A pair of Space Battleship Yamato belt buckles I made in 2009. buckle5 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
In that picture set are a shot of the backs of the buckles and some of the master model, mold and other stuff I used.
Something I found interesting is that masking tape inhibits the curing of platinum cure RTV. That gave the recessed areas of the buckle a nicely rough texture. I first tried coloring those surfaces with a marker but that looked bad so I did the black filling. If I'd had more time I would have cast the outer ring and X, then carefully poured a thin layer of black over the recesses, then cast in the hook and loop with more yellow.
The hooks and loops are made of steel welding rod with the ends of the loops forming a triangle with the hook and spot welded so the metal parts are not going to come loose. I made these to withstand everyday use. Made two because I colored enough of the 316 part B to make two.
Since I got some Smooth-On black onyx resin I'm thinking of doing another one as described above so I don't have to do the color filling, though it does resemble enamel on metal.
I was quite disappointed that the live action movie didn't use the belt buckle from the anime. 'Course they would have had to chose just one of the four or five slightly different designs seen in the anime. My theory is the various animators did that as a way of signing their work.
I chose to do the simplest of the styles, was beginning to think I wouldn't get it done until I found the soap dish I used to cast the base of the master model. Then I cut across that casting the shorter way on my mill to make it narrower. Super glued those halves together.
The X was made by first milling the X oversize in plywood and filling with Crystal Clear 202. When that cured I used a 1/4" ball end mill to cut the shape. Then I waxed the cavity and filled it with more Crystal Clear.
The dips made by the bumps in the soap dish bottom gave me the most trouble. No matter what I filled them with they would not sand out flat and smooth. That's when I decided to use masking tape after trimming and gluing in the X. Some of the heavier clear packing tape would have been better because it wouldn't have caused the cure inhibition.
The end result worked excellently with the SBY costume shirt and pants.
In that picture set are a shot of the backs of the buckles and some of the master model, mold and other stuff I used.
Something I found interesting is that masking tape inhibits the curing of platinum cure RTV. That gave the recessed areas of the buckle a nicely rough texture. I first tried coloring those surfaces with a marker but that looked bad so I did the black filling. If I'd had more time I would have cast the outer ring and X, then carefully poured a thin layer of black over the recesses, then cast in the hook and loop with more yellow.
The hooks and loops are made of steel welding rod with the ends of the loops forming a triangle with the hook and spot welded so the metal parts are not going to come loose. I made these to withstand everyday use. Made two because I colored enough of the 316 part B to make two.
Since I got some Smooth-On black onyx resin I'm thinking of doing another one as described above so I don't have to do the color filling, though it does resemble enamel on metal.
I was quite disappointed that the live action movie didn't use the belt buckle from the anime. 'Course they would have had to chose just one of the four or five slightly different designs seen in the anime. My theory is the various animators did that as a way of signing their work.
I chose to do the simplest of the styles, was beginning to think I wouldn't get it done until I found the soap dish I used to cast the base of the master model. Then I cut across that casting the shorter way on my mill to make it narrower. Super glued those halves together.
The X was made by first milling the X oversize in plywood and filling with Crystal Clear 202. When that cured I used a 1/4" ball end mill to cut the shape. Then I waxed the cavity and filled it with more Crystal Clear.
The dips made by the bumps in the soap dish bottom gave me the most trouble. No matter what I filled them with they would not sand out flat and smooth. That's when I decided to use masking tape after trimming and gluing in the X. Some of the heavier clear packing tape would have been better because it wouldn't have caused the cure inhibition.
The end result worked excellently with the SBY costume shirt and pants.
