Meadowhawk
New Member
Well I never got around to posting a build log while I was working on this but, I figured better late then never?
A good friend of mine got me started watching BSG after totally missing the recent TV show a few years back, he's a huge fan and converted me for sure. I was feeing quite inspired to build something from the show and since I love the Bladerunner-ish look of the original revolver in the first season, that's what made. As a bunus, my buddy would like a replica as well so that helped keep me motivated!
Since this is my first build, I decided that I couldnt just make one and give it away, I had to go the full route and do the model, mold and castings. Why not dive into the deep end on my first time at the pool right?
So after doing a ton of research and reading everything on RPF I dove in by drawing up blueprints in Inkscape. This turned out to be pretty easy to pick up especially if you have ever done any vector drawing in Photoshop. It takes a little bit to retrain to slightly different key combos but, it's not to hard and scaling from a smaller image to the exact size you want it is really pretty easy once you find out the magic key-mouse combos.
After the blueprint was done I rounded up some MDF and Styrene and started cutting, using the slicing technique that Bill Doran uses all the time(Thanks Bill!). This gun lends itself well to this tecnique and I would recomend it to anyone doing their first build if they are building something with few round parts.
After cutting out a ton of styrene and getting the core MDF body shaped up resonably so, I started gluing the slices together one by one, very dull waiting on the drying time for the glue but, that's how you end up starting more projects as I found out!
After I got things glued together I began the long process of bondo, sand, bond, sand, sand, sand... Actually here is where I learned my first big lesson, big mistakes early in the process means more bondo and sanding later... I'll be trying to make smaller mistakes next time! I got a bit wrapped up in this process and didn't take pictures though there wasn't a lot to see in this stage.
After I got the model pretty well sculpted I started the other half of the sanding process which is the primer and sanding! Eventually I was satisfied with the model and ready to make a mold.
So I build a box using foam board and hot glue, molded up the bottom half in clay (time saver, make the mold around the bottom half of the item then make the box around it.. then the box doesn't get int he way) and finally make the mold!
I think I made most of my mistakes while making my mold and first casting. The worst mistake was making a venting hole in the mold across from the pour hole... I know, wtf was I thinking? I ended up patching the hole with additional silicone and solving my leakage problem, lesson learned. I then tried to pour each half and then join the two together which I have seen done, but I botched it and create gaps when the halves shifted int he mold so when I joined them it got doubled in some areas creating a real mess. I was about ready to scrap the whole cast which took up all my resin when I decided to suck it up and work with the highly imperfect results. I think this was the best choice I made in my first casting. By working with a very flawed mold I had the freedom to mess it up and deal with a ton of mistakes [Always look on the bright side of life?]. I learned a lot and hope to never have such a bad casting to work in the future! I wish now that I had taken a picture of the cast just to compare what I was working with to the final result but, I was a bit distraught by the thought oh having wasted so much resin. In the end, everything turned out quite well and I'm very happy with the results!
And finally, the results:
A good friend of mine got me started watching BSG after totally missing the recent TV show a few years back, he's a huge fan and converted me for sure. I was feeing quite inspired to build something from the show and since I love the Bladerunner-ish look of the original revolver in the first season, that's what made. As a bunus, my buddy would like a replica as well so that helped keep me motivated!
Since this is my first build, I decided that I couldnt just make one and give it away, I had to go the full route and do the model, mold and castings. Why not dive into the deep end on my first time at the pool right?
So after doing a ton of research and reading everything on RPF I dove in by drawing up blueprints in Inkscape. This turned out to be pretty easy to pick up especially if you have ever done any vector drawing in Photoshop. It takes a little bit to retrain to slightly different key combos but, it's not to hard and scaling from a smaller image to the exact size you want it is really pretty easy once you find out the magic key-mouse combos.
After the blueprint was done I rounded up some MDF and Styrene and started cutting, using the slicing technique that Bill Doran uses all the time(Thanks Bill!). This gun lends itself well to this tecnique and I would recomend it to anyone doing their first build if they are building something with few round parts.
After cutting out a ton of styrene and getting the core MDF body shaped up resonably so, I started gluing the slices together one by one, very dull waiting on the drying time for the glue but, that's how you end up starting more projects as I found out!
After I got things glued together I began the long process of bondo, sand, bond, sand, sand, sand... Actually here is where I learned my first big lesson, big mistakes early in the process means more bondo and sanding later... I'll be trying to make smaller mistakes next time! I got a bit wrapped up in this process and didn't take pictures though there wasn't a lot to see in this stage.
After I got the model pretty well sculpted I started the other half of the sanding process which is the primer and sanding! Eventually I was satisfied with the model and ready to make a mold.
So I build a box using foam board and hot glue, molded up the bottom half in clay (time saver, make the mold around the bottom half of the item then make the box around it.. then the box doesn't get int he way) and finally make the mold!
I think I made most of my mistakes while making my mold and first casting. The worst mistake was making a venting hole in the mold across from the pour hole... I know, wtf was I thinking? I ended up patching the hole with additional silicone and solving my leakage problem, lesson learned. I then tried to pour each half and then join the two together which I have seen done, but I botched it and create gaps when the halves shifted int he mold so when I joined them it got doubled in some areas creating a real mess. I was about ready to scrap the whole cast which took up all my resin when I decided to suck it up and work with the highly imperfect results. I think this was the best choice I made in my first casting. By working with a very flawed mold I had the freedom to mess it up and deal with a ton of mistakes [Always look on the bright side of life?]. I learned a lot and hope to never have such a bad casting to work in the future!
I wish now that I had taken a picture of the cast just to compare what I was working with to the final result but, I was a bit distraught by the thought oh having wasted so much resin. In the end, everything turned out quite well and I'm very happy with the results!And finally, the results:
