Mission: Impossible?

The Mission:  Turn a giant spool into a stone well stage prop.  

Uses: An actor has to sit on the edge of the well during the performance. 

The Task: Using as little money as possible, and without altering the spool in any way.  No painting, no cutting, or lasting effects.  

Deadline: One day.

Do you accept this challenge?

Yes! 

This is the spool in question.
I started by getting a piece of paper mill paper that was big enough to go around the spool. I found a roll of paper thinner than I am used to at Hobby Lobby for about $4.50. I painted the paper gray (with some paint I had lying around the shop). I don't have a picture because it was threatening to rain and I was trying to hurry.  I hung the paper in my shed to dry.

The spool sits pretty level although it was a bit wobbly.  There are 4 metal rods that run the length of the spool and stick out on either end. I tightened these up and that made the spool a lot more sturdy, but then posed a problem for me.  Now I had four bolts sticking out about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch out of one end.  Since I wanted to make this as non-wobbly as possible I didn't want to have the bolts on the bottom. If I did, when the actor sat on the side it would slightly tip.  Nope the bolts had to go on the top.  I had planned to cover the entire thing with paper mill paper but with the bolts sticking out of the top I didn't want the actor to sit on them, or the bolts tear through the paper.



The Solution: Styrofoam.  I used a scrap piece that I had laying around the shop and cut a hole in the middle.  Then I cut random shapes only about an inch deep.  This made the look of stones without the individual ones.  Then I took the heat gun and heated up the edges and middles.  This makes styro look more rock-like. For more on how to make rocks visit this.

As you can see it went around the bolts solving my problem.

Next I needed to do the hole in the middle.  Without cutting or painting the spool I cut a piece of paper mill paper in a circle and painted it black (with some paint I had sitting around the shop).

I painted the rock topper with some dark grey paint (I had sitting around the shop). I also thin down the paint a little.  This helps get in the cracks and holes.

I noticed there were already some staples in the spool, so I stapled the black spot (a pirate's death sentence for those of you who are pirate fans) in place. Then I crumpled up the gray painted paper mill paper and opened it back up.  Much the same way I did here.  I unrolled it and stapled it on the top and bottom making sure it had a lot of wrinkles.  After that I got my paint sprayer and sprayed black paint up from the bottom.  If you paint the dark color from the bottom it looks like a shadow.

I put the styro stone top on and held it in place with a few screws.

It is not my best work but considering the
Project Triangle…

I am pleased with the result.  

The Cost:  $4.50 (for the paper.)

Here is a pic of it during the performance.

Making the Rocketeer helmet Part 1

Ok yeah I jump around from project to project.  I get bored easily and if I don't see a lot of progress in the first little bit I pack it up for later.  I really need to focus on projects that I can get done in a few hours.  But instead I am going to try my hand at this pepakura helmet making stuff. (This project will probably take me a few months if I didn't have anything else to do. So don't be alarmed if I don't finish it right away.)

If you don't know about pepakura go here. In the gallery they have all kinds of stuff.  I started with a very simple rocketeer helmet.  By simple I mean it is only about 6-8 pages. That is not a lot considering a few of the Halo helmets have somewhere around 20-30 pages. Also most of the shapes are rather big, so that works for me. You use an exacto knife and cut out seemingly random shapes out of card stock. Then glue or tape them together.

This is what the helmet looks like halfway finished.  After that I painted it with a coat of fiberglass resin.  I had always been hesitant about working with fiberglass.  Mainly because I thought you always had to have the fibers and such.  That is not the case.  You can just mix up a batch of the resin with the hardener and paint it on something or pour it on, etc...

I mixed up some Rondo.  Which is a half and half mixture of Bondo and fiberglass resin.  I first mixed each with it's correct hardener according to the directions, then mixed the two together.  What I came up with was goop about the consistency of a thin milkshake.  I poured this inside the helmet and turned it this way and that to get the inside covered.  You may notice that they eyeholes are covered up.  I used some masking tape to keep the Rondo from spilling out of the eye holes.  I figured I would cut the holes out later.

I cut the eye holes out and mixed up some straight Bondo.  I smeared this all over the helmet and waited the thirty or so minutes for it to harden.  Then I sanded it down.  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures because I was so excited about doing this I forgot.

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