Batman 1989 Vault weapons display
- Thread starter gregday
- Start date
Didn’t quite get to boring the deadbolt holes (maybe tonight), but all the cutting and assembly is done. This is as thick as it will be. Now just a ton of sanding and filler to do to get rid of those seams and smooth out the layer lines and soften up the curves a bit more. I plan to spend the evenings this week getting this into a better place so that I’m ready for epoxy next weekend.
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I'd guess the MDF of the door weighs around 30-40 lbs right now. The deadbolts are going to add another 10-12 lbs, and maybe a couple more pounds with all the coatings going on top. Many of the props themselves are metal, so fully populated that'll be another couple of pounds.
Not a lot of huge progress to show this week yet, as I'm just making several passes over it with Bondo and sanding to get the best, smoothest form I can before brushing on the resin. I'm hoping the resin will do some of the work of making some rough spots or seam lines invisible, but I don't want to count on that.
I went back and forth on whether I wanted to mix up my own colors and use my HVLP sprayer, or just try to get the mix right using rattle cans. I found several off the shelf colors that I think I can blend to get that final tone just right.
Not a lot of huge progress to show this week yet, as I'm just making several passes over it with Bondo and sanding to get the best, smoothest form I can before brushing on the resin. I'm hoping the resin will do some of the work of making some rough spots or seam lines invisible, but I don't want to count on that.
I went back and forth on whether I wanted to mix up my own colors and use my HVLP sprayer, or just try to get the mix right using rattle cans. I found several off the shelf colors that I think I can blend to get that final tone just right.
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Couple of tweaks to the layout. First, I redrew the curves to make them smoother and eliminated the weird edges and clipping. I believe my smoke capsules are a bit large, so it looks better for me to point the Tranquilizer attachment between the bottom 2 capsules rather than the top 2. Also the gauntlet is leftover from my first foam design, and it could use some cleanup and be more symmetrical.
I’m also very likely to remake the shafts on the grapnel darts to be the correct 4” length, so those will be updated before manufacturing.
At this point we are looking at 44.5” x 14.5” x 3.7” but I may need to pull that in a tiny bit more depending on how thick I put on the resin.
Edit: Also, as much as I love MyCaseBuilder (I have used them for many projects)... it is ridiculously complex to do something seemingly simple like customizing the foam to have rounded ends. First, I had to find/draw a perfect circle, crop out half of it, upload it to the photo tracer tool, manually trace the outside of the curve with dozens of waypoints, then set the size to the foam width, and move it into place until it was pixel perfect. I'm just glad their design tools let me choose to make the shapes the same depth as the foam, cutting all the way through.
I’m also very likely to remake the shafts on the grapnel darts to be the correct 4” length, so those will be updated before manufacturing.
At this point we are looking at 44.5” x 14.5” x 3.7” but I may need to pull that in a tiny bit more depending on how thick I put on the resin.
Edit: Also, as much as I love MyCaseBuilder (I have used them for many projects)... it is ridiculously complex to do something seemingly simple like customizing the foam to have rounded ends. First, I had to find/draw a perfect circle, crop out half of it, upload it to the photo tracer tool, manually trace the outside of the curve with dozens of waypoints, then set the size to the foam width, and move it into place until it was pixel perfect. I'm just glad their design tools let me choose to make the shapes the same depth as the foam, cutting all the way through.
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Fantastic! I've been dying to make this set up for ages. SO happy to see it coming to life!
Well, resin coat 1 could have gone better.
It's not a total failure, but I underestimated how long it would take to brush it on, and after about 50 minutes it began setting up to cure. I got through about 70% of the main top surface and sides before it just got too sludgy and wouldn't spread anymore. When I realized time was going to be an issue, my wife jumped in to help coat the inside walls. Then it continued to slow drip down the vertical parts as it hardened, which was expected, but the uneven application resulted in some pretty rough areas. Also, bubbles were more of an issue than expected, so I ended up with lots of pockmarks on the main top surface.
I got a couple of pictures after we stopped at the 70% mark, but I'm not super proud of the result. I'll need to spend awhile sanding it down and doing some manual leveling before I attempt correcting it with a 2nd coat.
Lessons learned:
- Mix less resin. I won't have time to put on 32oz. Plan to brush 1 half of the door at a time.
- Stir slower, and let it sit a few more minutes to reduce bubbles.
- Once it begins to set up, stop brushing immediately.
I'll provide some photos later, but it's pretty rough looking. It's going to take a bit of work to clean this up.
What did go well:
- Where the resin did go on smoothly looks pretty great. On most of the top surface it self leveled nicely and didn't run down either side from there, so the small top 45º chamfer is mostly retained without needing to be cleaned up.
- I added some black dye to the resin before brushing, and that was a smart move. It's provided a pretty nice dark undercoat that will help when it comes time to paint.
It's not a total failure, but I underestimated how long it would take to brush it on, and after about 50 minutes it began setting up to cure. I got through about 70% of the main top surface and sides before it just got too sludgy and wouldn't spread anymore. When I realized time was going to be an issue, my wife jumped in to help coat the inside walls. Then it continued to slow drip down the vertical parts as it hardened, which was expected, but the uneven application resulted in some pretty rough areas. Also, bubbles were more of an issue than expected, so I ended up with lots of pockmarks on the main top surface.
I got a couple of pictures after we stopped at the 70% mark, but I'm not super proud of the result. I'll need to spend awhile sanding it down and doing some manual leveling before I attempt correcting it with a 2nd coat.
Lessons learned:
- Mix less resin. I won't have time to put on 32oz. Plan to brush 1 half of the door at a time.
- Stir slower, and let it sit a few more minutes to reduce bubbles.
- Once it begins to set up, stop brushing immediately.
I'll provide some photos later, but it's pretty rough looking. It's going to take a bit of work to clean this up.
What did go well:
- Where the resin did go on smoothly looks pretty great. On most of the top surface it self leveled nicely and didn't run down either side from there, so the small top 45º chamfer is mostly retained without needing to be cleaned up.
- I added some black dye to the resin before brushing, and that was a smart move. It's provided a pretty nice dark undercoat that will help when it comes time to paint.
Looks really good to me! I noticed the slight imperfections from the pour you mentioned previously; to me, it almost makes the door look like it was made of cast iron!
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