For my first prop I thought I would do something relatively simple: the mini-nuke from Fallout 3. Too bad it's not as simple as I thought it would be. Also, this keeps getting stuck in my head.
I am doing this in such a way that I can make at least two copies: one for me and one for my brother. If there is enough interest I will probably do a run and sell some in the Junkyard. The plan is to use floral foam as the core. Over this will go a layer of fiberglass resin so I don't put my fingers through it during the later steps. Even with the resin I put some holes in it. On top of that would go a layer or two of body filler, then primer and paint. Then I will use brush on rubber and plasti-paste to make a mold.
After doing some comparisons with screen shots, a pepakura model, and the butt stock from my CETME rifle (pretty close to the assault rifle in the game) I came up with a plan for the body. I also figured that the Nuka Cola bottle must be about 1 liter.
Next step was to make the core of the body. My first (hint) attempt was with foam core and floral foam. Unfortunately, I did not center the two foam core parts together so after shaping the foam it was lopsided. Then there is the whole thing about fiberglass resin attacking the EPS in the foam core.
The picture of the foam core below is upside down. The cutout was originally where I planned to pour in the casting resin and then insert some sort of primer that I never knew about until I was taking screenshots.
At this point I went and made some more forms, this time out of thin cardboard like you find on the back of notepads and then went through the process of shaping again. I changed the design so there will be just a shallow cutout on the bottom for the primer and a larger cutout on the top for pouring the resin and then inserting the nosecone. This way if I get really ambitious I can put some sort of sound system in it to play the explosion sound if you press on the nose cone. After I got a rough shape I decided it would be easier with a lathe so I forced myself to go to Harbor Freight and pick one up. Much better results!
I did something similar for the nose cone. This is it with one layer of filler.
Here is the body with a layer of filler on it.
Now, here I need a suggestion. If you look you can see there are some shallow holes on the main body. At first I was just going to fill them in and sand them flush. But then I thought, "Hmm, that looks like some pretty good aging right there. Maybe I should leave it and continue on with the rest of it." So, what does everyone think: Should I leave the holes or should I make this perfect and then use my non-existent paint skills to age resin copies?
I am doing this in such a way that I can make at least two copies: one for me and one for my brother. If there is enough interest I will probably do a run and sell some in the Junkyard. The plan is to use floral foam as the core. Over this will go a layer of fiberglass resin so I don't put my fingers through it during the later steps. Even with the resin I put some holes in it. On top of that would go a layer or two of body filler, then primer and paint. Then I will use brush on rubber and plasti-paste to make a mold.
After doing some comparisons with screen shots, a pepakura model, and the butt stock from my CETME rifle (pretty close to the assault rifle in the game) I came up with a plan for the body. I also figured that the Nuka Cola bottle must be about 1 liter.
Next step was to make the core of the body. My first (hint) attempt was with foam core and floral foam. Unfortunately, I did not center the two foam core parts together so after shaping the foam it was lopsided. Then there is the whole thing about fiberglass resin attacking the EPS in the foam core.
The picture of the foam core below is upside down. The cutout was originally where I planned to pour in the casting resin and then insert some sort of primer that I never knew about until I was taking screenshots.
At this point I went and made some more forms, this time out of thin cardboard like you find on the back of notepads and then went through the process of shaping again. I changed the design so there will be just a shallow cutout on the bottom for the primer and a larger cutout on the top for pouring the resin and then inserting the nosecone. This way if I get really ambitious I can put some sort of sound system in it to play the explosion sound if you press on the nose cone. After I got a rough shape I decided it would be easier with a lathe so I forced myself to go to Harbor Freight and pick one up. Much better results!
I did something similar for the nose cone. This is it with one layer of filler.
Here is the body with a layer of filler on it.
Now, here I need a suggestion. If you look you can see there are some shallow holes on the main body. At first I was just going to fill them in and sand them flush. But then I thought, "Hmm, that looks like some pretty good aging right there. Maybe I should leave it and continue on with the rest of it." So, what does everyone think: Should I leave the holes or should I make this perfect and then use my non-existent paint skills to age resin copies?
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"Is that a nuke...?"
