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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:34 pm 
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Here's the beauty of AquaMend. It's a putty and very workable with damp hands. I used latex gloves and basically patted everything smooth. I'd roll the base of my hands to smoothe things out and to define its basic shape so as to reduce the sanding process such that sanding would only be needed to assure a proper seamless flow from the AquaMend application to the facemask's original resin.

Can you see I'm having fun? :lol

So imagine building out the back of the skull using this stuff!

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:51 pm 
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Looking great.

One thing when looking at the face from the back... are you planning on leaving that odd bulge on the left side of the back edge?

LOL... I guess I'm too much of a traditionalist and extreme secure guy, 'cause I would have definitely made a support structure of some kind, to build this skull-cap on, such as metal braces and chicken wire or something. Maybe all that is not really necessary... looking forward to seeing what you do! :thumbsup

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:07 pm 
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Well, there's a spot on there I've not yet sanded because there is an area I have to fill first.

But if you're talking about how the facemask buldges out on the left moreso than the right, in my observation this is a trait fo certain ESB-descended masks.

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(Left: DP DLX recast kit from Homer1138, Right: Golden Armor kit)

If you are referring to the latter, I'm not certain I can do too much to address this. I can build the right side wider but then problem is the tusk tubes and I really don't want to go through the effort of making it more symetrical when the original wasn't symetrical in the first place.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:10 pm 
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NoHumorMan wrote:
Looking great.

One thing when looking at the face from the back... are you planning on leaving that odd bulge on the left side of the back edge?

LOL... I guess I'm too much of a traditionalist and extreme secure guy, 'cause I would have definitely made a support structure of some kind, to build this skull-cap on, such as metal braces and chicken wire or something. Maybe all that is not really necessary... looking forward to seeing what you do! :thumbsup


Thanks. I'm definitely thinking about some kind of wire mesh so that PC-11 or AquaMend can retain its structure without too much deformation due to sagging under its own weight. I might even use a plastic mesh and heat it to shape using the heat gun. In this way if I sand and run into the mesh, it won't damage my sander.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:20 pm 
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And here are the Dremel toolbits I've used.

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Even though I had applied PC-11 here, I figured the top of the skull was too thick. I needed to create room, so I used the cylindrical sandstone bit.

The carousel-shaped sandpaper bit is more of a sander. Yes, it can be used to remove stuff and can generally access areas that the sandstone can't due to its size, but it's not as aggressive as the sandstone, so I'd say use the sandstone for the bulk of the work, and use this sandpaper carousel thing to smooth out the lines.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:26 pm 
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Ah yes... it just looked odd at the back there... but that's okay! :lol

Looking real good. Really wish I could get as much done as you do! :thumbsup

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:27 pm 
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Can't wait to see your Rubie's "Darth Batman" ;-)

The hard part is hollowing the skull out even more. I'm having a problem with putting the sander in there. Perhaps the PC-11 hasn't fully cured so it's not so grindable. But the inside curved surfaces are a problem.

Fortunately my sander has a special cylindrical round surface bit I can use. I'm going to give that a shot. I really do want to reduce the skull thickness so as to create room for foam padding.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:30 pm 
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Yeah... really gotta start working on that one soon! :lol

Well... I wouldn't grind it too much down now... why don't you save all that sanding and grinding until you've done the skull-cap thing?

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:47 pm 
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NoHumorMan wrote:
Yeah... really gotta start working on that one soon! :lol

Well... I wouldn't grind it too much down now... why don't you save all that sanding and grinding until you've done the skull-cap thing?


Well, I'm having a hard time as it is now. If the skull is built, it essentially becomes a bowl. It's hard to sand a bowl because you can't lay a sandder down inside a bowl.

However, I managed to find a new bit that looks like a flower except it's comprised of metal wires. But nothing beats a round sandstone. The more I can remove now, I won't have to fight with later, because it will be harder later.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:58 pm 
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LOL sorry... just got this image in my mind... bowl Vader! :lol

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:44 am 
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You've heard me mention the Black and Decker "Mouse" hand sander. Today I read the instructions a little more and tried some of the accessories. This attachment helped sand the inside of the skull. It also worked great for the Rubie's nose and inside sockets. It even fit perfectly within a slightly shrunken Don Post Boba Fett recast kit (I'll post on that later).

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:46 am 
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Now comes the interesting part: how to fabricate the skull.

I just got back from JoAnn Fabrics. I examined their plastic mesh and found that there is more plastic material than there are holes. Yes, I could have found something round and used a heat-gun to shape it, but I first have to buy something round.

Then I chanced upon a 9" foam ball. While the foam ball wouldn't stand up to the heat of the heatgun, I could spread newspaper over it and smear PC-11 all over it.

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So now that's curing....

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:48 am 
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Man...your kicking this masks butt. Looking real good....how many hours in the day do you have out west? Must be about 10 more than we have here in PA. :lol

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:51 am 
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And just for the heck of it, I primed the skull cap for educational purposes.

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Primer basically reveals difficult-to-see issues.

As you can see, the basic shaping is there. It has a lot more to go in terms of refinement. The areas that look like cracks indicate depressions that sanding won't remove, so I'd to go back and fill those areas.

It's still a little rough but with more work....

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:52 am 
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T-VIRUS wrote:
Man...your kicking this masks butt. Looking real good....how many hours in the day do you have out west? Must be about 10 more than we have here in PA. :lol


I'm guessing, um... 8? But also the sanding of the fiberglass really provoked my allergies. I had to take it easy. It was overwhelming. That is one of the downsides of getting a badly made kit.

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