Limited Run Nazgul Gauntlets - comfortable for long convention-days

Mmm, didn't follow up on this thread, since my gloves were delivered... I hope all other buyers will be as happy as me in the end. But it seems a month has passed since I got mine. I do hope in the meanwhile some other buyers got their pair too?
 
Hi, I didn't get much done after sending the pair out to TomVDJ, because of Comic Con Germany, my girlfriends birthday and other stuff, but this week I got back to laminating the rest of parts.
It started quite frustrating on Wednesday, when nothing seemed to work. The resin cured to fast, so I had to mix up more batches. The Iron powder-Resin mixture by itself behaves a bit like a physics experiment: When you leave it alone, it flows, but when you try to move it around (to get into the mold..) it stiffens and gets crumbly... and that also seemed to be worse than usual.
Also my automated picture transfer from my phone to my PC via MS Skydrive did not work, because they reduced my free space...and then I wasn't able to make a high-Res version of the exploded view, because my main hard-drive is so cluttered, that photoshop didn't have enough resources... all in all a bit depressing.

BUT then, on Friday I discovered that I had accidentally used an old container of resin! Now the parts, which I laminated are all not usable, since the resin didn't fully cure, being still tacky, with the iron-powder distributed unevenly, BUT realizing, that it was just the old resin, gave me hope that it would work better with the fresh, yet unopened container. AND IT DID :)
OldResinFail.jpg
The "old-resin parts" may still get some use, i.e. to digitize the gauntlets, since I'm getting into digital costume design ;-)

PressingFingerplatesTest.jpg
I also tried to press the fiberglass and resin into the mold using some soft foam-board....but that didn't work well either. When laminating a batch of fingerplates, I used one piece of fiberglass cloth for the entire plate. This makes getting rid of air-bubbles really tedious, because when you push the fiberglass into one specific fingerplate with a brush, you are simultaneously pulling the fiberglass cloth out of the adjacent ones.

NewFingerplateFiberglass.jpg
I found a reel of fiberglass, which was just the right width to cover one "column" of fingerplates. I made a little helping jig, because I had to cut a lot of strips to the same length...

PartsFor2SetsLaminated.jpgMoreLaminating.jpg
I have (Friday-Sunday) laminated 5 times and got all the necessary parts for the last two sets and want to make more parts until I run out of material. This will probably happen tomorrow with the iron powder running low already.

There were at least two more requests for a pair/set, where I said that I couldn't promise to get to it and would make as many parts as possible with the material I have left.
I don't want to work with polyester resin anymore, since it gets everyone upset because of the smell. So I'm thinking about making the last sets with just resin tinted black, or in combination with aluminium-powder.
There are other projects on which I'm working, which I maybe even can make a living from ;-)
I would rather make some videos about my projects in a range from making mechanics for costumes using cardboard and hotglue to 3d scanning, digital costume design and 3D-printing /CNC-machining costume parts, etc. ... would any one be interested in such stuff ??? ... I'm also looking for a sponsor for that ;-)

...oh, yes: How are you guys doing with the kits? I may just be starting that video-making with the tutorial on how to assemble a pair of gauntlets :)
 
...oh, yes: How are you guys doing with the kits? I may just be starting that video-making with the tutorial on how to assemble a pair of gauntlets :)

I started on cutting mine out and clean up, but haven't gotten any further due to other projects. Still have all the fingers left to do. If you make a video I'm sure it would be useful and I'm also on board if you make other prop related ones as well.
 
Hi there!
I did more work 2 weeks ago, but had to work overtime quite a bit, so I didn't get to my PC to post update pictures (I ususally reframe/rescale the pics for better web-use).

The iron powder ran out one day after my last post (I finished one set of parts extra to the 2 pairs for which are already received deposits from darthwhitey and allosaur176 ).
There was some black pigment in my collection, which is usable "for resin"... at least it doesn't get any more specific as to which kind of rein it can be used for. i laminated a few parts, but the resin didn't seem to fully cure... I could demold it easily, but the surface was still tacky. With the kind of resin I use, this should not be the case. I wasn't sure, if this was because of the black pigment, or maybe because I had used the molds quite a lot and the silicone does soak up some of the chemicals (that's what I assume is the reason why the molds enlarge a little when used continuously.

BlackPartsLaminated.jpg

One reason why I have to do overtime is, that I now visit clients all over Germany to service facilities on site. On job had me driving to the very south of Germany (9,5h drive..yay!) and I'm only telling this to you, because on my way back home, 2 days later, I could visit a good friend of mine, who I usually only meet 2 times a year. Not only was it just one day after his birthday :cheers, BUT also did he have a 5kg bag of IRON POWDER, which he did not need (YAY!!! ... for real this time :D). So I now have enough iron powder to use up all left over polyester resin to make proper iron-fiberglass parts :)

...although the black laminated parts weigh less than half of the iron infused ones..

There's another one day trip to a customer planned for tomorrow, but I hope that that's it for this week, so I can finish laminating once and for all this week!

The plan beyond that is to finish the two already deposited pairs simultaneously and after shipping them, sort out who else wanted a pair/set.
 
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Mmm, more than a month since SciFiPropFreak was here on the RPF. I hope this run turns out OK for everybody... Anybody else already got their gloves? (I got mine already and they are great.)
 
Hi there!
..yes, I'm still here.
There were a lot of things keeping me from having considerable amounts of free time, like work, family (I became an uncle :) ), taxes (yay!), sickness, ..
But I didn't completely neglect this project:
When I tried to work in my -still very small- shop, constantly moving stuff around to make space here or there to actually work on something, I decided on two things:
1) I need to get a larger workshop (planned for end 2016)
2) I'll need a different solution for the beltsander enclosure! The one I improvised from cardboard was permanently mounted to the side of a small, rolling table and required a supporting foldable workbench. Therefore I always had to move both the table and the workbench around, while dripping fiberglass dust from this bulky thing...
So, one day when I was a bit on the edge, even before getting to my workshop, I scrapped the improvised casing and started to build this one:
HousingForBeltsander2.0_WIP.jpg
The box is a standard-size "euro-box", same as every other box I have bought for the last 1-2 years, so I can stack it anywhere in my shop when I'm not using it.It will get a clear cover and a window and "reach-in area" on the front, so I can see what I do. The handles obviously also need to get closed, too.
Sadly this took a bit longer to build.

I will now focus on finishing the two pairs, for which I already have received deposits and then see if I will be making more.
 
Hi Guys!

I have been absent from my workshop for a while (not completely voluntarily..)

Last weekend was actually the first after a month without getting there.
So I continued to work on the gauntlets :)
Did cut all parts for 3 pairs on the bandsaw and also drilled many, many holes in a gazillion of fingerplates.
CutFor3Pair.jpgGazillionFingerplates.jpg

..I'm still not giving up on this! Thank you so much for your patience!! :)
 
Mmm, SciFiPropFreak has not been on the forum since beginning of February... I hope we'll see him again here soon...
 
hey, no, I'm still there/here.
Starting my business is a lot of work and running around getting information, so I didn't get to in my shop a lot.
I finished the new housing for my beltsander and also filmed it, but didn't get to cutting the video yet.
Here's a little peak:
NewBeltsanderBox.jpg

I know, this is not really progress on the Gauntlets, but this new box was necessary for me, because the old one was basically mounted to a Table and took up way to much space. This one is the same size as most of all my other Storage boxes, so I can easily stack it away if not needed and in 10 minutes have it ready to work with again :)

Next step is now to trim all the plates :)
 
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