(MSD PART 1)BRONZE MOTHERFUCKING GUNDAMS

File: 20170321_151901.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481319
SECTION 1

So to get started i bought and built a pretty standard HG-144 GP01 kit. This acts as your first A(positive that being a thing which has a mould around it). From there i used a pretty cheap and easy to use casting material called alginate. it is basically ground up sea weed, and mixes fairly easy in a 1-1 mixture ratio. After that is finished you remove the A(in this case the gundam) and get your first B(negative that being a mould), from there the first actual casts can be made using a molten wax that is poured into the alginate B and cools. This gives you your second A, now in wax as opposed to Gunpla.

These are the three finished wax figures.

File: 20170410_135947.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481347
SECTION 2

Once that is complete the real challenge is now affixing those wax pieces to a gating system. In short if you have ever built a Gunpla figure the plastic grid you cut the pieces from is the gating system. Now unfortunately for me i did not have access to injection moulding plastic so my gating system is built from wax. Once complete d and hollowed out it acts as a guidance for the molten bronze to flow into. Now because i chose a tiny detailed model(HG GP01) mine had to be fairly dense and tight.

Here is a in situ shot of the wax gundams fixed in, underneath is the wax gating system needed to get the molten bronze into the arms/legs etc.

File: 20170410_154242.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481364
SECTION 3

So now comes one of the most labour intensive and tricky parts. Once the gating system and it's composite are finished you now move on to dunking it into the ceramic mixture. This was developed by NASA back in the mid 80's, in short it is a chemical compound which bonds with sand to make an outer shell that will form and contain the bronze while casting it as well.

The outermost figure broke off during the process, luckily fixing it is a simple matter of removing part of the ceramic shell and rebinding the interior wax together.

File: 20170412_123659.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481374
SECTION 4

In order to properly dip and dry the ceramic shell it can take anywhere from 1-3 hours and usually needs 6-9 layers of shell to be burn worthy.

This is the shell of the three gundams after it has been fired once in the kiln, this melts out the wax from the ceramic shell while leaving the shape and imprint of the former.

File: 20170412_131324.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481385
SECTION 4/2

This is a just a quick show of how a patch is done if there is any cracks(though for mine this was only needed for an additional melt hole to drain the wax, generally for my ceramic shell it was textbook great) You use a combination of cut strips of fibre glass and quick drying cement to patch any cracks or holes.

>>15481347
They look like chocolate, I wanna eat them.

File: feels good.jpg (75KB, 1290x996px) Image search: [Google]

75KB, 1290x996px

Monitoring this thread intently.

File: 20170413_133435.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481399
SECTION 5

Now that it is fully prepped the moment of ultimate coolness occurs. The ceramic shells are submerged in black forge sand which holds and suspends them, several of them are lined up in a trough. Then once the bronze ingots have been properly melted inside the crucible the entire thing is lifted up on electric motors and pouring occurs.

Ditto

File: 20170413_133449.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481414
SECTION 5/2

File: 20170413_133550.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481422
SECTION 5/3

File: 20170413_133726.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481425
SECTION 5/4

im posting allot of these cause this was genuinely fucking awesome in case anyone was wondering.

File: 20170413_134029.jpg (887KB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

887KB, 2560x1920px

>>15481430
SECTION 5/4

Seriously really cool.

File: 20170413_134412.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481436
SECTION 5/6(whoops)

File: 20170413_134529.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481439
SECTION 6

So now that is all finished up it is now time to let it cool. A brick is placed on top of the ceramic shells because sometimes the bronze can move the shell when it is filled with the molten ore. Even standing three or four feet away you could still feel the heat.

File: 20170413_151328.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481451
SECTION 6/2

After waiting three-six hours depending on the size of the mould the bronze is cool enough to move from the sand and has mostly solidified.

File: 20170413_161404.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481463
SECTION 7

Now begins the most dwarvish and mainly part after the pouring. SMASHING THE FUCKING CERAMIC SHELL OFF WITH A HAMMER!

>But what about the bronze!?

As long as you don't directly hit the piece its fine, and also you will probably lightly dent it more than anything serious(assuming your mould is not shit and your pouring went well).

A chisel is also used to get rid of the tiny bits.

File: 20170413_163354.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481472
SECTION 7/2

This is allot of work, for every kg of the 30 or so i packed on 25 of that was ceramic shell that required smash,.. i mean careful removal. I alternated hitting the back of the gating system to loosen the pieces and then flipping over the piece and hitting off the weakened bits.

If you can make out the dents from this image you can see how much hammering you need to do, this is from roughly half way through removing the shell, i did somewhere around a couple hundred hammer falls to maybe a thousand and my piece was small. If you do anything big expect allot worse.

File: 20170413_174248.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481484
SECTION 7/3

The bad boys (mostly) free from the shell. Bits still remained in the cracks but generally it is mostly gone. You can see now the full gating system needed to pour one of these babies.

File: 20170413_183659.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481494
SECTION 8

Now it's time to remove the pieces from the gating system, this was sort of a pain and required everything from bolt cutters to circular electric and air grinders. Also sandblasting to remove the tiny bits of the shell.

File: 20170413_194258.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481502
SECTION 8/2

Finally free! Thank god i did not have to pay for the gating system bronze as well.
The bronze was quite sharp after removal enough to cut skin if you are an idiot luckily im not.

File: 20170415_155625.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481506
SECTION 9

Polishing, this part was actually pretty easy. You simply use a variety of wire wheels and buffing pads to remove the outer tarnish layer of material. Makes em shine quite nicely!

File: 20170417_133748.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481512
SECTION 9/2

Polishing finished.

File: 18051672_1408247409241283_1759646057_n - Copy.jpg (148KB, 600x800px) Image search: [Google]

148KB, 600x800px

>>15481515
SECTION 10

So now on to my favourite part (next to pouring and smashing) PATINA!

>What's that?

Basically to colour bronze you could paint it,... IF YOU WERE AN IDIOT! Instead we use awesome manly acid mixtures to chemically burn the outer layers of bronze! There are two main types of Patina, cold which requires no heat at all and simply a spray bottle, and hot in which you heat up the bronze to anywhere from 100-300 degrees and then spray on the acid.
Different acids render different colours

File: 20170418_201331.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481526
SECTION 10
ALL DONE!

So after allot of work here is the first Gundam, For this one i only needed a couple of coats of cupric nitrate, i actually fucked up the heating but it ended up looking really rad! Gave it a blue energy veins look.

File: 20170418_201154.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481532
SECTION 10/2

This one i used several blackening coats to dull the yellow then used four coats of ferric(iron) nitrate. I was not really satisfied at first so i added some red metal powder to bump the hue up. This one was the most fucked up from the casting process(it broke when i was doing the ceramic shell) but now it looks like a cool god warrior so fuck it, it's awesome!

File: 20170418_200802.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481542
And last but not least boring MC gundam, i kept it bronze cause i thought "why not?", it was the first wax cast and closest to the original GP01 in terms of on model.

File: 20170418_201512.jpg (1MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2560x1920px

>>15481546
And so there they are! all in all a really fun project and really cool time. My prof was impressed considering it was my first ever bronze project, definitely worth it.

To finish off i will cover some basic stuff people might wonder.

>how expensive was it?

Not too bad 60$ in all but that was mainly the cost of the bronze and ceramics. If i had done these at a professional foundry and done none of the work, they would be 800 a piece so 2400 in total.

>Is it safe?

FUCK NO! if you are an idiot you can very well die from doing bronze work. Even if not from instant shit like molten bronze, just fucking up you respirator can be enough. I needed two separate mask packets, one for dust ( hammering the shell and working in the ceramic shell room) and one for organics(acid vapours). Other people i worked with cheaped out and were using basic paper dust masks, some did not use any. This shit can give you cancer or melt your skin if you are stupid, once again luckily i was not.

>How many hours?

about a solid 14 days of labour all things considered.

>Would you do it again?

Yes and i am next year.

And that pretty much raps it up for today! Feel free to ask anything else, otherwise i will be here on /m/ with my next project tomorrow!

File: 1239537261501.jpg (66KB, 720x480px) Image search: [Google]

66KB, 720x480px

This is some good shit, OP.

>>15481624
Thanks!

>>15481580
Now use it in a gunpla battle and post results

>>15481668
Im pretty sure you could just whip it at the opponents head and give them a concussion. Its still several kg heavy.

>>15481532
I bet this would be great for that scene from the start of Dougram

File: 18051863_1408247415907949_1038348780_n.jpg (72KB, 600x800px) Image search: [Google]

72KB, 600x800px

>>15481690
Yeah this was the red gundam before well, the red.
You could get it pretty damaged looking.