Stein

Here are some pics for a Stein from Soul Eater.

How to make a: DJ-PON3 record

I do a DJ-PON3 cosplay.  It is great.  It has headphone so I can be in loud places and it is still quiet. I have a photoshoot tommorow.  The only prop I have is my bag. I thought I need a additional prop. So I thought I can make a record.  I went to the scrap exchange and got a record,  $1.  w00t.

Except the inside of the record,  the label,  looks ... too normal.  I want it to fit with the DJ-PON3 theme.  

So I took his/her cutie mark.  Printed it out onto paper.  I was afraid the blue on the record would bleed through on the cutie mark.  So I painted the back of the paper black.  I used some black spray paint for plastic.  FAILURE.  It bleed through the paper.  So I reprinted it,  and used black enamel paint.  It worked.  It did not bleed through.  I don't know why.  

Above is the horrible horrible bleed.  Don't do that.  or test on a scrap piece and see what happens.

After cutting them out I run a sharpie down the edge of the paper. I am not sure if this makes a big difference, but I feel it does.  You can see where I stopped.

Then I painted the front with a coat of clear lacquer spray paint.  Then some spray adhesive.  And BAM.  A custom DJ-PON3 record.

I did both sides.  So yeah.  I nice prop from a different costume.

Joining Sintra without a visible edge, or seam.

In the world of TV most things don't have seam lines or nuts and bolts.  They are just blocks of stuff.  Yeah,  in the real world we have joints and nuts and bolts.  So I am trying to make a gun out of sintra,  and see if I can have no seams.  Just make it look like a block of ...  gun.

So I took some .22 inches thick sintra,  beveled the edge.  I just used some sandpaper, and time.  And beveled it.  I glued it together.  And from 1 inch it looks horrible.  But from 10 inches it looks great, yes I measured.  So I thought,  lets paint it.  What does paint do.  It shows all the imperfections.  And I did get a little of the PVC glue on the 'finished' side.  So when I do this on the final product,  I suspect I need to put some masking tape on the finished side,  And see if I can get a nice clean joint. 

I think it looks ok,  from at least 10 inches away.

How to get the EXACT right color for your prop:

Say you want to make a Ozpin cane from RWBY.  Cool.  A fun prop.  And you want to use spray paint to paint it because you are familiar with spay paint.  It can be easy.  Well 7 cans of spray paint later you can't get the EXACT gray that his cane is.  ARGH.  You are also getting good at sanding paint of the prop.  

So how to get the most exact color possible.  

1. Find a screenshot of your prop.  

2. I do graphic design,  so for me this is easy.  I think MS Paint might do this.  but import the image into a graphic program (cut-n-paste it in).  Use the eye dropper tool to get the RGB value of what you want.  One set of numbers is probably fine.  but if you want to get picky,  you can get multiple pics from multiples places, and average the numbers.

***Warning**** If you are unfamiliar with RGB or stuff like that. That's fine.  Just keep the order of the 3 numbers.  Don't mix them up, don't change the order or it will be ... bad.

3. Take those mystical 3 numbers to EASYRBG.com.  Type them in.  It will tell you want wall paints match that color. The Lowes I was at had Sherwin Williams paint,  so I went with that one. It gave me the top 4.  I found the little swatches of 3 of the 4.  And looked at then against the image on my phone.   

4.  I picked one.  And instead of a giant gallon bucket you can get a little paint can.  Which for most props is probably plenty.  I used foam brushes to apply the paint.  I like foam brushes. a couple coats later and I think the color is a perfect as I can get.

I think it looked pretty good.  Also the gears move.  I should probably make a tutorial for that. Hmmmm.

One thing leads to another

I was fixxing my Mr Freeze gun.  And I wanted to touch up the finish.  The bondo job wasn't perfect.  So I thought hmmmm.  I have a huge sheet of stryene.  Would that work?

Experiment time:
Can PVC glue work with styrene,  and PVC?

Can I bevel Styrene to get a nice tight corner? Or would a butt joint look better?

Will it take paint?

So if you look on the right I glued some chunks, and painted some.  As a test.

And one thing lead to another.  My Mr Freeze gun was the first gun  I ever made.  I didn't do a to scale drawing of it.  I just kind of free handed it from a pizza box.  I did some thinking and I think I can remake most of the gun with stuff I have on hand.  I need some PVC for the barrels, and more metallic spay paint.  But I have a huge sheet of stryene,  and I wouldn't have to bondo the darn thing.  And I could do a nice tutorial for adding lights to a gun.  Hmmmmm

Gun continued:

Some dremel-ing, and some sanding, and it looks a lot better. It isn't 100% perfectly round. However it is more sturdy then the cardboard.  And more flat.

Gun Repair:

I made a Mr. Freeze costume last year.  It was my second costume ever.  I learned alot.  And for reasons I don't understand,  it is my most popular.  I think it is cause I am tall, and my head is all white.

Anyway,  I made the gun out of cardboard and PVC.  I slowly replaced the cardboard with wood and bondo.  So most of it looks good.  Except the end of the barrel.  That is a cereal box.  And little kids like to hold the gun.  And maybe I bang the gun against stuff.  Anyway,  the end was showing some where.  So I figured it was time to upgrade it.  

So I removed the cardboard of the main barrel.  Yup,  2 pvc pipes hot glues together.  It works.  But it gives me a horrible edge to deal with.  I am guessing the styrene with smooth it out.  

The above pictures show hot glue and cardboard.  Not the best.  Below is my Ozpin cane I made. I had a electrical conduit (i think pvc) coupler I cut and capped with acrylic sheets.  The top side comes of for the battery.  The bottom side is fixxed on there. I glued a rough cut octagon of acrylic with some e6000.  Then dremeled it close to the shape.  The sanded about a 5 degree bevel with 220 grit paper until I couldn't feel an edge.  I think it looks pretty good.

So I can make a nice smooth edge.

Ok.

I am horrible at estimating,  so I grabbed my handy caliper,  and measured the outer diameter of the larger barrel.  I grabbed my handy hole cutter bit for my drill and cut out circles for the barrels.  Then I realized the hole saw cut holes in the middle of the piece.  Crud,  that is fine for 1 barrel,  but not fine for both.  So one piece I eye balled a chunk.

I used styrene. Because I think the texture will be similar to PVC, so it will blend in.  Also I have a huge piece I am trying to use up.  

I glued them in place with some e6000.  And left them to dry.  Always give the glue time to dry.  Tomorrow I will dremel the excess off,  then hand sand it smooth.  And paint paint paint.

Also I have my LED's still in the barrel.  I crammed some colon balls down the barrel,  so if any glue dripped inside,  the cotton balls would deal with it.  And I won't ruin the LED's.

Pepekura cont...

 I am still a little nervous about the 3-d model I am working from.  So I took my action figure and started taking measurements.  I managed to get pretty far,  then I broke he gun.  Which kind of worked out.  I was able to easily get some measurements. Anyway I was able to mock up most of the gun so  I can trade out bits for tubes,  hopefully for less bondo and sanding,  and smoother outside.  Hopefully.

6.73%
I am starting my first pepekura project.  I finally got to a point where I could take some measurements. I used some one elses model.  Unfolded it.  And here we are.  I took some measurements and did some math.  I am 6.73% off.

ARGH

So... do I keep going.  Or stop see if I can make my own model from my little statue?  My current plan is to mock up the entire gun in 3-d tomorrow and go from there.