The Imperial Shipyards
Imperial Creative Engineering => Custom Vehicles => Topic started by: DocOutlands on August 12, 2009, 09:15:42 PM
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Keke has decided playing with styrofoam looked like too much fun to allow Dad to have alone. She demanded coolers. She got them today. Herein shall be the chronicles of Keke's adventures in styro construction.
Fig1 - Keke ponders the fate of two innocent coolers.
Fig2 - The Doctor says, "Let's begin!"
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I made the first cuts for her, cutting thru the bottom of the coolers along one side so she would have a reference point to work from.
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She tore into it with a vengence! Actually, she was *quite* deliberate and careful in her tool-use. I was quite proud! Finally, we had two coolers with their ends removed, as in fig2 below.
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Here we have both coolers rough-cut and set the ends together for the vague outline of a building. Now came the trimming! Keke marked areas for fine-tuning and we shared that job.
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Once we were satisfied with the fit of the trim-work, we called a halt to the project for the day and ran the vacuum cleaner. Next up, she will be designing a door to go on one of the long sides. Given the way the walls slope back, I expect she'll go with a Mos Eisley-ish doorframe that sticks out a bit. I may get brave and take a shot at fastening the two halves of the shell together tomorrow or we may opt to wait until there's something of a doorframe to work with, first. The door will have to be removable, as she plans to park her speeder inside and leave it where passersby may then oogle her classy vehicle. We'll also be covering both exterior and interior with spackling paste to seal the styro and provide a stucco look. This should also allow us to then paint the building.
I know how *I* would approach the main door, but I want her to work one out on her own that we implement.
She's quite excited at all this. Bren was kind enough to take a slew of pics for us and Lonnie got involved, (wo)manning the measuring-tape (which we never needed, but it gave her a way to be involved!).
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Simply outstanding! Tell KeKe I am loving the look of this so far.
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Awesome job, and I'm eagerly awaiting when my kids get old enough to start customizing too! vadsab
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If I can talk my daughter into this I might just start being a customizing fool too. Any progress on the garage today Doc?
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looks great. those make great forts too! and the styrofoam padding that comes out of computer/tv boxes makes great bases.
How is she going to display it? with the open side forward or is the open end going down on the floor and the speeders going inside?
as for my garage I am beginning to think I need to add some more floor space to it cuz my guys can hardly move around in there with all the speeders! lol
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No, nothing on it today. We looked it over and studied it some. We discussed approaches to the door-frame and need to go into town tomorrow to get a slab of styrofoam.
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Cool beans, Doc! I am anxious to see how this turns out.
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Doc, great WIP pix. Everyone looks like they're having fun, which is always great.
Steps really spice up a building front, and they're easy to make, once you get the right styrofoam.
Look forward to everyone's progress.
r1bb1t
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that pink or blue insulation styrofoam used for houses is a nice thick compressed foam which is realy good for carving and sculpting. I once carved a flying wing out of one which did loops out of the stuff.
how do plan on painting it or are you going to leave it white?
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Forgot to answer - the mouths of the coolers will face down as the base of the building.
As for painting, our plan is to cover the surfaces with spackling plaster. That should give us a solid base for painting - I *think* we'd need to base-coat it in latex before moving on to the textured paint. She wants a stone-texture finish on the outside. Inside is a variable as yet.
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are you going to use some of that "stone in a can" spray paint? I've never used that stuff and always wondered how good that textured spray paint realy is...... good luck with the spackling! That should add some weight and reinforcement to the styrofoam.
Is she going to cut a large enough door into it so that it's playable? or is it going to hing apart in the middle like a doll-house? or have a removable roof? or just be a box to stick the speeders in?.... just curious....
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Yeah, we're looking at "stone-in-a-can" textured spray. She's got a particular color already located that she is convinced "looks JUST LIKE Mos Eisley!"
As for the door, we're planning a doorway large enough to actually play thru. No decision yet on how functional the door is going to be - or even exactly how the door is going to *look*! I think we'll make some progress on it tomorrow, getting a doorframe built. Once it is, we'll be fastening together the two cooler bodies and the doorframe. After that comes the spackling.
HEY! Reminds me - any suggestions on what adhesive to use so as to hold large blocks of styro together?
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duct tape.... lol super glue will eat through the styrofoam I know that. You will have to use a slow curing glue. Elmers glue might be your best bet, use it to start with with a little duct tape on the outside and then spackle over it all. The spackle should reinforce the glue and keep the duct tape from coming off of course. You could even use duct tape as "hinges" for the door and spackle over each piece of duct tape so that you don't see it. The duct tape should be strong enough to withstand swinging it open and closed and should give you a great way to be able to shut the door and open it without it coming detached.
Another idea you might look into using would be wood glue or gorilla glue. I would suggest a two part epoxy but I seem to remember trying that once and as the epoxy cured it heated up and melted through the styrofoam....
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Doc, that's what it's all about. If it can get the kids into being creative then you are giving them a gift that they will use all of their lives. It may sound corny, but my Dad inspired me to make stuff, and by doing so it has given me great problem solving skills that I can transfer to my work as well as my leasure time.
Great seeing your pic too, I can now put a face to your messages. You look like a cool dude if I may say so! I bet your household is loads of fun.
Great post!
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Give a starving man a fish and you will feed him for one day.
Teach him how to fish and you'll feed him for the rest of his life.
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comander kurgan I think the second line of that saying goes "teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day" but that might just be cuz I'm from ky ;) lol
but they are right doc, I know for a fact that if my parents didn't encourage my creativity with lego's and such when I was a child I would not have the conceptual imagination to create things. I think my legos saw more play time than all my other toys put together. Hell I still play with the legos with the kids sometimes!
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Doc, on my bigger dips where I use styrofoam chunks as ground work I use white glue in tandom with pieces of tie/ bailing wire to hold things together. I will pre bore a hole into the foam, glue in a length of wire, bore a hole into the connecting piece of foam and glue it onto the remaining length of wire.
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Ah! Good ideas, guys! I like the dowel/pinning approach, personally. Rebe suggested spackling gauze for running over the join-crack, too, just like on a "real" wall. I keep asking her when is *she* gonna start customizing... ;)
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you got something against duct tape! :P like I always say:
if it moves and it shouldn't used duct tape
if it doesn't move and it should use WD-40
of course clint's right... using dowels or wires as pins would probably be more structurally sound. lol
can't wait to see it whatever you do.
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As we say in the German army: Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, it has a dark side and it holds the galaxy together.
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Pretty sure every third guy in our squad had a roll of duct tape in his ruck. Currently, we have rolls of duct tape scattered liberally around the house, shop, and vehicles.
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LOL. Sit in a boat all day and drink. First I have heard that, but one I will remember. Doc, think you have all the idears you need to do this.
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I also have pink fingers from smoothing spackling thru the curves of the sample piece! Basically, I covered one of the loose ends we removed in spackling as a test-run. I picked up a load of stuff at WM today...stone paint, a 6" styro ball, a large slab of styro, some weather-seal pieces on clearance, etc. Oh, and Gorilla Glue. ;D I think we are ready to design the doorway and start the cutting and gluing on that phase.
I've never worked with spackle before. I *hope* it works the way I want.
Geez, I'm spending time on *her* garage and nothing AT ALL on my OWN entry!! yeesh! ;) That's a dad for ya... (I know, I still have quite a bit of time to go, yet.)
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I am loving the idea of this. Lots of possibilities for all environments. Tell KeKe she might not want me to see too many finished pics as I might want a Walker garage!
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are you using drywall spackle or bondo? bondo would have been good too, but it gets pretty hot as it cures so it might melt the styrofoam.
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Drywall spackle. Made the end piece pretty dang heavy. I'm letting it dry overnight before putting the stone finish to it. I'll take pic's of the two test pieces tomorrow in the various stages - back side untouched, front with spackle, front with just the stone texture, front with stone applied over drywall spackle.
Tamer, she said, in her best Three Musketeers imitation, "That can be arranged! But he'd have to do all the painting and stuff - I'd just build the building." She'll prolly charge you an arm and a leg, too. She's quite the mercenary. ;D
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So last night I took the scrap walls that had been cut off the ends of the coolers to test out a couple of techniques. Here they are. First, an unaltered "raw" wall:
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Now here we have a wall with spackling material drying on it. I got the kind that goes on pink and air-dries white. I wonder if humidity retards drying time, because we put it on last night and over 12 hrs later, it is still light pink.
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Finally, here's an unprepped wall that has had a stone-finish paint applied, partly to check for color appropriateness ("Does Keke like this one?") and partly to see how the paint affects a raw wall. In fig1, you can see the overall wall. She likes the color and wants the garage done in that style. In fig2, you can see what the texturing does to unprepped styro.
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Tell me it is stone and I'd believe you.
That's amazing!
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The ... "interesting" part is going to be getting a good smooth surface on the interior for painting. Outside, that awesome "spray-stone" will cover up any weirdness. Theoretically, you can sand the spackle, so I may smooth it out that way - just get a nice thin coating with the spreader and then buff it on the rough spots with some fine-grit paper.
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Yep, I do like that stone flek paint. I made a 1-1 tombstone one time to add to my halloween decorations out of foam and used this stuff to color it.
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man that paint looks awesome on there, can't wait to see the finished product. If it were me I'd leave it unsanded and let it be bumby and textured. add's character.
man I'm getting anxious to see everyone's speeders and vehicles. Did anyone do a vehicle that's NOT a speeder bike?
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Keke's is not a speeder-bike. I have one design - prolly my actual entry - that is more like a subcompact car than a speeder-bike (think a Bespin Cloud-Car, but single-pod), and two others that are flat out air-speeders. Bren's is ... hard to classify.
As for the texture - yeah, the outside wall is definitely going to be left rough for the stone spray. I'm thinking about a smooth interior wall, tho. May just use Jules' approach and apply flats inside.
Gotta go check the spackle and apply stone spray if it is ready.
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Well, I don't know that the spackle was *completely* dry, but it was "close enough" for us!
Fig1 shows what we had when we checked.
Fig2 shows Keke applying the spray-stone.
Fig3 is how it looks after we worked it over for detail coverage.
Remember, this is a test-wall! However, I plan to save it for use as background wall-dressing. Same goes for the wall that was unprepped before applying the stone-spray.
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The next step is the doorframe. In Fig1, we've already measured and marked a 2" thick slab of styro and Keke has begun the serious business of cutting out the main frame for the door. After that was done, I went in and cut out the inner part to make an arch. Fig2 is the basic bldg shape and Fig3 shows the basic shape with the doorframe stood up in place.
The next step, we'll cut and mark the hole for the frame on the bldg itself. Then, we'll glue it all together with Gorilla Glue and dowling.
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Cool buddy! Looks like your daughter is really getting into this.
Cute kid by the way.
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First off, congrats on such a wonderfully fun child, I hope my kids share at least one of my interests.
Secondly, the humidity does in fact impair anything drying, living in KY, its one thing I've learned.
Three, if you have a length of copper wire and a couple D cell batteries, I recommend you(and not the child) make a foam cutter for super smooth cuts.
Not sure if it will work on the coolers, but I've had great luck with it on insulation, :)
Can't wait to see more.
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Looking good Keke and Doc.
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Yeah, Clint, she's gonna be a heartbreaker in about 6-7 years.
Narce, I'm thinking a bare coat-hanger, jumper-cables, and a lantern battery... ;D
Stand by for a pic update!
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Two pics from this afternoon's work. I did the trim-work, as I didn't want Keke to have an issue with the cooler wall snapping on her and her getting frustrated with the project at this point.
Fig1 - doorway cut out on one side of bldg, with doorway arch positioned in front.
Fig2 - doorway cut in both sides with archway fitted in place.
I've put Gorilla Glue in the places I think touch and have it sitting on the drying-rack in the shop. I also used some pieces of Gorilla Tape on the inside of the coolers to hold them together.
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The center seam/gap between the coolers is rather jagged, so I'll be trying Narce's suggestion of the hot-wire cutter on the next piece of foam I cut. I've a hunch I'll be getting some drywall patching material to fill in the gap as well as fill in around the arch. I've got to make a run to town on Monday as it is... I forgot totally to put any rods in place to try and pin the coolers together. If the glue fails to grip, I'll go back in and redo that tomorrow or Monday. Prolly Monday, as Keke has a party tomorrow afternoon and Lonnie is feeling rather neglected. She wants her own building at this point!!
My family recently had a major fencing project built, so there are lots of pieces of wire-scrap to be had for pinning together styro walls and making various detailing bits. We've got a 6" styro ball I need to split in half for roof deco on the garage still. Dunno what else we might put up there - have to see what Keke thinks. I think I'm going to have her work on covering it in spackling once I'm satisfied with the joins. She needs some more sweat-equity in this deal!! Besides... I have my *own* bldg to work on.
I liked the way the practice wall looked so much that I went on and spackled down one edge today so I could wrap the stone texture around the side. I'll do the other little piece tomorrow. And, since they are practice walls, I may have to whip out some brush paint and put on a thick coating of craft acrylics. Just to try things out. I also have these smaller chunks I cut out of the coolers to play around on. Hm.....
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Doc, I've been racking my brain on how to create a Jedi temple set for the Novel and seeing what you and your daughter are doing here has given me loads of ideas.
I know you have bigged me up in the past, but your fun ideas from microwaving figures to using styrofoam have pushed my creativity to new levels. This it's such a great idea and a great story. Your daughter is doing an amazing job.
Jules
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As far as drywall goes. you could use drywall tape on the joins between the two coolers and never know they weren't one piece when your done. I have done a little drywall in my time. I just hated the sanding afterwards, but it wouldn't be too bad on the coolers. If you are going to "mudd" the whole thing you might not even have much sanding to do. You could even research mudd applications as you can do tons of different effects with things like sponges and foam brushes. My father in law can do a swirly effect that looks cool. I even thought about what using floor tile compound would look and using small pieces of a similar color slate tile or even rock for that matter would look over the thing. See what ideas you are giving us all? Awesome project.
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Glad to hear our project is kicking some Muses in the rump! I've gone into great detail about what we are doing for a few reasons. One is to hopefully help give some inspiration to others. Two is so that if I run into problems, it is easier to troubleshoot and fix. And three is so that Keke has a record of it later on when she's older and sits around wondering exactly what fun she's ever had with her dad! ;D Self-protection, y'know. Ok, and four, hers is a learning/experimental project so that *I* learn how to work with foam better for use on my own projects, so the thread will serve as a "lessons-learned" repository.
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doc, shame on you using your daughter as a guinne pig! ;) lol
that is coming together awesome! I love the door opening. are you going to have a door which closes on the inside or leave it open?
stuff you should do on the top is add some wires and antenaes and satelite dishes. Maybe a gun turret?
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My lovely wife threw a wrinkle in the plan last night. She pointed out we lose playspace with that door being so narrow. So she says..."How easy would it be to make the back wall removable?"
:o
So as the Gorilla Glue dries, I'm back to thinking..... O0
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doc, removing the back wall would be simple. Just cut it strait up one corner, across the back, and down the other so that you have one large pannel. Use that hot wire technique and keep it strait. Then use dowel rods and holes to peg it together while displaying, and then you can just pull it off the pegs when you want access to the inside.
I'd cut it before you spackle it if you havn't already......
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Yeah, that was the approach I'd figured to stand the best shot at working. No spackle yet - just came in from shutting down the shop and the gorilla glue with three pieces of tape inside has turned the bldg into a single entity - albeit a fragile one. Turns out this is to be home for a multi-being team of bounty hunters (someone has been watching a lot of Cowboy Bebop lately), so a comm-array on the roof would be a must, as would weapon emplacements. Details as they develop.
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LOVE cowboy bebop... hmmm some 3.75 bebop figs would be awesome.... *looks up reference pictures and surfs e-bay for likely parts*
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Bebop - I think the Evo-pack Bultar Swann head on, say, the Agent Helix *might* be a start at a decent Faye fig. Maybe use a ROC Destro w/o coat as a Spike base and a Heavy Duty as Jet? Obviously, an Ahsoka body for Ed, being all gangly and barely clothed. ;)
So, I spackled up the seams last night late, as mentioned. Here's pics, as promised. I did it after the girls went to bed so that baby sis wouldn't throw a fit over getting to "help" - something we could ALL do without. As for the hot-wire cutter, I'm thinking a straightened wire clothes-hanger, jumper cables and a car battery. Lemme know if ya see the smoke plume! Actually, a 6v lantern batt and some jumper wire, but yeah. We'll see how that works. I need insulated handles...oh! Wood clamps. Got it covered. So, once the spackling dries, I'll cut the back wall off. Then we'll start spreading out the latex primer. Hm. Keke needs to practice that today, I think. That's something she should do on her project...
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Hi Doc!
This is going to be a killer piece on the diorama.
My son just said that you guys do all this cool stuff while we don't have these styrofoam boxes...that's just unfair...
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looking good doc. Cant wait to see it finished.
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Heh - tell Sean it's all a matter of looking at what you have (or can get easily) and figuring out what you can do with it that is WAY KEWL!! That's all this is. Of course, wait til ya see *my* bldg!! ;D
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It is looking really good Doc. I am anxious to see how this all turns out!
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Awesome job so far guys! I can only hope that my kids are into this stuff when they get a little older.. but god the Boy can't even stand still half the time.. I can't picture him with a bursh :P
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sten hunter, hang in there. MY oldest is adhd and every now and then I can get him to sit still long enough to do a custom... course I wind up finishing it for him.... lol
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Doc, that garage is going to turn out killer! I can't wait to see it done.
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Well, today and tomorrow are kinda shot - we've got a strong nibble on our property and we're spending Rebe's two days off working on cleaning up and clearing out the trailer-house. Leaves me a bit too frazzled to work on most projects. I still need to make a hot-wire cutter. *sigh*
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Good luck on your nibble, doc.
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hey doc thats a great way to spend time with your kids i hope Chloe is the same when she gets older, she already likes to know what I'm doing and she will sit with me at the table and watch me when doing a custom figure :D
i found this on the web i hope it give's you help in what you need for foam cutting http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4968914/tm.htm
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Thankee for that link! I think I've got everything I need to build one now - for power, I'll be digging an old model train power-pack out of storage. I guess the wire is going to come out of my bits-box... I have a lot of various wire scrap. I should get that this week and move on with the garage.
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Doc this is a great project and glad to see you have the young ones in on it. I love the cooler idea it looks perfect for this. I can't wait to see more.
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whatever happened to this project doc? the speeder contest ends and we havn't seen a single update on your garage... comeon!
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Real-life got in the way. Been working on trying to get a trailer-house cleaned out, as someone decided to throw money at me for it. Had to cram all my customizing stuff into the shop and storage-trailer for the time being until we can get everything sorted.
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eh.. I know about life getting in the way of customizing!
hope all goes well and you get everything sorted out...
I wish someone would throw money at me... :P
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HA! I just wish I got to use some of it for things other than catching up on land-notes and Citifinancial! I'm hoping I can talk Rebe into a box of HSIII or maybe a Smoothon order...