Hi everybody,
Does anyone knows what kind of aluminium and what thickness they have used to form the Pulse rifles shroud parts?

Where I'm planning to buy some aluminium sheets have 3 kind of strongness.
Alloy 1050A H14: regular
Alloy 5251 H22: medium
Alloy 6082 T6: high

I've done some test with some medium in 1.5mm thick and it's allready very strong.

Thanks

Stephane

Not sure about the originals, but I'd go with the lightest strength aluminium.

It's probably eaiser to work with then the heavier stuff and if plastic shrouds hold up just fine for costuming purposes,
then aluminum (even the lighest strength) should be more than strong enough for a PR prop.

Thanks TS826.

Just in case, I order the three types to test them.
I took as well diferent thickness.
Will see what I can do with that.


Stephane

so are you looking at producing sets of shrouds in aluminium ?????

will they be offered here for sale ????

At least, I'll try to do one set.
During that try, I'll do photos if my mistakes can help someone
to do it properly.
It will be a miracle I'm finishing one set but I'll try.
Timewise, I wont be able to even think about producing sets for sale.

Keep in mind that maybe I wont like to work metal. I'm get used to resins, plaster and silicone. So that is really new for me.

And by the way, MAA is allready working on an aluminum set to be produced.

Stephane

here is my first photo of my Aluminium shrouds test.
It's a WIP.
A step by step webpage will be done if I'm happy enough with the final result.

Looks good so far to me mate. Hope you get a result your happy with.

Cheers

Darren

That's shaping up quite nicely! (Does that come across as a pun? Regardless, I just couldn't steer away from it)

So what types of shaping tools are you using? And that buck -- what's that made from?

_________________
Rick "Ripstick"
A03/TQ3.0.12142E1

Thanks guys.

It is just a first test in 1mm aluminium sheet.
I'm using a hard base shaped as the PR and form the aluminium around it with hammers.
Because my base was not strong enough (plaster) I will have to redo one in a different material. I think wood should work but I' have nothing and no place to work with wood. So I'm going to try some resins. When I will be sure about the quality of my shape base, I will try with 1.2mm aluminium sheet.

I've used metal hammers and wooden mallets.
Metal hammers have to be banned. They mark too much the surface.
With wooden tools you deform but dont create bad marks hard too clean.
So, wood is good.
I'm going to finish this one first to make sure that i'm doing all the mistakes on it.
That just mean that I will have to redo al the process.

Stephane

I'm in the process of building my armor from 1.5mm aluminium (about 90% done). So I totaly agree with the tools - metal hammer is bad (unless you have it well rounded and polished). 99% of the time I'm either using a rubber or a plastik hammer. The plastic hammer for sharp corners, the rubber hammer for driving the armor into the general shape.
The counterpiece ("amboss") is always hard wood.

Cheers,
Stefan

Hello Stefan,

I'm curious to know what aluminium you are using.
I played with 3 diferents strength and the with the stronger one,I was not able to control the deformations.
Are you heating it ?

Thanks

Stephane

Actually, I can't tell what kind of alloy it is as I bought it in differend home improvement stores - so it's simply labeled sheet aluminium.
I've done some tests with 0.8mm sheet and also had control problems as it deformed too easily. With the 1.5mm stuff I never had this kind of trouble and it's still easy enough to work with.
The most complex part I did til now was the rear leg guard. To make it fit to my leg I had to work out the shape much more than on the usual kit parts and you don't have much space on the inside to work with a hammer

Cheers,
Stefan

HOUAAAA.
Is there a way to see some pictures?

For the rear leg guard, To avoid to hammer it by inside, I've seen somme mushroom metal shapes to put your part on and hammer it from outside.

http://www.daggertools.com/3.html?m5:ca ... n-NEW;sr=1

Stephane

Hmm, that's an interesting link!

I haven't done a lot of pictures yet but here's one (I'll have to dig up the others):



The paint job is a quick and dirty one. The real camo paint will be done when all the metal parts are done.

To shape the leg parts I used a 60mm diameter wooden rod with a rounded head clamped into my bench vice. It worked ok, but I find it easier to drive the metal from the inside.

Cheers,
Stefan

Amazing!!!
I like the finish of the surfaces. You dont have any hammering marks.
Is there a secret?


Very impressive.

Stephane

There are only two secrets to it: 1.5mm aluminium and the rubber hammer.
I bought a special device (I always forget the English term) with two shaped rollers to make the grooves and the steps, but everthing else is done by hand.

Cheers,
Stefan

Is it called an English Wheel?

Harry

_________________

http://www.facebook.com/TheHHACA - @TheHHACA

Nope, but that'd be a nice tool to shape the torso armor too!
I just looked it up - it's called a beading machine.

Here's a picture:


Cheers,
Stefan

Yes a beader.

I thought it was just to finalise the borders.
I've checked for one but it is too expensive And I biginning to miss place.

I say that but I' ve just ordered an anvil...
A small one. Only 4.5kg

And hop, one new Photo.

maxhebus that is looking amazing! i'm really impressed. cant wait to see it all done. are you going to be making an all metal PR?

Hello Nick,
You are going to wait a bit because I dont like this first test.
I'm going to redo it diferently.
I would love to do a full metal one but the problem is that a lot of my real parts are in a warehouse in France and I dont know when I will go back. Maybe in a few years.

So now I'm rebuying pratickly everything again.
And because of the laws for BB guns in England, I have no idea if I can buy some anymore.
And budgetwise, I prefer to focus first on the shrouds.

I whant to thanks Matt (mattscorp) who is really kind to let me use his sculpt for that project.

As you imagine guys, I'm trying to collect references from the original props as much as possible.

By example,
Can anyone tell me something about the magazine butt.
on every replicas, it looks tight and in the movie or in the documentaries, it looks larger. Any idea about the truth?

tke care

Stephane

and here is a view from inside.

In light of all the metal work that's been going on lately. lets bring this back. I wonder if was ever finished.

I gotta admit, I got excited when I saw it...until I realized it was 2007! Still, It isn't THAT different from what I have done before.... May be worth a try!


(Side note, great job digging up the quality old stuff, Seven!)

Thanks Big, yknow if you could get a very hard piece of wood, about 4 inches thick or so, rout it out like you would a guitar body but in the shape of the shrouds, you might be able to lay an aluminum sheet on top and just hammer away. Then flip it over and do the other side of the shroud.