The Energon Pub

Posted by TFmaster Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:56 am

Just walked into the thread and saw that someone is making a Pre-Earth Bumblebee out of wood?!!

Talk about scratchbuilding!

TFM

Posted by piranacon Wed Feb 23, 2005 3:25 am

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:37 am

To be honest, when I saw that post I thought #$!!!**. Now Someone has beeten me to it. But after seeing the large scale difference and design difference my mind is at ease.

I like the jd productions one mainly in robot mode. The detail in that size is really impressive. I also like the concept for the transformation. I do however think the transformation has been done a bit sloppy. It dose not seem to fit together well in alt mode. The alt mode is remenisant of a cylon ships wing. The alt wing design looks based on the shots from the opening credits where as my wing was inspired by the lines of the cybercon 2004 bumblebee made by a crazysteve (i don't know what his real name is).

I would buy it, and that is one of the only compliments that really mean anything. And given that this is a product for sale I think it is a sucsessful job (if the reproductions come out good).

Now I need to try a bit harder

Posted by Pepie Wed Feb 23, 2005 6:08 am

Posted by TFmaster Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:20 am

Posted by piranacon Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:00 pm

shame we cantget the maker of the jd p version on the board, i like the size of it, he was a minibot. as for the transformation it might look better with a thiick coat of paint. but im not sure if it will stand up on its own 2 feet

saying that i was in the middle of making my own version, nothing as good as jd or OdeeanRDeathshead's but its mine
its intresting to see people's takes on the toy though, all the differant sizes and transfomations. i hopoe here will eb many more

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Fri Feb 25, 2005 3:25 am

I got some good work done in the last 24 hours. Its starting to get exciting now that it begins to look like the character. I have switched from the bits of broom handle to copper pipe for the circular sections in the joints because the steel was corroding. I had to alter the plan around the hinge in the cab because the origional was too thin in practice, so I just doubled the size.

















I made the windshield a removeable peice because I want to cast it seperatly. This will allow me to make it transparent. I will attempt to embed a spike figure and a LED in the block then glue it into place. The only thing that I know to give a clear enough finish is polyester (without the wax added for auto resin). This will make it hard because any air in the mold retards the curing and leaves a taky finish. If anyone has a suggestion about a clear substitute for polyester I am open to suggestions.

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Sat Feb 26, 2005 7:40 am

today I tested out the plaztex. It was a dificult thing to get the stuff in the mold but the end product did seem very durable. Not rock hard but hard wearing if that makes sence. It comes in a kind of fine powder. Using a seringe I put a few drops into the powder. Then I pick up the blob that forms around the drops, I can not show that part because it happens too quickly. it is only useable for about 10 seconds after the drops go in. I squeeze the blob into the mold and wait. The molding material comes with it, once boiled it can easily take any object pushed into it. when it cools it is very durable itself.









the part I can't show goes here, squeezing in the blob




The casting were close to the origional and if I spent more time on the molding I think they would be very neat. I am not sure if this is the way I will go for the joints when I go produce my reproductions because it is a bit hit and miss when it comes to getting the stuff into the mold. I would definately recomend it for one off jobs because of the hard wearing finish.

The teeth meshed perfectly. I would love to be able to make the discs with teeth from metal. next I will try to make a steel stamp to hammer into aluminium or brass to produce the discs. To do that i will need to find finer files.

Posted by Cyclone_X_2075 Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:23 pm

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:39 pm

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:25 am

I did some work on the legs today. It took a long time because of the strait lines and I have only got about 60% done. the smoothing out and filling in will have to come next week. I picked up some 10mm, 20mm and 25mm aluminium tube along with some flat pieces. i am glad to be not using the steel tube any more because the corosion has required a paint app to stop it on the other parts. this could interfear with the molding proccess. I also may redo the hip joint I made from copper tubing. It was time consuming but I suspect the copper will interfear with the rtv silicones setting.









the lower legs will be one of the hardest parts to cast. this is because they have thin walls. There is a popout section to be inside the lower leg that fattens the leg in the transformation. These thin sections will be problematic for bubbles in the mold.

It was tempting to do the feet today so I would have an almost complete alt mode to show but I decided that it was more important to get a good fit for the transformation than a premature moment of satisfaction.

Posted by TFmaster Fri Mar 04, 2005 12:15 pm

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:13 am

Posted by Pepie Sat Mar 05, 2005 5:41 am

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:04 am

these legs have been very time consuming. They have taken about 40 hours so far (feet not finished). I am pleased with the results. the individual components are strait and the two sides are identicle. It all fits together perfectly. Its hard to display at this point because there are no screw holes in this stage and the pins have not been made yet. The legs still need the pop out rocket launcher section (shown in the renderings), there will be springs to push them out. Its a bit of a pain to do them but without it the legs look too thin.







I have also started to redo the elbows using the aluminium to replace the steel as I was not happy with the potential for rust. I will do both side this time as the time it takes to do the extra bits is worth it for the sake of seeing how it will look.

Once its all ready to go together I will rap the whole thing in masking tape tightly then use the belt sander to even out any remaining differences where the parts join.

Posted by Pepie Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:30 am

darn that looks fantastic! There is sooo much going on in there.
Cant wait to see it casted ORD!

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:43 am

Posted by Pepie Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:02 am

Posted by piranacon Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:49 am

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:03 am

Posted by TFmaster Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:36 am

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:24 pm

Its looking like I will use a polyurethane, that company [bare metal] has a lot of good stuff. When I do buy I will try to get the rtv and polyurethane from the same manufacturer. It seem more likely to me that they will work well together. Its going to be about 3-4 weeks before I can make the trip to where I am buying it. Smooth-on's site had some product that sounded interesting as well. I will just have to be patient

Posted by OdeeanRDeathshead Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:23 am

Here are some pics. visually this is a small update, but internally I took care of a lot of holes that needed to be placed at just the right spot. i also finished the new elbows that can't be seen here. I am not putting in many "as I go"shots because the techniqe has been covered. I am going to put some key/keyhole locations to hold the components in alignment so in future screws can more easily be put in.

Posted by TM JAF Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:38 am