posted by Overworld Designs (@overworlddesigns) on <time datetime="2015-09-05T21:00:40+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Sep 5, 2015 at 2:00pm PDT</time></div>
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</blockquote>
<script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>
Thanks to Norman Chan at Tested.com for these photos.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bpPYKn9rNh0/VfOAVweC7XI/AAAAAAAADVc/xp53QdUElts/s1600/67-81436-dragoncon_2015_756-1441722900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bpPYKn9rNh0/VfOAVweC7XI/AAAAAAAADVc/xp53QdUElts/s640/67-81436-dragoncon_2015_756-1441722900.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
The Furiosa prosthetic was a big hit as well. I'll be posting up more about this later, but for now enjoy these photos!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mOOUy-UEtIQ/VfOAjxVuu1I/AAAAAAAADVw/gqaJp5g3Ytc/s1600/2015-09-06%2B12.20.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mOOUy-UEtIQ/VfOAjxVuu1I/AAAAAAAADVw/gqaJp5g3Ytc/s640/2015-09-06%2B12.20.15.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9sUXilOXQ7A/VfOAnbdnybI/AAAAAAAADV8/MZM-C2LofRs/s1600/2015-09-02%2B19.43.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9sUXilOXQ7A/VfOAnbdnybI/AAAAAAAADV8/MZM-C2LofRs/s640/2015-09-02%2B19.43.27.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
I didn't finish my Vi costume in time, but I did manage to meet Frank Ippolito!<br />
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style="background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
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<a href="https://instagram.com/p/7Qf0R8FFiC/" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_top">Met Frank Ippolito last night. Talked making giant costumes and the Francor @frankippolito @dragoncon #cosplay #tested #dragoncon #dragoncon2015 #leagueoflegendscosplay</a></div>
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A photo posted by Overworld Designs (@overworlddesigns) on <time datetime="2015-09-05T17:45:09+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Sep 5, 2015 at 10:45am PDT</time></div>
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Check back soon for more! In the meantime, follow me on Instagram or Facebook:<br />
<br />
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<br />Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-8996147331163547492015-07-06T12:50:00.000-04:002015-11-04T10:29:38.759-05:00Group Project: Colonial Marines (Aliens)Alternate title: <i>What I Learned While Managing A Group Cosplay</i><br />
<br />
A few weeks after Dragon Con 2014, I was talking with Adam Greene of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PixelBashProps" target="_blank">Pixelbash Props</a> about what the "cosplay community" really was, and how people connected - or didn't connect - outside of conventions. Specifically, we got on the subject of how Dragon Con can attract tens of thousands of people - many from the Atlanta area - and yet there doesn't seem to be any large group or gathering of cosplayers out in the real world. I assumed that either A.) there was an existing group / meetup and we weren't aware of it, or B.) it didn't exist. Being optimistic, I believed the second option and we created a monthly social event at Freeside, creatively called the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaCosplayMeetup" target="_blank">Atlanta Cosplay Meetup</a>.<br />
<br />
After meeting for a few months and making a lot of new friends, we started talking about the possibility of doing a group cosplay. A project we could all work on together! I'd never done a large scale group project like that before and it seemed like a great challenge and a lot of fun. After some debate, we settled on what seems like an obvious choice - Colonial Marines from the Aliens franchise.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c3eootG_Yfg/VZqq_S4xtcI/AAAAAAAADE4/RbIPiZ7nqNk/s1600/1I1A0990.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c3eootG_Yfg/VZqq_S4xtcI/AAAAAAAADE4/RbIPiZ7nqNk/s640/1I1A0990.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The plan was to break the costume down into manageable chunks and spread the work out amongst the group. We decided to use Pepakura for the majority of the armor segments, with some sections 3D printed to be molded and cast. There is an open door policy at the public events at Freeside, so we anticipated a lot of people who would come to learn who would have little or no experience using these techniques. It would take us a while to really form a core group of people who were apart of the project, but we quickly moved right into building.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7FqSP7cEU1Y/VZqrJBpUvhI/AAAAAAAADFA/KbM2QeFB3kE/s1600/20150215_145117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7FqSP7cEU1Y/VZqrJBpUvhI/AAAAAAAADFA/KbM2QeFB3kE/s640/20150215_145117.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
In order to speed up the tedious pep process, we utilized Freeside's laser cutter and went with cardboard rather than card stock. This made it a lot easier to get the basic shapes down and assembled, which was good because at the start of this project, no one had ever used Pepakura before! The first few build sessions consisted of cutting out the cardboard pep pieces, gluing them together with hot glue, then coating them with fiberglass resin for strength. Once everyone got their hands dirty putting together the Pepakura pieces, the process went really quickly.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3qo3B4Y_MFA/VZqrSrcIJSI/AAAAAAAADFI/xWMTBU9MLJw/s1600/DSC_0388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3qo3B4Y_MFA/VZqrSrcIJSI/AAAAAAAADFI/xWMTBU9MLJw/s640/DSC_0388.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
From here we applied bondo body filler to the surface of the parts to smooth them out and sculpt them into shape. This is by far the most tedious part of the build, and we spent most of our build days working the bondo into the correct shapes. The "bondo minions" made quick work of everything and the armor masters looked really great.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xt4BjRJwkIE/VZqsXcl7y9I/AAAAAAAADFc/yPvKqqMDFC8/s1600/2015-02-28%2B16.54.04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xt4BjRJwkIE/VZqsXcl7y9I/AAAAAAAADFc/yPvKqqMDFC8/s640/2015-02-28%2B16.54.04.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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One of the machinists at Freeside helped by lathing up some grenades. We'll eventually mold these and pour cast copies. <br />
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Meanwhile, Adam was working on 3D printing the Pulse Rifle and some of the armor bits. The Pulse Rifle was taken from the Aliens: Colonial Marines game and put through a process (which I will detail more soon!) to increase the detail level. It was then sliced into sections to fit into the various 3D printers we have access to, and printed in parts. Once it was fully printed out, it was assembled and several work days spent cleaning up the print lines so it wouldn't <b>look</b> like a 3D printed gun.<br />
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We were also working on a couple Xeno costumes as well. Kevin was working on the Xeno head sculpt.<br />
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Valentin worked on a mechanism to make the Xeno tongue action work in a really dynamic way. The tongue mechanisms were laser cut out of acrylic with a few 3D printed bits, all driven by a geared DC motor and controlled by an Arduino.<br />
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Going back to the Marine armor, once we had our masters finished and ready, we were going to vacuum form several of them and slush cast others in resin. Molds were made of all of the parts, and for the vacuum forming we poured plaster into the molds to create the forming bucks. Here, Adam is working on pulling copies of a few parts of armor.<br />
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Other molds had Smooth Cast 65D resin slush cast in them in several coats, to create the armor bits. We had a few duds due to some incorrect resin measuring, but that's the price of learning!<br />
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Meanwhile we cleaned up the vacformed parts. We had to cut off the flashing and trim up the edges, and set them all aside to get ready for paint.<br />
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The Pulse Rifle was also molded up in probably the biggest 2 piece block mold I've ever seen. This was used to rotocast and back fill with expanding foam to create a light weight, rigid prop. We actually wound up taking the mold to MomoCon and did a live casting demo at the booth!<br />
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We were down to the wire building and painting armor. About a dozen of us worked in teams painting on base coats, then doing the camo patterns. Each set of armor consists of about 15 pieces and each had to be painted.<br />
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The last 2 days before the con, we got very little sleep! Here, Adam and Elliott passed out in the living room.<br />
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Wednesday came and went, and unfortunately we simply ran out of both time and steam. There were some issues with the Xeno head sculpt as well, causing it to crack before we could get it molded. Thankfully this was found before we spent the time (and materials!) molding it.<br />
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The good news is that MomoCon was a huge success. We had a lot of fun at our booth and we met a ton of people. We got to show off our work and Freeside, and introduce a lot of people to the idea of a hackerspace!<br />
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It was a really long weekend.<br />
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As it stands, the project is nearly complete. We need to fabricate a few more sets of armor and do some painting, then put everything together. We'll be together at Dragon Con, so be sure to check back for photos in September!Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-70815725518736722862015-06-30T07:58:00.001-04:002015-11-04T10:29:51.490-05:00June Project UpdatesWith less than 70 days left to Dragon Con, I wanted to post up an update on my current works in progress before I don't have any free time!<br />
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The main event this year is Vi. I feel like I've been working on her for months and months now, but the reality is that other projects got way in the way and had to put it on hold for a while. Thankfully I'm back in full swing now! The goggles are finished and ready. The legs are fully 3D printed and currently being cleaned up. The backpack and shoulder armor is being 3D printed at this time and will be finished in a few weeks. I've commissioned <a href="https://www.facebook.com/katjavondesign" target="_blank">Katja Von Designs</a>, the woman who made my Princess Peach dress last year, to make the jacket and corset.<br />
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My custom built 3D printer is very nearly finished. At this point I have everything I need, and I just need to machine some of the aluminum parts before it's ready to start being used. Finally!<br />
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In my spare time, I've been slowly chipping away at a handful of helmets I have from <a href="http://protagonist4hire.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Shawn Thorrson</a> - the Iron Man Mk 3, the War Machine, and the Iron Man Godkiller. I've had these for a while and I really should finish them and have them available to display!<br />
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I'm also trying to get a couple new Ultron 5 helmets out the door!<br />
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I also recently picked up an Ant-Man helmet from a friend and I'm trying to get that ready to wear to the Ant-Man premiere next month.<br />
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<a href="https://instagram.com/p/1WzmyfHVqn/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_top">A photo posted by Daniel Hawkins (@googleronaldcools)</a> on <time datetime="2015-04-12T01:25:09+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Apr 11, 2015 at 6:25pm PDT</time></div>
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Very shortly I'll be starting on Furiosa's bionic arm for my friend Laura. As you can see, she's already really excited to get started!<br />
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<a href="https://instagram.com/p/3ULRNjiIVz/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_top">A photo posted by Laura (@vauuughn)</a> on <time datetime="2015-05-30T17:56:59+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">May 30, 2015 at 10:56am PDT</time></div>
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Someone asked me recently how I achieved the metal look in some of the things I've built, so I wanted to share that here. I use these three Rust-Oleum paints for the base of any grey / silver metallic paint job that I do:<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009XB2XC" target="_blank">Metallic Aluminum</a> • <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MRQCCG" target="_blank">Metallic Matte Nickel</a> • <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UE7MOC" target="_blank">Metallic Charcoal</a></div>
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The Aluminum is used as a base coat, and the Matte Nickel and Charcoal are applied in varying layers to give different looks. For example with the Gravity Gun, I alternated light coats of each color to give a worn metal look.<br />
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More soon.Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-36272742755819486202015-02-25T13:54:00.001-05:002015-11-04T10:29:58.771-05:00Hiatus, Updates, and Works in ProgressHello internet! Long time no chat.<br />
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I've been fairly quiet on here for some time now, and I'm very sorry about that. Things have been very busy for me the past several months and I feel like I am only just now able to start doing prop making seriously again.<br />
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Dragon Con was amazing and I loved building the new Ultron helmet. I'm very happy with how the sculpt and electronics came out with that, and it's given me a lot of ideas for some projects for the future. <br />
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This past November, I decided to join the board of directors at Freeside Atlanta, the hackerspace that I do my prop work out of. I've been a member since about mid 2013 and I have very much enjoyed the space and the community. There are a lot of awesome people there and I've loved meeting them and sharing knowledge an experience! I wanted to get more involved and do what I can to help the organization grow, and I've been involved in other communities in the past and knew I had experience and talent to bring to the table.<br />
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What I didn't expect was exactly how much of my time doing so would take up. Pretty much from the start I've had a lot of my already limited free time taken up with various tasks and projects in the shop itself. Instead of going to the space to work on projects, the space became my project. Not that I'm complaining - I've been enjoying the experience and I think I've helped accomplish some awesome things! - but learning to balance it has been tricky.<br />
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At Freeside I've been shepherding the 3D printers there and making sure they stay in working order. It's been a bit of a tall order, but the process has been a good learning experience! I've also started teaching classes on 3D printing and laser cutting, two of my favorite methods for building things. While this does take up a bit more of my free time, the upside is that I've essentially been able to build my 3D printer for free.<br />
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Oh yeah, I've also started to build my own personal 3D printer. It's a mish-mash of ideas from printers I like - the Prisa i3, the MendelMax 2, the LulzBot TAZ - all coming together to build a large area printer for prop making purposes. As of this post I have the chassis designed and assembled, and all but the last few bits purchased. I'm hoping to have it in operation by the end of March.<br />
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Until then, my prop work continues! I have a few irons in the fire right now, all of which are very exciting.<br />
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I am slowly plugging away at my Vi from League of Legends build. I'm using some new 3D modeling and printing techniques on her, we'll see how it goes. So far I'm very happy!<br />
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I've taken a very special commission that I don't want to spoil just yet. Let's just say it's definitely going to <b>grab</b> your attention!<br />
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Then lastly, I am working with the Atlanta Cosplay Meetup to build Colonial Marines and Xenos! We are meeting several times a month to build costumes and so far our builds have been going incredibly well.<br />
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I'm going to try and stay on top of this blog a bit better now that I am more regularly building things. Next post will likely be a build write-up!Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-76980003560208224802014-09-11T17:21:00.001-04:002016-02-19T20:04:28.149-05:00Upgrading the Ultron 5 Helmet<i>This blog post originally appeared on the blog for <a href="http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/" target="_blank">Freeside Atlanta</a>, a hackerspace located in Atlanta, GA where I do the majority of my work.</i><br />
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<a href="http://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/09/ultron-5-avengers-earths-mightiest.html" target="_blank">Part 1: Building the Armor</a><br />
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My most recent major project was to upgrade a costume I built last year of the Marvel comic's character, Ultron. The costume owner wanted a new and improved helmet, made of cast resin and full of all sorts of lights. It was a big and ambitious project, and I was very excited to get started.<br />
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Here's how we got there.<br />
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From the outset we decided that we wanted the master sculpt to be 3D printed - but for those of you familiar with 3D printing, you know that extremely large prints are difficult if not impossible to produce. Most often, you will have to break your model up into many different segments, which you then assemble like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. We opted not to do that, and instead outsourced to a professional 3D printing company based in Florida called TheObjectShop. They have a Zcorp 650, which is a very large printer that prints in a plaster like material, which is then hardened with cyanoacrylate AKA super glue.<br />
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The resulting print, while expensive, was absolutely phenomenal.<br />
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Like all 3D prints, the surface had a texture to it that was unsuitable for our needs. I set about cleaning up the surface to as smooth as I could get it, a process which took about 2 and a half weeks. The process is simple - spray the piece with filler primer, fill any large problem areas with bondo or spot filler, and use increasingly finer grits of sandpaper - but extremely tedious and time consuming. I started at 80 grit to knock down some of the bigger problem areas, and worked my way up to 800 grit wet sanding. The results were a helmet that was nearly flawless. <br />
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Now that our master sculpt was completed, we had to create a 2 part jacket mold out of silicone. This would allow us to produce many different copies in urethane resin later down the line. Urethane resin is lighter weight and more sturdy than the brittle plaster 3D print. These are important factors, considering it would be worn for 6-8 hours a day (if not more) and require a bunch of electronics glued and bolted inside of it.<br />
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To create the 2 part mold, first we have to make a parting wall all the way around the helmet, which will be the interfacing layer where the 2 sides of the silicone molds touch. We use the end of our Xacto knife to create little bumps all along the edge, which are registration keys that help the two halves line up properly.<br />
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Once the first half of the silicone mold is applied, we flip the whole thing over, remove the parting wall, and apply a coat of releasing agent before we apply the second half of silicone. The releasing agent is absolutely critical - silicone will not stick to anything except other silicone. Without the releasing agent, we would essentially create a big silicone bowl which would be next to impossible to use for our purposes.<br />
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Once both halves of the silicone mold were created and fully cured, we created an outer rigid mother mold. This is used to keep the silicone mold held together, once the master is removed and the mold is hollow. It is also applied in two halves, and like the silicone we use a releasing agent when creating the second half. <br />
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To make the hollow casting, we use a technique called rotocasting or slush casting. This is where you pour a bit of your urethane resin into the hollow mold and rotate it around so that it evenly coats all of the surfaces with a thin layer. This is done 4-5 times using several small batches of urethane resin, so that we ensure every surface has an even thickness. Because the mold weighs around 10 to 15 pounds before we put a drop of resin into it, and because each layer requires about 5 minutes of tossing it around, I decided to build handles to form into the mother mold. This makes the mother much easier to hold onto during the already strenuous rotocasting process.<br />
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After you are finished casting, it's time to remove the mother and the silicone mold. What you are left with is a perfect reproduction of your master sculpt in a much lighter material. The casting process itself is a bit of a learning curve as every mold will be different. Certain areas will come out to be thinner than others, and the exact amount of material you need to use for each batch will depend on a lot of factors. What this means is that the first few castings will tend to be "duds", meaning they are unsuitable for your ultimate purposes - in our case, a wearable costume.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EMGzzzLLBGE/VkM-KYUZUuI/AAAAAAAADgw/0GlH12Ur5YA/s1600/10547784_626963680736099_4695908786595404388_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EMGzzzLLBGE/VkM-KYUZUuI/AAAAAAAADgw/0GlH12Ur5YA/s640/10547784_626963680736099_4695908786595404388_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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However, you can still dress up one of these bad casts and stick it on a mannequin to live in the space!<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9M7kbnht4bk/VkM-QxoOMpI/AAAAAAAADg8/_EV70wKGL50/s1600/10608228_626676290764838_5578107784092153208_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9M7kbnht4bk/VkM-QxoOMpI/AAAAAAAADg8/_EV70wKGL50/s640/10608228_626676290764838_5578107784092153208_o.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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While we were working on sculpting the master and producing the molds, we were also working on the electronic guts that would go into the helmet. Specifically, there would be a set of LEDs set into laser cut acrylic, and a custom made 8 x 24 LED matrix for the mouth.<br />
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The eye LEDs are rather simple - I drew up a 2D design to bridge the width of the helmet's eyes, and then cut that out of 2 layers of opaque white acrylic. The inner layer was made of 6mm acrylic which the LEDs were set into and glued into place, and the outer 3mm layer was flat. The results are menacing glowing red eyes.<br />
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The mouth LED matrix, on the other hand, is worthy of it's own individual blog post, which I will be putting up later. The short version is that we found and used an Arduino Micro connected to three MAX7219 chips, which are designed to control an 8 x 8 matrix. The matrix had to be designed and wired up by hand, a process which took about 3 weeks of work. After some trial and error with the MAX7219 board kits we used, the whole thing was put together and worked flawlessly. Here is a test video of the center matrix in our temporary holder.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/4jWjKYnndKs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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After the matrix was finished, a cover was laser cut out of 1mm clear acrylic and installed into the mouth. The LEDs were transferred into a similar housing for their permanent installation, and all of the boards were put into craft foam holders for protection and installed into the helmet. The results were nothing short of perfect!<br />
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At this point the project was finished and ready to be worn, but like any good project it has sparked a whole host of new ideas and "how to do it better"s.<br />
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Until next time!Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-3398567892920306142013-11-07T17:58:00.004-05:002015-11-11T08:54:14.648-05:00Pip-Boy 3000 (Fallout 3) - From 3D model to completed propA month or so ago, I found <a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/A-3D-printable-Pip-Boy-3000">this 3D printable Pip-Boy 3000</a> from the game Fallout 3 on Instructables. I've always been a fan of the Fallout series - nuclear apocalypse is my favorite kind of apocalypse scenario! - so I had it on the backburner to go ahead and try printing. When I began this project I was preparing to be <a href="http://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/10/atlanta-mini-maker-faire-on-missing.html">attending Atlanta Mini Maker Faire</a> as a presenter, and I wanted to have some simple-ish pieces to show off and pad out what my booth will have. And with that, I decided to go ahead and give this a shot.<br />
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For those of you unfamiliar with Fallout 3 or what a Pip-Boy actually is, it's essentially a wrist mounted computer that the player uses throughout the game. It's an incredibly iconic piece for anyone familiar with video game props. The modeler did a fantastic job and printing the pieces was very easy.<br />
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I also wanted to take this opportunity to address some really common issues that I see in the prop making community with 3D printing and prop building. I see a lot of people who are unfamiliar with the process calling 3D printing "cheating", or taking the fun out of building by not having to do any work, or complaining that people will one day soon be able to simply download and press a button to have their favorite props. Ignoring the fact that I don't see why that would ever be a bad thing, I want to show people what the actual printing process is like and how it is not the magic bullet that those unfamiliar with the process might think it is.<br />
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Typically for most of my builds which incorporate 3D printing - which is basically all of them, to some degree - I do the majority of 3D modeling on my own. Either modeling something from scratch, or rebuilding an existing low resolution model that was ripped from a game, or fixing up some existing models out there. Normally this process can take several weeks depending on the complexity of the prop. But this Pip-Boy is the first thing I've printed where I literally just downloaded the files and started printing.<br />
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Regardless of the genesis of the files, once you have them you have to run them through a process to generate the tool paths for your 3D printer. From there you load the file it spits out in your printer, and off to the races you go.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/2Udilvn" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/2Udilvnl.jpg" /></a>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This is a piece from my Ultron 5 build; it's not related to the Pip-Boy print, but it's one of the better mid-print photos I have.</i></span></div>
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A few hours later, you get this. Here is 1 piece out of 15 that is pulled straight off the printer with zero clean up work done it it. Far from a "press print and have a prop" scenario.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/RbbYCHW" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/RbbYCHWl.jpg" /></a>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Click for larger!</i></span></div>
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The "spider webbing" that you see in the middle is caused by the printer's print head oozing out plastic while it moves around from one end of the prop to the other. It looks super gross, but you can clean it up with maybe 5 minutes of sanding. You're also seeing the "raft", which is a thin gridwork layer that the actual object gets printed onto. While printing with a raft is not necessarily required, I've found that I am able to get consistently better prints when using one. The downside is that you have to cut and sand off the remnants of it, but it's a small price for making a better quality print. You'll also need to sand down all of the surfaces to get rid of the visible print lines that the printer leaves. Here is the back half of the Pip-Boy (printed in 3 interlocking pieces) in various stages of cleanup.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/rrGh95B" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/rrGh95Bl.jpg" /></a>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/MNQ4Sm7" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/MNQ4Sm7l.jpg" /></a>
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At this point in the process I've spent about 12 hours of work cleaning up, and around 30 hours of 3D printing. I have the 6 pieces for the front and back half all printed and are currently being cleaned and smoothed up before bonding them together. I also need to use some spot putting to fill in some areas where I got a little over zealous with sanding and poked through the printed surface.<br />
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The next step in the process is joining all of our pieces together, or at least the biggest ones that need to be joined. For this model, the largest sections are the front and back halves, each printed in 3 prints. The reason these had to be split up is because most extrusion 3D printers can't accommodate a 10" tall object, and the ones that can may have troubles with warping or lifting. Any sort of these problems is really bad news for a print since it means you wasted print time and print material.<br />
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This model has nicely designed tabs that align the 2 parts, so after some minor cleanup, the two join together very smoothly. I use regular ole cyanoacrylate to join the two inner faces, putting glue on the inside of the tab slots, and around the face of the joining halves.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/vUHfGMcl" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/vUHfGMcl.jpg" /></a>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Click for larger!</i></span></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/2g8poS6l" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/2g8poS6l.jpg" /></a>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Click for larger!</i></span></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/Tj679yGl" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Tj679yGl.jpg" /></a>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Click for larger!</i></span></div>
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I let that cure for a few minutes and the two parts are inseparable. There is a little bit of spot filling to be done, since one half may have had the edge rounded slightly while sanding the print lines down, but that's fairly short work.<br />
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In addition to manually sanding down surfaces, I also give the pieces a quick brushing in acetone. Acetone is a solvent that reacts very well with the ABS parts, melting and smoothing them down in to a more uniform shape. It's also interesting how the acetone reacted with the ABS surfaces based on whether it was sanded down or fresh with print lines. The deep black, very reflective areas were the fresh ABS and the other areas are where it was sanded down prior to washing. <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IoBl0CLhJxY/VkNApXOS_5I/AAAAAAAADhk/oMaKy6gQwis/s1600/841182_479649072134228_1516162965_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IoBl0CLhJxY/VkNApXOS_5I/AAAAAAAADhk/oMaKy6gQwis/s640/841182_479649072134228_1516162965_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now that I've finished the main body, I'm moving on to the screen and cover. These parts are quite a bit more detailed, and were a real pain to clean up. You can see where where I'm gluing together the 6 or 7 pieces that make up the upper part of the cover and it was a real chore. You can also see on the one side where the raft hasn't been perfectly cleaned off yet either.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IU-8IojDKc4/VkNBFX_Xg3I/AAAAAAAADh4/Gol7kKUsSFs/s1600/1399178_482984538467348_609291799_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IU-8IojDKc4/VkNBFX_Xg3I/AAAAAAAADh4/Gol7kKUsSFs/s640/1399178_482984538467348_609291799_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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When working with the LED holder that goes on front, I was unhappy with the print quality with it because it has a number of overhanging parts. I decided to go ahead and print a new one on one of the 3D printers that Freeside Atlanta has. It's a giant homebrew printer and the prints that come out of it are way better than what I was seeing before on the Cube 3D printer.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fw7F-TrlRmk/VkNBMJFa_4I/AAAAAAAADiA/9eS6Xh1YsSg/s1600/857921_486272924805176_894195458_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fw7F-TrlRmk/VkNBMJFa_4I/AAAAAAAADiA/9eS6Xh1YsSg/s640/857921_486272924805176_894195458_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This part will need to be acetone washed, but thankfully the print is nice enough that I won't need to do much work on it after. Yay for round parts!<br />
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As far as the rest of the pieces, now 3 large parts total, they're being primered and will be getting the usual sand-and-fill.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LE_xuBE3Ywk/VkNBTHfJy1I/AAAAAAAADiI/Z_M_D-fNkzY/s1600/1398895_486272488138553_494911780_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LE_xuBE3Ywk/VkNBTHfJy1I/AAAAAAAADiI/Z_M_D-fNkzY/s640/1398895_486272488138553_494911780_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This brings me to the current state of the Pip-Boy. I gave everything a quick hit of paint before AMMF to display it, but over the next week or two I'll be finishing everything up completely and making everything look nice. One
of the guys at Freeside calls me a perfectionist because I am worrying
about smoothing out and filling in the gaps on the inside even though
"nobody will see it". Amateur! The next installment will cover the molding and casting process.<br />
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If you are interested in a pre-order for a casting, check out the <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/168407573/pip-boy-3000-fallout-3-raw-resin-kit" target="_blank">listing on my Etsy store</a>.<br />
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Thanks for reading!Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-89985985453021910112013-10-30T16:13:00.002-04:002015-11-11T08:18:02.609-05:00Atlanta Mini Maker Faire: On missing deadlines, failure, and triageIt was around 1am Saturday morning (still Friday night in my mind) on October 26th. In the past 2 days I had gotten around 3 hours of sleep, all of which on the Freeside sofas, and at this point had been awake for close to 20 hours for the second day in a row.<br />
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Myself, one of my build partners, and a few Freeside members were making frantic last minute preparations and we got on the subject of major "maker" news outlets. How they paint build projects in a light where everything goes as planned, nothing ever goes wrong, everything is on time and on budget. They ignore the 20 hour days, the wasted build material, the failed 3D print after failed 3D print. They don't cover the tired, bitchy arguments over whose idea is more practical, and they certainly don't cover the cumulative <i>hours</i> lost to "where did I put that thing?".<br />
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We were talking about this because, as I sat there trying to finish a new Ultron helmet - you see, the original one that had about 18 hours of work put into it was simply thrown away by a negligent party - I was coming closer to the realization that I did not have enough time or energy to finish it. At the same time, my partner who had been working on the Iron Patriot helmet animatronics for the umpteenth day since the inception of the build had already called it quits and triaged all but the eye lights.<br />
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Triage. Battlefield doctors deciding who lives and dies. It's the best term I've found or used when talking about the last minute do-or-die moments finishing a project hours before a deadline. I could teach a five session class on project triage. It's rare for me to declare something dead on the battlefield. The Gravity Gun, which I premiered at Momocon in March 2013, was on the build table a mere 4 hours before I left to go to the event. Last year at Dragon*Con 2012, the War Machine still had paint drying on the car ride to the hotel. I've cut it close but not missed.<br />
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So finally I bring this blog post to AMMF 2013. The two weeks leading up to the event, I had just about everything with just about every project go wrong. I had nothing completely finished for AMMF. As I mentioned above, the Ultron 5 helmet was straight up thrown away and had to be completely remade from scratch. And then my Ultron model was in a car wreck (he is fine) and couldn't make it to the event at all, so the Ultron costume was just sitting out on display and not worn. Every aspect of the Iron Patriot wasn't working - the leg repairs weren't finished, the shoulder gun still isn't working properly, and the helmet animatronics are only a single step closer to being completed. My Pip-Boy is coming along somewhat well, but definitely behind where it should be as the "simple project" I started it as. The Bionic Arm that I started last month has had more set backs than steps forward, thanks to fickle 3D printing and laser cutting design flaws.<br />
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Basically, everything I brought to my table was half finished. The only thing I did manage to finish in time was the laser etched sign for Overworld Designs. Which took all of about 30 minutes to design and etch.<br />
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You might think I am upset or bitter about the whole experience, and yeah I am a little disappointed I didn't have more complete things to show off. However, I used the subject to do what the maker news sites don't do - at my booth, I talked to people about problems and failure and missing deadlines. And how that's apart of the process. How it's okay to not always succeed. There were a lot of kids at AMMF and part of my presentation was showing the process from an ugly looking original 3D print, through all of the steps to a completed project. People see a completed piece and can't fathom how they could ever make something like that, so it's important for me to show all of the steps along the way. And part of this is that sometimes things don't go well.<br />
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And that's okay.Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-29936575025784826622013-09-17T17:00:00.000-04:002015-11-04T10:31:20.527-05:00Review: 3D System's Cube 3D PrinterFor a little over 7 months now I have had access to and been using a Cube 3D printer from 3D Systems, a South Carolina based company. This machine does not belong to me personally; it belongs to a colleague of mine who has more or less given me free reign over using it. In the time that I've worked with the machine I've found a lot of things I do and do not like about it.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/2Udilvn" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/2Udilvnl.jpg" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>3D printed pieces for <a href="http://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/09/ultron-5-avengers-earths-mightiest.html" target="_blank">Ultron 5</a>, still on the print bed</i></span></div>
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For the uninitiated, the Cube 3D printer is a ready-to-use PLA and ABS printer that retails for around $1300 USD. What you get for this is the complete machine, a cartridge of material (more or this later), and all of the doodads and whatsits you need to get the thing up and running. It's marketed as a 3D printer for people who just want to press print and not worry about settings, calibrations, or building the actual machine.<br />
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On that front, it absolutely delivers. In my experience, leveling the build platform every few prints will produce the best results, but that is the most sort of upkeep I've had to perform on the machine. The menu on the front of the machine also makes leveling the platform and setting the Z height of the extruder very simple.<br />
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My biggest problem, however, is that everything about the machine and it's software is closed source and locked down. In order to generate the equivalent of G-code, you have to use their proprietary program, inside of which you have very minimal access to settings.<br />
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Worse, though, is that they require you to use their proprietary filament cartridges. A filament cartridge contains 0.7lbs of material at $50USD - approximately a 300% markup of generic spooled ABS. The printer requires that you have one of their cartridges installed otherwise it will not allow you to print at all. This is the #1 complaint of Cube owners and you can read all about it when doing your research on the printer. A few ingenious hackers have <a href="http://www.howmuchsnow.com/cube/" target="_blank">found a way of tricking the printer's firmware</a> in to printing even with an empty printer and using a custom spool stand to print from. Myself and the owner of the machine have done this and it turned a fairly poor printer in to something that is at least worth the money.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/3rj1qlC" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3rj1qlCl.jpg" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>3D printed master and resin cast copy of <a href="http://overworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/05/gravity-gun-half-life-2.html" target="_blank">Gravity Gun</a> parts</i></span></div>
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But, frankly, if I were to spend $1300 on a tool, I feel like I shouldn't have to trick or hack it to do something that literally every other 3D printer available can do on it's own. I understand the desire for a cartridge based system for the people who, again, just want to press "go". But the fact that 3D Systems have locked out using other methods - and by all accounts, updated their firmware to "fix" the exploit that was being used - is just another big red flag against these systems.<br />
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(By the way, you can still use the same hack, but there are a couple other hoops to jump through to do it. But in fear of 3D Systems reading this and patching yet another "exploit", I don't want to post it online. Sorry.) <br />
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For anyone who plans to print in ABS on this machine: I strongly recommend you buy a heated platform, which does not come included with the printer. ABS has a much higher tendency to lift than PLA does, and is much more fickle about ambient temperatures. 3D Systems' solution is a (you guessed it) proprietary glue that you put down to bond the bottom layers to the build surface. It works like a dream, if only it weren't so expensive.<br />
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On the subject of ABS being prone to temperature differences, you may want to consider building an enclosure for the printer. This is something we are planning on doing but have not yet had the chance to get done.<br />
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At this point nothing has gone wrong with the printer itself - yet. I fear the day that something catastrophic does happen, since I've heard less than pleasant things about 3D Systems' customer support. That is to say, they are fast to respond, but the responses they give you aren't satisfactory. Their platform is closed and locked down and proprietary, and that's just the way they like it.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/rrGh95B" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/rrGh95Bl.jpg" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Parts from a 15 piece Pip-Boy 3000 print in various stages of cleanup and finishing</i></span></div>
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In short, I'm not entirely sure to who this printer is marked towards. Hobbyists who want to build and tweak won't get much out of it aside from a relatively easy to use, if extremely limited printer. I don't know how many Average Joe's out there who are kinda-sorta interested in 3D printing and also have $1300 to throw away on something they may not use a lot.<br />
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I have to applaud 3D Systems for trying to get in to the home 3D printing market and making it user friendly. But they take just as many steps backwards by only allowing their proprietary software and requiring the use of over priced filament cartridges.<br />
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If you're a hobbyist and happen to own one of these, my best suggestion is to use it to print out the parts for your choice of RepRap printers and start building one of those. That's what I'm doing.Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-69419934230769562062013-09-10T17:00:00.000-04:002015-11-04T10:31:10.920-05:00Atlanta Mini Maker Faire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B1pqy_v5d74/Ui-Hvd4toiI/AAAAAAAABy0/zVmVXV7lkFA/s1600/Atlanta_MMF_logos_Logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B1pqy_v5d74/Ui-Hvd4toiI/AAAAAAAABy0/zVmVXV7lkFA/s1600/Atlanta_MMF_logos_Logo.png" /></a></div>
I am really excited to announce that Overworld Designs will be presenting at Atlanta Mini Maker Faire on October 26th! I don't have specific details just yet on where our booth will be, but you can expect that info to be posted up very soon. Come check out the booth where I'll be showing off parts of the costume making process, some of my completed props, a few in progress items, as well as a live demonstration of casting in resin!<br />
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You can find more information at the <a href="http://makerfaireatl.com/" target="_blank">Atlanta Mini Maker Faire website</a>.<br />
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Hope to see you there!Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-64703139251530482562013-09-04T21:04:00.002-04:002015-11-11T08:18:27.972-05:00Ultron 5 (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes)Now that Dragon*Con 2013 has come and gone, it's time to update the ole blog with what I've been up to since March! <br />
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Some months ago, while watching the animated series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, a friend of mine requested that I make an Ultron 5 costume for him. Since I've seen so very few of these around, and because EMH was such a great show, not to mention the character of Ultron is completely bad ass, I felt compelled to go ahead and move forward with the project. Around this time, Marvel comics was pimping out an upcoming arc titled "Age of Ultron", which I was extremely excited about reading.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/hZiBwxU" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hZiBwxUl.jpg" /></a>
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As I do the majority of my creation in 3D space before physical building begins, I began searching for any sort of existing 3D model which I might be able to use as a base. Unfortunately it seems that Ultron has not been a favorite in any of the Marvel games so no such model existed. Enter a friend of mine from TheRPF, Lael Lee. He had just completed a 1987 RoboCop pepakura model which he released, and so I decided to contact him about doing Ultron justice.<br />
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After about 2 months of work, the results were beyond anything I could have hoped for!<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/E053bp2" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/E053bp2l.png" /></a>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/5WNWV4o" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/5WNWV4ol.jpg" /></a>
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Since this would be worn heavily at conventions, I decided to go with an EVA foam build like I had done with my War Machine last year. I will admit that I skimped on progress photos during this stage, since I was posting regular updates on TheRPF and seeing foam builds is so common, I wouldn't be showing anything that anyone hadn't seen before. But I did get a few, which you can see below.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/JkKwu37" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JkKwu37l.jpg" /></a>
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It was around this time that Marvel announced that the Avengers sequel would be titled "Age of Ultron", which made me that much more determined to complete the project. I know that in the next 2 years leading up to Avengers 2, there will be more and more Ultrons showing up at conventions, and I had to make sure we were early on the trend!<br />
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Once the principal parts of the armor were completed, we coated/primed everything in black PlastiDip, which gives a nice surface for paint to bond to as well as make the foam both more durable and slightly more rigid. Again, we were in such a rush to complete painting for the project a week before the convention that, again, I had failed to take progress photos of this step.<br />
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I had also 3D printed some of the pieces for Ultron, namely the antennae on the helmet. These were printed in 4 parts, which were then assembled, sanded, primed, and then molded in Smooth-On Mold Max 30 silicone and cast in Smooth-On 65D resin. Why Mold-Max 30 and 65D? Because that's what I had laying around, of course!<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/8i6qxE0" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/8i6qxE0l.jpg" /></a>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/2Udilvn" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/2Udilvnl.jpg" /></a>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/cEaChvc" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/cEaChvcl.jpg" /></a>
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Our original plan was to use an Arduino to control the mouth LEDs in a twinkling pattern, but time permitted us from getting this done for Dragon*Con. Instead all of the LEDs - about 75 of them in total! - are lit constantly. These are mounted in to a sheet of thin craft foam, and then covered / diffused using a thin black fabric. The resulting effect gives a convincing "Kirby dots" and changes depending on what angle you're looking at the helmet.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/IWJsUGF" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/IWJsUGFl.jpg" /></a>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/oPyZoIf" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/oPyZoIfl.jpg" /></a>
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And then, of course, it being Dragon*Con, things got a little weird.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j7OjX9bu5Iw" width="640"></iframe><br />
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As with every project, there are repairs and upgrades and changes to be made. My friend who wore the costume has made a few requests, and hopefully we'll be able to have those changes made by Atlanta Mini Maker Faire. I'll leave you with some photos that we've taken and ones I've found around the net so far. Thanks for reading!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="http://imgur.com/a/DtSHW#0" target="_blank"><i>View the entire photo album on Imgur</i></a></b></span></div>
Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-83208855146596592102013-07-26T16:14:00.001-04:002015-11-04T10:31:38.375-05:00New earring design - In Vino VeritasI've received my stock of HL2 jewelry so the items I have on my Etsy shop are ready to go out. I also received the first of my new designs, In Vino Veritas.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/28yJLWr"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/28yJLWrl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/OverworldDesigns/" target="_blank">Overworld Designs Etsy Shop</a></span></div>
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This design is the Latin idiom inspired by the Port O'Brien song of the same name, laser cut out of mirror backed acrylic. It will be available on my Etsy store very soon!Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-22803457717402552142013-07-07T03:32:00.000-04:002015-11-04T10:31:29.990-05:00Overworld Designs now on EtsyAfter some delays, I have opened up a shop on Etsy. I will be primarily selling jewelry, art, and other non-prop items. But if you have a special request for any of my projects that are not listed on there, then please let me know!<br />
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Currently I only have listed my base stock - A series of laser cut acrylic jewelry designs inspired by Half-Life 2. I will be adding more designs in the future, to be sure you check back!<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/Usc6e1m"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Usc6e1ml.jpg" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/OverworldDesigns/" target="_blank">Overworld Designs Etsy Shop</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/n1Oc3MH"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/n1Oc3MHl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/1JI8dCl"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1JI8dCll.jpg" /></a>Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-11380176025651016542013-05-22T20:34:00.001-04:002015-11-04T10:30:53.364-05:00War Machine (Iron Man 2)Costume builds from the Iron Man films have been all of the rage on the internet recently. I myself am a huge fan of the MCU films. But my favorite character even from all the way back in the early 90's was War Machine, and after seeing him appear in Iron Man 2, I knew there was only one thing left to do.<br />
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In the middle of 2012, I decided to build a War Machine costume for Dragon*Con 2012. 40 days and a trip to the emergency room later, I came out on top.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/2ab4KoT" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/2ab4KoTl.jpg" /></a><br />
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Like so many other Iron Man builders before me, I started out on a great prop and costuming site called TheRPF. The prevailing method for building foam Iron Man armor is to use a program called Pepakura. What this program does is turn any 3D model into a 2D papercraft type project. What the ingenious builders at TheRPF have done is use the 2D designs that Pepakura makes and use them to make templates for your foam armor. The concept takes a little getting used to, and there is more than a little bit of trial and error to making sure the parts are the correct size. But the final product is an incredibly easy to use method for building foam armor costumes.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/T3VLvvj" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/T3VLvvjl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/jg7Wsb4" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jg7Wsb4l.jpg" /></a><br />
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Over the next 30 days or so I set about printing the 2D templates, cutting the foam sheet, and gluing everything together with superglue. Some people go with hot glue but I've found that it's very difficult to control where it seeps to. Either method works perfectly fine though. The superglue bond is so strong that you will tear the surrounding foam before you'll tear the glue bond. It's pretty insane.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/UAeu9gZ" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/UAeu9gZl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/u7IIbtG" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/u7IIbtGl.jpg" /></a><br />
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After I made the chest piece, I decided my helmet was too large by quite a fair margin and set about to make a new one. The new one fit me much better and was much more proportionate to the rest of the armor.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/s6nSWlT" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/s6nSWlTl.jpg" /></a><br />
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8 days before my deadline - Dragon*Con 2012 in Atlanta, GA - I had severe pain in my abdomen and wound up going to the emergency room. It turns out that my appendix was inflamed and in danger of rupturing, so I went in to surgery to have it removed. It went totally fine, the worst part was losing 3 or 4 build days from being in the hospital and being stuck in bed recovering when I only had a few steps left.<br />
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Like so many Dragon*Con builds, I managed to finish painting everything the night before and made it to D*C just in time.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/NMxXMg3" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NMxXMg3l.jpg" /></a><br />
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A few months later I went to go visit my friend (the girl Iron Man pictured) and we went to a couple of Halloween costume contests and won first place.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/NPxAN" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NPxANl.jpg" /></a><br />
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Then finally I last took the costume out to Momcon 2013, another local Atlanta convention and made quite an impression.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/PxxqBnC" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/PxxqBnCl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/jAYtzPA" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jAYtzPAl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/UTu8nyn" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/UTu8nynl.jpg" /></a><br />
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My current plans are to build the new War Machine armor from Iron Man 3, and take what I've learned with this build to improve upon all of the little minor annoyances. Building the costume gave me interesting insight into the character of Tony Stark himself. I can totally understand the desire to build and modify and upgrade a new armor as soon as you finish your last one.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="http://www.msleeper.com/dcon12/" target="_blank"><i>View the entire photo album on Dropbox</i></a></b></span></div>
Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193947486963156901.post-7245351139943590872013-05-22T18:22:00.000-04:002015-11-04T10:30:46.170-05:00Gravity Gun (Half-Life 2)The Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2 has always been one of my favorite video game guns, both in terms of design as well as use. It was always amazing to me that it took almost 8 years for accomplished prop builders to take a crack at it, given how iconic both the weapon and the game are to the broader gaming community. <br />
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In December 2012, I decided to start on a build of it myself.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/gq7CnKB" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/gq7CnKBl.jpg" /></a>
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<a name='more'></a>For the uninitiated, the Gravity Gun is one of the primary weapons and tools that you use in the video game Half-Life 2. It allows you to pick up and throw various objects in the game. You only get to see it from the 3rd person in a few instances, thankfully one of which is when another character in the game is holding it.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/HDTmujL" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/HDTmujLl.jpg" /></a><br />
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You can see the size of the weapon here, and I used this image to help determine the scale used when building everything. Coming from a 3D design background, my primary prototype building methods utilize laser cutting and 3D printed parts. Props from video games make the first steps easy, since in most cases you can easily extract a game model into a workable format. However there are a few caveats to this:<br />
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Most of these models are built in such a way that there are many intersecting solids - that is, two objects sitting inside one another without any way to connect - or with many missing "faces". Especially in view models, which are the models you see in your HUD when holding a weapon, any side of the gun that isn't viewable from the camera gets removed to save rendering time.<br />
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Secondly, especially with older games, a lot of weapon and items models are incredibly low poly and have a great number of their details in their texture. In a weapon like the Gravity Gun, which comes from a game that came out almost 10 years, the model quality is pathetically low.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/33xeX" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/33xeXl.png" /></a><br />
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So, this necessitated remodeling the entire gun. This isn't a huge deal as it's something that is needed for pretty much any project. But it required a lot of cleanup and a lot of rebuilding. This process took a couple of weeks, but in the end yielded our digital master.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/y6sAI" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/y6sAIl.png" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/QTd6u" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QTd6ul.png" /></a><br />
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The Gravity Gun breaks down into two very distinct sections: the front barrel made up of flat objects, a mostly plain circular "barrel", and 6 energy crystals with accompanying "cages". And the rear drum base which consists of a couple circular "drums" connected to a weirdly shaped geometric base, the rear pistol grip handle and the left side bar handle. Altogether there are about 25 or 30 individual pieces which would need to be put fabricated, and once the 3D master was sorted out, I started making 2D templates for the sections that would be laser cut.<br />
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The front of the barrel section is made up of a series of stacked sheets, which would be laser cut out of acrylic. The back plate of the barrel section would also be made from laser cut acrylic. Along the barrel itself - a 3" piece of PVC pipe - are 6 "crystal" bars and 6 corresponding rectangular "cages". These cages too were made from 3 cut pieces of acrylic.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/JNRpuaA" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JNRpuaAl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/qg7dieh" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/qg7diehl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/jGoHhTS" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jGoHhTSl.jpg" /></a><br />
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The acrylic needed a lot of sanding in order to get rid of the perfectly level surface to allow it to accept paint and to bond together with the few sections that needed gluing.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/nyUiLPi" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/nyUiLPil.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/UOl5PY3" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/UOl5PY3l.jpg" /></a><br />
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Meanwhile, I set about making a mold of the crystal bars which were 3D printed and for the cages (not pictured).<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/hwKugO6" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hwKugO6l.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/HS0SuNe" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/HS0SuNel.jpg" /></a><br />
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At this point, the acrylic pieces were nearly finished and ready for paint, and the casts for the 6 crystals and 6 cages was finished. I purchased a small fortune in the fasteners needed for the project, a total of about 60 nylon nuts and bolts, and mocked everything up.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/oswTQhQ" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/oswTQhQl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/vM1M2KW" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/vM1M2KWl.jpg" /></a><br />
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Looking pretty good!<br />
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Now that the front barrel was in pretty good shape, I turned my attention to the rear base. The 3D printing method that I used, a plaster based printer, has a lot of pros and a lot of cons. The best part about it is that it is dirt cheap to buy materials needed. But unfortunately, that means the end result suffers a lot of issues. The plaster is heavy, brittle, extremely porous, and has a texture over the surface that leaves a lot to be desired. This issue can be resolved by using high fill primer and giving each coat a light sanding, but it's still far from perfect.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/bMJxS7Q" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/bMJxS7Ql.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/NLwSsjV" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NLwSsjVl.jpg" /></a><br />
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My plan was to make a 2 part jacket mold for the rear base and rotocast it, leaving the interior empty both to keep the weight of the object down as well as leaving room for electronics. Unfortunately, my inexperience and frugality meant my final mold suffered more than a couple of problems.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/7lbPKQU" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/7lbPKQUl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/jnYHAhi" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jnYHAhil.jpg" /></a><br />
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The silicone was far too thing in a few places, resulting in some sagging in the mold once the mother was applied. I also tried to cut corners and chop up an old mold to fill in some of the deep undercuts, but I seemed to have made a huge mistake here. While the axiom of "silicone always sticks to silicone" is true, be sure you are using the same grade of silicone! You can't mix tin cure and platinum cure silicones, like I did, otherwise you'll run into the problem where the new silicone won't fully cure.<br />
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What this meant was these big chunks were left in the pull that would need to be cut out, and the sections that sagged needed to be filled in heavily with body filler and leveled out. Thankfully all of the hard edges still seemed to be in square, so it was tedious but not totally impossible.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/o2UnywI" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/o2UnywIl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/m7NpDcb" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/m7NpDcbl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/jCdjoky" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/jCdjokyl.jpg" /></a><br />
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Once all of the issues were cleaned up and I hit it with a coat of primer, it was looking miles ahead better than where I started.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/eshvhQG" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/eshvhQGl.jpg" /></a><br />
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Taking a page from <a href="http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/2012/01/half-life-2-gravity-gun.html" target="_blank">Harrison Krix's Gravity Gun build</a>, I modeled up a "heatsink" that goes on to the bottom of the rear drum body and had it 3D printed in an ABS printer, which was then molded and cast as well. A few attempts later and I have a nice resin pull of the heatsink.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/3rj1qlC" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3rj1qlCl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/F39gPc9" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/F39gPc9l.jpg" /></a><br />
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At this point I give the acrylic pieces their first coats of paint. Eventually all of the parts will be given a similar paint scheme - dark gray primer, followed by high gloss silver, then varying thin coats of light, medium, and dark gray metallics. None of the parts have the same exact looking paint since the design of the weapon makes it clear it was a hodgepodge of found items, rather than something made in a factory. All of the parts look similar enough but are not identical.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/Q78tg1P" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Q78tg1Pl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/f877MgH" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/f877MgHl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/H5ywRC7" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/H5ywRC7l.jpg" /></a><br />
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Then it was time to detail. The metallic parts were given a few washes in blacks and browns to dirty them up, and then all of the bolt holes were painted with a rust coloration. The rear plate and front barrel were painted in such a way to make it appear as if years of slow rust slowly dripped downwards. The rear drum base and the heatsink were also more heavily weathered on the bottom side, as if it sat level for most of it's age.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/QVvio56" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QVvio56l.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/Tq1wGsl" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Tq1wGsll.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/f36KgRL" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/f36KgRLl.jpg" /></a><br />
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The last thing needed was to wire the thing up, but this was such a rush job (that will need to be completely redone as well) that I didn't get any photos of it being done.<br />
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I set a deadline for myself of a small local convention here in Atlanta, and all in all I met the goal. Up to this point, I consider the project about 90% complete.<br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/htMwXnn" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/htMwXnnl.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/QiUcz9a" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QiUcz9al.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://imgur.com/HSurxst" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/HSurxstl.jpg" /></a><br />
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There are a few things left that I'd like to do. There is a small "vent" on the left side that needs to be added. I need a more accurate handle rather than a 4" bolt. I also want to rewire the lighting to use programmable LED strips. The blue is a little too "icy" blue and not enough white-blue to make it look like electricity. To be continued!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://imgur.com/oFINxEC" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/oFINxECs.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://imgur.com/L7hEZVS" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/L7hEZVSs.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://imgur.com/Sy3aXkn" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Sy3aXkns.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="http://imgur.com/a/hg3JH#0" target="_blank"><i>View the entire photo album on Imgur</i></a></b></span></div>
Michelle Sleeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03561687190789058242noreply@blogger.com