case mode

[Skouperd]

starting to take shape. Fly I missed the post about how you made the vehicle? What material did you use and how did you actually made it. I was thinking that the silicon would just seal it, you will still need to use the bolts. 9mm perspex should be fine as well.

[flycatchr]

thanks skoups - i will do a write up with pics when i have finished the mudguards for the sundy
In the mean time - think - 3mm plastic coated in 0.1mm aluminium on either side - nice to work with, easy to bend and easy to break.
It is a signage product called dybond - if you remember my case trolley from rage - that was made from a much thicker version of it.

I have a headache from breathing in polystyrene fumes :-0
On Thursday I fetched laser cut scythe cross sections and started bonding the blue extruded polystyrene to it. On Friday I figured that the quickest way to shape the outside edges was with a hot wire cutter, it would have taken me less than 35 minutes to make if the wire hadn't broken, version two below includes the spring from an electric fence to keep the hot wire from getting loose from expanding when hot. Slicing the blue foam requires an incredibly sharp knife and can be very tricky with thick sections of foam, but works well with whittling action.

The laser cut material is 3mm super wood and the normal polystyrene contact glue worked wonders to stick it all together. Once stuck it was easy to move the hot wire along the shape to get the outside edges, and then whittle and sand (200 - 360 grit works well) to the desired shape.

a small tip here - when sanding, instead of breaking the wife's stapler trying to get sand paper stuck onto a block of wood - thinly spread contact glue on the wood block and the sand paper - if you don't have and big blobs of glue - it works very well.

I have also finished the water block - note the shiny edges Skoups :-D the top surface comes etched but the edges where quite easy to fire polish with a little pencil torch I have. (after all the elbow work getting down to 800 grit
I spoke to the technical chaps at Pratleys and they had a two part acrylic called eezee bond, which seems to have worked very well gluing the brass to the perspex.

[Skouperd]

very nice Fly... starting to take shape!

[flycatchr]

yaaa, but getting nervous :0

i have found a compound that will coat the scythe - hope to pick it up tomorrow and then
the fun starts

[BadA$$jack]

Wow, very nicely done Fly !!!

[flycatchr]

nearly finished shaping the scythe

just have to carve up its ass

[RussianElite.]

Lookin sweet Flyyyyyyyyy!

[flycatchr]

finally the first coat of paint is on the scythe.

Each component got two coats of epoxy gelcoat (red) which when cured (16 hours) got lightly sanded and if i had more time and money i think i would have done a carbon fibre lay up of the scythe.

The first coat of purple is on and once the l do the light blue decal and cockpit glass.

the biggest mission has been shaping and sanding the foam and then the gelcoat. very time consuming.

I must also thank the very generous people from SPRAYON who donated 7 tins of spraypaint to me. The Purple used on the scythe is their lacquer spray, which i must say has given me the best results both on the gelcoat and on perspex (amongst other materials)

[Onyx]

Its looking really good so far, fly. I hope you win this (again) as you always give so much time and always show dedication to things. Holding thumbs ....

[flycatchr]

thanks Onny I really appreciate the encouragement

Managed to do the wheel arches/mud guards today out of superwood (22mm) I went to the perspex place in honeydew and they wanted R200 for a 150mm x 200mm x 20mm piece of perspex. plus extra for cutting. with a big sigh I left and almost drove away, RIGHT next door was a company doing CNC cutting of super wood. as luck would have it the owner was there and while i was waiting his chaps dumped a large piece of wood on their off-cut pile - with strips sticking out of it that where so close to the sizes i needed that i wet my pants. he not only gave me the small strip, but the very large off-cut too. will definitely come in handy. I was so excited i forgot to get his company name. something i will do shortly.

The result is what you see below - the wheel arches edged with a router (on a table top I made for the purpose), super glued on to the sunderer shell and then the excess routed out to follow the shape of the arches. I hope to have the base coat painted on by the end of tomorrow.