Update on the finishing of the 3D prints I have, I started by cleaning up the prints, and doing some "damage " to the bludgers.
Then I painted all the components of the rings and the bludgers gloss black.
Next step was to apply Pewter Rub n buff to the ring components and the bludgers surfaces:
It was time to glue these up, so I picked up some Akfix 705 CA glue.
This stuff was a life saver and a pain in the butt. It only takes it 7 seconds to set or so. But that leaves next to no time to adjust placement.
When gluing the bludger ring latch, I had to include a rubber grommet on one side to stiffen up the latch and allow it to function properly.
When this was done I was riding high:
Next up, I cut the rim off the smaller bowls with my Dremel and glued them to the bludger rings with No More nails:
Next up was the lock front plate. I lined it up and taped it for painting:
Then I glued this in place also with No More Nails:
Will just need a bit of touch up for the paint to line up, and then clearcoating.
Next, was applying a rust paint job to the bludger which involved stippling painting with 3 different colors, Burnt Umber, Honey Brown, and Terracotta. I followed a technique I saw on You Tube and was very pleased with the results:
Credit to CreatingThroughChaos for their great tutorial:
And here we are.
Now to talk about the corner pieces.
I got the piece printed in resin with the intention to mold the piece to save time and have nice copies.
Everything looked great and good during setup and pouring, but when I went to demold the original, I found the the silicone touching the surface of the piece was still gooey. I pulled my original out of the mold and let the mold cure, for 5 more days. Then I casted a piece in it, to find it all melted looking.
I decided to re-mold the piece after I coated it in primer + paint so I molded it again:
This mold came out much better, with a very small amount of gooey, so I casted in it, and aside from a bit of bumps that can easily be sanded off, it looked good.
So, I casted the 12 pieces that I needed:
All that's left for that is to sand, and paint black and they are ready to be glued to the trunk.
PSA: I talked to a number of other makers, and they all said the same thing, Resin prints continue to Off-gas after curing to the touch for up to 30 days after printing. Because of this, it will cause Platinum-cured Silicone to not fully cure. So you have to coat the surface in a primer or other coating to allow the mold to fully form. My second mold mostly cured because it was coated in primer, but I guess the paint wasn't completely cured cause some flaked off and reacted to the silicone.
Finally, I remodelled my Bludger Top Holder after some discussions with my friend doing the printing and came up with a 3 piece assembly that should be much easier to print and to assemble, and less fragile.
Winded down, I should have the compartment doors and the bludger top piece prints this week. Once that's ready to go, it's on to the final stage, weathering.... groan.
