Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Leg on a Stick

I got around to fiberglassing my leg cast this weekend. I decided to seal the seam first so it wouldn't go out of alignment. I mixed about 4oz. of resin my first go and it started setting up on me halfway through. Next batch I only did 2oz. and I was able to use it all before it started curing.


After my seam set up I fiberglassed the T pipe setup to the inside of my casting. I put a rag in the bottom for the pipe to rest on so it'd dry more or less in the center of the ankle opening.


I went ahead and covered the side facing up while I was at it.


Once the mounting fiberglass cured I screwed the pipe back into the flange and finished fiberglassing all the places I'd missed. 


I ended up with some wicked sharp edges on my casting so I used my Dremel to smooth most of them down. Now it's ready for me to start sculpting onto it.


I did a little test with a candle warmer and the Plasteline clay. It did melt it down but it took a considerable amount of time. Heating it in the microwave and using the candle warmer to keep it liquid would probably be the better way to go. I have the NSP soft, but the tutorial recommended medium or hard so I may end up having to buy more clay. I'll wait and see how it handles first.


And finally we come to my little side project. I've been trying to come up with a way to fix my Himeno shoes and I finally decided on gluing white PVC over them. They're a bit bumpy on the surface so I was going to do a layer underneath the PVC to smooth them out a little. I used Shoe Goo and although it sticks wonderfully and seems like it'd hold forever it won't go on smooth for anything. As I spread it around it rolled and pilled making additional bumps all over that show through the material. My next experiment will be with Super 77 spray glue. That'll at least give me a smooth application, I'm just worried about its holding strength.


That's all so far. Next comes the sculpting. 

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