Well, that didn’t take as long as I had anticipated, I suppose. I guess when I actually convince myself that I certainly do have the time to apply more Shell Shock, or that the fast formula really only takes about an hour to cure, then I can be tenacious and push forward. Needless to say, as of now, it’s turned out about to what I had expected it to turn out like, and there’s still a lot of work to be done.
The optimistic side of things is that once this part is done, the remainder of the actual staff part doesn’t seem at all that difficult, as I have been thinking about the next steps as well.
But here’s where we stand currently.
I don’t have to explain the whole process, but I’m proud of myself this time around for having a little bit more foresight in this project than when I was working on my Mafia Graves gun from a year ago. That being said, I’d been thinking of how I was going to attach the crown to the actual rod part of the staff, and it was obvious that it would be with a screw(s).
The good thing about Shell Shock is once hardened, it’s pretty durable stuff that can support being screwed into, if done carefully. Even still though, it’s better to prepare for the insertion of a screw in advance rather than later, so with that in mind, I kept the bottom of the crown uncoated until it was the last part of it that needed to be coated. But not before I was able to drill a hole into the bottom of it in advance.
I’ll be damned, setting a paint bucket onto the bench gave me just the perfect height and platform for just the base of the crown.
And so the hole was filled with more Shell Shock, and I was able to coat the last section of the staff that I hadn’t gotten to. As you might notice, there’s a little goopiness along where the base meets the two adjacent diamond shapes; I’m going to try and shave a lot of those kind of spots off on just about everywhere else on the staff, but for the sake of structural integrity, I may keep them on this section. The only thing that’s really holding the whole together is a 2mm thick wire, and the last thing I want is this staff to snap at the base and have the two sides come whirling down to face south.
But now I’ve got a plug in the foam where I can realistically insert a hopefully sturdy enough screw or bolt into it that will be capable of supporting the weight of the crown as a whole in the end, when mounted onto the pole.
And then I had to let it sit upside for a little while, while the stuff cured.
And that’s where we stand. The crown of the staff is now a goopy kind of mess at the moment, and my concerns of Shell Shock getting into crevices came to fruition, as it’s kind of hard to help dealing with stuff that has such a short pot life, and even while applied has an unpredictable ooze tendency. Also, as expected, the coating of all this Shell Shock has added some noticeable weight to it as a whole, but not enough to make this unmanageable by the LeBlanc costumer who is going to be holding it.
The rest of my weekend is likely going to be spent doing absolutely nothing but sanding this bitch down. Although in theory, doing nothing but hand sanding seems like the most logical and caring, I’m willing to bet against myself that I’ll grow exasperated at some point, and resort to at least, the mouse sander. With a wince at what’s ahead of me, here’s hoping for the best.
