Pit Bot- Making Of: Part 2

Pit Bot: Carbon Fiber

For the exterior shell of the torso and a few other parts i wanted to have a carbon fiber look to them, after some research I decided to do it for real and visited a family friend who runs a canoe and kayak center where he makes carbon fiber paddles. After a quick demo I bought the required materials and scampered back to the workshop. What follows is the process involved.

a rough pattern for the torso shell is layered down with masking tape, the tape prevents the fiber from fraying when cut with a scissors

you can see in this image the plaster carving of the torso shell has been covered in a semi hard foam board, it bends when heated and is very solid when cool. using a heatgun you are able to shape a flat piece of this 'Thermo flex foam' and shape it around your plaster shape. this will form the base material of the carbon fiber, sturdy and very lightweight.

next step is to mix the epoxy resin, if i remember correctly it was a mix ratio of 1:3.

then using a clean layer of plastic underneath your fiber, pour the epox directly on top of it..

after pouring your resin then begin spreading it on the fiber, like buttering a piece of bread..

then you lift the soaked fiber sheet and begin smoothing and shaping it onto the foam. the resin soaks into the foam and creates a very strong bond.

while the resin is still wet the next thing that goes on is a layer of nylon fabric called Peel-Ply.

this fabric basically soaks into the resin and pulls it up away from the fiber, so that the fiber is trapped in a layer of resin between the foam and the peel-ply. the reasons for this are apparent soon..

once the resin dries you then rip the peel ply away, the peel ply does not stick well to the surface but it creates a slightly raised even texture on the dried resin which is easy to sand down and polish. without the peel ply, the resin would settle on the top of the carbon fiber and there would be no allowance for sanding without sanding down into the actual fibers themselves. below is rear torso panel dried with Peel-ply still on..

and here is the same panel with the ply removed

then after a few hours of sanding with wet and dry sand paper you have a very smooth finish.

More to come in Part 3!!

Pit Bot- The Making Of : Part 1

Finally, after nearly 4 years I have decided to do a detailed article about the process behind making my 3rd year modelmaking Final Project. I am going to break it up into sections for ease of publishing etc, hope you all enjoy it!!

Initial Design

The concept for the Pit Bot goes back to 2nd year college in 08', fellow classmate Craig Kane had the idea for a futuristic hovering race vehicle and the world it inhabited. So Craig, Kyle Castles and myself decided to tie our 3 Final projects together with the story of a Sci-Fi racing team. The pieces that we would produce would in theory be used in a live action movie. Craig was going to design a miniature of the racing vehicle, Kyle would produce a life size pilot costume  and as I've always been fascinated with robots decided to design and build a full-size prop and lighting reference of the Pit Bot- which is one of many droids working in the pitstop of the hover races.

My initial designs had full legs, but soon realised with only 4 months to build the life-size version, legs would not be completed. So i turned to the idea that the robot could be a floating torso, with a hover pad instead of legs.

after finding a design that i was happy with I realised that it would be best to model the character in digital 3D and then use that model as a blueprint for all measurements. So i popped my 3D model into AutoCad and printed full size layouts which were pinned up around my workstation

Construction Begins

The next step was to make plaster blocks, which would then be carved into shapes using the print-outs from the 3D model as templates.

Then it was just a case of using the large BandSaw in the workshop to cut out the basic profile, and using chisels and rasps to add the curves etc..

 

First part to mould was the head (looking back i would have done the mould differently, but i suppose thats why the call it learning!). I wanted to have an open ended mould because it was only going to be a shell i needed to cast.

a quick silicone mould and fiberglass jacket later...

 then I took a cast in fiberglass..

next was the torso, i ended up scrapping the plaster one i carved and used a CNC milling machine to mill out a layered MDF version which was filled and sanded- the reason for this was that i needed it to be perfectly symmetrical

 then another silicone and fiberglass jacket mould..

which I could then pull two fiberglass casts out and pop them back to back to make the base torso.

Think I'll leave it here for Part 1,

stay tuned for Part 2!!

Alien Doodle

More sketches (scribbles)

More sketches from yesterday. still playing with the Biro and Tip-Ex. still drawing dinosaurs and robots. not sure I can draw anything else..

Alien-Robot-Dinosaur

Àfter yesterdays post my buddy Phil commented that I had everything in the sketches, robots
aliens, and of course dinosaurs.. so here's one for you dude, an AlienRobotDinosaur.. think I've outdone myself this time..

SketchBook November

Sketches done with black Biro and Tip-Exx/ white Pencil over the last few days.. Playing around with some new designs

 

Alien Oil Paintings

 Still practicing the oil painting technique, decided to do 2 ridiculous looking alien Generals covered in medals, might do a few more of these types of paintings. (must finish the HuggleStitch soon too...)

HuggleMonster Stitch Crossover (WIP) Oil on Canvas

While working on BrownBagFilms 'Hugglemonsters' i started doodling crossovers with other characters and shows. this one is 'Stitch Hugglemonster' basically Disneys Stitch wearing a Henry costume. below is a WIP oil on canvas of him, still some more to do,some highlights and shading, and then a backround of course.

 (legal note- this is based on designs by Disney and BrownBagFilms/Niamh Sharkey- Please dont sue me guys!)