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Plastic, Acrylic or 3-D printed?
3 years ago
Hello again all you highly creative people, especially those talented in working in plastics, Acrylic, or 3D printing.
My online friend "
EOCostello" introduced me to the Lalique hood ornaments which were used on automobiles in the 1930s and pre-war 1940s. Even though I'm intrigued by this art form, I'm not too certain if folks would want to have a gadget on their automobiles that can cost more than $300,000.00 to a collector. So, I was wondering if a facsimile could be made from cast acrylic resin, carved out of a block of Lucite, or even 3D printed in translucent resin? I know some of these modern materials do not take to the weather well, and I've had a couple examples of 3D printed figures dry out and crumble into powder in the garden. There are some plastics, however that yellow and discolor with age, and these might work great in replicating the "Uranium Glass' of the 1930s with its foggy white clouding and rich orange staining.
Now I told you that to propose this. Eric and I were throwing around the idea of creating facsimile hood ornaments, but with an anthropomorphic animal twist. I kind of like the idea of a stylized running stallion's head with the mane details trailing behind similar to the Pontiac Indian Chief, or a stylized, winged wolfess or stalking cat for the "Rolls Royce" of that particular realm. I'm not ruling out magical spell symbols or icons that might be useful in warding off danger or protect the "Spirit" of the automobile and its occupants. (Yes. I'm referring to my "Magimechanics" ideas I drew in my early days illustrating in the sub-genre.)
I know that in the 1950s and early 1960s that illuminated hood ornaments were popular, especially with the "Bolt on" crowd. (After the Boulton Automobile/engineering catalogs... Get it?) I remember a 1956 Chevy "Spaceship" that had small lights representing its engines and canopy, and of course my Dad's 1955 Pontiac Chieftan hood ornament that glowed a beautiful "Sunset" amber when the headlights were switched on. (Well, it did until my dad got too lazy and didn't replace the tiny light bulb in the fixture. "It burns out the Battery." was his excuse.)
Ideas, suggestions and observations welcome.
"Peace."
My online friend "
EOCostello" introduced me to the Lalique hood ornaments which were used on automobiles in the 1930s and pre-war 1940s. Even though I'm intrigued by this art form, I'm not too certain if folks would want to have a gadget on their automobiles that can cost more than $300,000.00 to a collector. So, I was wondering if a facsimile could be made from cast acrylic resin, carved out of a block of Lucite, or even 3D printed in translucent resin? I know some of these modern materials do not take to the weather well, and I've had a couple examples of 3D printed figures dry out and crumble into powder in the garden. There are some plastics, however that yellow and discolor with age, and these might work great in replicating the "Uranium Glass' of the 1930s with its foggy white clouding and rich orange staining. Now I told you that to propose this. Eric and I were throwing around the idea of creating facsimile hood ornaments, but with an anthropomorphic animal twist. I kind of like the idea of a stylized running stallion's head with the mane details trailing behind similar to the Pontiac Indian Chief, or a stylized, winged wolfess or stalking cat for the "Rolls Royce" of that particular realm. I'm not ruling out magical spell symbols or icons that might be useful in warding off danger or protect the "Spirit" of the automobile and its occupants. (Yes. I'm referring to my "Magimechanics" ideas I drew in my early days illustrating in the sub-genre.)
I know that in the 1950s and early 1960s that illuminated hood ornaments were popular, especially with the "Bolt on" crowd. (After the Boulton Automobile/engineering catalogs... Get it?) I remember a 1956 Chevy "Spaceship" that had small lights representing its engines and canopy, and of course my Dad's 1955 Pontiac Chieftan hood ornament that glowed a beautiful "Sunset" amber when the headlights were switched on. (Well, it did until my dad got too lazy and didn't replace the tiny light bulb in the fixture. "It burns out the Battery." was his excuse.)
Ideas, suggestions and observations welcome.
"Peace."
Sooo, did he not change the headlights when they burned out either? XD
Sorry, I couldn't resist. :)
Still... That reads like something my "Old Man" would do.
The 3D printing technology is yet young; I believe that once it is mature we will see bumps and squiggles like these concerns become a thing of the past. Keep your ear to the ground; I think someone will come up a better formulation in months to years.
Yeah. I'm impressed at the advancements being made in 3D printing and the materials used in these new processes. I'm amazed that some companies are 3D printing in light metals, Brass and even concrete. Yes. One can have a house "Printed" in a matter of hours now.
It's an amazing age we live in! This is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
Considering the rarity of the originals it would seem like there ought to be a decent market for reproductions. No doubt there are already some out there. It seems to me that glass would be best since that's what the originals were. They'd probably sell the best, if that's your intention. People usually prefer faithful reproductions.
One of the real tricks could be getting a decent model to make molds from. I suppose a good existing repro would do. And of course it could be fun to make original designs in the same style.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/27318553/
I wouldn't mind getting back in practice sculpting miniature Anthropomorphic Animal figures provided I could ever find the time.
I would appreciate anything else you would care to share. I've worked mainly in plastics, modifying plastic model kits, and creating scale figures in epoxy putty to go into such models. I'd like to get back into it if time ever permits.
Well, everyone printing wise finds resins easier to work with, sculpt and shape. Also just stronger material with less breaks for weak points like tails and furry ears. 3D printing plastic if the printer is not strong tends to line up and lose details in the layers. Most are set for hollowing which leads to easier breaking, this can be changed, but it consumes more plasticprinting. A good resin always seems to take priming, paint, and wash better. Though weaker/lighter resins don't take washes at all, but I really cannot tell you the specific types off the top of my head of what to avoid (that super cheap gummy stuff). Though in m opinion metal is the best for miniature painting, but 3D printing metal out of the question to the lay man and molding is its own sorcery. However, perhaps I have leaded myself to much into a hatter over the decades.
First thought was "Resin should work, but you cannot really print that..." then a possible solution hit me: you CAN 3D print a split mold to fill with a weatherproof resin. You'd have to polish down the inside and the heat output likely would ruin the mold, but it would be much cheaper to just print mirrored mold halves to be thrown away per figure. Even minor melting can be solved by intentionally using crumbly plaster-like printing material and just flaking off the powder afterwards.
Getting the right mix would require trial and error of course, but once you have the mold design in the system you can just swap around printer fodder and resin freely until you find what you like.
This was partially inspired by an old LARP friend who used his creepy crawler molds to make sterling silver tokens for our currency. ^_^
Some casting epoxy resins may hold up well in sunlight, I know vinylester and polyester resins breakdown in sunlight over time.
Cast acrylic resin may hold up well in sunlight, I know acrylic sheet is used for aircraft windshields and they seem to have about a 15 to 20 year life before they start crazing.
I like the idea you are tossing around.
Hmm. Just did a bit of research/Googling. You probably had 3D prints made from PLA, the easiest and most common filament out there. But it's UV resistance is horrible. Like weeks. Tho, from what I'm seeing, PETG filament is _much_ better in UV, they're saying years. I have a few spools of it, could give that a go. (Tho painting and such would help as well.)
There's a somewhat newer variety of printer, tho, that actually uses UV curing resin as it's media. "SLA" printing. Uses (not joking) a hi-rez cellphone LCD (Which is why the cheaper ones have a rather small print area) and an intense batch of UV LEDs to 'flash' the resin thru the screen. Can make some really detailed prints. Search for examples on the 3D print repositories. (Printables, many others.)
A decent FDM or SLA printer is pretty reasonable nowadays a few $100s up. I'm sure several folk reading here could print up a few samples to try. (That winged wolf posted here. Wow. That'd be tricky to print but a translucent/clear resin on an SLA would be killer.)
I could try a few things in PETG on our Prusas if a suitable CAD/STL file came by. May get into the SLA stuff eventually, but we're FDM at this time.. (The new printer is printing out a raft of egg-holding bunnies as a 'test' tonite. Had some silver PLA filament shipped with the printer, so... Silver bunnies...)
The idea, BTW, sounds like a lot of fun. (Integrate a solar garden light's cell into the base with its battery and controller and you'd have a bottom-illuminated hood ornament that wouldn't need wiring...:) I'd best crawl off now... Have a great one!
Of course, mounting one on your car will be the hard part, these days. Most cars aren't made with hood ornaments anymore; not only is it an unwanted source of wind resistance when they're trying to make everything as aerodynamic as possible, but they also tend to get busted off, vandalized, or stolen with distressing regularity.
The Jaguar statue on the car line of the same name would also (I think) look excellent as a Taur form..
My though was a lost-wax Aluminum casting that would then be electroplated.. (Lost-PLA in plaster, maybe?)