Becoming Master Chief; Part 3

A quick update on the Master Chief Armour build, as this week has seem some highs and lows.

Even with accurate weights, Jesmonite is an absolute shit to use.  It hardens up an absolute treat within a very short period of time, but is almost impossible to use to laminate anything. The fact that it has a consistency of wallpaper paste (and a similar weight) means it's difficult to apply and warps the cardstock to a ridiculous extent.

Tuesday night (during which time Tara, Tom and Dad were at the football - SIMULBLOG ALERT) saw only bad results and was more than a little disappointing. Tara must have had enough of my moping for the remainder of that evening and most of the next day.  I was on the verge of giving up -

- but decided to take a different approach.  Going for the time honoured method the Americans seem to use for their pepakura, I've tried something else for the lamination.  Got some Davids Fibreglass resin and activator from Halfords and gave it a test today - worked like an absolute charm.  I've now resined a forearm piece which is completely waterproof and sturdy enough so I can use the jesmonite on the interior to seal in the fibreglass matting - giving it strength and meaning the jesmonite won't go to waste.

Just got the second piece in from outside - Wasn't quite generous enough with the activator so it took about half an hour longer to dry, but the laminate went on much easier second time round (It's the lower one of the two photographs) because I suspect I did a neater job on the clear acrylic paint I coated them with so they'd keep their shape and not get water logged.  Or more than likely, Tara did the second one and she's much neater than I am.

So, update 3 out of the way with some actual progress.  Next stage is to Jesmonite the interior of those two pieces, and then relaminate with the resin to stick the fibre glass matting in.  It might not seem like much progress, but trying to laminate with the jesmonite was fucking me up a right treat - the resin was an absolute godsend.