Fallout 4 space marine build series#

Here's the outside of the lower shoulder mold: Here's the inside of the buttplate mold once it was cleaned, polished, and bolted back together: Then each section was coated with PVA and allowed to dry before being bolted back together. So after wet sanding to at least 800-grit (and usually 1500-grit unless I was being especially impatient) each section of the mold was given three coats of paste release wax and buffed to a shine. Again, the key here is to make the smoothest possible surface to prevent the mold from sticking to the fiberglass part that will be laid up inside of it. Then the interior of the mold had to be sanded and polished just like the outside of the prototypes was. The next step was to scrub off all of the clay and residual PVA layer that was left behind. Here's the lower shoulder plate mold after the prototype had been removed and most of the clay was cleaned off of the margins:

Fallout 4 space marine build series#

Once the final section of each mold had cured, a series of bold holes was drilled into the flanges and then the mold sections were pried off of the prototypes. In the case of the buttplate, I laid up the fiberglass for the middle section first, then did the side sections after that had cured. Here you can see the buttplate mold in progress: Then the next mold section is laid up right alongside it. The mat has the added advantage of being easy to tear by hand, so I can just have the roll hanging within handy reach of my work area and tear off patches as I need them. I don't usually use cloth because it's tricky to get it to conform to compound curves without cutting lots and lots of tiny little pieces of cloth. For these relatively small, curvy shapes, I'll lay up at least three layers of 3/4-oz. Once the gelcoat has cured solid, the next step is to lay up the fiberglass composite on top of it. Unlike the gelcoat that will be used later on in the building of the final parts, tooling gelcoat is formulated to hold up to the extra heat and stresses involved in the repeated molding of parts. Gelcoats protect the surface from scratches, ultraviolet sun damage, and moisture damage known as 'hydrolysis', while also adding a shiny, smooth finish. Usually this is the outer layer that you see on a boat or other fiberglass object. Gelcoat is a liquid that hardens to form a thick, protective layer over the surface. NOTE: the clay parting walls were built on top of a strip of painter's tape to make it easier to remove the clay later without having a big mess of clay schmoo residue left behind on the part.Д«ack on topic: once the PVA has dried, the next step is a nice thick layer of orange tooling gelcoat: Here you can see an inner shoulder plate (right) and a handplate (left) with the parting lines built up in clay: This means I have to make a mold flange where the two (or more) parts of the mold will separate. You'll notice the ski-jump profile visible in the top edge of the above image.ДЇor parts that have undercuts that will lock the mold onto the parts, the molds have to be made in multiple pieces. In order to give the mold a bit more rigidity, and to help with the de-molding process later, it helps if these edges curve out and away from the edges of the prototype.

Here you can see me building up the edges of the front plate for a thigh: Next, I use cheap plasticene modelling clay to build the margins up to the edges of the parts.

Here you can see the pair of hand plates with the cardboard added to their backsides: This starts with mounting the part to cardboard using a hot glue gun.

The first step in making the mold is building a margin area beyond the edges of the part.