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Step 2Making the Masters - Body
The most important thing about this project is keeping it as light as possible. The best way to achieve this with the body and arm panels is to create molds and cast hollow pieces. These durable shells will be perfect for the final turret. The main body and arms will be hollow while all the pieces relating to the legs will be solid for strength.
With the size decided, The first step was building the framework for the body. My personal material of choice is MDF (medium density fiberboard) which can be picked up at any hardware store in 2x4 foot and 4x8 foot sheets. This stuff is great because it has no grain and can be cut and sanded smooth with relative ease. The dimensions for this were pulled straight from the blueprints and after an afternoons worth of work, I had skeleton frame work that looked like the body of a turret.
The next step was to fill in the gaps with styrofoam. I cut down and shaped the roughly 10 pieces to fit into there respective slots leaving about 1/8 inch for the material it would be covered with. The styrofoam was then covered with one of my favorite materials. Apoxie Sculpt If you have never used this stuff, I highly recommend it. It is a 2 part epoxy clay. You mix equal parts A and B and have about 2-3 hours of working time. You work it just like clay, even using water to smooth it out. After 24 hours it is hard as a rock and can be sanded or carved. I covered all of the curved surfaces of the body with an 1/8 sheet of clay and waited 24 hours for it to dry.
A day or 2 later after the clay was fully cured, I sanded the surface as smooth as I could get it with my hand sander. The secret when trying to get a very smooth surface is patience. I spent many many hours sanding and refining to get the surface curves just right.
Next up on the body was many many coats of primer with lots of sanding between each coat and spot putty to fill in any low spots that popped up. Slowly working my way to finer and finer grit sandpaper, I ended up with a glassy smooth finish. The final coat was wet sanding with 1000 grit and then the surface received a coat of wax. Any wax will do. I used turtle wax.
Body ready for its mold.
Materials used for this stage
MDF (medium density fiberboard)
wood glue
styrofoam
Apoxie Sculpt
bondo
primer
wax
Tools used for this stage
Band saw
belt sander
hand sander
With the size decided, The first step was building the framework for the body. My personal material of choice is MDF (medium density fiberboard) which can be picked up at any hardware store in 2x4 foot and 4x8 foot sheets. This stuff is great because it has no grain and can be cut and sanded smooth with relative ease. The dimensions for this were pulled straight from the blueprints and after an afternoons worth of work, I had skeleton frame work that looked like the body of a turret.
The next step was to fill in the gaps with styrofoam. I cut down and shaped the roughly 10 pieces to fit into there respective slots leaving about 1/8 inch for the material it would be covered with. The styrofoam was then covered with one of my favorite materials. Apoxie Sculpt If you have never used this stuff, I highly recommend it. It is a 2 part epoxy clay. You mix equal parts A and B and have about 2-3 hours of working time. You work it just like clay, even using water to smooth it out. After 24 hours it is hard as a rock and can be sanded or carved. I covered all of the curved surfaces of the body with an 1/8 sheet of clay and waited 24 hours for it to dry.
A day or 2 later after the clay was fully cured, I sanded the surface as smooth as I could get it with my hand sander. The secret when trying to get a very smooth surface is patience. I spent many many hours sanding and refining to get the surface curves just right.
Next up on the body was many many coats of primer with lots of sanding between each coat and spot putty to fill in any low spots that popped up. Slowly working my way to finer and finer grit sandpaper, I ended up with a glassy smooth finish. The final coat was wet sanding with 1000 grit and then the surface received a coat of wax. Any wax will do. I used turtle wax.
Body ready for its mold.
Materials used for this stage
MDF (medium density fiberboard)
wood glue
styrofoam
Apoxie Sculpt
bondo
primer
wax
Tools used for this stage
Band saw
belt sander
hand sander
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( no hard feelings)