Evolutionary

[Franklin]

Hello, - you asked about airbrushing...

I just started with a Testors MightyMini that I got on the cheap at a second-hand store. So here's the little advice that I'd give, based on my humble experience.

-Don't waste money on a little airbrush compressor. Get a bigger one from a hardware store, as well as a moisture trap. You can also use it for blowing dust off of parts, and out of computers. Some of them come packaged with an air nailer/stapler. (I'm pondering getting a Sears Craftsman compressor myself.)

-I do like the simplicity of the Testors airbrush tips. They come apart with only a couple parts, and clean easily, making color changes a bit faster. - with an internal mix badger you practically have to take apart the brush for cleaning, or use a cleaning station to run the paint out of it.

-dual action sounds cool to me, but they cost more, and probably take more time to master (Paul-any comments?) - the single actions work just as well.

with my cheap single action, external mix brush, i've done these re-paintings of plastic toy guns:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...gunrepaint.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...terrepaint.jpg
I still have yet to figure out how to do flames.

Thanks for the advise. I found a webshop in the Netherlands and they have all the airbrush tools I will need and they are very helpful I'm very serious about wanting to learn to airbrush, so I want to invest money in good materials. The webshop I found is http://www.airbrush-services-almere.nl/

[Franklin]

After a long time without any updates, a small update again. I've been very busy with "real life" stuff and had very little time to work on the case. I also had some problems getting the materials I needed, still have b.t.w.
The car airintakes I wanted to use still are not delivered and I'm not going to wait for those anymore. I will make them myself from fibreglass ofcourse.

I use some MDF to create a mold for the fibreglass. This is a drawing frm the mold. I will glue three layers of MDF together. On the left you can see what material I will have to file of to get the shape I want, on the right side.

When this is done I will saw the mold under an angle like this.

So first saw some MDF.

Drill a hole in the smallest one.

Now I can saw a bigger hole in this layer.

Time to glue these parts together.

With a file I will remove the material to get a rounded shape.

I made a paper mold with the rounded shape. When I hold it against the side of the MDF I can spot the places I have to file more to get the right shape.

and after sanding the mold.

[Franklin]

Thanks guys, please have a look at my fiber glass tutorial in the Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials section on this forum. Soon I will improve the tutorila with more and better pictures and I will add a tutorial on making molds.

It's time to finish the fibre glass mold. The most difficult part right now to saw the mold under an angle of 20 degrees. For this I made another mold. The base of the sawingmold has to be 90 degrees.

Now add the sides of the sawingmold.

The glue will be dry in a couple of hours. Before I start sawing I will add some scres in the mold. So I will put in the MDF fiber glass mold and secure it there. A sawblade will be guided by the opening in the sides of the sawing mold.

I should and up with a nice 20 degrees angle like in this sketch

The last job will be glueing the fiber glass mold onto a piece of MDF and finish the surfae with polyurethane resin. I will use this mold a least four times, maybe even 6 times. I will have to see what looks better, 4 or 6 airintakes.

[Franklin]

Ok the thing is ready for sawing.

Here we go.

The last bit has to be done outside the sawing mold.

Almost ready.

[Franklin]

Thanks guys. The mold was finished today.

so I tried making the first polyester airintake. Tried..... The result was not good enough. Had some problems with the fiber glass and the shape of the mold. I already have the solution, but I need to paint this mdf part three times with the polyurethane before I can have another try. The solution is a mdf disk that I can put in the hole and that will keep the fiber glass in place.

Just to give you guys an impression off what it will look like I Photoshopped a picture off the mold.

So you will see these intakes on both sides off the case ( left and right side )
I hope I can post a picture of a finished polyester airintake this week.

[Franklin]

After the small problem I'm ready to give it another try.

Time to put on the latex gloves again and mix the resin. I used more layers of fiber glass this time, because it has to be much stronger this time and the outside isn't important, because this polyester part will only be the mold that I will use to make the final product. I need a negative.

It's important that the polyester part is a perfect negative of the MDF mold. So I used a MDF disk to push the fiber glass in the corners and keep it there untill the resin is cured.

Just before the resin had cured I pulled out the disk with the hook. I had some problems this time getting the polyester off from the MDF mold. Drilled a hole in the middle to let the air in, but that wasn't enough to do the job. My old man had a great idea, put the mold with the polyester in the freezer and yes it worked The polyester came of without any problem.

This is the final mold I need. This polyester mold I will use to create the four intakes.

[Franklin]

I had to adjust my plans slightly. It was to difficult to use the negative as a mold, so I will use the mdf mod. This means I will have to spend more time to give the surface a smooth finish with polyester bondo and sanding. No big problem.

I started with drawing a shape on paper. This is the shape I need to cut from the fiber glass. Put the paper on top of the fiber glass and mark it.

Cut it out three times, because I need three layers.

and ready for use.

The mdf mold is waxed and ready to be used again. First apply some resin on the mold. When the mold is waxed in the right way, the resin seems to try pulling together and form some kind of drops. This is good, because it means the polyester will come off easier later on.

Put the first layer over the mold.

Applied the resin in the middle.

With the tip of the bruh I tapped the resin onto the fiber glass. Tap, because you want the remove any aitbubbles underneath the fiber glass.

To prevent the fiber glass coming loose again, when tapping the outside of the mold I used some kind of plug. Also made from mdf and also treated with the molding wax.
The plug is slightly smaller then the hole, this because the lauyers of fiber glass will need some space ofcourse.

Working from the edge on top of the mold, down to the bottom of the mold.

It's easy to see when all the fiber glass is soaked with resin.

Time to take out the plug and repeat the whole processa another two times.
I will have to sand the intakes and apply one more layer of surface tissue. This because it will be easier to smoothen the surface. Right now the intakes look like this, a bit rough but that will change in a couple of days.

I will remove the orange area. Some sort of fingerguard will be placed in this opening later on.

[Franklin]

After sanding the polyester intake it already looks a lot better. I sanded the part with sandingpaper grid 400 and I will have to sand it further with sandingpaper up to 1200. Also started making a paper model from the guard that will be mounted inside the opening of this intake.

It will be made from white frosted acrylic and it will be mounted somewhat deeper then the paper model.

[Franklin]

Thanks guys and thanks for all the +rep

It's summer in the Netherlands but last few weeks I,ve only seen rain. But not the last days :clap: I can work outside again, much easier working on the sidepanel outside. No molds this time just some glass. Put on some moldingwax and clean it with a cloth. Ready for some polyester action. Put some resin on the glass first

Put on the first layer and use a roller to smoothen it.

The fiber glass on this picture is a special fabric that is for the surface. The endresult will be very smooth. This was the first layer. After this I added 5 more layers of the normal fiber glass.

The result was just as smooth as I wanted it to be. Does not need much work to finish the surface later on for a paintjob. Made two big holes with my Dremel for the air intakes.

And with the intakes in place.

More close ups.

The intakes and the sidepanel wil be glued together and I will use some bondo between the panel and the intakes.

[Franklin]

Thanks for all those rep points.

Everything is going smoothly at the moment. I can't show you much new stuff, but that doesn't mean I did not do much. I finished the second and third "fingerguard" for the outtakes for instance. A lot of work but you know what it looks like.

I also did some work on the acrylic that will lead the air from the radiator to the outtakes on top of the case.

The acrylic ( with the tape still on ) had to be cut at the top so the lid will fit over.

There is still some tape on the clear acrylic, but that will be removed ofcourse. When removed it will be possible to see through the airduct into the top of the case.

That's not what I want, because I want to use that space to hide cables and some other stuff. So in order to make it almost impossible to look into the case and see the cables I will cover the duct with some black mesh.

Bending the mesh first to fit the tube.

Looks good. It's almost ready to be cut in the same shape as the acrylic.

Next thing I can show you is my design of the logo.

The logo will not be flat but 3-dimensional and I think I will also add some lighting from behind.