I have a question about how some of you guys accomplish the fake welds look, specifically on the ion arm.
It looks like hot glue is definitely the most common (and easiest) solution but it got me thinking.
If I build the ion arm so that the 1/4" thick peices of MDF fit flush against each other without any internal supports (Fig 1), there won’t be any good place for the beads of glue (welds) to sit. So I was thinking of adding supports and purposely leaving a channel for the glue to sit in (Fig 2). What do you guys think?
use milliput (epoxy putty) instead. then just use a popsicle stick to form it. roll it like a snake first then put it on the edge. no reason to leave a channel.
It’ll look much more realistic if you use the channel, rather than looking like it’s just sitting on top. Also for more realism use your finger while wearing latex gloves to hide fingerprints (you might be able to use plastic wrap too) to push ribs into the epoxy putty making it sort of look like waves…if that makes sense (hard to describe).
Here’s a pic of the original test I did while playing with this method, I waited too long and didn’t make a deep enough channel though so it’s too much like it’s sitting on top and the ripples aren’t as deep as they should be. It’s not a very good example, but it’s the only pic I have handy.
Figure 2. Definately. It gives somewhere for the putty to go.
In the welding world, figure 2 without the block would be classed as a “Corner to corner” joint. For the same reason stated above, it gives the weld somewhere to go.
You’ll have a way easier time getting the weld effect per figure 2 as opposed to figure 1.
The look that I see on a lot of putty weld effects are actually pretty bang on to what most tig welds look like. Ironically, The last test I did at the college was a 2G tig weld on pipe.
IMO, I got 10/10 on the physical appearance of my “cap.”
The individual “cap” passes actually looked pretty close too Namebrand’s example. The look is so close, that I can tell you the method used to get it that way! :mrgreen:
