70th Explorers Garrison: Forums

Hmmmm, were your hands dirty when you put it on, I'm nit criticizing, because other than the hand prints in the sides it looks sweet!

That is really cool! pun intended

Dman wrote:Hmmmm, were your hands dirty when you put it on, I'm nit criticizing, because other than the hand prints in the sides it looks sweet!

I think you are seeing some anomalies in the dome as I usually only touch the rim to put it on. I have three of these domes and this one is the least clear. (that's why it's my testing dome.) Of course, it is pretty dusty from all the work going around it....

Thanks for the feedback!

I can see where that might be anomalies, just in the pic they almost look like hand prints, and from the locations it would almost appear to be where you would place your hands to place it on....

Nope. I even checked the dome. I handle it by the rim and the vent on the top. It's really just an optical illusion.

Seriously.

It does look like hands though. Hmmmm

Hey Brandon,

I was thinking about the goggles. Reflective strips across the lenses would give it the optical illusion that it's glowing much brighter when pics are taken. You might fumble around with some of that tape stuff on the inside of the goggle structure and see what the results come out looking like.

I'm pretty excited to see this come together. lol I can't wait to see it finished.

judge_hellfast wrote:Hey Brandon,

I was thinking about the goggles. Reflective strips across the lenses would give it the optical illusion that it's glowing much brighter when pics are taken. You might fumble around with some of that tape stuff on the inside of the goggle structure and see what the results come out looking like.

I'm pretty excited to see this come together. lol I can't wait to see it finished.

That's a really good idea, Chris. I am working on a second set of reflective lenses to put in front of my eyes, but behind the LED's, so that you cannot see my eyes and hopefully reflect the red light out more. Reflective strips....hmmmmm..... I'd have to leave a hole or strip to see through.....

I could bring up a foot or so of mylar tape next time we meet up if you want. run it along the inside edge to reflect more light out...

TK 3181 wrote:

judge_hellfast wrote:Hey Brandon,

I was thinking about the goggles. Reflective strips across the lenses would give it the optical illusion that it's glowing much brighter when pics are taken. You might fumble around with some of that tape stuff on the inside of the goggle structure and see what the results come out looking like.

I'm pretty excited to see this come together. lol I can't wait to see it finished.

That's a really good idea, Chris. I am working on a second set of reflective lenses to put in front of my eyes, but behind the LED's, so that you cannot see my eyes and hopefully reflect the red light out more. Reflective strips....hmmmmm..... I'd have to leave a hole or strip to see through.....

Actually you might be able to just place it on the insides of the goggle and not on the lenses themselves. Just so the camera flash pics it up and it will do the rest. You'll just need to fumble with some test shots to see what produces the best results.

I made a little bit of progress since vacation. I started the finishing touches and the "internal" parts of the back pack.



You can see that the dome piece and the top tanks are removed. They have been sent to the Chromer guy for a nice blue chrome finish.) I am also rigging the internal lights for the backpack so that it actually appears to do something besides just carry around Dr. Fries' Cryogenics for Dummies books.

I also hard mounted that lights for the neck seal. This was simply cutting, bending, and riveting clips to hold them in place. (note the shoulder armor mold in pink foam in the background.)




Next, was the daunting task of adding the lip or rim at the bottom of the neck seal. This is the part that really makes it start to look less like a bucket and more like an old diving bell suit. I made a template out of poster board: (Yes, I used my magic fairy wand...WHAT?!)


Then, test fit the template:


After that, I traced it on ABS and began the arduous task of cutting it out with a hobby knife, and got the heat gun out for some shaping. Here is the test fit followed by the actual installed shots:





Then, I began adding the big nasty rivets that really "seal the deal" I can't wait to finish up the rivets around the top and get this thing in paint. I live for that moment when a bunch of glued together junk starts to look like one piece of costuming goodness. Nothing creates that magic moment like spray paint.




More to come soon!!


PS
anyone got any blue LEDs they wanna donate?

Swweeeeeeeeeeeet!

Lookin nice, Brandon. It's getting closer.

I made a little progress this weekend on the neck seal. Here are are some pics:

All the "rivets" installed-




A fresh layer of base coat sprayed on-



And a test fit with the dome trimmed up-



I still need to put some kind of edging on the bottom of the dome to give it a more finished look. Hopefully, I will get the aluminum color painted on this week. And... the chrome bits should be done soon.



Now, on to the shoulders.....

Use a fluorescent black/Blue and hit some of the highlighted areas on your neck seal. You won't be able to see it with the naked eye much at all, but when you take a picture, it will make the parts stand out a lot. It's a camera trick. It helps break up the black from blobbing together when you're in pictures. That's why I don't like that Vader is mostly black. He tends to black out when pictures are taken. A nice little fluorescent would have done him some good. lol

The black is just a base coat. Krylon does not make a silver Fusion paint. (at least I haven't found any.) So, I used this black fusion as a sort of primer and I'm going to spray a bright aluminum over it. The bucket that I used for the neck seal was a very slick and waxy plastic, so I roughed it up with steel wool and sprayed it with the fusion hoping that it would bond well with the plastic.