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Starcraft 2 Marine Armor
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vrogy
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Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Posts: 22
Location: in Sunny Florida!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:15 pm    Post subject: Starcraft 2 Marine Armor Reply with quote

I'm trying to build Tychus Findlay's Terran Marine armor, from the upcoming game Starcraft 2.

Reference Materials
HD cinematic trailer: http://www.starcraft2.com/movies.xml#m1
sculpture pics: https://us.blizzard.com/sc2collectible/starcraft2/menu.html
model render pics: http://www.starcraft2.com/features/interviews/cinematicteaser.xml

I've compiled most of them at http://flickr.com/photos/vrogy/sets/72157600313316830/ , including cinematic stills.

Here's a couple to get the gist of it- you can click for larger versions.





I'm planning to use three relatively new hobbyist technologies to do this: lost foam metal casting, lightweight router CNC, and vacuum forming.

Lightweight CNC machines are much cheaper to build than metal milling types, and many of their parts can be made with wood tools, or scavenged and hacked together from old PC and printer equipment. They let you cut complex foam shapes for..

Lost foam metal casting, which is basically ancient casting techniques paired with easily-to-replicate molds and modern oil and propane burners.
It's cheap- the main costs are sand, clay, fuel and scrap metal. cast metal frames provide something to bolt..

Vacuum-formed plastic plates onto. I'm sure you're all familiar with this process.

Basically, all these processes working together means nice-looking, hefty-feeling, pretty "structurally accurate" armor..
Of course, I've done none of them yet. Is my logic FUBAR?
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thebluecanary
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Joined: 02 Feb 2006
Posts: 123
Location: St. Louis, MO

PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 7:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looks like you got your hands full with that one. but it will look freaking cool at the end. I wish you luck, and please keep us upto date.
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jegner
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Joined: 30 May 2003
Posts: 2144
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, my! Shocked

Thats gonna be a challenge. Break it down into pieces, and start with the easy ones.

Jim
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deepstar
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Joined: 11 Jul 2007
Posts: 20
Location: Leuven, Belgium

PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

wow, this will be a project on my watchlist.
I bet it will look very very cool Smile Post lots of pictures please !
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TK 109
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Joined: 11 May 2007
Posts: 712
Location: Galena, Ohio

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i always thought that those armor sets that make you look REALLY big, like this one, would be nearly impossible. Laughing

hey, i wish you the best of luck, and i hope your project is a success! Very Happy

post pics!
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Lp Zeppelin
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Joined: 01 Aug 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Parker, Co

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Holy S*** Good luck man For that thing you might need to buy a super vacuum table lol but good luck.
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I wonder What lady clones look like under the mask? I wonder?
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thebluecanary
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Joined: 02 Feb 2006
Posts: 123
Location: St. Louis, MO

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lp Zeppelin wrote:
Holy S*** Good luck man For that thing you might need to buy a super vacuum table lol but good luck.


Oh I don't know. I don't think anyone section is too large. You just have to take the really big bits (chest) and break it down into many many smaller bits. Could be a very fun project.

Granted I have no idea how you would even get it on, let alone walk in it.
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vrogy
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Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Posts: 22
Location: in Sunny Florida!

PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:46 am    Post subject: Melting Metal! Reply with quote


We can now do the first part of metal casting: melt metal. This furnace was made with a couple buckets, and a homemade refractory mix consisting of sand, perlite, portland concrete, and fire clay. It cost approximately 80-90 dollars, and there's enough refractory-making supplies left over to make a much larger version.

The refractory mix we used was a 3-2-1 mix: 3 parts sand, 2 parts fire clay, and 1 part portland concrete. We mixed it in a wheelbarrow, and added water after the fire clay as needed. It seems to have held up fairly well- the only failures have been minor cracks, and one small void blew out from internal pressures- it hasn't noticably affected performance.

The casing is two cheap galvanized buckets from Home Depot, with their handles removed. One has the handle repositioned on the bottom to act as a handle for lifting it off the other, and they both have ~2" wood screws screwed into the refractory from the sides of the casing, to help keep the refractory from cracking and falling out.



Wood loaded into the furnace then jump-started with propane gets going very quickly, and decent charcoal is produced after maybe 30-40 minutes of smoldering. We did a full melt with about 2-3 minutes of propane, forced air, and two ~1.5"X2' sticks- that's probably about 2-3 dollars. This looks to be a great option for folks who like to keep costs low, and it definitely improves the overall operating costs of the furnace. There is a tradeoff in time involved, though, and likely in performance, too, as a propane burner probably produces a much more even temperature.



Ingots produced without any flux, and from aluminum sign scrap seemed fairly solid, with light bubbles distributed throughout the mass. We used a muffin pan to form the ingots, but it was coated with teflon and the teflon burned pretty quickly, leaving a nasty residue on the ingots. We'll probably burn off the rest of the teflon before we pour any more ingots in this pan.

more pics: http://flickr.com/photos/vrogy/sets/72157601413375208/
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jegner
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Joined: 30 May 2003
Posts: 2144
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Say, thats pretty nifty!

I've been thinking about this, and have looked at the Backyard Metal Casting site. Cool stuff. Reminds me of my bronze casting and sculpting days back in art school.

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/
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TK 109
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Joined: 11 May 2007
Posts: 712
Location: Galena, Ohio

PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

good god, i thought you were vacuum-forming, not vacuum-metalizing!

this makes it SSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO much more interesting!

Very Happy
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vrogy
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Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Posts: 22
Location: in Sunny Florida!

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TK 109 wrote:
good god, i thought you were vacuum-forming, not vacuum-metalizing!

Heh. Both, actually.

Also, it's a process known as lost-foam casting. Here's the latest:

New crucible. We ordered it from McMaster-Carr, after melting an old crucible, and one we made ourselves.

So we cut a random shape out of foam, packed it in our special casting sand, and poured molten aluminum into it. That's Mike Moulton pouring.


This is what we shook out of the sand about an hour later, after it had cooled:




I haven't cut it open yet to see if there are any air bubbles inside, but I don't expect many. The only thing I did to it before I took these photos was to dip it in water to finish cooling it off, and wirebrush off the charred sand that clung to it with a small hand brush.
Before taking this form, this metal was a few small, failed parts made of aluminum extrusion, mixed with several aluminum pop cans.

From here, I'll be doing a lot of aluminum scavenging, and attempting to correct the mistakes that were made here.

As soon as I can reliably get a nice part out of this process, I'll probably move back to CAD, and finalize the parts of the suit, or go ahead and start on a CNC machine to cut parts to be cast in foam.

So far I think we've spent maybe 200ish dollars, amongst three people, and most of that is the one-time costs associated with building a furnace and proper tools. From here, our expenses are propane, electricity, foam, and scrap aluminum. I look forward to seeing where the economy of this process can take me.
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TK 109
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Joined: 11 May 2007
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Location: Galena, Ohio

PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

wait..... huh?

i don't understand what you're doing man. Confused

more pics and explanations, please!
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vrogy
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Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Posts: 22
Location: in Sunny Florida!

PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 11:17 pm    Post subject: Ack! Reply with quote

Sorry, I haven't posted any pictures of the foam so far.

Basically, I cut the shape to be cast out of foam, then bury it in sand, and pour molten metal into the cavity in the sand the foam occupies. Then the foam burns out(very rapidly) and the metal solidifies inside the sand, in the shape of the foam.

It's called Lost Foam Metal Casting, because you lose the foam model every time you make a part.

This past Friday I actually attempted this pattern again, in an attempt to remedy the problem last time of having the sand too loosely packed. Unfortunately, when I re-watered the sand(it dries out), I got it too wet, and steam prevented the metal from flowing into the packed sand properly.

Basically, steam shooting out of the mold after the first 8-10 ounces of foam both cooled the metal already in the sand, resulting in rounded edges(a side effect of lowered viscosity), and bubbled out the rest of the metal I tried to pour in.

So I've bought some buckets with air-tight lids, so the sand doesn't dry out between casting sessions. I might also try some oil-bonded sand made a while back, as it holds its conditioning better.

After that, I'm pretty sure the next problem will be surface finish of parts directly out of the sand, and there are a couple solutions to that as well:
-use finer sand. All the batches of green sand I have right now are sifted with only a standard window screen. I found some grease guards with a finer mesh, and I got some play sand with enough fine particles to make a batch of fine green sand.
-improve surface finish of the foam. Apparently the bandsaw I'm using leaves a pretty ragged edge. Either sanding or coats of paint might help.

Sorry about the ranting- this is just a good way for me to turn things over in my mind.
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jegner
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Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We used old recycled motor oil to condition the sand back in art school. The Green Sand was also made of fireclay and masonry cement sand. Very fine stuff. Almost a powder. Finally, we talcum powdered the molds prior to casting.

Cool Stuff.

Jim
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vrogy
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Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Posts: 22
Location: in Sunny Florida!

PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Damn, I bet just getting nice, fine sand ready-made for masonry is easier than sifting my own.. D'oh. Surprised
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