Brown & Decker Like Black & Decker, only not.

Hi.

So, we decided to take a break from our big costumes to do some smaller ones. We decided we'd do steampunk. If you're not familiar what that is, go here.

Now, some pics!





Andy

Hi.

So what an eventful weekend. We met on Wednesday, then I went home just long enough to sleep, shower, and work for eight hours, only to drive back to Jim's to work two LONG days.

And they were RIGHTEOUS days.

So when we last met, we just started Bondo, right? Well, we're DONE WITH THE BONDO.

On a side note, spot filler sucks because it takes forever to dry.

It's at this point where I feel like the pictures will speak for themselves.











So the wiring needs a little work, but this was just to get an idea. Cool, huh?







So, as you can tell, we're pretty far along, right? The big things next are vacuum-forming the visors, and doing the electronics.

For the vacuum-forming, we needed to build a rig that would melt plastic in the shape of our visors. The instructions that we had called for some aluminum parts...

So we went to Lowe's looking for these aluminum screen corners, only to find they didn't have them. Distraught, we went to Home Depot(which I like FAR less than Lowe's), only to find they didn't have them either. The guy at Home Depot suggested we stop at a local tool supply further down the road. Turns out, this was the WORST idea. It was like a page out of the movie Deliverance. Anyway, we get in there and finally find someone to help us. The guy says that he thought he had some, and had us running all over the store. At one point, he was asking us what we were building, so Jim responded with "vacuum-former" and described it to him, and the man's reaction was, I kid you not, "You're not making a CRACKHOUSE are you?"

Seriously.

Turns out aluminum is a factor in making meth. Learn something new everyday.

Monday we attempt to do something else with the helmets. Stay tuned, because the next project looks like Dr. Doom armor!

Andy

Hi.

So, we're done. Yup. We made it in time for the deadline. Everything went better than expected, and I'd say we're extremely proud of what we've accomplished. Now, all that remains is getting it to California. UPS, here we come.

I feel like a picture should go here. How about a teaser? A blurry picture of Kenny messing with the light.



Yes.
Andy

Hi.

So what an eventful day. God, I am so exhausted that I am literally falling asleep at the keyboard. The best part is that I have to get up for work in a few hours, and will proceed to put two more long days on these. It's a good thing that working on these makes the time go fast.

And now, some pictures.



So if you're just tuning in, or have been following the whole time, you should know that we began on the tedious task of Bondo-ing. Bondo is a brand name. The product we're actually using is Bondo brand body filler. Usually used to fill in dents on cars. The idea here is that if we pile the Bondo on top of the base, we can sand it down into the shape we want. It works really great, and can solve any mistakes you've made in the earlier step, only there's a catch (and there's a catch to everything) you have to be up for umpteen million hours of sanding.

Now on the other helmet, we had encountered an issue with a large crack in the side of the dome. We were concerned with having to start again from the very beginning until we stumbled upon a baseball helmet at Academy sports that we thought we could use. The idea was to cut the face off of the Thomas helmet and reattach it to the baseball helmet. It was almost a perfect fit.

Of course, there's a catch, since the both of us are perfectionists, we wanted to adjust the way the helmet sat on Jimmy's head. The plan was to take about an inch and a half out of the center of the helmet, lowering the top of the dome down to more near the ear area.



I want to say it was easier than I expected it being, but I wasn't the one doing the cutting.

So, by the end of the day, my helmet had been Bondo-ed and re-Bondo-ed many times, and sanded to almost perfection. I'd show a picture here, but evidently I don't have a more recent one...

Jim's came out great. We Bondo-ed the whole thing into one piece.



Pretty great, right? Well, the plan is (and I don't want to jinx it) to start painting next time we meet, and start vacuum forming the visors after that. Which would put us at almost 90% done. What a trip, man.

Andy

Hi again.

So, Danny's birthday present is coming along GREAT. We got a ton of it done yesterday. All that's left now is filling in the cracks and painting. Gotta make that deadline of before Spring break: March 7th.

So, here's a pic of a great Samus cosplay. We based ours off of hers.

Hey.

So I'm a little late again, but this week was MIDTERMS WEEK! Yaaaay...

Anyway, last night we clocked in about seven hours, but I'd have to check again. So, last time we spoke, we were concerned about the fiberglass issue. Well, as it turns out, with a little help from our friends at 405th, we found out it would be ok. All we did was sand out the inside and the itchiness was gone.

On a side note, fiberglass splinters hurt infinitely worse than wooden splinters.

Back to the matter at hand, yesterday we began BONDO! Ah, bondo, the stuff of gods. We can literally fix ANYTHING with Bondo.





Look a little different? I THINK SO. Jim's helmet was completely cut apart. We are planning on putting the face onto a baseball helmet. Mine's a little different too because we cut the back off of it, but we're going to glue it back together.

Here's some more pictures.





OH, IT'S STARTING TO TAKE SHAAAAPE. This week is going to be rough. We plan on doing a few 8-10 hour days. By the end of the week we want to cut the visors out, vacuum form them, put them in and PAINT!

Hi

Alright, so we began real construction on Danny's birthday present. It's coming along great. For the sake of suspense, we won't post any of the developmental pictures until it's mostly complete. It is a part surprise for my brother. Here's some teasers.

We interrupt this blog post to bring you a special public service announcement.

Hey

So, this whole time we've been working out of Jim's garage. It was a pretty sweet set-up. We have power tools, tables, gloves, etc etc. Anything we could need. Recently, though, Jimmy's parents bought and installed a shoplight in there so that we would have a better lit space to work. Pretty nice, huh? Especially seeing as how when the sunsets, it's like a cave in there. Now it's like a nicely lit cave.



So, to Bobbie and Mike, we thank you for this thoughtful gesture.

Andy

Hi.

So, I'm a little late with this one, since I got home last night but couldn't upload until today. We were up until four-ish in the morning the day before, so I was dead tired.

Not much has happened on this end. Last time I was talking about the crack in Jim's helmet.



SO, sucks, right? Yeah. It does. Unfortunately, we think that's going to be it for that one. We either find an alternate way of fixing it, or start over. Real cool, right?



Well, turns out it is pretty cool. We found this great baseball helmet at Academy sports for ten dollars. I had seen other prop makers using baseball helmets for the Tom helmet before, so we think we can do it too. With it, we'll cut the face/visor piece off the already pep'd and resin one that we're going to toss out, and try to cut some corners. I'm not ready to call it a loss just yet.

Only problem is that...well, it's still not that easy. See, when we were doing research, we came down to a simple step by step process:
1.) Make the paper base
2.) Resin and Fiberglass
3.) Something else
4.) Something else
(See post one for more detail)

Well, we think we bought the wrong fiberglass. Now that IS a problem.



See, the fiberglass MAT is little strands of fiberglass kind of pressed together. Fiberglass MAT = HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS TO USE. The fiberglass cloth is fiberglass strands woven tightly together. Fiberglass CLOTH = WONDERFUL BUT HAVE TO START OVER AGAIN. We can't get the strands from the mat under control. They're every where. Plus they itch like hell. I'm not putting that in my helmet and wearing it for four days. If push comes to shove, I'll start over again.

Andy

Hi again.

So since we had a bit of down time while the fiberglass was drying, so we decided to start a side project.

My little brother's birthday is coming up soon. Every year I ask him what he wants as a present, and he always responds with "You don't have to get me anything" or "nothing." So this year, since I'm tight on cash, I decided that I wanted to make him something.

The plan is that we want to make the arm and helmet from Samus Aran's suit of armor. If you're not familiar with this AMAZING Nintendo series, Samus is a kick-ass chick with an amazing suit of armor.



See the canon? That's what we started on today. Again, since I forgot my camera, I don't have any pictures, but take my word for it, it's not going so well so far. The pep file isn't as high quality as the Daft Punk helmets were. It's pretty nitty-gritty with the folds, which we seem to not be so hot with.

Oh, and I can't find a good file for the helmet. We might have to find something else. *sigh*

Andy

Hey.

So I forgot my camera today, so you'll have to just use your imagination.

Day five was kind of short, kind of long. It was short in that all we did was fiberglass the helmets. We found out that this was a lot more annoying than anyone had warned us. Turns out the little strands of fiberglass stick to EVERYTHING and never get off the gloves. Oh, and it takes forever.

Also, we hit a minor snag when Jim's helmet got a big crack on the side.

...so I WOULD post a picture here, but I forgot my camera. So just imagine a 1/4 done helmet with a big crack in the side. Shouldn't be a problem...

I'm packing my camera as we speak.

Andy

Hey.

So I'm a little late with this one, yes. Technically yesterday was day four, but I was tired as hell when I got home, so you have to wait.

Anywho.

Yesterday was quite the eventful day. We began the resining process. And boy is it awesome.

Began as usual with a ton of research, only this time we knew we had a huge shopping list. After blowing a hundred and twenty dollars in supplies, we began.

Gonna give you your fair warning, kind of pic heavy this time.







After the first coat, they began to immediately stiffen up. It was incredibly impressive. Little did we know that the resin we had cured after two hours, so a lot of down time.

Of course, since there was so much down time, these last few pictures were taken at night, so excuse the flash. It kind of doesn't show how hard they are.





Stay tuned, next time: FIBERGLASS.

Andy