Theb

Getting mixed results with the way I molded the front struts. A bit hit and miss and having to inject resin into the mold. May change the method

Another day of not really much happening even though I've been all day on it. Started the back plate of the strut section but it's difficult to see what exactly is happening in this area from the pics available so I'm going to wing it and make it my own. Having a look at working the shape of the helmet. This I'm pretty sure will be a two piece so as to be able to work the visor so the split will be at the angled horizontal. I need to shape the visor and have it the size that will include the thickness of the visor before I can build the shell... working that out! On a plus. Tweaked the vac former and did it a little less impatiently and got this... Rough cut for testing visibility as this was another sheet type that was found. Will be using the UltraPro comic sleeves for the real thing but didn't want to waste what little I have of those. Winding down for the day. Did want to have something else go into mold tomorrow... Looking at the cannon part as this would be the closest to complete as anything else at the moment. May have a quick go at one of the face's as I'm itching to give Kane a go!

Prep for mold on the two front struts Red wires are air release vents and the white for pouring the resin. Making this a completely sealed mold that I will then cut using the red wires as guide points. This is a lot easier than me trying to make a two piece and yields a pretty decent result... or at least it has up till now!

Plastic sheet sorted. Forgot I had a bunch of these. Ultrapro mylar comic sleeves! The only problem at the moment is trying to find more of them... Sure they'll turn up. May have to go to Forbidden Planet as the one's I'm seeing online don't look like the ones I have. I've tried a very rushed go at the vac form thingy and now know that I need to make a proper frame with metal bulldog clips and put what ever I'm forming onto a small plinth type thingy so it can pull around the shape better. May also need to drill smaller holes! The clarity on these comic sleeves is fantastic. Sorry for the really naff 1st attempt.

Teeny bit more on the Astronaut as I'm tinkering with other bits at the moment. Also going to have a go at the dome visor thingy this way! Very crude in construct but sucks on paper nicely. Now just having trouble trying to find some old packaging or a plastic bottle to see if I can get something out of it. Spindle on the front struts is ok'ish to go. And the little bit of the Astronaut I have managed to do. Thinking for x3 Astronauts it'll take somewhere between epic and eternity!

on another note. Spending too much time at the moment with the astronaut that I started and getting a little bit twitchy to get the jockey molded so I'm trying to put myself into a frame of mind where I can say, enough... get molding. Hopefully in the next couple of days something will be in the silicone.

So my 10 year old goes off to a gaming convention yesterday with his uber nerd Uncle and then stays at Uncle's for 4 hours painting the figures he purchased at the event. 10 year old is now officially a gaming nerd and painter of figures so I gave him my new and spare magnifier headset which I bought from Hobbycraft. I had this idea that I'd upgrade them at somepoint anyways. Almost bought the upgraded Lightcraft model with the swing down bit for extra small work stuff but then checked out amazon instead and bought a pair of esynic's instead and in the process, saved myself £38 on the Hobbycraft's. These things are brilliant and have larger lenses than the Lightcraft and fit on your head like the colander Rick Moranis wore in Ghostbuster so I won't be wearing them out and about for fear of scaring people. Thank you Uncle Jon for bringing my boy into my world and for the indirect purchase of my new headset! 🤘

Strut section is now sitting where I can best fit it. Would've prefered a little lower but the original Halcyon didn't really allow for it. Hind sight, could've extended a bit here and shortened a bit there but maybe one day in the future I'll come back to it and tweak it... or not. Looking to get the seat section molded and cast as soon as because I'm now getting a little worried about dropping the thing through all the handling (which has happened a couple of times but fortunately no damage done), so focusing on this part now. Will need to sculpt the bit on the back plate of the strut section where it meets the 'Hillside Rice Paddy Field' bit (that's what this area reminds me of) just under the cannon's gear wheel bit then add a little bit of milliput here and there and then do some clean up.

Bit more detailing on the second layer of the suit. Working the helmet on a cast that I made but during the mold process the neck ring on the astronaut came off but fortunately the cast is good enough for me to remove the ring and use it for guidance of the parts surrounding it. Working a little eratically at the moment because anything I'm doing with the Jockey involves all parts together so when I use milliput on the part it puts it out of action for 6 hours. Did manage to mold the bar that goes between the two front struts and tried molding a slightly different way to good effect. I also seem to be spending an awful lot of time staring out of the window brainstorming the various ways of trying to achieve all this and drinking a ton of coffee too! Thinking I will need to fix the ribbing on the stomach area too as it niggles! And I managed to catch the Jockey in a decent light... in a state of drying the milliput. still a fair bit of twiddling and sculpting a few areas and also to see what I can pull out of the engineer too and some clean up but hopeful and again I say... Maybe in a mold for next week... Some parts at least!

mini update. Getting to grips with the Fimo as this is untried territory for me so looking to see what I can achieve and then see if I can push it a little further. May be doing things the hard way. Every rib in the base suit was squeezed through a shape tool (had to drill smaller holes in the the end plate of the tool than what was purchased on the original tool as the holes weren't small enough) and the strands applied individually which made contouring the shape easier but very time consuming. Fortunately there isn't a lot of this ribbing effect on the suit. Had a mishap on the stomach area but this is covered by 'Binoculars' so won't worry too much at this point Then I made a mold and cast the head and shoulders as I need to start on the helmet and also the heads of all three astronauts and also to satisfy me that I can pull the detail out of these little things. The neck rings may or may not be too big but there is an additional inner ring for the base of the helmet but casting this part will assist me in all things wonky... I hope!

So one of the little extra bits that I discovered has taken almost the entire day to sort of figure out. I'll call this piece the 'spindle' that runs between the two front struts. I have to construct the bar in a few stages as there is a 'Y' kind of thing going on with it so I cut a piece of a plastic straw at an angle and then made a mold and cast these pieces and with the aid of .5 styrene spacers I have to then assemble it to the required width (not an easy task) and then I'll probably mold this piece and cast it because I then have to dremmel the middle bit to shape so as to appear to have it cut through the top of the nose 'piggy' bit and I don't really want to mess up the build part and then have it go wrong. Had to make a poor man's lathe with a rubber band to keep the power on of my drill with the plastic rod piece in the bit and fortunately my drill has a spinny bit on it so I could hold on to whilst using a blade to cut pieces of the rod to the size I needed for applying to the front struts as positional guides for the bar I'll show you what I mean once the bar has been assembled as I'm going to quit whilst ahead tonight! Pic is only the rough version of the bar for distance purpose only. Still also working Astronaut ideas and want to get busy with the Fimo stuff. Bought a Clay roller too... Loving it. Flat sheets of stuff!

I’m really looking forward now to tackling the Astronauts. Got a poly clay thingy machine that rolls out flat sheets of the stuff and I’m tooling some tools to produce bits n bobs so fingers crossed I can do the whole scene justice. Will also need to construct a basic vac form thing because I think this is the only way I can get the glass bits for the helmets. I’ll let you know how that idea turns out. watch this space. or this space… or this one with the aid of 3D goggles for a sense of depth… 👍

Got a two week window with annual leave so gonna go for completion on the Jockey by the end. Still a few bits and pieces to add. DPD let me down with delivery on the poly but I won’t need it for a least a week anyways. 🥜

I've been carving back the strut section where it meets the nose section for around 2 days now and cant get it to where I would like so I'm guessing it's telling me that it's where it wants to be so I will say enough is enough and leave it at that... for now! Ordered some new poly today so I can go ahead and use what I have for the dividers on set No.2 May have been a little frugel with the gelcoat as I've got some holes in one of the pylons... Fill job and fully recoverable. Hoping but not suggesting that I could have some paint on one of these things is around 2 months (over estimating I hope)

Cheers James. I also zoomed in and the promptly zoomed back out again! This is part of a potential side project as the little face I did reminded me of Han Solo incased in carbonite so I thought that maybe I could produce some gimiky pendants of some sort but we'll see how that works out as I have the one hand on the desk and keep forgetting that I need to cook it to save it!