A behind the scenes look at film and television Prop making peppered with everything else creative we do!
When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIREsoftware, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.
Monday 26 November 2012
Monopoly Game Over!
We spent the whole weekend at the shop, getting the rest of the monopoly props built. I really like building stuff, and when I'm at the shop, I know exactly what I need to be doing. This makes being at the shop a total joy! I don't ever get bored at the shop.
The machining of the rest of the dog went very smoothly. And the fact that our Techno cnc was turning out finished pieces quite rapidly, meant there was no waiting around!
It didn't take very long to assemble all the pieces either. I ended up drilling two 5/16" holes under the ears and down into the neck and body. I epoxied 2 dowels into the holes, to add strength to the head.
I ended up cutting all the parts with a 1/4" ballnose cutter, and a 9% stepover. This left some stepping on the near-vertical sections of the geometry, but with HDU it was easily cleaned off. It can be faster most times to just sand and file the seams, versus running a new toolpath at a 90 degree angle to the first pass. If the part had to adhere to the geometry specs tightly, I would toolpath the near vertical edges with a super tight stepover, limited to just those areas. But not today my friends, today the sandpaper and file wins the race!
We primed the dog in 2 stages. The first stage was done with a water-based, single stage epoxy paint. After the HDU was 'sealed', we moved onto using the Rustoleum sandable primer. This primer comes in black, is super easy to sand, and doesn't clog the paper. Plus it handles a mix of different solvent based topcoats without wrinkling or cracking. Nice stuff.
We were asked on Friday if we had time to paint a chest to look like the 'community chest' on the monopoly cards. We agreed, and the chest was delivered around 9 pm Friday night.
Jody scuffed the whole thing down so the paint had a fighting chance of sticking. The poopy part was all the hardware was riveted on, and we couldn't get to the backs of the rivets to drill them out.
This meant spraying all the hardware white, then masking it all off for the blue.
We used a latex acrylic for the blue. Fast dry, opaque, and water clean-up. Plus, the chest has to last 1 day, so durability isn't a factor.
It came out pretty sweet. It's only being shot from the front, so we didn't have to be meticulous with the back side.
The hat and the iron got primed with the black Rustoleum primer, the same as the dog. By the time these where ready for paint, they were so smooth and beautiful, I almost wanted to keep them black!
It's nothing special really. We use the Behr garage floor epoxy. It's a single stage, water based epoxy paint. A hair thinner than high quality latex, BUT you can sand it and feather it, unlike latex. You do have to build up a few coats, but it's more friendly than most automotive style products. It's not very expensive, and readily available. Then if we need a really smooth finish like the monopoly pieces, we do a couple of coats of the Rustoleum sandable primer.
Can you tell me more about the priming epoxy sealer that you used? Brands?
ReplyDeleteIt's nothing special really. We use the Behr garage floor epoxy. It's a single stage, water based epoxy paint. A hair thinner than high quality latex, BUT you can sand it and feather it, unlike latex. You do have to build up a few coats, but it's more friendly than most automotive style products. It's not very expensive, and readily available. Then if we need a really smooth finish like the monopoly pieces, we do a couple of coats of the Rustoleum sandable primer.
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