Great Scott! It's a hoverboard thread...

[RetrogradeOrbit]

The extraction process was completed, but not without incident!


However, the mould itself seemed to weather the storm quite well.


I gave it a thorough washing with good old fairy washing up liquid and dried it off with a kitchen towel. So it is all ready to go after some cleanup of the edges! t:

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Thought that it would be a good idea to mix my polyurethane resin with a bit of grey pigment so that it will be easier to see the imperfections from the casting that will almost certainly be there whether they be bubbles from the mixture or issues with the mould itself.

Trouble is that I either added too much pigment or the pigment has passed its best before date. But the mix frothed up like a rabid dog...


It has risen over the surface of the mould by at least 2 or 3mm making it pointless to use as it will take me hours to sand that all back down to where it should be. Also I am not convinced that there will not be numerous bubbles on the upside of the casting too.
Very annoyed at this turn of events, waste of time and polyurethane resin...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Managed to pull the casting out without too much bother but it is looking rubbish... But I placed it on the board and took a picture, just as a test fit.


Looks about right I think.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Made up a mix this time without pigment. It has poured much better and no mad dog frothing this time...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

There may be another post today of the new casting if I am brave enough to get it out today...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Okay, I took a photo... :cwink


And, still using that rubbish casting, I took another photo of what the overall thingy should look like.


I'm actually quite pleased with how this is turning out!

 

[Brutikus]

Bravo Sir Bravo!

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Thanks. It is proving to be a much bigger job than I ever thought, but I am getting there! t:

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Second casting pulled and test fitted again...


Guess there is a lot of sanding, filling, priming, painting and sealing ahead of me!
And we are all caught up once again with my progress on this, this, thing!

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Future planned work:

1) Route out channels beneath the battery pack so the clamps go under it
2) Take a silicone mould of the completed battery pack
3) Get painting all the cast pieces

When will it get done? I don't know, I'm making this up as I go... (Ten points if you know the movie!)

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Righty ho then...

I worked on some better decal graphics which were originally supplied by an RPF member named Roland. They are amazing, although I did have to redo them as my board does not seem to be quite the size that his decals will fit.
Unfortunately I could not just resize as it was not uniformly linear in both height and width.
In the end I had to get the background image sized correctly and rounded at the ends as needed. Then grab each piece of the graphics and resize/redesign so that they looked right and fitted my boards dimensions.
It took bloody ages, but luckily Photoshop and Foxit Reader did not let me down.
Obviously the top and bottom decals are a bit different in length due to the tail section. But I allowed for this in my calculations.


This and the upper decal were printed off in posterised mode using Foxit Reader and I stuck 'em together so I could do a test fit.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Here are the decals without any nonsense on them...


Much better than what I had before, and they fit really well. So I am now pleased, for a change!

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

The battery pack part which I cut out of 12mm MDF has had the silicone mould treatment...


This was left for umpteen hours to cure and was then demoulded. At which juncture, I knocked up some polyurethane resin and poured that into the newly made mould.


And lo, there was much rejoicing...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

And here is the part, cured, taken out of said mould and test fitted with the other bits. Never mind the odd colour, I sanded it with sandpaper that had red dust in it!
Yes, that is the new decal underneath...


It kind of looks like a hoverboard, no one is more surprised than I.

That's about it really for today, thanks for tuning in...

 

[ComicChick]

really enjoying the process of this

also jealous of the 3-monitor layout too lol

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

really enjoying the process of this

also jealous of the 3-monitor layout too lol

Sorry...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Cast, pulled, sanded and washed. All ready for priming, etc. tomorrow...


I foresee filling and further sanding in my near future...

 

[Brutikus]

But I allowed for this in my calculations.

t:t:t:

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

t:t:t:

Hah! I never even realised I was making an oblique BTTF reference with that comment!

P.S.
Hoping to get some serious (or maybe even lighthearted) painting of those resin pieces tomorrow...

 

[Xanado]

Looks amazing you should be very proud of yourself.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Thank you, it's actually turning out a lot better than I thought... Especially as this is my first attempt at a scratchbuilt prop.

 

[Xanado]

Thank you, it’s actually turning out a lot better than I thought... Especially as this is my first attempt at a scratchbuilt prop.

Well you definitely can't tell its a first attempt. you should try and build a tardis next

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Well you definitely can't tell its a first attempt. you should try and build a tardis next

Funny you should mention that...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Do you have any idea how hard it is to put a bend in polyurethane resin...?


At least I know where all the bits will be fitted now.!

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

First coat of primer, and there are all the imperfections!


Followed by slapping on the filler.


Then, the obligatory sanding to follow... Ho hum.