Axe Bass

For Halloween last year I attempted to build Marceline's axe bass from Adventure Time, but due to limited materials and time, it wasn't finished to quite the standard that I wanted.  I decided to refinish it for Heroes Con this past weekend.  Once again, I had limited time (about 12 hours, including drying time), but luckily this time I had a can of Bondo and loads of sheets for my power sander.

The paint job looked pretty good on the axe bass already, but the understructure was a flimsy blend of carved pink foam covered in paper clay and spray resin with a thin layer of wall spackle as filler.

Because of the strange cocktail of materials--and the lack of adequate drying time between layers of paint--I also ended up with an unwanted crackly texture.

Another problem was that some areas were thin after sanding, and they sunk in when spray-resined and painted.

So, first things first, I gave the whole thing a good sanding...

... Followed closely by ALL OF THE BONDO.

Seriously, all of it.  I wore that can OUT.

I also built up the silver bits (the pickups and the pointy thing at the end) with apoxie sculpt and gave those a good sanding, then sprayed them silver.

I taped off the silver bits for the rest of the process and crossed my fingers that they'd stay all nice and shiny.  The next step was sanding... followed by sanding, then more sanding.

The sad part is that, really, I should have sanded a touch more.

I sprayed the whole thing with a deep red paint, after which (not pictured) I taped off everything but the back and front faces and sprayed those with a brighter red.

Since I was running wildly out of time, at this point I stopped taking pictures.  What I can tell you is that I painted the frets and other markings, then sealed the whole business with a matte spray.  I added the strings and pegs (which I'd already made) with a wonderfully messy epoxy and called it done.

Oh, and here's me with it.

Heroes Con... oh yeah, it happened

Just got back home from Heroes Con.  I'm far too exhausted for a proper update, so I'll just assure you that in the next few days you'll be seeing pictures of the finished axe bass (as well as pictures of it in action with the full costume), and I'll also be posting pictures of some toy sculpts and maquettes that I've had finished for a while.

So, that'll be happening soon.  But not now.  Now I'm going to bed.

Dirty Trash Can Full of Poop, Bro.

So... it looks like, because of working 16 straight days and not currently having a vehicle with which to drive myself to Home Depot anytime I want, I'm just barely not going to be able to complete my Portal pieces with the solidity and finesse that I'd like in time for HeroesCon.

Bummer.

That being said, I am going to finish them soon (mostly so that I can finally clean my house), and I'll continue to post my progress here.

Also, from now 'til Thursday I'll be trying to complete my Adventure Time axe bass in time to dress as Marceline instead, so that's something to look forward to.  More on that very soon.

Until then, make good decisions, kids.

Carbon Fiber Resin Time

Now read that title again, but to the tune of 'Peanut Butter Jelly Time'.  If I just ruined your day, well, that's what you get for doing what people on the internet tell you.

Moving on to carbon fiber... I was pleasantly suprised to find that the resin is about 10 times easier to use than fiberglass resin and, thus far, hasn't shown any signs of attacking me viciously every time I try to use it.

For the boot heel braces, I made the basic forms I wanted out of aluminum wreath hangers, then propped them up over a piece of PVC pipe that I'll be cutting up later for use on the portal gun.  I covered the whole thing in a sheet of clear vinyl.

Note the gloves.

I mixed up the resin and painted it over the vinyl-covered forms, then centered the carbon fiber strips and folded them over with more layers of resin.

Once the resin strips dry and cure, I'll be peeling them off the vinyl and adding more layers.  LOTS more layers.  I do have to stand on these things for quite a while pretty soon.  More on all that later.

Also accomplished--pieces for the gun barrel have been made and painted and are ready for assembly, the insides of the boots have been cleaned up a bit, and I dyed my hair from lightish black to darker black to match my Chell wig.  Yes, there is a difference, and if you're wondering how much more black my hair can be at this point, the answer is none... none more black.

Tomorrow--building a portal gun!  Maybe.  We'll see.  Goodnight, moon.

Fiberglass and First Aggressions--er, Impressions

Let me begin by saying that--while quite familiar with these and similar products--I have never actually worked with fiberglass, carbon fiber, Bondo, etc.  That little disclaimer should segue neatly into DEAR SWEET GLOB, WHAT HAVE I GOT ON MY HANDS?!?

See, when I read the instructions for mixing and applying the fiberglass resin, it didn't actually mention anything about gloves.  That's going to come up a bit later in the story, so hold onto that for just a minute.

I started with a pair of cheap, cheap thrift store boots in my size, then patterned and cut some 1/4" white craft foam for the raised areas in the design.

Ideally, I would have just epoxied the foam to the boots and fiberglassed my little heart out, but I figured--since I'm being awesome and building carbon fiber braces to replace the sawed off heels--it wouldn't hurt to have extra support under the foam.  

I cut some strips of fiberglass fabric to wrap under the boots and up the backs, where the heel braces are supposed to attach.

Now, this is where things got messy.  As I said before, the instructions did not mention gloves.  What they did mention was dipping the fabric strips into the resin and soaking them thoroughly before applying them to the desired surface.  Also worth noting is the fact that I had worked 60+ hours in the week leading up to this step, had eaten very little that day, and was on my third or fourth pot of coffee, so while I did fleetingly wonder if gloves would be a good idea, my mind was in no state to think that particular thought through.  

To make a long story short--kids, if you take nothing else away from this blog, at least take this:

(1) You should always wear gloves when working with fiberglass resin.  Otherwise... it'll stay with you a while.

(2) Fiberglass resin is a thing which was never meant to touch human hands.  If your hands are human and fiberglass resin touches them, they will let you know very quickly that you have made a mistake.

(3) Your fiberglassing efforts will come out looking like something that a small, incapable child fingerpainted on an uneven surface, because... well, it's not really that different from what you did.

Luckily, my first attempt was purely meant for understructure, so it didn't have to be pretty.

Which is good, because it's NOT.

Anyhoo, once all the stupid rain and humidity around here clear up, I'll be moving on to adding the foam pieces and fiberglassing the final surface (while wearing gloves), and then no one will have to see the chunky mess that is that first layer of fiberglass.

Unless, of course, you keep looking at that picture.

Stop it.

Here's the Plan, Stan (or whatever you're calling yourself these days...)

So... I'm heading to HeroesCon on June 21st, and the current plan is to dress up as Chell from Portal 2.  Since it's just not in my nature to NOT aim way too high and attempt to overdo things within very snug time constraints, I'm trying to get some long fall boots and a cheap, passable portal gun built before then.  Here's a list of what I have thus far:

(1) Nothing.

Okay, that's a lie.  I'm starting with:

(1) A few supplies, like thrift store boots, papercraft shells for the gun, and about 1/10 the amount of fiberglassing materials I need

(2) An Aperture tank top, grey bike shorts, and an orange jumpsuit

... meaning that I have 12 days to get stuff done.  Also notable is that I work about 60 hours a week at two  jobs and don't have any days off except Sunday.  Oh, and now that I mention it, I actually don't have this Sunday off.  Alrighty, then.

Will I get my props built?  Will they look good, or like something ejected from a recently-deceased tauntaun?  Will I just give up in about two minutes and go take a much-needed nap in my Batman-themed unmentionables?

Find out next time, when I try to fiberglass the crap out of some pleather boots!

First Posty-Post

A'ight, time to post something so I can see what this business is going to look like.  Blog blog bloggety bloggety bloggety blargh blagh bloogh blergh blah blah blog.  

Mmmmmmhm, mhm.