I'm kinda new to this whole world of prop building and just getting started refurb'ing some existing pieces to get my feet wet and I thought I'd share with you what I've been up to...
I picked this Comm up on eBay for a reasonable price, and while I really like it, I found it felt much too light. I wasn't interested in turning it into an working model, since I wanted to keep the piece more or less intact. Also, if anyone can tell me any info on this, I would appreciate it. I've seen pictures of ones that look like this one and people refer to it as a Steve Horch model, but I don't know for sure. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open to hearing them.
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I wanted something small to fit inside the shells but something that could be secured, as well as distributed evenly around the body so that it would feel more... real. Then I remembered these:
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Stick-on aluminum wheel weights... They are 7 grams ( 1/4oz ) each tab and come with 2-sided tape pre-mounted.
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They are also somewhat soft and pliable, and so I was able to 'shape' it slightly to fit the inside of the shell a bit better.
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Because of their small size, I was able to evenly distribute them on the top shell, mid-plate and bottom shell giving the communicator a more balanced/accurate feel to it.
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I used the entire strip in my communicator, as you can see in the photo above which gave me a total weight of 6.75oz (photo below) - almost doubling the prop's original weight of 3.75oz (sorry I don't have a picture of that, I never thought to weigh it before I started :( ). I picked up 4 strips at my local car dealership's parts department while I was there getting some other stuff. They didn't know how much they actually cost, so they charged me a buck a strip... The beauty is, these can be picked up from any tire shop to save shipping costs and time, but I checked eBay anyways. It seems sellers are selling these in gray and black, and for about the same price ($1/strip) plus shipping.
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I don't know if anyone has ever thought of using this to weigh down your props, but I haven't seen or heard it on any of the forums... if this is nothing new, then I hope you have found this an interesting read nonetheless. Thanks for looking. :)
Andy
I picked this Comm up on eBay for a reasonable price, and while I really like it, I found it felt much too light. I wasn't interested in turning it into an working model, since I wanted to keep the piece more or less intact. Also, if anyone can tell me any info on this, I would appreciate it. I've seen pictures of ones that look like this one and people refer to it as a Steve Horch model, but I don't know for sure. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open to hearing them.
I wanted something small to fit inside the shells but something that could be secured, as well as distributed evenly around the body so that it would feel more... real. Then I remembered these:
Stick-on aluminum wheel weights... They are 7 grams ( 1/4oz ) each tab and come with 2-sided tape pre-mounted.
They are also somewhat soft and pliable, and so I was able to 'shape' it slightly to fit the inside of the shell a bit better.
Because of their small size, I was able to evenly distribute them on the top shell, mid-plate and bottom shell giving the communicator a more balanced/accurate feel to it.
I used the entire strip in my communicator, as you can see in the photo above which gave me a total weight of 6.75oz (photo below) - almost doubling the prop's original weight of 3.75oz (sorry I don't have a picture of that, I never thought to weigh it before I started :( ). I picked up 4 strips at my local car dealership's parts department while I was there getting some other stuff. They didn't know how much they actually cost, so they charged me a buck a strip... The beauty is, these can be picked up from any tire shop to save shipping costs and time, but I checked eBay anyways. It seems sellers are selling these in gray and black, and for about the same price ($1/strip) plus shipping.
I don't know if anyone has ever thought of using this to weigh down your props, but I haven't seen or heard it on any of the forums... if this is nothing new, then I hope you have found this an interesting read nonetheless. Thanks for looking. :)
Andy