- I uploaded a @YouTube video http://t.co/aNQlyzjo Materials testing – 20 Shore PU rubber 22:31:38, 2012-01-15
- Are you on the UKFur forums? In a couple of hours they'll be a clearance sale posted there; cheap UKFur T-shirts, plus a few other things. 16:10:36, 2012-01-20
- Also RIP to the Tea-tree wipes. Many will recall them sold at meets & cons, but the stock is now past it. Go gently into that good bin.. 16:13:28, 2012-01-20
- The UKFur Merchandise sale has now started in the UKFur Forums; http://t.co/pCYr794l 18:04:41, 2012-01-20
Twitter updates for week ending 21-01-2012
January 22nd, 2012Twitter updates for week ending 14-01-2012
January 15th, 2012- Glad to see the horns being put to use!
(@YouTube http://t.co/VIeVWxDd) 23:14:41, 2012-01-10
Twitter updates for week ending 07-01-2012
January 8th, 2012- I liked a @YouTube video http://t.co/C8aA4LFg Smoothing Foam With Scissors 19:01:28, 2012-01-03
- For my future reference; 20 Shore rubber is TOO soft. It's like those little jelly people they sell to be thrown at windows. 23:42:48, 2012-01-07
- On the upside, these 20 Shore pads might let me climb walls like Spiderman. 23:43:21, 2012-01-07
- @emjrabbitwolf Sorry, didn't get the notification! Yes, I still take orders. Just been pulling some things together. in reply to emjrabbitwolf 23:46:06, 2012-01-07
Twitter updates for week ending 19-11-2011
November 20th, 2011- Ouch. Finding out you've wasted £70+ of materials on a long-shot. 17:16:36, 2011-11-16
- Well that's something. Got some code written that both moves four servos plus writes their position info to the serial monitor. 21:38:43, 2011-11-16
- That code should let me set up ear "poses" and behaviours without guesswork. Might also allow user-set default ear positions/bias. 21:40:05, 2011-11-16
Twitter updates for week ending 12-11-2011
November 13th, 2011- Modding the servo's gearbox sort-of worked. Fast enough, but WAY too twitchy. Will try custom linkages instead to get the speed needed. 21:16:42, 2011-11-07
- If you lot are very lucky (and so am I) you might get to see Animatronic Animal Ears v0.4 by the weekend. 21:18:15, 2011-11-07
- Okay, website layout's fixed. Just got to dump the old gallery plugin & re-upload pics to the new one. Then finally make that update post. 01:23:57, 2011-11-08
- Fixing up the gallery took longer than expected. Pics still need descriptions, but all thumbnails seem functional now. Horns post tomorrow. 03:25:25, 2011-11-08
- New post: The horns update! http://t.co/aDmd8D5h 21:29:03, 2011-11-08
The horns update!
November 8th, 2011Finally as promised, an entry about the horns!
Okay, so some of you will have seen these at MCM Expo, surface-finished, mounted up to headbands and listed in three price bands. Since then I’ve got the final blank horn prices sorted. They’re all individually priced now, along with their various options.
These horns are made for costume use, so are designed to be lightweight. They have a thin outer layer of polyurethane resin to preserve surface detail, which is then reinforced within with a rigid polyurethane foam. This provides a good balance between light weight, excellent detail reproduction and good damage resistance. The horns however can still be trimmed to length with a serrated knife or junior hacksaw.
Use of a double-density reinforcing foam is available as an option, but will increase item weight. Integral resin colouring is also available.
Foam-rubber is sadly not yet available due to poor surface reproduction, and issues getting them out of the moulds fully intact.
Please see this image for examples of surface detailing effects: EXAMPLE
Here’s the group-shot:
- Top left – Type #1 resin horns – Jacob
- Top middle – Type #8 resin horns – ???
- Top right – Type #4 resin horns – Hebridean
- Middle left – Type #3 resin horns – Hebridean
- Middle right – Type #5 resin horns – Dalesbred
- Bottom left – Type #7 resin horns – ???
- Bottom middle – Type #6 resin horns – Jacob
- Bottom right – Type #2 resin horns – Jacob
Basic pigments (Red, Blue, Yellow, Black, White, Green, Orange): £1.00
Custom pigments (each, per order*): £5.00
(* Per order means a single £5 charge whether the custom colour mix is used on just the horns or a match set of horns, claws and paw-pads, etc)
Type #1
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 230g (pictured examples 190g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 210 x 175 x 55mm
Base price (GBP): £30.00
Double-density foam: £3.00
Type #2
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 160g (pictured examples 106g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 275 x 160 x 40mm
Base price (GBP): £22.50
Double-density foam: £3.00
Type #3
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 130g (pictured examples 100g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 220 x 140 x 30mm
Base price (GBP): £17.50
Double-density foam: £2.00
Type #4
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 90g (pictured examples 54g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 185 x 135 x 27mm
Base price (GBP): £12.50
Double-density foam: £2.00
Type #5
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 280g (pictured examples 240g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 190 x 170 x 120mm
Base price (GBP): £35.00
Double-density foam: £4.00
Type #6
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 70g (pictured examples 64g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 185 x 115 x 25mm
Base price (GBP): £10.00
Double-density foam: £1.50
Type #7
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 70g (pictured examples 56g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 135 x 185 x 35mm
Base price (GBP): £12.50
Double-density foam: £1.00
Type #8
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 50g (pictured examples 41g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 95 x 145 x 25mm
Base price (GBP): £10.00
Double-density foam: £1.00
Postage
Will be sent 1st Class Recorded within the UK and Airsure internationally. Please ask for a shipping quote.
EDIT: Prices adjusted. Used old formulae sheet. Oops.
Twitter updates for week ending 05-11-2011
November 6th, 2011- New post: Expo's over.. http://t.co/dAT1OWJN 02:39:45, 2011-11-02
- Shipped: 2 UKFur T-shirts, 3 stickers, set foam-core paw-pads, light green claws. 18:51:55, 2011-11-02
- Rather than photograph the existing stock of horns, I'm going to cast some more up unpigmented to get shots of the "base" versions first. 18:53:10, 2011-11-02
- Got the un-pigmented raw horn casts all made. Will be photographing shortly. 21:13:43, 2011-11-03
- These prototype animatronic ears use a disproportionally large amount of blue-tac and paper. 23:40:18, 2011-11-05
Expo’s over..
November 2nd, 2011..and I took 24hrs out to rest up.
I’ll have some pics up in the next day or so of the new horns, but in all the rush to get things ready in time for Expo I let some existing orders slip behind. Most of them should be taken care of shortly however.
Someone give me a kick up the bum if I don’t get pics up soon.
Boy, I’ve really got to sort out these post categories too.
But anyway, Expo went okay and I got to meet up with some great people, new and old. Next time I hope there won’t be such a mad preparation-rush though.
Expo’s a week away!
October 22nd, 2011If you follow my personal twitter you’ll know the last few weeks have been hectic. Family crisis, deadlines, financial issues and a whole bunch more. The final deadline is now MCM Expo in a weeks time, where I’ll be manning a dealers table for Fatkraken while she costumes. In repayment, I get to sell some of my own items on the table.
It’s Halloween, so I’m selling horns.
Presuming the roto-caster I’ve built in the last week starts working again, I should have a number of each. Some of the first final tests came out today.
Yes, there’s a lot of black there. I was testing some calculations for bulk-casting. Meant mixing up a lot of resin in one colour and black shows any defects better. The two “beige” unicorns horns though actually contain UV and GlowInTheDark powder.
The unicorn horns are cast from a hand-made master. These long ones are 8.5″ long and the shorter ones are 3.5″ long. I’ll be making them up in a host of *co-pony-ough* colours, with the fleece at the bottom either black, white or grey as it’s all I have to hand. They’re a shell casting that’s infilled with rigid PU foam. Will likely be putting them on simple elasticated headbands.
These horns are made in the same way but the moulds are taken from real animal horns. These ones are some breed of goat I believe (of the 8 I got, only 6 had a specific species noted). There’s more coming from Jacob, Heriden and Dalesbred breeds of sheep, but the fibreglass mould-jackets are being tricky. This variety will mostly be mounted on headbands and barrettes, though I may also make a few up in foam rubber.
Once Expo’s over I’ll be selling them directly as loose castings for people to use as they will.
Well after after-Expo, when I wake up from the coma.
Twitter updates for week ending 22-10-2011
October 22nd, 2011- New post: Expo's a week away! http://t.co/IUHTCJyG 01:47:54, 2011-10-22