Black acrylic or plexiglass for obolisk

nurturer · Post by **nurturer** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:54 pm

Looking to buy a 11" long, 4" wide and 1" thick piece of black acrylic or plexiglass for a 2001: A Space Odyssey diorama I'm considering.

Can't seem to find a source. Anyone know of one?

Thanks.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:02 pm

And... there's a reason for that. It's expensive. A 2x4 foot sheet of 1" acrylic will set you back $250.

Then there's the heat issue. The thicker the sheet the more heat it generates while curing and the more heat the better the chance of bubbles forming. And IIRC black holds more heat than clear acrylic.

But... if you're sure about this http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Plexig ... 00CCM24X48

zymurgeist · Post by **zymurgeist** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:34 am

It would be far easier to cast one out of epoxy resin.

Jawarob · Post by **Jawarob** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 4:11 am

zymurgeist wrote:It would be far easier to cast one out of epoxy resin.

If it doesn't have to be tranparent, you could get thinner plexi, build the box with the correct dimensions, and polish the edges to get rid of the seams.

nurturer · Post by **nurturer** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 6:28 am

Dang. Now I'm thinking I should just stick some styrene sheets together and hit it heavy with Tamiya Gloss Black and sand it to a polished finish.

USSARCADIA · Post by **USSARCADIA** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 9:14 am

nurturer wrote:Dang. Now I'm thinking I should just stick some styrene sheets together and hit it heavy with Tamiya Gloss Black and sand it to a polished finish.

That's probably your best bet. I sprayed a plaque using Krylon's Hammered paint in black it it came out looking pretty good. Has a slight texture to it.

The other option is calling around to local sign shops, plastic suppliers, etc. looking for a remnant.

SpaceRanger1 · Post by **SpaceRanger1** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:07 am

Evergreen makes black sheet styrene. Might be easier to make it out of that, then give it a good polish.

Ant · Post by **Ant** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:13 pm

Have a look at Delrin or Acetal - a nylon-like material that is available as thick sheets in all sorts of sizes

Johnnycrash · Post by **Johnnycrash** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:18 pm

Grab some plastic sheet. Grab a chunk of wood. Shape the wood to the size you want minus 2xPlasticThickness. Glue plastic to wood. Sand smooth and paint flat black. Done. The wood is to give it a strong core. It's just a box after all.

By the way, the dims should be in a ratio of 1x4x9. The products of the square of the first three prime numbers (1, 2, 3). Although the movie got that wrong. Oops!

kenlilly106 · Post by **kenlilly106** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 6:38 pm

I have one of the Captain Cardboard 2001 figure kits that came with a monolith, it was a piece of MDF in the proper proportions.

Sealing it with several coats of shellac sanded between coats got rid of any of the texture of the MDF, priming it auto lacquer filler/primer and sanding between coats again got the surface perfectly smooth.

Make sure to use a sanding block and be careful not to round off the corners.

Ken

naoto · Post by **naoto** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 6:58 pm

Johnnycrash wrote:Grab some plastic sheet. Grab a chunk of wood. Shape the wood to the size you want minus 2xPlasticThickness. Glue plastic to wood. Sand smooth and paint flat black. Done. The wood is to give it a strong core. It's just a box after all.

By the way, the dims should be in a ratio of 1x4x9. The products of the square of the first three prime numbers (1, 2, 3). Although the movie got that wrong. Oops!

1 is *not* a prime number
In the book it was noted that the sequence 1:4:9 were simply what was apparent to us -- it wasn't readily apparent to anybody that the sequence continued into higher dimensions with 16:25:36...

Johnnycrash · Post by **Johnnycrash** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:03 pm

naoto wrote:1 is *not* a prime number

Yes, I knew that. Didn't mean to type prime. Oops!!

E-Dub · Post by **E-Dub** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:04 pm

Seems on point to link to my monolith album:

http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/Emsle ... y/Monolith

Inspired by an Owen Oulton piece where he did the same basic thing with TNG figures.

zymurgeist · Post by **zymurgeist** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:32 pm

1, 4, and 9 are the first three perfect squares. Pedantic I know but that's why they were used. It's an alternative form of establishing a mathematical basis for communication. Primes being the most obvious basis. To us anyway. Lord knows what a species with three fingers uses.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:00 pm

They'd use a base 3 or base 6 most likely.