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| heat formed ears |
Two fox ears almost completed and two crisis averted.
About three days ago, I grabbed my heat gun and started heat forming the fox ears. First I carefully folded them, making sure the bottom is a curve, until the open part matched the cut out part, as best as I could. Then I curved the bottom part, on both pieces.
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| primed inner sides |
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| gold painted inner sides |
Crisis #1
I gave the gold paint can, Pébèo Deco Spray, in 868 Gold, which matches the shoes gold colour, a really good shake, but the first layer came out mostly gas, and little paint. Besides, it looked a pale yellow, and not gold at all! I shaked it more, and tried again, but the can started drooling... Bah!
Fortunately, the next day I was visiting my mom, who lives near the shop where I bought the paint at, Imaginação das Cores. I took the can and told them what happened. I bought two more cans, because I was afraid these small 200ml cans wouldn't be enough for the ears, shoe embellishments, and the staff. They were very nice, and also gave the cans a good shake before I left. At home, I shook the new can vigorously for at least 15 minutes straight, and the result was much more to my satisfaction. I only sprayed a thin layer to the cut out fronts, to make the surface even, as it mostly won't be seen.
Crisis averted!
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| glueing the fronts to the backs |
Crisis #2
I filed the backs' edges, so they match the fronts, and to remove the excess paint for some grip surface. I did the same to the fronts' edges, about 3mm in. Then I proceeded to glue them with superglue, which I thought would glue PVC, by melting it slightly. It didn't. PVC typically should be glued with proper PVC glue, which I don't have. I usually do it with contact glue, but it also isn't the best for PVC, especially with these weird curves. Well I had to glue them with contact glue, I wasn't in the mood to use the E6000, which I only use when no other glue works, because it dries slowly and is messy.
I glued them with contact glue, but realised I needed to correct the heat forming in some places. I bount them with elastics, and let them dry overnight. Then I heated the mismatched places again carefully, I didn't want to boil the paint, and pressed them in place. Then, with a nail clipper spatula, I took the glue off, where it didn't work well, and applied contact glue again. This time I waited a bit longer until it was tacky, and then pressed it together. Added the rubber elastics again, and let it stay overnight.
Crisis averted!
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| smoothed joints |
To make the joints look nice, I filed them smoothly, then sanded them with a fine grit sandpaper, and, finally, added filler to all the gaps, and sanded again when dry.
I added another thin paint layer to the inside, as with all the manipulation, it got a bit stained.
+ the heat forming went much better than antecipated, which gives me hopes for the ruby.
- the paint debockle, it was a mess, and I probably should have bought PVC glue for this, but the end result is becoming really nice!
THE CUNNING PLAN
Paint the primer on the outside tomorrow. Try to squeeze some paint out of the first can and use it to paint the cut-outs with a brush.
Stop procraftinating and sew the dress!
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