[Matrix Armory]

New Projects

2012-01-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

So it's the new year. I've decided that I am not going to be working on any new projects until I finish the ones that I have planned so far. I've set the portal gun project aside for now. I'm not really feeling it, so I'm going to work on something else for now.

I've been wanting to make this since Oblivion came out years ago, then I saw the fancy new Skyrim version and I just had to make it. It also gives me a reason to try my hand at casting with Polyester clear resin.

I conveniently found a bunch of 3/4" mdf at my parents house that I forgot I had so I decided to use that to make Azura's Star.
I started by scaling up my reference images to size and drawing out the arm on the mdf.
I found that it wasn't thick enough for what I need, so I laminated two pieces together.

I then cut out the piece with my jigsaw.

After a few hours of sanding...

It still needs a lot of work, but forward progress is being made. I also started working on the main body. I'm not sure how this will come out. If it doesn't come out like I want, I'll attach a piece to the arm to make the center body more uniform and symmetric.

That's what I've got done so far. I'm also working on another Skyrim prop, Mehrunes' Razor.

In other, non-prop related news, I'm making a board game database and player ranking system with my wife.

Huzzah!

Until next time,

-Matrix

Mold making, cheap and easy.

2012-01-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

So you wanna make a silicone mold, but don't want to spend oodles of dollars on expensive silicone?

Well you are just in luck as I learned how to do such a thing when I got my fancy art degree.

Now this is a soft mold. So you probably don't want to be casting soft things in it (silicone, latex, etc.).

A general rule I follow (but as with any rule there are exceptions) is that you don't cast like into like, for example hard in to hard or soft into soft. So you don't make a plaster mold and then cast fiberglass into it. Unless you are making a one off mold and don't care that you'll have to break the mold to get the piece out. Conversely, casting silicone into a silicone mold is a bad idea. Why, you ask? Well silicone has this amazing property to stick to itself. So don't do it. Latex doesn't really stick to silicone, casting latex works better into something like porous so just use something like hydrostone or ultracal.
Here is what you will need:

-Dish soap
-100% Silicone Caulk (If it isn't clear it's not 100% silicone caulk so ,you know, get clear.)
-Latex gloves (Make sure these are powderless. Powder + watery silicone = paste. You don't want that. Also, make sure that these are not silicone gloves. Silicone sticks to silicone very well. As far as Nitrile, I've never tried them.)
-Plastic cup (Use bigger ones than this. I spilled a lot of water. Tupperware works well too)
-Water
-1 caulk gun

Also something to make a mold of!

Now if you didn't make whatever you are making make sure you have EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT from whoever did. Make sure to give them credit too. For example, Garry Newton made this and I got his permission to make a mold of this for my mom. Don't just buy someone else's work and try to remake it and pass it off as your own. If you do this is called recasting and it is a terrible, terrible thing.

Anywho, I like to stick my items to something portable. This is a piece of sintra, but wood works too. That way I'm not confined to working in one area. Make sure you use something that doesn't succumb to moisture like cardboard does.

You will also need something to make a mother mold. I used hydrostone, but plaster and fiberglass work and they make a bunch of different materials specifically for making master molds. Master molds are used with soft molds so that when you are casting into the soft mold, the finished piece isn't deformed. A bad mother mold means that you get bad castings. Take your time with it. I didn't do a great job but do as I say, not as I do.

Now that you have everything, what do you do?

The first thing you want to do is put soap in the water. Use it liberally. It's better you put too much soap in than not enough. This is very important. The soap serves two purposes. The first is that it keeps the silicone from sticking to your glove. The second is that the soap acts as a catalyst and makes the silicone cure in about 15 minutes as opposed to 2 hours. I don't know why it does, but it just does. If you don't use soap, this process can take a whole lot longer.

Now that you've got the water all soapy, it's time to put on your gloves. I use one glove on my left hand (since I'm right handed) and I leave my right hand free to use the caulk gun.

Wet your glove with the soapy water. This will keep the silicone from sticking to your glove. Otherwise, you make a big, gooey mess.

Put a little less than a golf ball sized clump of silicone in your hand. I put it in my hand out of the cup so you could see a little better, but it's best if your hand is in the soapy water and the silicone goes into the soapy water before touching your glove.

Alternatively, if you have a wider container than this glass you can put it directly into the water and scoop it up. This is how I spilled most of my water, and I don't prefer to do this, but it does work if that floats your boat.

Wad your silicone into a small ball. Don't press too hard, it doesn't take much pressure. I've found it also works better to use a rolling method rather than a pressing one. What this does is it makes your silicone more manageable, but also ensures that there are no sticky parts of the silicone (showing that the silicone was fully coated in the soap).

After your silicone is sticking into a nice ball apply it to the surface of the object. Make sure that you don't apply it thicker than 1/8". This silicone cures when the acetic acid evaporates. If you layer it on too thick, the top layer will cure trapping a layer of uncured gooey silicone.

This is what happens when you put it on too thick. When you touch the surface you can feel that there is uncured silicone trapped underneath. It is much easier if you don't put it on too thick, but if you do I've found a pretty good solution. Basically, you lance the spot where it is wet and squeeze out all of the uncured silicone. You are then left with a pocket of air. This is very bad for molds. If you cut the top of the "skin" off so the spot that had the uncured silicone is exposed, you can take the uncured silicone and squish it back on (not too thick) and fix the pothole. Imagine lancing a blister and covering it with a band-aid.

Repeat for the second layer, thickening the mold.

This is the third and final layer. I used it to smooth out the mold and make it nice and form fitting. Normally this would be the layer where you would add keys for the mother mold, but this has a fairly distinct shape and I wasn't too concerned about the mother mold fitting on to the soft mold. Also, depending on the size of the object you may need more than three layers.

Now that the mold is ready for the mother mold, I built a divider so I can make a mother mold that will allow the final piece to come out. The reason for a two part mold is that this piece has undercuts. If I made a one part mother mold, I wouldn't be able to get the solid cast piece out of the mold so we make it in two pieces.

After the first side is finished curing, remove the cardboard and coat the first half with Vaseline. This is important, because you don't want the mother mold sticking to itself.

After both sides are done, you can pull out the original and you are done.

Voila! The rest of the images are of the mother mold and the original pulled out of the mold.

There you go. I spent all of 10 bucks to get all the stuff, and most of it will last for future use.

This method can get some pretty excellent detail. I would only recommend using this on smaller items, but it can be used on larger items. For example I used this method when I made these:

And of course there are pros and cons to this as with any method.

Pros:
-Cheap in small batches
-Easy to work with
-Fast curing
-Easy to obtain
-Good for small items

Cons:
-More Expensive on a large scale
-Molds tear relatively easily (you could reinforce the silicone by adding a layer some burlap to the second layer while it is still tacky
-Smells bad
-Since you are using soapy water, this method can trap water on the surface of what you are making. This is great if you are molding over plaster or fired clay, but less great if you are using dry unfired clay as the details can get washed away or if you use something non porous as water bubbles can get trapped on the surface of the mold if you aren't careful.

That concludes Mold Making, Cheap and Easy.

Until next time,
-Matrix

Over the Holidays...

2012-01-06T15:40:00.000-08:00

So I didn't really get what I wanted to done, but I finished a few things I didn't intend to.

First I introduce to you the Blendolathe v 1.0.

I call it the Blendolathe v 1.0 because after one use the plastic parts of the blender started melting (as they weren't designed for this kind of use). So I am going to take out the motor and mount it to a better setup. So here is what I turned with the lathe. Not so bad for my first time. It's a handle for my Steampunk portal gun. The top is the lathed, the bottom is the handle I tried to hand carve and made me decide to whip up this lathe from my broken blender.

I also got the pictures I needed for a cheap DIY mold making technique!

I am going to put that in it's own post though so it is easier for myself as well as others to find.

Wahoo!

Ok so I didn't get all that much done over the break. I had to clean my stuff out of my parents garage and didn't quite feel like doing anything else. I will be going back in a week to try and get my vacuum forming machine out of their garage. I will post when I do.

-Matrix

Steam Powered Portal Device

2011-12-15T22:32:00.000-08:00

This is a sketch of my steampunk portal gun. I think it's gonna be pretty awesome.

-Matrix

Finals Week

2011-12-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

So it's finals week and I probably won't get anything done until Friday.

-Matrix

It's Friday, Friday... wait what?

2011-12-10T21:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I learned something about myself and that is that I forget the days of the week. I'm going to revise my initial Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting statement to Monday-ish, Wednesday-ish, Friday-ish but three times a week.

Since this was the last week before finals I haven't gotten much done, so I will show you something I made in high school. It's a custom saber made from home depot parts. The main body is a nickel plated brass pipe. The base is a sink handle and the grip is plastic piping and weather stripping? I'm not too sure on the weather stripping. The pointy part of the saber is just some drawer handles. You can easily make a saber for under 20 bucks at the Home Depot.

I love that place. And Lowes, but I never know how to feel when I'm in Lowes. I feel like I'm cheating on Home Depot...

Anyways... here ya go!

Sorry for the crappy pics, but I'm tired and don't want to find my good camera in the mess that is my work room.

I may or may not post better pics of this sucker later.

Speaking of...

Later

-Matrix

It's a VEST...

2011-12-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

So that was a total fail about posting on Monday. I fully intended to and then I ended up having 8 physics labs, a 4 page paper and a trebuchet all due on Tuesday. I hadn't started the paper, the labs were half done and the trebuchet just needed tweaking, but it still took all day.

Any ways, this is a leather vest I was commissioned to make. He gave me this picture and wanted me to make something like it, but with pauldrons.

It was tricky to figure out, but after eighty-something rivets here is the end result. I'm working on getting shots with him in full ren gear.

-Matrix

Blog News

2011-12-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

I've let this get out of hand. I've been caught up with school work and Oblivion, but no more. I am going to try to post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I mean honestly it's not like it takes that long to write up about something that I'm working on. This will also help me keep working and help keep me focused.

Back to costume stuff. I unfortunately wasn't able to finish my costume for Halloween. There were some circumstances that suck, but I can't do anything about that now. I'm going to keep working on this costume for next year, but I need to acquire a few tools before I continue so I'm going back to what I'm good at.

Here is a picture of a portal gun I was making for a friend. Now this ended up being 25% too large, so I am going to re-make it to the correct scale. Now you may be saying to yourself, "Matrix, you spent all that time on that first one. It's a shame for you to just stop working on that one because it's too big." Well I agree with you if that's what you think, so I am turning this into a larger steam punk portal gun.

I am going to try to have these done my Christmas, so I have a deadline and it's not ridiculous.

In a costume related update, I had to build a trebuchet for my physics class. I still have to test it, but it's supposed to launch an apple. I did a preliminary test yesterday and the results were.... less than spectacular, but I made adjustments and it should work much better now. We'll see....

Until next time,

-Matrix

It's cloak time!

2011-09-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

So this Halloween we are going to rennfaire and I am making a special knight costume. For now I am going to keep it under wraps, only showing you little by little.

Ok first up is the cloak. Now I have a lot more done and I will post about that later because, well it's not done yet...

Anyways, the first thing I did was try and find a fabric. I was going to use fancy melton wool but at 18 bucks a yard my wife said no. :(
That's okay though because I recently found 6 yards of black canvas. Now, I would recommend using at least 7 yards for a cape, 7.25 with a hood, but all I had was 6 so I made do.

Here is a picture of my initial drawing:

(okay I redrew it nice and pretty like so it was readable)
So basically for a nice, big, Sith Lord type hood you need a piece of fabric about 28" tall and have the neck hole plus about 5". In my pictures I drew the fold on the left, but I actually sewed it with the fold on top so I had to sew less. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the hood before I attached it to the hood.

Next we have the actual cloak itself. There are two things you can do here. The first is to lay out the fabric and divide it in to 6 equal triangles. Make the height of the triangles equal to the width of the the fabric (mine was about 60-62").
The second option is the one I chose and is harder to pull off, but saves a whole bunch of time. Fold the fabric so it is the width of one triangle. Next, fold it back on itself. Then again, and again until you have one less fold than the number of panels. The picture in the bottom right corner of my plans shows what I mean. It should look like this:

The reason it is one less than the number of panels is because we are cutting it along the diagonal. This will make two panels that are half the size and would make one panel. This happens to work in our favor with the cloak too because if you attach one half to one end of the cloak and the other to the other side, you already have the split down the front of the cloak. Nifty, huh?
Mark so you have a straight line to cut along and cut from the top right corner to the bottom left corner (or top left to bottom right). Make sure to cut through all of the layers at once so you cut out all of your panels.

I wouldn't use fabric less than 58" unless you are short or don't want the cape to touch the ground. Making the width of the fabric the height of the triangle makes the radius of the cape longer than the height of the fabric. If you wonder how this works feel free to ask and I'll explain it, google Pythagorean Theorem, or just trust that I have taken a lot of math and this is how it is.

Now that I have my panels I washed them so they wouldn't shrink, but they ended up fraying like CRAZY.

After much trimming and sewing I attached all of the panels together and sewed the hood on. This would have taken much less time, but my sewing machine is crap and I hand sewed them all.

Here is the end result:

I still have to weather the edges and maybe hem the edges. Also, add the clasp. So this isn't completely done, but I wanted to get it up here.

Tomorrow I will be posting how I made John's Revan mask!

Until then,

-Matrix

First Post! And it has substance!

2011-09-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! This is my first post and I hope you guys like what I have for you today. I was commissioned to make a leather thigh pouch for a steampunk pirate costume. This piece helped me learn a lot and I hope others can learn from this as well. The first thing I want to stress is that pre-planning is tremendously important. There are things I wish I had done in a different order and it would have saved me so much time and hand ache. Also, using sharpie to mark on the leather is not such a good idea. Just use pencil.

I started off by creating a foamies pattern to get a feel of the size and so I knew how big to cut out the leather.

After I had the pattern I cut out the leather and then sewed it all together.

He wanted a telescope holder on the side so I made it simple and it came out great.

I was under a tight deadline so I didn't get a pic of the next few stages, but after this I dyed it and attached the straps. Now this is where I learned the most. The straps were RIDICULOUSLY hard to attach on the back because the inside was less than 2". So those should be put on the back before it is stitched up to form a pouch. Also, the front pouch should have been attached before I sewed it up. But it all worked out in the end!

I'm going to meet with the client to get better/more pictures of it, including some in action.

I hope you guys enjoyed!

-Matrix