my HIC build

[berger]

This, and an ark of the covenant are my holy grail props, due to not having space to keep a full scale ark of the covenant, it seems this is the only one ill ever have. So i was super excited when i finally bit the bullet and purchased kits here in the junkyard to finally make one of these things.

im working with :

Zenix box kit


King Jawa han casting

unfortunately, i dont have the space available at my place to buld this thing, nor the tools, so im building it in my buddys garage. FORTUNATELY, everything so far has been pretty straight foreward.

So far ive got about 4 hours into it, and ive got the main box put together, with the first of the backing panels for the front glued into place, this Zenix kit is a piece of cake to work with, i cant even imagine trying to cut/build it all by hand, everything fits together perfectly,
I used 2x4 blocks in each corner, to anchor the mdf to, as well as 1x1 blocks along the sides, just under the top edge, to keep them from bowing inwards, and then i had to shim the front border a bit to keep it from bowing inwards.

im headed back over today to glue another front panel on. Once i get all of the front panels glued, ill most likely start bondo-ing and sanding everything down and get the box finished before i attach the han parts.



ive never worked with bondo before, does anyone know if i should route the edges down BEFORE i bondo? or can bondo be routed over without breaking off in huge chunks?

 

[berger]

just got back from gluing the second panel in, also did a little bondo work.... man that stuff sets up quick, i wasnt able to use half of what i mixed up because it had started to set already. i might have mixed to much hardener in.

 

[berger]

today i added the last big backing sheet, and a 2 inch section that wasnt covered at the very top, as well as did a little more bondo work. i mixed less hardener in this time than i did the first time, and it worked out a lot better, i had plenty of time to use it all before it started to set up. i still havent sanded any of the bondo down, im just covering a few screw holes/gaps here and there for now, until the glue dries and i can set this thing down on the ground and have a level surface to work on.



i also took a dremel to the hands, as there was a chunk of resin in between a few fingers that shouldnt be there, as well as sharpened up a few of the lines/creases in the hands,

 

[MTPacifico]

Looking good so far. I have a Han cast that I purchased a few years ago and hopefully this motivates me to get mine done this year.

I will definitely be following your thread to learn how you do yours. Please share your lessons learned.

- Mike

 

[berger]

tonight i slapped on the last of the first coat of bondo over the seams/screw heads, and am currently giving it a day to dry, ill come back tomorrow and sand it all down. and fill in any low spots. no new pictures this time.

 

[berger]

today i sanded down all of the bondo, the box itself is done, with the exception of routing the edges.. i realized i put on the bondo WAY to thick. i also reinforced the front panels with a 1/4 running the length from top to bottom down the middle, as well as 3 2x4s, running width wise, at the top, bottom, and middle. its damn solid and i was able to pick it up by the middle 2x4 and jump up and down while holding it, and it didnt budge, so that was reassuring. last thing i did today was trim the excess foam off the back of han so it sits level when mounted.

i forgot to take pictures of the back, but ill grab some when i go over to work on it again on monday/tuesday.

 

[berger]

today i had a chance to go do some more work on han. first thing i did was wash the han castings to remove any mold release. one problem i ran into was, while washing, where i had trimmed the foam down, it was soaking up a ton of water. so i squeezed out as much as i could and set them in the sun to dry out, sanded down the rest of the bondo, and routed the edges. while routing the edges, one of the sides popped open by where one of the panels goes, because i was putting to much weight on it while holding it steady... so i had to glue a 1x1 block and clamp that down.

i ran to walmart and picked up about 10 cans of primer, and some screws, no idea if this will be enough, or way to much, but they were cheap, so whatever. got back and han was pretty much dry from sitting in the sun a while, so i screwed him down, and quickly realized these screws go through the resin like butter, so i had to be very careful about how much i was pushing down while screwing, because i went right through the resin on several of them. once i had him screwed down, with a coat of wood glue underneath, i went over the edges with some more wood glue,the feet i just glued in, as there was no trim around to screw into.

i forgot to take pictures during all the work, but i did take some before i left.

 

[berger]

Just got done bondoing him into place, and filling the seams, gonna give it an hour or so and do some sanding and clean up work on the seam areas.

 

[Peacefrog35]

I wish I knew enough to build one. I almost took a fully finished one in trade about 10 years ago...wish I would have done it. BTW, I'm in Indianapolis too. Small world.

 

[berger]

Trust me, you can do it..... I've got no knowledge at ALL when it comes to this kind of stuff. I've never done anything at all like this before.

 

[berger]

Bondo dried and sanded, first layer of glue poured. I originally thought one gallon of glue might do it, but on gonna need another gallon.

 

[Bigturc]

I was wondering why you spent time bondoing the seam when you had to drop it in glue anyway?

Nice work, will get on mine in the coming weeks!

 

[berger]

I wasn't able to get the two pieces perfectly flush, the middle section sat a little higher than the others, so I figured bondo would be easier to shape and hide the seam better.

 

[Peacefrog35]

Trust me, you can do it..... I've got no knowledge at ALL when it comes to this kind of stuff. I've never done anything at all like this before.

Thanks man. Maybe I will give it a shot sometime. You are doing a great job and now I know someone locally I can beg for help. LOL. Again, great job!

 

[berger]

Thanks!

 

[berger]

Trying to texture the glue is becoming a huge pain in the ass, after waiting several hours, and messing with the top, its just smoothed its way back out after another half hour or so, leaving almost no texture at all behind.. I've poured the rest of the bottle of wood glue over the top of the old, since it had already formed a skin. And swirled that around a bit so it dosent look so obviously like glue pours,and ill be letting it dry for the rest of the night. I'm thinking tomorrow ill come back and rough up the surface of the glue, and go back over it with bondo for the texture, instead of fighting with this glue forever.

 

[dino8836]

Some people might think im crazy but I had success with plasterers stud glue as it was left over from construction. I set like rock, but had a good set time enough to shape it the way I wanted (a lot thicker than the PVA glue).

By the way I tried the PVS and it took weeks to cure as the skin then enabled the glue underneath to stay liquid longer.

 

[berger]

And that's where I'm stuck at for the moment. I came back today after work to check on it, and its formed a nice thick skin on top, but most of its all liquid underneath. So I cut a bunch of slits in a criss cross pattern and squeezed as much out as I could, spread that out across the top, and drug it out of the garage into the sun to bake.

 

[berger]

Went back today and the glue was mostly dry, still some spots that hadn't fully dried underneath yet. I scored the crap out of the glue to give the bondo something to stick to, hopefully it works. I started bondoing on top of the glue, on the bottom corner where the glue has fully dried, ran through the rest of my little can of bondo pretty quick, so I'm done for the day. Ill swing by home depot and grab some more bondo after work tomorrow and continue

 

[The Schlitzie]

I'm at the exact same stage in my HIC build. Crap, I wish I had spotted this thread before you poured the glue. I learned that with the wood glue you have to do multiple thin layers. That way it dries much faster and has a really nice layered texture.

You got your casting a lot closer to the board than me. I wish I had spent more time trimming the foam underneath.

I don't know about you, but I was very excited to do something like this but it's been kinda stressful. I'm waaay out of my comfort zone, but I'm learning a lot and it's turning out just fine. Good luck with your build, It's coming along nicely!