santa claus is on his way

OK, so this is SO not anything to do with mecha, but it is a sculpture project I'm working on right now. So I'm posting an image here, if only to let anyone who actually reads this blog know that I am working on SOMETHING.



And furthermore, I will be cleaning this up then making a few molds and casting copies of this over the next few days. So that'll give you a chance to walk through a simple moldmaking and casting process. I'll shoot some video so you can see the finer points of RTV and resin mixing and pouring in a flat one-sided mold.

Volks 1/100 Helmine

I got this kit from Yahoo Japan Auctions by way of the proxy bidding and "deputy" service website Shopping Mall Japan in the neighboring state of Indiana. Including all the service and shipping fees it cost just over $250.

This is the front page of the typically bare-bones instruction sheet.


And here's a picture of all its 47 parts laid out in the classic resin kit part layout "pose."



I'm not entirely sure whether or not this kit was worth all the money I paid, but I do like the design which is a kind of Five Star Stories "cousin" to the Gundam known as Qubeley.



Since the kit is about 20 years old, it is a pretty bad cast. Lots of pinholes or bubbles that were trapped and hardened into the plastic resin. Some mold misalignment causing damage to details or the design of the original sculpt. Some bigger bubbles that just completely wiped out details.

Those who know me, however, will know that I (perhaps perversely) enjoy repairing and resculpting parts on bad kits to make them better. This is what I will be doing in this case, and now I will take it a step further and re-cast the kit when the parts are up to standards that should improve considerably upon the original. I don't feel like I'm stepping on anyone's marketplace toes with this. The kit is really old, as I said, and very few people even know that it exists at all.

I'm well into the repair process already and I want to share some of it with you.

First up is a youtube video of before and after work on the big shoulder armors:



Next are before and after pics of repair I did to the point of the helmet's horn which was lost in the casting process:






Here is a video of the process for the resculpt.

[Edit] BTW I just found out that I've been mispronouncing the name "Helmine." It is German (duh to self) and short for Wilhelmine so it should be pronounced as "hell-mee-nuh". It means "the resolute protector" which I think is nice.

Finally figured out the foot detail casting!

After my first attempt went awry thanks mainly to resin that was well-past its expiration date, I decided to make a new mold with RTV.

Here's the mold box getting started. I've just roughly lumped in the Kleen Clay to hold the part in position so that it is level in the box, and has enough space on all sides to make a good solid mold. I've tried to estimate a good volume of clay so that as I smooth it out the level will rise nicely to just below the edges of the part.


Using this set of tools:

from here (click on the "set of 12" thumbnail, it's the better set but has no direct link), I smoothed out the clay and worked it up snug against the edges of the part and the walls of the box. The RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanizing) rubber will work its way into the smallest spaces so a good seal is necessary. After that I built up the walls of the box with another row of bricks and laid in a thin snake of clay around the walls to raise the level a little more there.


Then I added one more layer of Legos so the RTV has enough space.


Here's the demolded RTV. I didn't use any mold release, which was fine in this case. I was nervous tho' because I did that by accident, not on purpose.


For the casting, I decided to use Bondo auto body repair filler. I was inspired to do this by a Brazilian figure sculptor on Hobbyfanatics named Ryuji who uses this stuff all the time. It's way cheaper than urethane or epoxy resins and the supply is much handier at the auto supply store (casting resin is a bit hard to find, even on the internet). I did spray mold release before spreading the Bondo into the mold.


The first one I did wasn't even worth showing because the working time on this Bondo stuff is only about a minute, which came as a big surprise and ruined the first attempt. This is the second attempt:

There are too many defects in this part to make it worth using on the final product, so I tried a few more times.

Here's what I came up with. The second and fourth ones are fine.


Now I just have to trim it up and smooth out the flat backside so I can fix it onto the flat foot and the prime and paint.

Wish me luck!

Vatshu Ankle Joint Modifications

I'll break it down for you. First I carved out some of the plastic that was there to hold the original stupid poly cap:

Until the new socket PC fit nicely, but loosely at the level where I wanted it:

Then I laid down a little "pad" of Magic Sculp epoxy putty for the new PC to press into:

And after the PC was mounted at the right depth and angle, I filled in the surrounding area with more Magic Sculp using clay sculpting tools to press and work it smoothly into place:

These are the "ankle bones" that connect the top of the foot to the bottom of the leg:

So now the ankles will be essentially double jointed.

Look at these videos for a more well-rounded view of all the action (ignore the sound, please):




Once again the main idea here is that test fitting is of the utmost importance in Garage Kit building. Even more so if you want to do modifications.

Something I was working on a while ago...

About a year and a half ago I got really into the idea of trying to become a hardcore scratch-builder. I found a (relatively) simple Mamoru Nagano design from Schell Bullet:


I bought all kinds of polymer clay and moldmaking/casting materials and set to work designing a piece that I hope will ultimately work as a kit that I can cast for others to enjoy as well..

Here are some images of work I accomplished on the torso, arms, and hands.

Here's the torso in the mold box. The mold itself is the blue stuff which is then sandwiched with snug, but not tight, rubber bands between two pieces of scrap wood so that it holds its original shape and does not leak resin around the edges of the cast piece (such leaks, when they harden, turn into "flash" that must be trimmed from the part):


Demolding the torso. You can see the long pouring tube with a sort-of funnel shape at the top and the short vent tube at the opposite end of the part. It is better to fill molds from the botom up this way because it helps the air bubbles rise out of the resin so that they don't end up as pin-holes in your part:


This is the torso smoothed out with considerable filing work. This was my first-ever attempt at casting a part and I just decided to do it rough so I wouldn't be disappointed if it turned out badly. Even after smoothing the core piece, I still have to do a great deal of puttying work to sculpt out the final version. Then I'll have to cast that again:


The sculpted left forearm. Using white sculpey clay I worked the basic shape and baked it hard, then I tooled some details into the surface of the part. Now it needs to be molded and cast in resin:


The sculpted left arm-shield. Same technique as the forearm above:


I posed the hands from a Ban Dai MG Qubeley kit and sealed them with jeweler's wax (the brown stuff) If I hadn't sealed them they would have gotten locked into the RTV mold rubber, which has an amazing facility for flowing into the tiniest crevices. Then I could recast them. The blue suff the hands are emdedded in is oil-based non-drying clay. The fleshy-colored stuff is some PVC sprue cut from a Spriggan vinyl figure kit, used here to create the pouring tubes. You might also notice the frame of legos around the edges. Legos are great for building really solid mold boxes. They fit tightly together so that the mold rubber doesn't leak out and you can easily size them to fit whatever part you're casting.


Here's what the hands look like fresh out of the mold. You can see that I cut little vent tubes at the tip of each finger so that I could fill the mold from the bottom up again. Positioning your part correctly in its mold is very important so that it will fill smoothly and totally with resin:


After they've been trimmed up a bit:



This scratch building stuff sure eats up time, so this was as far as I've gotten, but it's really fun so I'm sure I'll get back to it eventually.