Zinger
Active Member
After years of thinking about it, I've finally started work on Kevin Matchstick's glowing baseball bat from Mage - The Hero Discovered.
Update 8/15
I've completed a 2nd version of the bat. This one has the battery in the barrel of the bat, so there's no external wires or need for the trench coat. I can't add any more pictures in the body of this post, so I'll leave one in the comments.
Build details here. https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=280492
Update 6/17
On my second day of cosplaying, a friend of Matt Wager (creator of this character) took my pix and sent it to Wagner.
It's now on his Facebook page.
Update 6/16
Finished it this morning. Just in time for Awesome Con.
Honestly, it looks better in the picture than IRL. I didn't enough diffusion in the handle so the LEDs show up as hot spots. You can see that in the reflection off the desk. Also, I made the end caps too thick, so they are a bit too dark.
Live and learn.
Last Update for 6/8 - It's beautiful!
Here's what I was aiming for and what I've got.
The lit-up picture was taken in my office with full normal lighting. That's 9 overhead flood lights. The bat still saturated my phone's camera and forced it to cut the exposure.
Best thing yet? That was with just one string of LEDs!!!!! I think I can get 3 strings in the barrel of the bat.
There's a wonky seam up the back of the bat and the handle section is wobbly. I didn't get the resin evenly distributed across the whole surface of the mold. That's OK. I'm going to cut the barrel end and the handle off and replace them with 3D printed parts to mount the LEDs.
I'm really happy with how this came out. Not 100% happy though. If my wallet recovers between Awesome Con and Otakon I might try the mold and casting again. I made some rookie mistakes that, now that I know about them, will be easy to avoid.
Update 6/8 - Don't judge me. I'm a little bit afraid. The mold and mother mold are done. There's nothing left to do but cast it. Over 3 months of work, research, planning and more money than I'm willing to admit to all comes down to the next several hours.
Wish me luck.
Update 6/3 - I made major progress this weekend. I rotocast the test handle and lit it up. Compare my pix to the drawing
That's 9 LEDs in a 5" section. Very encouraging.
Full details in comment below.
Update 5/22: Here are latest WIP photos.
Making a 1:2 scale baby bat to practice on the lathe before turning the positive for the bat.
And mounted on a base to make the glove mold this week.
Mounting the LED strip on a plastic tube covered in aluminium foil. It's bright enough it hurts your eyes. This will go up the center of the resin shell.
And finally, starting to turn the full sized bat.
End Update.
I'm going to roto-cast a shell of a bat using a translucent urethane plastic and load it up with cool white LEDs. I'm using HitLights high density Luma 20 LED strips, With 38 LEDs and 828 lumens per foot, they should be plenty bright.
https://www.hitlights.com/luma20tm-series-led-light-strips-smd-2835
I was worried about heat dissipation in the bat, so I put the whole reel and the battery in a food container and turned it on. After 10 minutes, the temperature in the box was about 105° F. That's higher than the max temperature for the LEDs, but I was encouraged. They were packed in much more densely in the box than they will be in the bat.
Today, I cut up a cheap toy bat from Target and tested the brightness and heat.
I only used two sections of LEDs for this test. It was so bright it was uncomfortable to look at. After 10 minutes the temperature near the LEDs was only 75° F. I think I can fit 3, maybe 4, sections in the full sized bat. Depends on the trade off between brightness and battery life.
I modeled a bat in Autodesk Fusion 360, so I could get volume and surface area measurements. I'm new to 3D modeling, so it was a good learning exercise.
I plan on mounting the LED strips on a dowel or plastic rod. I'm going to 3D print caps for the ends of the bat. The caps will have hollow pegs on the inside to hold the rod in place. I modeled those in Fusion 360 so I can 3D print them with a translucent filament.
Based on my test today, I might not need the ventilation holes.
Wish me luck.
Update 8/15
I've completed a 2nd version of the bat. This one has the battery in the barrel of the bat, so there's no external wires or need for the trench coat. I can't add any more pictures in the body of this post, so I'll leave one in the comments.
Build details here. https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=280492
Update 6/17
On my second day of cosplaying, a friend of Matt Wager (creator of this character) took my pix and sent it to Wagner.
It's now on his Facebook page.
Update 6/16
Finished it this morning. Just in time for Awesome Con.
Honestly, it looks better in the picture than IRL. I didn't enough diffusion in the handle so the LEDs show up as hot spots. You can see that in the reflection off the desk. Also, I made the end caps too thick, so they are a bit too dark.
Live and learn.
Last Update for 6/8 - It's beautiful!
Here's what I was aiming for and what I've got.
The lit-up picture was taken in my office with full normal lighting. That's 9 overhead flood lights. The bat still saturated my phone's camera and forced it to cut the exposure.
Best thing yet? That was with just one string of LEDs!!!!! I think I can get 3 strings in the barrel of the bat.
There's a wonky seam up the back of the bat and the handle section is wobbly. I didn't get the resin evenly distributed across the whole surface of the mold. That's OK. I'm going to cut the barrel end and the handle off and replace them with 3D printed parts to mount the LEDs.
I'm really happy with how this came out. Not 100% happy though. If my wallet recovers between Awesome Con and Otakon I might try the mold and casting again. I made some rookie mistakes that, now that I know about them, will be easy to avoid.
Update 6/8 - Don't judge me. I'm a little bit afraid. The mold and mother mold are done. There's nothing left to do but cast it. Over 3 months of work, research, planning and more money than I'm willing to admit to all comes down to the next several hours.
Wish me luck.
Update 6/3 - I made major progress this weekend. I rotocast the test handle and lit it up. Compare my pix to the drawing
That's 9 LEDs in a 5" section. Very encouraging.
Full details in comment below.
Update 5/22: Here are latest WIP photos.
Making a 1:2 scale baby bat to practice on the lathe before turning the positive for the bat.
And mounted on a base to make the glove mold this week.
Mounting the LED strip on a plastic tube covered in aluminium foil. It's bright enough it hurts your eyes. This will go up the center of the resin shell.
And finally, starting to turn the full sized bat.
End Update.
I'm going to roto-cast a shell of a bat using a translucent urethane plastic and load it up with cool white LEDs. I'm using HitLights high density Luma 20 LED strips, With 38 LEDs and 828 lumens per foot, they should be plenty bright.
https://www.hitlights.com/luma20tm-series-led-light-strips-smd-2835
I was worried about heat dissipation in the bat, so I put the whole reel and the battery in a food container and turned it on. After 10 minutes, the temperature in the box was about 105° F. That's higher than the max temperature for the LEDs, but I was encouraged. They were packed in much more densely in the box than they will be in the bat.
Today, I cut up a cheap toy bat from Target and tested the brightness and heat.
I only used two sections of LEDs for this test. It was so bright it was uncomfortable to look at. After 10 minutes the temperature near the LEDs was only 75° F. I think I can fit 3, maybe 4, sections in the full sized bat. Depends on the trade off between brightness and battery life.
I modeled a bat in Autodesk Fusion 360, so I could get volume and surface area measurements. I'm new to 3D modeling, so it was a good learning exercise.
I plan on mounting the LED strips on a dowel or plastic rod. I'm going to 3D print caps for the ends of the bat. The caps will have hollow pegs on the inside to hold the rod in place. I modeled those in Fusion 360 so I can 3D print them with a translucent filament.
Based on my test today, I might not need the ventilation holes.
Wish me luck.
Last edited: