Okay, so I've got several different parts of this project going on at once here. Just in general, there's a lot of waiting in between construction times. I started on the "pre-cast" the other night. I'll post more about that once I finish getting the rest of the supplies.
Regarding one of the most important parts of this endeavor, I've started collecting the plastic that the armor will eventually be made out of. Buying the actual styrene sheets is fairly expensive considering shipping costs and such, so this was obviously the first thing I had to look into getting around. It's got a few kinks I'm still trying to work out, but I more or less have my solution. Instructables is a great place for finding all sorts of guides to doing things you never knew that you wanted to know how to do. This particular tutorial is a guide on making the precious plastic I need. As I said, the sheets of plastic are made of polystyrene. As it turns out, foam cups and those big foam packing blocks are also made out of polystyrene. As it turns out, if you combine these materials with some acetone, they will break down into a liquid state where they will eventually dry and harden. Now, thus far, I've noticed two problems. The most obvious problem being that it takes a lot of foam to make just a little plastic. Just experimenting, I dropped in about 7 styrofoam cups and only got a small puddle of plastic out of it. The next problem would be bubbles. While the plastic is drying, it has a tendency to form lost of tiny little bubbles, which is sort of a problem. Either way, I'm working on correcting the issue.
Now, for the fun part. You can't have Space Marine armor without all the fun little doodads hanging off of it. Having some time on my hands, I decided to start working on some purity seals. While the one picture is very nicely done, mine are going to look significantly more weathered. This is a fun and cheap one to follow along with, so feel free to make your own:
1. First of all, you're gonna want some approriate text for your seals. A good place to look for those would be on Lexicanum where there are quite a few Space Marine quotes, dedications, prayers, litanies, etc.
2. After finding some appropriate text, you'll need a suitably gothic or medieval looking font. Just go here and pick your favorite.
3. Now you can just as easily use any word processor that allows you to adjust your margins and such, but I prefer to use Scribus to actually set up the text for my seals. What I did was go into the program, make two text boxes that were two inches wide each, top to bottom in length, and added in my chosen text and font, adjusted the size until it filled up as much of the space as it could and then printed.
4. With your inspiring words printed, cut them out. I found that it's best to only leave just the tiniest space in between the words and the edge of the paper. You'll see more clearly what I mean when I post the pictures.
5. Now, you have two strips of paper with some words typed on them. Now we're gonna add in that look of wear and tear that'll make it look properly cool. Get a decent sized baking dish or some sort. Fill it up with coffee or tea. I prefer coffee. It's a little darker and will stain better. Place your seals flat at the bottom of the dish and put a penny at the top and bottom of each one to keep it from floating to the top. Let them sit for an hour or two. After that, just flip them over and let them sit for another hour or so. Really, it's up to you how long you leave them in for, but the longer they stay, the darker they'll be.
6. After they are yellowed to your satisfaction, take them out of the dish and place them on a sheet of wax paper or tin foil or whatever you prefer. You can now either let them air dry or, if you're impatient like me, use a blow dryer.
7. Once dry, you can start to "distress" the seal. This is my favorite part. Start off by making a number of tiny little tears in the sides of the seal. Don't make them too big or you may rip up more of the seal then you want to. Put as many as you want and space them out however you please. At the bottom of the seal, actually tear out some chunks of the paper. This'll give the bottom a nice ragged appearence.
8. Finally, after your ripped and torn the paper to your liking, start to crumple it up into a ball. To give it that really properly old and mistreated look, crumple it and roll it around for a good long while. Keep doing this until all the stiff is completely taken out of the paper. When you're done, it should feel more like fabric than paper. If you've done your tears right, then the whole thing should have a nice dog-earred and ragged look to it.
That done, you have a nice purity seal. If you're still not satisfied with the yellowing, feel free to put it back in your coffee bath for a while longer, then dry and repeat until you're happy with it.
By the next post I should have some pictures of the process to add. In addition, I'm going to start working on the actual seal part. If you want to, you can just do this with some sealing wax and a proper stamp, but I'm going to work on making something a little bit more "Imperial". I'll post the results of that once I get around to finishing it. Until then, enjoy.
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