The Topknot Build. New photos of torso life cast build. 05/07/2015

[AlphaTech686]

Thanks Steve, I gotta tell ya I just love doing this stuff. All the products of this build are new to me so it is a little scary but I feel I need to alway be trying new stuff even if I have some failures. Intitially I thought the epoxy resin was horrible because it was so runny. I was using it with fiberglass mat and it was not working out. The mat would not conform to shapes even when saturated. When I used mat with polyester resin (most consider fiberglass resin) it worked great. I almost gave up and went back to the old smelly stuff until I decided to try it with fiberglass woven cloth. Man it worked great. No run off and I was able to do large areas with single batches. I really couldn't believe my eyes. Anyway, I'm stickin to it and thanks for watchin (lurking) . I'm waiting for another build from you. As always have a blessed day as all of mine are.  

 

[AlphaTech686]

Hey George, thanks for checkin in. I planned on builbing the pry points into the second half. I guess now I will make sure and do several of them. Since you are here I will be calling in a few. Sorry  I gotta pick your large brain.

 

[AlphaTech686]

I had to order some materials for the second half of the legs but I did get the mold edges fixed up and while I was at it I cast the cod piece.

You can see when the wall fell I did not get it in the exact place it fell from. I already had gel coat in place.

 I painted on a new layer of gel coat to refine that edge.

Then I built up to the new edge with epoxy putty.

And finally I brushed on a couple of thin coats of epoxy resin. I think all is well again. It's certainly not as nice as it
could have been if I weren't being lazy.

Casting the cod piece.

 

[AlphaTech686]

Going to have to try this again.

 

[AlphaTech686]

Ia there an administrator who can straighted out the above post for me. It was all perfect then I tried to edit a couple of mistakes and the above happened. Please don't tell me I have to redo the whole thing. Thanks. 

 

[Usurper]

let me get this straight, you want me to straighten out your mistake because you do not want to have to do it?

good luck with that.

 

[munson]

I'm working with epoxy with free form air too and your progress is inspirational. Thanks for sharing!

 

[AlphaTech686]

Hey Lee maybe you misunderstood. I would fix it if I had a clue how to. It all looked great and something happened during the edit. Don't think that I didn't try. I thought maybe it was something simple that I didn't know about. You don't have to get smart about  it. I'll delete it all and start over again tomorrow.

 

[Usurper]

I would have to do EXACTLY the same as you do, to rewrite it.

I am not here to fix posting errors.


not being smart, just a fact.

 

[AlphaTech686]

Dude as I mentioned on the other "Support" post, I am not a tech guy inspite of the name Alphatech. I was hoping someone could just hit a couple buttons and it would be fixed. I certainly would not expect someone to rewrite my post. Sorry I bothered you with it dude.

 

[Usurper]

There is no "tech" behind post editing, its down to the poster to rewrite, i had another member contact me yesterday because they said something dumb apparently when they had been drinking, its down to him you or me to correct the posting issues. 

its not tech ,its just editing or in this case better to rewrite.

looking at your post, i imagine its probably a couple of single digits that screwed everything up, so would be far simpler for you to rewrite anyway.  

And i DO know how frustrating that is, i did similar on the rpf and it took me a good 10 minutes to sort it all out. and even then i had to have 3 goes at rewriting it.

 

[AlphaTech686]

I had some sort of mishap building this post yesterday so I'm trying it again today. What's a couple more hours. Since I'm trying to post all of Topknot stuff here this is the repost of both spear projects. One really lead to the next. The  first spear was a steal contraption with springs, cables, and pulleys. When I told my dad, who is a mechanical engineer, about the build he told me one rule he always tried to abide by when he was designing something. Stay away from SPRINGS, CABLES and PULLEYS! This thing actually worked but I decided if one on the catches ever let go it would shiskabob someone.

The telescoping pipes.

The pop out blades.

These spring loaded keychains where initially going to have to be pulled manually to draw the tubes back in. Later I used a motor and pulleys.

This was the center catch / release button I designed for it.

This was one of the catches that stopped the tube at the
end of the movement.

The cables and pulleys in action.

This is the pulley and right angle gearhead.

It ended up having addition external springs in tubes.  

The motor attached. Believe it or not this thing worked. It wasn't al that fast but it did do what it was suppose to do. I shelfed the project at
this point. Had to chaulk it up to experience.

On to the second spear project.
This is the video of the mechanism I designed that was the basis of this entire build.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/046-1.mp4.html

This is the test video of the cable mechanism in place in the tubes.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/016-6.mp4.html

This is the plate/arm to hold the pop out blades.

The spring loaded pop out blade.

Starting on the PVC side blade covers.

Video of popout blade test.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/034-2.mp4.html

Because i have no life I decided to build a light side control panel.

Test video of the popout blades.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/034-2.mp4.html

The midshaft blades were PVC plate with 3 layers glued together to form the edges that were then ground 
to shape.

I can't find any photos of the carving process of the ruins but you can see them on all 4
sides of the tubes. Here are the tubes with the pulley arm in place and the rack gear.

Looking down the main body tube you can see the sprocket that runs the rack gears in ans out.

Assembling things just to see how they are looking.

  

That little gearhead/motor ended up not working out.

More ruins carved.

The tips.

Total closed length.

At this point I decided to make a stunt spear as this one was getting heavier and more intricate by the minute. 

Starting the handle sculpt.

Walk around video of handle progress.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/001-17.mp4.html

Walk around video of finished, sealed sculpt.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/001-18.mp4.html

Video of first handle pull.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/016-10.mp4.html

Fabricating the bracket to help hold the handle in place.

Lining things up.

Fixing seams.

Mounting the on/off button

I ended up having to use the right angle gear motor that I was trying not to use because of size and weight. In the end it worked perfectly.  
I had to do a slight resculpt on the handle to fit the motor.

The shaft from the gear box was to short so I had to fabricate a new one.

Mounting the lights and switches.

I wanted to be able to power it up and have the lights come on at teh same time. I needed to do this double switch.
Don't ask.

Back to finishing the stunt spear.

I foam filled this to help make it more solid.

I had to make this little piece to cover the plate that holds the shaft that sides the popout blades in and out.

Creating the plug to make it hollow.

On to molding the stunt midshaft blades.

The first full movement test video
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/001_zpsb1cc9cfb.mp4.html

Painting things

The final wire up.

Walk around video of the lights.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/020-13_zpse1a935a8.mp4.html

FINALLY the end of the project video.
http://s3.photobucket.com/user/alphapredator686/media/005-31_zpsb2baeabd.mp4.html

 

[ptgreek]

Dude ..that spear is UNREAL!!!!!! wow ...just wow

 

[Mr Fett]

You have insane skills, alphatech. 

 

[munson]

You have a hell of an imagination! Great job!

 

[AlphaTech686]

Hey thanks for the comments everyone. Hey are a couple of updates. First off I decided I didn't like the skin hangin off the
lower part of the front lioncloth so I chopped them off. I like it much better now.

Here is what I came up with for the back of the lioncloth. In keeping with spirit of the front the back is a strip of
chest skin from some unsuspecting Marine. I think Topknot just liked the tattoo which will be painted on the final.
Let me know what ya'll think.

 

[nighthunter]

These build up so fantastic, the Legs, the Spear everything looks Wonderfull .  The Technical implementation, awesome!!  

 

[MiamiSett]

He considered a U.S. Marine a worthy trophy?  I can dig that. Semper Fi! This build is one of the most amazing in existence and it has not ceased to amaze yet.  The spear is incredible and you made it look like it was second nature for you to build it.  

 

[AlphaTech686]

Thanks everybody for looking in. I actually molded the other half of the legs on Thursday. Because I am a bit unfamiliar with the materials I had a minor mishap. I layed everything up in the evening and Friday morning was going to split the mold. The epoxy seemed hard. When I started prying one of the edges on the new it half cracked. I couldn't figure it out until I flexed the matte/resin and realized it was hard but not completely hard. That small amout of softness allowed the flex and crack. I had to go to the station so I decided to leave it alone. You know that was not easy. I ended up having to work over today so I hope to split it and have those update tomorrow. Here are some photos from Thursday.
The green is from th ePVA release. By the way if I had it to do over I would have sculpted the knee rings separately. I believe I have my work  
cut out for me when it comes to smoothing out the seams in that area. We will see.

The gel coat.

This is the epoxy dough. I formed these 91 gram balls and mix them one to one and apply. 91 just happened
to be the weight of the first one so I went with it. 91 not 90. I know weird.

And last but not least the epoxy resin with 10 oz fiberglass matte. 2 coats and 3 on the edges.

 

[AlphaTech686]

I said a prayer of thanks when the mold opened. I am calling this a success. The edges look good and so far I see very few air bubbles.