After three rounds of priming and sanding, Flashy was ready to mold. You all saw what state he was in last week. This week, the plan was to use some mold-release on the first half and pour the second half of the mold. So Sunday night I sprayed it, mixed 3 starter kits of Moldstar 16, and let it "bake" for a half hour.
It seemed to be ready...
The intention was to pull off the sides of the mold and be able to just pull the mold into it's two sections. Instead, I got this.
...a nice brick of blue rubber, with my master encased within. The coating of Mold Release failed. Completely. Maybe it was too warm, maybe I didn't use enough. Who knows. Who cares! After going to town on it with my box-cutter, I was able to sever the mold in half and remove Flashy.
Sadly, all my guide keys were gone. The mold was in rough shape. The master broke off one of it's details. I was disappointed, and thought that I'd just blown a couple hundred bucks worth of chemicals with nothing to show for it.
So tonight I invited over Erich, one of my colleagues in the 501st/Rebel Legion, and we tried to save the mold. After three attempts, the cutting of a few more channels in the rubber to let air out, and the construction of a wooden shell to go around the gun to keep it from being squished in key points, we ended up with this.
She may not look like much, but after a few passes with an x-acto knife, we got something else.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Flashy-Version 1.0"
I had to trim away a lot of flash (ba-dum dum), and sliced my pinky open pretty well while doing it, but I think it looks pretty good, and pretty workable.
This build has been a real learning experience, and I'm not just saying that to sound wise, or to sound like an after school special (do they even have those anymore?)
I got really discouraged yesterday after all the failures with the mold. I want to be good at it, and I want to be good at it now. I need to accept that things aren't always going to work out how I want them too, no matter how badly I want them to. Some things takes time, and practice, and you're going to fail along the way, or stumble, and it's important to learn from failure and pick yourself up when you trip, because you may still make it to where you were going.
This is the first time I'd ever done something like this, and I can tell you it won't be the last. I'll probably do a Flashy 2.0 at some point, incorporating the knowledge of what I've done on this build into the next, and improving it.
My second suit of armor was better than my first, and my third was better than my second. Practice, experience, and patience are hallmarks of this hobby. I need to remember that, and enjoy the process as much as the product.
But man, when the product works, even partially, it's really neat.
I likely need a night with her and a dremmel before working on her apperance, but all and all I'm happy with my first pull. Now it's on to cleaning up the pull, detailing, and painting. And that's something I have experience with.
Big thanks to Erich Schafer for the hands on help, and Brian "stormtrooperguy" Anderson for the inspiration and words of advice.
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