Mage - The Hero Discovered Kevin's Bat WIP

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.

Awesome Con Wagner pic.jpg

Update 6/16

Finished it this morning. Just in time for Awesome Con.

IMG_20170616_100127.jpg

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.
IMG_20170419_162831.jpg IMG_20170608_220838.jpgIMG_20170608_220940.jpg

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.

IMG_20170608_065811.jpgIMG_20170608_183922.jpg

Update 6/3 - I made major progress this weekend. I rotocast the test handle and lit it up. Compare my pix to the drawing

Matchstick.jpegIMG_20170603_214541.jpg

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.

1494034063074.jpg1494034062897.jpg1494034062681.jpg

And mounted on a base to make the glove mold this week.

IMG_20170521_202351.jpg

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.

IMG_20170521_194335.jpgIMG_20170521_195451.jpgIMG_20170521_195531.jpg

And finally, starting to turn the full sized bat.

IMG_20170521_140831.jpgIMG_20170521_153015.jpgIMG_20170521_153019.jpg

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

IMG_20170405_122547.jpg

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.

IMG_20170405_163314.jpg

Today, I cut up a cheap toy bat from Target and tested the brightness and heat.

IMG_20170406_193513.jpg

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.

Bat Fusion 360.png

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.

Bat End Fusion 360.png

Based on my test today, I might not need the ventilation holes.

Wish me luck.
 
Last edited:
Making a bit more progress. The LED strip draws 5 amps DC. That's a lot to run through a small switch. So I designed a power control circuit using a reed switch and a MOSFET. (Disclaimer - This is the first power circuit I've ever built and I got the basic design from a UK Vaping site. Copy at your own risk.)

Circuit.jpg

I proto-typed the circuit on a bread board this morning. It works like a charm.

IMG_20170422_095108.jpg

Now to solder it together permanently and start working on the mold for the bat's shell.
 
This project is moving in fits and starts. It requires several things I've never done before, like design a power circuit and roto-cast a baseball bat. So I'm taking it slow, building my skills and learning as I go.

Tonight I completed lathe safety certification at my local Makerspace. We started with square blocks of various woods and ended up with little ring holders.

RIng Holder.jpg

Next step is to turn a 16 inch "Baby Bat" to practice mold making and roto casting with. I don't want to screw up $100 worth of silicone and resin trying to cast the full sized bat. Especially since that will be my first time trying to cast something like this.
 
I will be utterly fascinated to see how this turns out! A friend of mine and I had toyed with the idea of a piece of frosted acrylic lathed into the shape of a bat, then light it up ala the latest light sabres, but it was expensive and heavy as all get out.

Please keep posting. I'll keep coming back!

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
 
I started down the acrylic rod route, too. But was stopped by the weight and expense. I went so far as to search Alibaba for a cheap overseas source of acrylic. Found a great deal, but the minimum order was a ton.

I'm not sure that casting the bat shell will end up being any cheaper, but it will be lighter. And instead of having several hundred dollars worth of plastic shavings on the shop floor, I'll have a mold I can reuse.
 
A little more progress on the bat tonight. I took the control circuit off the breadboard and soldered it onto a piece of protoboard. I also cut the plug off the LED strip and soldered the strip to the control circuit. It's now ready to mount in the bat shell. As soon as I make the bat shell, that is. That's the next step.

Here's the circuit. From design and simulation:

Circuit.jpg

To bread board:
IMG_20170422_095034.jpg

To layout:
Protoboard Layout.png

To protoboard (I'm only showing the component side because my soldering skills need some serious work):

IMG_20170504_204324.jpg

To something that is starting to resemble the bat for the first time.

IMG_20170504_205306.jpg

I just got a big box from Smooth-On. I know what I'll be doing this weekend.
 
I've got four projects going at once, so this one has been on the back burner for a couple of weeks. This week it moved to the front burner. I made some good progress.

First, I went from electrical to physical and started the pattern for the bat mold. Rather than just buying a cheap bat, I'm turning my own on a lathe at my MakerSpace. I hadn't touched a lathe since high school. I wanted to get back into turning and this seemed like the perfect excuse. Plus, after I finish these projects I'm starting a new one for my daughter. That will require a lathe. So this is good practice.

I started by making a couple 1:2 scale bats for practice. Those turned out pretty well. The shape is a little wonky, but I learned enough I'm confident I'll be able to do the big bat.

1494034063074.jpg1494034062897.jpg1494034062681.jpg

I mounted the second baby bat on a board so I can make the silicone glove mold for it. Hopefully, I'll get that done this week.

IMG_20170521_202351.jpg

I've started the big bat today. I copied the profile of a classic Louisville Slugger into Fusion 360.

swing-weight-bat-ash.jpg

Then I outlined the profile so I could measure the diameter at 3" increments. That will make it easier to get the shape of the big bat right.

Big Bat Fusion.png

I got a real bat billet from a local hardwood supplier for $15. I started turning it today. If I do a decent job on it, I should be able to use it as a real bat.

IMG_20170521_140831.jpgIMG_20170521_153015.jpgIMG_20170521_153019.jpg

The billet was square, so I had to turn it round first. Then I smoothed the surface and mostly finished the barrel end. I ran out of time before I could do the handle. That will have to be this week sometime too.

Finally, I mounted the LEDs. I got a cheap florescent bulb protector from Amazon for less than $3. That's the only cheap thing in this project so far. I wrapped it in aluminum foil to reflect stray light back out and wound the LED strip around it in a spiral.

IMG_20170521_194335.jpgIMG_20170521_194812.jpgIMG_20170521_195451.jpg

This picture doesn't do it justice. It's so bright, it hurts to look at. If I can diffuse the LEDs so the light is smooth without loosing too many photons, it's going to look great.

IMG_20170521_195531.jpg

Zombie Killer suggested using the lenticular screens from a broken flat screen in another thread. If the resin shell doesn't do the job, I might try that.

25 days till Awesome Con. I'd better get moving.

1494034063074.jpg


1494034062681.jpg


1494034062897.jpg


IMG_20170521_202351.jpg


swing-weight-bat-ash.jpg


Big Bat Fusion.png


IMG_20170521_153019.jpg


IMG_20170521_153015.jpg


IMG_20170521_140831.jpg


IMG_20170521_195531.jpg


IMG_20170521_195451.jpg


IMG_20170521_194812.jpg


IMG_20170521_194335.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had to abandon the baby bat. I'd coated it with shellac after I turned it. Turns out silicon can bond to shellac. I can't practice mold making and test my material using the baby bat now.

Instead, I turned a test handle out of the same billet I'm using to make the big bat.

IMG_20170526_165457.jpg

While I was at it, I practiced my lathe skills. I must be getting better. I couldn't get a finish like that "straight off the tool" with a skew chisel before tonight.

IMG_20170526_153846.jpg

While I was at it, I finished the full sized bat. Here it is as I added the diameter cuts to get the dimensions.

IMG_20170526_173744.jpg

Shaping done. Now time to sand and finish. This time no shellac.

IMG_20170526_180111.jpg

I am the Pendragon and this is Excalibur!

IMG_20170526_190505.jpg
 
I learned a lot with the test rotocast. Here's the process.

First lesson, it takes a whole lot of Smooth-On to get anything done.

IMG_20170528_091149.jpg

Here's the first "stipple" coat of Rebound 25. You dab it on instead of brushing it on to minimize air entrapment. This is a pretty simple positive, so that probably wasn't a big deal. But that's how every video says to do it.

IMG_20170528_092711.jpg

I colored the second coat to ensure even coverage. I picked green because I was recently told "Magic is green, dontchaknow?"

IMG_20170528_103932.jpg

I cut up some extra silicone that set up from a previous batch to make registration keys. I stuck those on after the 3rd coat and finished the mold with a final green coat.

IMG_20170528_115415.jpgIMG_20170528_130348.jpg

Second lesson, keep things neat. Those clunky registration keys are a pain to work. So is the rough surface. For the big bat, I'll have to be much smoother.

Here's making the clay barrier and mother mold. I made it with Plasti Paste, another fine Smooth-On product. Demold was easier than I expected give all the rough surfaces.

IMG_20170603_144757.jpgIMG_20170603_185407.jpgIMG_20170603_202700.jpg

Third lesson. Keep things neat and smooth. See above.

Time to cast. I mixed up about 1/2 a small Dixie bathroom cup of Smooth-Cast 57D and poured it into the mold. I turned and tumbled the mold until the Smooth-Cast gelled. That took the promised 3 minute pot life of the resin. Repeat twice more at 15 minute intervals.

IMG_20170603_203639.jpgIMG_20170603_203704.jpg

Fourth lesson. I'm probably going to have to make the mother mold for the big bat in sections. It was hard to get the silicone mold to mate well with the mother mold on this 5" piece.

Here's the finished part.

IMG_20170603_214406.jpg

Fifth lesson. Bubbles suck. Instead of just dumping the resin into the mold, I'll use the "long pour" method on the big bat.

Sixth lesson. Use a plug to keep the resin in the mold and make it easier to tumble. I ended up spilling a good amount of expensive resin and got a uneven coating inside the finished part because of that. One side is about 0.05". It's quite floppy and the LEDs shine straight through it. The opposite side is 0.2". It's solid and gives good diffusion.

And finally, "First Light"!

IMG_20170603_214450.jpgIMG_20170603_214541.jpg

Two weeks till Awesome Con. I think I'll actually get this thing done.
 
Last edited:
One more decision before I pour. The bat always has a blue tint in the comics. Should I add a little blue So-Strong to the final batch of resin or just go with white?

I think I'm going with white. If I don't like it, I can add a thin coat of blue 57D later.
 
I've finished 4 resin pours and used every drop of Smooth-cast 57D I have.

Now we play the waiting game. And try to figure out how to clean resin off the shop floor.

IMG_20170608_203719.jpg
 
Last edited:
The answer for cleaning resin off the shop floor was not to wipe it up. That made things worse.

Wait until the spills partially cure, then scrape them up with a putty knife covered in mold release.
 
Awesome Con starts at noon tomorrow. I'm really close to done. If I hadn't cut my finger, I could finish tonight.

to do list.png
 
This thread is more than 6 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top