Lots of spears

Here's a little work in progress with the Spartan's spear. After a good cleaning of the 3D print I've make a mold of the spear and do a few cast tests for the colors.

When I look at this, I still have so much to learn with mold making. The silicone is really accurate even for the surface finish. The 3D print was clean and smooth but not super smooth, still had a flat finish as I didn't end it with a super mega fine grid like a 2000 or something like that. And I didn't paint it before doing the molds.

So the result is cool but when it comes out of the mold if has the same flat finish as the 3D print. And instead of redo the whole mold after a better finish on the printed spear, I've decide to try to put a little coat of semi gloss varnish to see how it looks and it's actually perfect. Ok I'm a bit lazy on that but the result is nice once the varnish is there.

Here's pict with the first color and resin test:

I've test two kind of resin, one made for rotational casting (yes those are hollow like the originals) and one made for color effect.
The one for rotational casting gives clearly a better and more consistency result for the shape and thickness. But when it cures it turns white, so you have to put a lot more color and make it really dark in order to have something in a medium color look. So it's a bit a pain to figure out how it will look once you demold it.
The other one, made for colored casting works really well with the colors and what you prepare before pouring really comes out like that at the end, but it's slightly less consistent in the thickness of the spear. I will go with that one as for the moment and after some more test I've manage to get the right color formula, mixing yellow, red, white and brown colors into the resin in various amount.

The one in the middle is slightly more glossy as it's one with the varnish and with the right color mix.

For the shield, no picture today, but I've manage to have a good "master shield" after casting the front part in my mold and build a rear part with resin and a little 3D print of the connection part. Now I need to do a new mold for that and it will be ready to cast.
I'm hesitating about trying to put my "master shield" back in the first mold and cast the second half on top of this but I might have a strange seem in the back. So the wiser choice would be to redo a clean and new mold from that "master shield"

Will keep you posted when it's done with some pictures of the whole Spartan with his new weapons.

Happy New Spear

First  I would like to wish a Happy New Year to everybody reading my little blog.
Wish you all the best for this year, good health for you and your family and good moments with the people you care about.

To start this year, here's the 3D print of the Spartan spear I've just receive today. This was started a long time ago, before I even had a Spartan as I was sure that if I find one it will miss the spear as usual with this villain. And it's the case so I've finalize the model and launch the print.

I wanted to test the Prime Gray from i.materialise for a long time now and this was a good opportunity. It's a bit cheaper than what I use for my big replicas but it's actually the same technique and since I paint all my stuff, it's interesting because it's the same resolution, same material, just the color that is gray and it's cheaper. Good deal I guess.

So here's the image of this spear, raw from the printer and ready to be sanded. I'm not going to paint that one this time but I'm going to use it to make a mold and cast it in brown resin and hollow, so it's going to be closer to the original this way.

What's interesting also with this material is that it's easier to see the print layer. The white resin I've use until now is a bit translucent, and then it's really hard to see the print layers when you are sanding it an after it's sanded. You really have to turn the object in the light to see the remaining print layers. Here it's way more easy to spot and then more easy to clean and sand.