Captain America's Shield (Part 5)!

Okie dokie, today's Captain America shield post is a tad bit long, but it's mostly pictures, so never fear! Now my shield is more than likely going to take more steps than any you reader create, because I've had problem after problem with this shield.

Step twenty: After I painted the blue yesterday it was drying with white edges to it. I can't fully explain it, but it was weird. So I primed it again (I've lost count on how many times I've primed this thing!). While the primer was drying I saw these tiny cracks going throughout the paint. I went out and purchased a glazing putty from Advanced Auto Parts. Dabbing some onto the shield, I smoothed it out with a piece of plastic that I sanded down to a smooth edge. (It's the pinkish stuff you're going to see in the pictures.)

Step twenty-one: The putty dried quickly. After it was dry I took some 400 grit auto sandpaper to it, after it looked a bit smoother I wet sanded it until all the bumps were flat.

Step twenty-two: I primed again.

Step twenty-three: There were still some bumps that I missed so I wet sanded again.

Step twenty-four: Guess what this step is!! I primed! Yet again!

Step twenty-five: Finally came time for the blue. (I also bought another can of the blue MetalCast, because I think there was problem with the last one, hence the cracks and white. Not sure though. But this new can worked like magic. No problems with it at all.) I did 6 layers of blue, give or take.

Here is the thousands of pictures I took of this process! Enjoy. I'll be back soon! Hopefully no more problems a rise!

There are the little white lines I was talking about.

I don't think you can see the cracks but they are there.

Layer one

Layer one after

Layer 2

Layer 2 after

Layer 3

Layer 3 after

Layer 4

Layer 4 after

Layer 5

Layer 5 after

Layer 6

Layer 6 after

Layer 6 way after

Thor's Hammer (Mjolnir) (Part 1)!

Back again today! This prop is a part of my Capstone Project! I will commonly refer to the hammer as Myeu-muh, because that's what Darcy calls it and I love Darcy and who doesn't love saying Myeu-muh?!

Anyway. I'm making myeu-muh out of a PVC pipe, Styrofoam, and some sort of plaster that I have yet to research and buy, but I will get back to you on that! So here you go!

Step one: Find some Styrofoam. Thankfully I had a large enough piece that I didn't have to go out and buy any or glue any together.

Step two: I have this amazing Styrofoam cutter, (I only own this doohickey because my family is crazy about Christmas and decorating and we have Styrofoam under the Department 56 village that we have scattered around the house.) Measure out how big you want your pieces of Styrofoam and I found it helpful to draw lines with a ruler to keep me on the right track while I was cutting.

TIP!: When using the hot knife, only use it for short spurts, or become apt at holding your breath for a long time. The smell is nasty and kills you brain cells faster than anything I've ever known!

Step three: Once you've cut your rectangle. I took the hot knife thing and held it flat against the edges of the hammer, because Thor's has flat edges, not sharp ones.

Step four: I'm not sure if I made the right choice by doing this, but I'm going to make it work. I found the center of the hammer at the base and made an X with the hot knife and slowly made a hole in the base, for the pipe/handle.

Step five: I used my best judgment on how long I wanted the handle to be. It's probably about three of my hands stacked on top of each other. And drew a line where I want to cut the pipe.

In the pictures below, you'll see my four prototypes, I'm leaning more to using one of four. Check it my lovely friends. Talk to ya'll soon!

Guardians of the Galaxy Orb (Part 1)!

Hi-ya! Okay so this prop is not on my list of Capstone props I made, but I had the materials so I decided to have some fun because I love Guardians of the Galaxy with an absurd passion!

So the way I'm making the orb can be done with different orb like objects, my two are done with Christmas ornaments that open and held candy and cookies.

Step one: I popped the orbs open and laid them out on some newspaper. And used the same primer that I used on my Captain America shield. It's a dark grey primer I bought from Lowes Hardware.

Step two: I sprayed the orbs with a Valspar Premium Finish black satin paint.

That's all I've been able to complete today! I'll be back after Monday with some more on the orbs.

Captain America's Shield (Part 4)!

I'm running out of fun ways to say hello, so pardon my boring, plain old greeting. Hello! You guys can feel free to ask me questions! I'm always open! Anyway today is a shortie as well. 

Step sixteen: I taped the shield off with painters tape and old newspaper. Leaving just the center circle open. 

Step seventeen: Because I was anxious to paint I didn't prime the center circle which has caused me more trouble than I first imagined possible. So what I learned from that is to, no matter what. ALWAYS. PRIME. I'm going to skip all the steps where I had to peel away the layers of paint in order to get to the rough metal of the actual shield. (For that part, if you are dumb like I was, just take a razor blade to it then when you think you've peeled away all you can. Grab some sandpaper and a spray bottle and wet sand the parts where you peeled. Once that part is dry sand it regularly. Alternate until you get the metal as smooth as possible.) 

Step eighteen: Prime. I used a dark grey, almost black primer spray paint that I bought from Lowes Hardware. Just because the metal was darker than the grey primer I had. 

Step nineteen: Once the primer is dry. Paint the blue. If you don't think the blue will show up on the dark grey, you can spray some white on before the blue. I didn't, since my red is so dark, I just decided the blue would be okay dark too.

I'll have some better pictures up next time! Show off the blue a little more! See ya soon!

Captain America's Shield (Part 3)!

Gi suilon! (Sandarin Evlish for 'I greet you!') Forgive me if it is wrong.

I'm just going to jump right in today!

Step eleven: After peeling away the tape. I realized that there was a section that was supposed be red that was covered by the tape. So I had to cover the shield (well part of it) with newspaper and tape, in order to re-paint the shield.

Step twelve: I removed the news paper and tape, now there is a darker section of the shield, on the top red line. I'm hopping it will buff out. (Not really a step but part of the process.)

Step thirteen: We fabricated a metal arm that allows the lines to be straighter, cause the belt made them too crooked and wobbly. There's a little felt pad on the center of shield to keep the metal from the arm scraping against the shield and red paint.

Step fourteen: I found the lowest point on the red and relined it with a pencil then took an exact-o knife to the line and began cutting the line. Once the the lines were cut I took a dremel to the outside of the line, where the white primer was still visible.  

Step fifteen: I labeled where my hand slipped while dremeling, where I hit the strips of red paint, with a pencil saying scuff then numbering them. There's going to be eight scuffs total.

I'll be back later my peeps!