Update time!
We'll start where we left off I guess: moulds!
So I got the mould made for the Night King wand handle in the last part. I tried casting it in the resin I had, but the kick time was ridiculously short - Like, a couple of minutes if that. I was also having some trouble pouring it cleanly. So I did two things: I cut the pour hole to be a little wider, and I grabbed some resin with a lower cure time. This meant I had much longer to pour the mould, and make sure it was all filled up nicely. Both combined did the trick, and I was able to pour the mould with ease, and get a nice clean pull.
The next thing I did was to make the mould for the wildling wand. This was a little bit of a pain, but I got a half decent mould in the end, although I did have to scrape every last drop of silicone out the bottles. I had literally just enough to make the mould.
Now...I had a little bit of a oops when casting this one. The mould was all clamped up, and ready to go...
I began to pour my resin, and thought to myself:
Huh, this is going very well. Nice clean pour. Ok, should be reaching the top any minute now...any minute no--FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
Straight out the bottom. I found the problem area, and grabbed a clamp, and put it around the bottom, and tightened it just enough to stop the leak - I didn't want to squish the mould. I stopped the leak, and still had a decent amount of resin left - which thanks to the longer working time - I was able to carry on the pour. I reached the top, and left it until the next day (like, an hour ago as of this post). Thank the moulding gods! No bubbles, and a near enough perfect pull!
The leak also dried, and came up in one big piece. It also took a load of muck off the desk, so...maybe I've stumbled upon a novel way of cleaning work benches. Just spill resin all over it!
Whilst all of this was going on, I turned my attention to the Night King wand. With the handle cast, It was time to move onto the main wand stem. To give it some additional strength, and to attach it to the handle, I need to place a 3mm rod in the middle. Trouble was, I didn't want to see an obviously metal rod through my clear (or very murky, as you're about to see) wand. So, I thought it would be fun to disguise it as the wands core, which is...Child of the Forest Heart String. (ewwwww!)
So, obviously, I had no idea what that looks like, and I wasn't about to google anything remotely similar. So I did my best guess. I started out by using some string, and unravelling it a little, and gluing it onto the rod with some PVA glue.
I refined it a little, and then, once happy, I gave it a coat of XTC-3D to lock it all in.
Once that was cured, I sprayed it with some primer.
I then brushed on a base coat of red. Annoyingly, I didn't have any red acrylic at hand, so I had to use some Humbrol Enamel, which meant, I had to leave it for a day to dry, and even then, it was still sticky to the touch! (!!!!!)
Looks a little ridiculous just red...So, I had a blue and a purple acrylic lying around, so used that to paint...veins? I guess? I dunno...but it sorta turned out cool..
Some of these pictures are truly dreadful....it's been very wet and dismal around here the past week, and my phones camera is rubbish unless it has decent light. But anyway...
I then gave it a black wash..
Much better!
It was then time to cast the Night King wand, with this in the middle; essentially a blind leap of faith, and you'll see why in a sec..
For the Night King 'mould', I printed a shell, allowing the the excess rod to be inserted, and then wrapped it in baking paper, and duck tape. I strapped a steel rod to it aswell to give it some vertical strength. The printed shells were removed, minus the piece for the rod to sit.
I then mixed my "clear" resin (Glass like, watery clear, they describe it as...). I wanted a little bit of a blue tinge, and so added a tiny weeny little bit of blue dye...no, really...it was hardly any...
Yeah...waaaaaaay too blue. So I used it to clean out the wildling wand mould. Shortly after this, I read "Do not use this in condensation cured silicone..." Errrr
So I ripped that out the mould as quick as a could. I was a little concerned that it wasn't going to cure, because these "test pieces" if you like, were quite floppy, and I then read on the bottle, that the recommended depth was up to 25mm. The wand is 2.5mm x 290mm...But this was all
after I had poured it into the mould, so not much I could do.
This one - thankfully - didn't leak out the bottom.
I waited once again until the next day, and I unwrapped it to reveal...clear, glass like...oh, no, forget that. It's murky dish water...nice!
Now, you may push up your glasses, and say "
well, you're supposed to put it in a pressure pot..." or something, but I don't have that! I have some basic tools and a dream, dammit! I'm hoping, that the main source of the murkiness is from the matt outer finish from the baking powder. I'm hoping once it's shaped, and wet sanded, it will come up a little clearer. But the murkiness could add a layer of mystery to the inner core, I guess...
Final thing, I got the wand stems all glued up, filled and sanded. I just need to cut the metal rods to the correct length now, and they'll be goo to go.
I think that's everything up to date. I've got to leave the NK wand for 48 hours minimum, so hopefully tomorrow, I can get it shaped. I'll probably work on getting the boxes all finished up this weekend, or at the very least the lids covered.
I've got a check list of things left to do, and it's getting pretty short now. I
think that we might be finished by this time next week!
More soooooon!