Over a barrel

[eTraxx]

I was sitting here earlier and I had a Tichy styrene 55gal barrel sitting there .. and for some reason I thought of Dallas' trash can he made in 1:35 .. and .. remembered I had some aluminum foil ..





Now though .. I'm wanting to rust it up .. and have some PCB Etchant but I'm worried that the Etchant would eat the barrel up (meaning I didn't dunk it in water quick enough) and/or dissolve the CA. Suggestions? Dilute the Etchant with water? Something else?

[Ray Dunakin]

In my somewhat limited experience, the etchant is pretty slow.

[Malachi Constant]

If there ain't no monkeys in it ... it's just a barrel ... and where's the fun in that? 

On the flipside, I can't believe you actually shaped that thing with aluminum foil, glued the seam neatly and moved it around enough to take photos without crushing the sucker.  That alone is pretty darned impressive.

Still, gotta take points off for the conspicuous absence of monkeys.

Cheers,
Dallas

[eTraxx]

Wait a minute .. I gotta come up with 1:48 scale monkeys? Geeze!

[NORCALLOGGER]

Now wait a minute,
If you put 1:48 monkeys in that 1:35 drum you will
probably be blackballed on this site.
Might want to rethink that.
Rick

[fspg2]

In bbf forum there is a thread where Marcel and Helmut showed their way of building old barrels.
Have a look here.

Frithjof

[marc_reusser]

Ed,

You must have a real delicate touch...no way I could pull that off. I would not recommend that you try etching this....I think it will get eaten too easily and fast.(plus I don't think completely rusted through barrels are that common. )....I think you can get a good enough rusty and dillapidated feel with paint alone.

Marc

[eTraxx]

Marc, thanks! Funny .. the hardest part was that it was so light the slightest bit of air (like from overhead fan) would spin the sucker around like a leaf. I was sitting here last night and remembered that I had placed an order from that company offering free samples of blackening chemicals for some aluminum blackening agent. It may well be here today .. I'm thinking that .. whatever process takes place that it may give a good base for paint.

[chester]

Yes the ferric chloride etchant gets pretty violent with aluminum, you may end up with half a drum in no time. I would simply start to paint it with your favorite weathering technique. Cool idea though, I need some drums.

[eTraxx]

Chester. Was pretty 'fiddely' .. but simple .. uhhh .. simpddely? .. in any case .. cut some foil the same height as the barrel and long enough to wrap around completely. Smoothed around the barrel which impressed the lines in it. Slid the barrel out .. then .. gently .. placed the wrapper up against something so it wouldn't move and with the open edge up. Then took another 'something' .. and slid it sideways (gently) until the edges of the foil touched and I had a barrel. Thin Super glue was then applied to the edge to join the seam. I used the Tichy barrel to impress another piece of foil to make the bottom .. and cut that out. Dropped that into the barrel shell and pressed down inside .. the friction held it in place. Turned it over and ran the glue around the bottom seam. I love my little CA tool I made a while back from a needle .. makes application of super glue very precise .. the one in the photo I had to actually cut back a bit as it was picking up too much cement

[eTraxx]

I wrote up the steps to make the barrel ..

http://www.etraxx.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=121

In this pic the Tichy barrel is on the left, center is the one I showed in the original posting .. since w/gray primer and dunked in my grunge (brown, black India Ink, black shoe dye, Tie Brown latex and alcohol. Basically I dump all my excess grungy colors into the jar). The one on the right was dipped into the aluminum blackening stuff. I got scarrit and dunked it in water to stop eating it all away after. Sprayed with some matt, washed in brown and dunked in the grungy wash.



Couldn't help rusting the one barrel a bit with some Dr O'Brien's weathering powders.

[eTraxx]

In bbf forum there is a thread where Marcel and Helmut showed their way of building old barrels.
Have a look here.

Frithjof

Frithjof .. interesting. I more or less did the same thing by pressing the foil over the Tichy barrel ribs. I had looked at some thicker aluminum that I had (pie tin) but it was too thick to press with thumb over the styrene barrel. Using one of the methods you linked though .. could very well make that useful. The ones I made are so delicate that slightly thicker aluminum would enable you to have more control.

[marklayton]

McMaster-Carr sells aluminum foil from 0.0005" to 0.016" - http://www.mcmaster.com/#aluminum-foil/=c91d3t  That range should provide opportunities to experiment with etchant.

Mark

[Bexley]

I got loads of those brass paste tubes, unfilled and unsealed, from Ax Man. But that probably doesn't help any of you out much, unless you're in/near the Twin Cities. I really probably shouldn't have said anything to begin with.

[Tom Neeson]

You can get 40 gauge (about 0.006") thk copper and aluminum sheet at just about any craft store. In the embossing section.

Tom