JD Builds
New Member
Greetings All! My name's Jared Douthitt, aka JD Builds since no one knows how to pronouce "Douthitt". I'm new to the RPF but been building props for a couple years. It's been many a year since I was a member of a forum so bare with me as I relearn the system. But this topic isn't about me, it's about my current project. I'm currently working on all three weapons used by the Jinx champion in the game League of Legends.
Going to give a brief run down of everything I've done so far and then I'll update as things progress on the build.
First thing I did was rip the 3D files out of the game and plug them into Pepakura, starting with Fishbones, the shark bazooka.
I scaled the pep so that a 4in pvc pipe could eventually be run through the parts as the base. This would later allow for moving parts to be placed inside barrel that make the jaw open and close. Followed up by folding the papercraft, cutting the pipe to length and throwing some fiberglass resin into the mix.
My plan was to make the jaws open and close like a puppet, all controlled from the handle. Push forward to open, pull back to close. I find corkboard, cardstock, and thumb/furniture tacks to be good way to blueprint moving parts since you can easily cut or remake parts at different length. By placing furniture tacks in reverse (pointy side out) you can make a moving hinge very easily.
(Video demonstrates this better)
The tip of the barrel and the sides of the jaw were to be filled with Rondo. This would allow me to drill holes into them to hinge the jaws to the muzzle of the barrel.
Was my first time working with Rondo so I slushed too thin a later on the inside, resulting in this:
But I liked the material despite my misuse of it so I used it on all my parts afterwards. It makes it easy since I don't have to worry as much about sanding holes into my pep.
Sanded all the little "nublets" of resin off my parts, prepping them for a treatment of Body Filler
After I refolded the upper jaw, I filled it with rondo, drilled the holes for the hinges and mounted it onto the pep.
But hinges connected to the inner piston were blocked by the muzzle of the pep so I had to carve out a groove in solid Rondo. I used my table sander to turn it into dust, but probably used up my whole belt in the process. Not the best use of resources but it go the job done.
Filled the gaps on the sides with apoxie sculpt, as I'd been doing with any holes I've been accidentally creating along the way. Then moved on to the inner piston. I determined hoe large a hole to cut out of my pep by comparing to my previous corkboard blueprint. I drilled straight into the pep to determine where on the pvc needed to be cut.
Work on the inner piston was a lot of trail and error and working with parts but the final design looks like this
And a video of it in action.
As of today I've been working on getting all the parts through their body filler treatment, starting with the Upper Jaw which is going to need a lot of attention. Later on I'm planning on adding LEDs to the eyes and barrel. I've also recently started folding the Minigun.
I'll probably update here anytime significant progress is made. Though I do update My Flickr whenever I take a new picture and then My Facebook page every day I work on it. I'm hoping to be done with these by late March for Megacon so I'll be busy for certain.
On a side note; I discussed it with my client and the pepakura files I've made for this project will be shared with the community once my client has gotten the final products and gotten a photo shoot with them. Until then I can direct you instead to the details of how I ripped them from the game and imported them into pepakura.
Going to give a brief run down of everything I've done so far and then I'll update as things progress on the build.
First thing I did was rip the 3D files out of the game and plug them into Pepakura, starting with Fishbones, the shark bazooka.
I scaled the pep so that a 4in pvc pipe could eventually be run through the parts as the base. This would later allow for moving parts to be placed inside barrel that make the jaw open and close. Followed up by folding the papercraft, cutting the pipe to length and throwing some fiberglass resin into the mix.
My plan was to make the jaws open and close like a puppet, all controlled from the handle. Push forward to open, pull back to close. I find corkboard, cardstock, and thumb/furniture tacks to be good way to blueprint moving parts since you can easily cut or remake parts at different length. By placing furniture tacks in reverse (pointy side out) you can make a moving hinge very easily.
(Video demonstrates this better)
The tip of the barrel and the sides of the jaw were to be filled with Rondo. This would allow me to drill holes into them to hinge the jaws to the muzzle of the barrel.
Was my first time working with Rondo so I slushed too thin a later on the inside, resulting in this:
But I liked the material despite my misuse of it so I used it on all my parts afterwards. It makes it easy since I don't have to worry as much about sanding holes into my pep.
Sanded all the little "nublets" of resin off my parts, prepping them for a treatment of Body Filler
After I refolded the upper jaw, I filled it with rondo, drilled the holes for the hinges and mounted it onto the pep.
But hinges connected to the inner piston were blocked by the muzzle of the pep so I had to carve out a groove in solid Rondo. I used my table sander to turn it into dust, but probably used up my whole belt in the process. Not the best use of resources but it go the job done.
Filled the gaps on the sides with apoxie sculpt, as I'd been doing with any holes I've been accidentally creating along the way. Then moved on to the inner piston. I determined hoe large a hole to cut out of my pep by comparing to my previous corkboard blueprint. I drilled straight into the pep to determine where on the pvc needed to be cut.
Work on the inner piston was a lot of trail and error and working with parts but the final design looks like this
And a video of it in action.
As of today I've been working on getting all the parts through their body filler treatment, starting with the Upper Jaw which is going to need a lot of attention. Later on I'm planning on adding LEDs to the eyes and barrel. I've also recently started folding the Minigun.
I'll probably update here anytime significant progress is made. Though I do update My Flickr whenever I take a new picture and then My Facebook page every day I work on it. I'm hoping to be done with these by late March for Megacon so I'll be busy for certain.
On a side note; I discussed it with my client and the pepakura files I've made for this project will be shared with the community once my client has gotten the final products and gotten a photo shoot with them. Until then I can direct you instead to the details of how I ripped them from the game and imported them into pepakura.
