Okay, now that I’ve got that out of the way, I want to fabricate a shell with a hexagonical cross section using the Aves “draping” process. Which method you use- drape two three-sided panels- two halves of the shell, or drape six single panels with greebles in place?
Also what is the recommended adhesive for use on Aves?
Aves fabrications
Moderators: Joseph C. Brown, Moderators
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Thrusterhead Jones
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Aves fabrications
When better multistators are built, they'll be built by Thetatronic Overdrive.
A dvision of Orion Astromotive, Inc.
A dvision of Orion Astromotive, Inc.
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Mr. Badwrench
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Lt. Z0mBe
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Ditto on Brad's instruction for using CA as an adhesive for Aves.
To answer your question about draping. I'd drape the entire hexagonal piece at once, otherwise, you're going to run into symmetry problems between the first piece and the later ones. Roll the sheets out and make them of uniform depth. That's the important part when your draping an Aves shell over a substrate as your substrate is really the basis for your sculpt.
If the greeblies are small, place them over the Aves. If they're large and blocky with space between them, you can Aves over them provided you can pick them out later. But fine detail greeblies, like say the trenches on a Star Destroyer or a tank's pioneer tools are best left off until after the drape.
To keep the depth uniform use a candy rolling pin from Wal-Mart. They're made out of white silicone (might be nylon) and include rubber bands for different thicknesses of rolled candy. The rubber bands are placed on each end of the rolling pin. Thinner bands mean thinner candy pieces and so on. Lubricate your Aves, rolling surface and rolling pin with just a bit of cornstarch. Too much is no big deal, just wet the Aves sheet with alcohol and it will get sticky again.
If you can't get a pin, use what I used - a large-barreled marker and rubber bands. Sure, I had to keep the pieces small, but it worked like a charm.
Cut your appropriately shaped pieces and begin draping.
I hope this helps.
Kenny
To answer your question about draping. I'd drape the entire hexagonal piece at once, otherwise, you're going to run into symmetry problems between the first piece and the later ones. Roll the sheets out and make them of uniform depth. That's the important part when your draping an Aves shell over a substrate as your substrate is really the basis for your sculpt.
If the greeblies are small, place them over the Aves. If they're large and blocky with space between them, you can Aves over them provided you can pick them out later. But fine detail greeblies, like say the trenches on a Star Destroyer or a tank's pioneer tools are best left off until after the drape.
To keep the depth uniform use a candy rolling pin from Wal-Mart. They're made out of white silicone (might be nylon) and include rubber bands for different thicknesses of rolled candy. The rubber bands are placed on each end of the rolling pin. Thinner bands mean thinner candy pieces and so on. Lubricate your Aves, rolling surface and rolling pin with just a bit of cornstarch. Too much is no big deal, just wet the Aves sheet with alcohol and it will get sticky again.
If you can't get a pin, use what I used - a large-barreled marker and rubber bands. Sure, I had to keep the pieces small, but it worked like a charm.
Cut your appropriately shaped pieces and begin draping.
I hope this helps.
Kenny
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Joseph C. Brown
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I have rolled Magicsculpt (a VERY similar epoxy putty) for draping like this:
You need:
Clean flat surface
A rolling pin / tube
spacers, 2 matching in height
release agent (baby powder/cornstarch/talcum powder)
-Mix the Aves up, set to one side
-Lay down the release agent on the flat surface
-Position your spacers
-Set Aves in between spacers
-Slowly use rolling pin to flatten the Aves down to the height level of the spacers, getting it to the size you will need to cover all of your panels.
-Use release agent on your half of a tube
-Carefully lift the Aves sheet, and drape it over your panels.
-Smooth out imperfections
-Let cure / dry
In the pics link below, my Farscape One is used to vaguely illustrate this. You'll see the ship plans, then foam 'buck' of the model, and then shots of the blue tempered glass that I used as my flat surface. The white strips are my height spacers that kept the roller at a specific height above the glass.
That means all the putty got squished down to the height of the spacers. I used talcum powder as the release agent on the foam Farscape, so, after draping the sheet of putty on the foam, I let it cure overnight.
I repeated the process to make the top and bottom of the model, keeping it very light weight because it's hollow inside.
http://www.PictureTrail.com/gid4297135
To see how the rest of the model turned out:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/gid4297139
It's a very similar process to what Kenny describes.
Hope that helps some!
You need:
Clean flat surface
A rolling pin / tube
spacers, 2 matching in height
release agent (baby powder/cornstarch/talcum powder)
-Mix the Aves up, set to one side
-Lay down the release agent on the flat surface
-Position your spacers
-Set Aves in between spacers
-Slowly use rolling pin to flatten the Aves down to the height level of the spacers, getting it to the size you will need to cover all of your panels.
-Use release agent on your half of a tube
-Carefully lift the Aves sheet, and drape it over your panels.
-Smooth out imperfections
-Let cure / dry
In the pics link below, my Farscape One is used to vaguely illustrate this. You'll see the ship plans, then foam 'buck' of the model, and then shots of the blue tempered glass that I used as my flat surface. The white strips are my height spacers that kept the roller at a specific height above the glass.
That means all the putty got squished down to the height of the spacers. I used talcum powder as the release agent on the foam Farscape, so, after draping the sheet of putty on the foam, I let it cure overnight.
I repeated the process to make the top and bottom of the model, keeping it very light weight because it's hollow inside.
http://www.PictureTrail.com/gid4297135
To see how the rest of the model turned out:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/gid4297139
It's a very similar process to what Kenny describes.
Hope that helps some!
________
Joe Brown
Joe Brown
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Stu Pidasso
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