new latex handguards soon! (hopefully)

[R2Dan[TK]]

Hey guys,

 

As John told us he's not doing the latex handguards anymore I thought I'd give it a go myself and started working on moulds today. I got one handguard done, and I'll do a first cast tomorrow I guess. Should work fine I think... I will keep you guys updated on it!

 

IF it works out well and I'm happy with the pulls I will offer them to the group. However, please don't flood my PM box now, I don't know if it's going to work out for sure and I've never offered anything before. When I do it, I'll do batches, I don't have a price estimate yet either as I don't know how much latex will be needed to cast a pair, but I thought I'd let you know someone's working on them

 

Here's a pic of the right handguard mould I made today, plus the master made from styrene:

 

 

They will be different from John's, as I made the masters myself, but I think they should look good once done... fingers crossed!

[tk0000[501st]]

Interesting.............. will they be white or of white and painted like the screen used prop?

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Even if you never offer them for sale, this is a cool project so keep us posted!

[R2Dan[TK]]

the latex I have here right now has a natural colour, means it's yellow-ish just like John's were and I will paint them white. If there should be enough interest in handguards made from white latex I might do those as well. But first the moulds have to work

[R2Dan[TK]]

Ok guys, I just poured the first set, now the waiting game starts. I have never poured something that thick from latex before, but according to John's experience it takes 3 days for the handguards to cure enough to get them out of the mould.

 

Thank God I still have work to do on my trooper, that will keep me busy!

... oh and there's university, of course... damn that real life!!!!

 

[cr4nky]

Are those moulds plaster cast from a positive sculpt? And then you just pour latex into it?

[R2Dan[TK]]

that's pretty much it, yes

[cr4nky]

Hmm... cool. Thanks. I'm kinda researching and thinking about making som small things here and there myeslf. I just have no experiance with sculpting or molding in any way. So it's gonna be a trial and error thing I guess.

 

Probably gonna start of with some Boba Fett chest and shoulder armor and see where it goes from there.

[R2Dan[TK]]

you can make good looking Boba armour from styrene, I've done that a while ago:

 

 

There are dozens of plans online, you might want to give it a try

[4505 Marcel]

I would be interested in the hand guards dude

[cr4nky]

you can make good looking Boba armour from styrene, I've done that a while ago:

 

 

There are dozens of plans online, you might want to give it a try

 

I know...I'm building a Boba at the moment, so I've just ordered 5 3mm sheets of foamed pvc (aka sintra as far as I know) to make my own chest setup.

 

I've got all the templates:)

[R2Dan[TK]]

I know...I'm building a Boba at the moment, so I've just ordered 5 3mm sheets of foamed pvc (aka sintra as far as I know) to make my own chest setup.

 

I've got all the templates:)

 

Sintra is even easier to work with, but it is not as sturdy as styrene. You should be able to make some cool stuff with it anyway

 

 

@ Marcel: We'll see how it goes, if that first pull looks convincing, you'll find a signup list very soon

[Stormtrooper]

Nice work Dan.... interesting choice of material for the master sculpt, using styrene? Did you build it up in layers and then sculpt it with a craft knife or something?

I used modelling clay for my original master sculpt, and then created polyurethane 'mother castings', which were then used to create the negative plaster mould from.

 

Funny timing too, as I've just ordered some more liquid latex last night - I was thinking of dusting off my moulds and giving into pressure from interested troopers.... but that was before I saw this thread! D'OH!

 

Keep us all updated with the project... together we can do-away with all the naaasty vac-form plastic handguards out there in the costuming world!

 

Cheers,

John

swdvds@yahoo.com

[R2Dan[TK]]

I broke up the whole handguard into different layers, printed them out, cut them individually from styrene and then just glued them together... seemed the easiest way to go for me, but I'm an R2 builder, I guess I'm just too used to working with flatpack designs

 

So you're making yours again? Dang it! Why did I go through all that trouble then?

Maybe we can swap a set once I get mine done hehe

[R2Dan[TK]]

Hey John,

 

I just tried to PM you, but your inbox still seems to be filled up, so I sent you an e-mail to the swdvds addy there. Would be great if you could get back to me!

[Stormtrooper]

Hey John,

 

I just tried to PM you, but your inbox still seems to be filled up, so I sent you an e-mail to the swdvds addy there. Would be great if you could get back to me!

 

Hi Dan,

 

Email received and replied to, mate.

 

Your handguards are shaping up nicely... keep us posted on your progress!

 

Cheers,

John

swdvds@yahoo.com

[R2Dan[TK]]

ok, 24 hours later and I managed to take out the pulls pretty easily. They're not fully cured yet, but I'm way too impatient. The left handguard mould needed a little tweaking/clean up, but else they look quite decent I'd say.

 

 

What do you think?

 

 

The white spots you see is plaster dust which was taken up by the latex, that won't happen on the next pulls

I also sanded the left hand side mould a little as the surface seems a little bumpy. I guess tomorrow I'll have a second cast, hopefully it will be cleaner - But it looks promising so far

[R2Dan[TK]]

Another little update: I took the right handguard and temporarily attached it to one of my rubber gloves with doublesided tape. Here's a picture, so you know what it looks like finished - will take other pics with armour later

 

[ThayNerd[TK]]

Looking good!

[darth 456]

Yeah- that looks great. Very good job!

[tk0000[501st]]

Very nice. How flexible is it?

[R2Dan[TK]]

very flexible, you can bend it without any problem. If you glue them to your gloves they will follow your hand "profile"

[Murray1134[501st]]

I'd heard that in some of the movies they had the handplates sewn on to the gloves, do you think that would be possible on these?

[firebladejedi[TK]]

The latex hand plates for anh were glued on, like these and the esb plastic hand plates for empire were the ones sewed onto the gloves.. you woulnd need to or want to sew these ones on.

[R2Dan[TK]]

Okay guys, after a little more tweaking the pulls are coming out really well now. It does take a damn long time for the latex to cure though, the first set I made is still not fully cured!

 

I'll be getting some white latex paint next week, I hope the first sets will be all cured then so I can paint them up, I will take some pictures then and offer the first sets up for sale

 

Watch this space for more details!