polishing ABS-armor

[Xinx[TK]]

Hi All,

 

After putting shins on my ANH-armor I used ABS-paste to fill the gap between the 2 parts.

The ABS-paste was made out of the same material as my armor.

After filling the gap and drying, the paste is the same color as my armor.

After grinding (using wet grinding-paper 180-400-1000-1200) the filled gap changes to a darker color.

 

Does anyone know how this happens and how I can prevent this ?

 

Thanks,

[kmeeone]

Give it time to dry, then scuff it up, and add another layer of ABS paste, and see if it will cover the area more. it looks like you need to add more paste. 

Edited January 15, 2017 by kmeeone

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Those seams look magnificent, Pawel!  That is the first time I have seen this, but it looks like maybe there was some dirt/dust on the sandpaper or armor that worked it's way into the seam.  You might try hitting it with some different cleaners, or worse case scenario you may have to (gently) grind out those areas and re-do them.  If you are (hopefully) are aiming for Centurion, I don't think it should affect that, but I am sort of OCD and that would drive me crazy.  I hope you find out what the problem was, and that you post some photos of how it turns out!

[Xinx[TK]]

Today I grinded the area so a new layer of ABS-paste can be put on.

Besides I made a new batch of ABS-paste

- Acetone 99.995% Pro Analyse from a chemical lab

- Cleaned ABS

- Brown glass jar to present UV-light.

Best raw-materials I think

 

So I try it all over.

[Xinx[TK]]

The new batch looks promissing. I used a excess of acetone. The excess looks very white and has a viscosity of water.

The viscosity of the sediment is comparable with handsoap.

 

(My old batch was quite different. The Excess of acetone was as clear as water and the viscosity of the sediment was comparable to chewing gum.)

 

After applying the new batch to the gap it looks like below.

 

I noticed some air bubbles beneath the surface, but I can fill these after grinding with the fluid ABS-suspension.

 

So I think I'm back on track.

[ScaryGuy[TK]]

Looking good Pawel! A lot of effort but well worth it! We need more Centurions in our garrison!

Edited January 19, 2017 by ScaryGuy

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Looks MUCH better, Pawel!  That should look really sweet when you get it complete.

[Xinx[TK]]

After reviewing the filled and grinded gap together with a centurion TK from the Dutch Garrison (@ScaryGuy : Thanks), he concludes it is still not white enough. I support his conclusion, so back to the drawingtable....

 

Today I added some pure Titanium-dioxide powder (known as the white pigment in paint) to my ABS-paste.

Hopefully the pigment will upgrade the color towards the needed white.

To experiment with this new approach I made different concentrations of TiO2 in the ABS-paste.

 

As can be seen below  I  made a testsamples as my armor gets thinner due to grinding.

 

to be continued....

[magni[TK]]

This might sound stupid but how about wiping down seam with bleach? I can't see the bleach would hurt the plastic. But not 100% sure on that.

[Xinx[TK]]

So an update.

After repeatedly grinding and replacing the ABS-pasta, the gap between the kidnay-plate and shim became approx. 2 mm. So I decided to remove the shim and do it all over again.

after aligning the 2 edges, the maximum distance between the 2 parts is max. 0.5 mm. 

 

After drying I applied my ABS-pasta 2.0 (added some TiO2).

The result after removing the excessive amount of ABS-paste with sandingpaper 240 is shown below:

 

I think this will do the trick and now I'm going to start polishing this side.

hopefully this will be approved for centurion level.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Nice job Pawel 

[Novak Dimon[TK]]

Looking great!

[ScaryGuy[TK]]

Well done Pawel!

[Xinx[TK]]

Thank you all for the feedback 

[magni[TK]]

That will look good all shiny. Good job Pawel!