Thursday, May 14, 2009

Fiberglassing Is Done.

Man, talk about "not with a bang but a whimper"!! I today finished the very last little segment of fiberglass work on the cape mold, so it is all good to go. Just need to let it cure overnight, and then I will flip it over and start in with some latex tests.

I actually ran out of epoxy resin today, so I had to finish up two little patches with epoxy resin. PEEEE-YOOO does that stuff smell bad. I can smell it on my t-shirt right now. I wore a respirator during the lay up, so hopefully I won't die an early death. But you never know with that stuff. It's nasty. I had thought of getting some more epoxy resin, but I didn't want to introduce another 3 day delay into the project, or lay out another hundred bucks for a kit. So it's done.

In other news, I did some tests with the latex products I ordered from Burman. I brushed some onto a rubber mold I had sitting around, just to see how it handled. One brand, the kind that was a little thicker, lifted off the rubber like crazy. It just would not stay down. The other, thinner one handled much better. I let it dry overnight, and I have to confess, the balloon latex turned out really nice. Color was a little pale, but I'll just have to double up on the pigment. Very opaque, and very light. So I'm actually feeling very optimistic about the cape right now. I guess my only worry is getting a good color match. I have no hopes of nailing it perfectly, but I think I can get it pretty close.

Once the fiberglass cures, I'm going to do a series of tests to make sure I've got my system of brushing in the latex right. Not sure if I will use a brush, a sponge, a roller, or whatever. That'll be what I'm experimenting on.

In mostly unrelated, yet equally as nerdy news, I picked up this on ebay the other day :



It's the same model of watch that Clark wears on Smallville. Nice! Nice and Nerdy, that's for sure. They're very common on ebay, and can be found for under fifty bucks if you get a used one. Just be sure to get the braided strap. It's the Swiss Army watch #24221. Be sure to get the one that says "Swiss Army" on the face, not the one that says "Victorinox" as that is not accurate. You want the older one.

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