In the right material, gargoyles would be pretty cool. Even cooler if they talked.
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OMG Gargoyles! I love, love that idea. (That might even be better than Waldorf and Statler muppets)
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Lawn gnomes with weapons and aggressive stances.
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Images for Statler and Waldorf fans: https://wallpapercave.com/statler-and-waldorf-wallpapers
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First panel down, 14 to go… (7 per tower + 1 spare).
I think we’re stuck laying up the panels offsite with how bad the fumes are from the resin. Not sure how we’re gonna make that work… i don’t mind doing the layup and storing the panels until they’re mostly offgas’ed, but i would appreciate help with the layups.
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I’ll help, just tell me when and I’ll try to be there.
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I will definitely tak you up on that help. The materials to build the 1st tower should be here Saturday.
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The order updates keep moving the delivery date back on the fiberglass… currently looking at next Tuesday for the delivery date… Not ideal, but at least the weather should stay in the 60s. So i’ll have to get the shop heater going, but the heater shouldn’t have a problem holding 70 deg F in there.
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2nd panel is cured up… just gotta wait for more resin to show up… which is looking like thursday now. The weather is holding out for now and my shop is able to hold the minimum temperature easily, but i’m still concerned over the temperature getting colder before we get the panels done for one tower (5 to go)
In the mean time, I could use some help prepping the mold for a 3rd panel and cutting up material into ‘ply kits’ to help cut down prep time between layups.
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I managed to get the mold prepped and 2 ply kits done. I’m crossing my fingers that i can get 3 more done tomorrow… the problem is going to be finding space for them without completely turning the roadster into a storage shelf…
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Kits are about ready for this weekend’s fun…
Also took some time to figure out the rest of the castle design with some help from Dave.
Not the most colorful render in the world, but at least it gives me some warm fuzzies of how this thing will look after we go through all this craziness.
…there’s a lot more we could do for the castle, but I think getting this much done for the spring is going to be impressive.
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nice. love the keystone.
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Referencing the first model I did at the top of the thread, it seems like the walkthrough opening is shorter in this design. I think I based the height of mine on the old castle design, but maybe I didn’t.
I might add that the new rendering has me concerned in a couple of areas.
Since storage and transportability are two concerns, my design tried to keep panel size to less than or equal to 48" x 72". It looks like doing so with this design may mean that the large flat areas need to be broken up. Maybe that is unavoidable, but if it isn’t, we should try to avoid it, imo. I do think the flat panels flanking the opening in my rendering were 78" tall. I will have to look at the model when I get back from this trip to confirm.
My second concern is that a large, flat, rectangular panel wants to twist. I believe this can be mitigated, but we’ll need to study it. A torsion box could help there, if it can be implemented without adding too much weight. Maybe a thin skin of aluminum front and back, behind the facade?
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Well, we could pull half of that upper wall fwd a couple inches and make it look like a parapet across the top. That would make the upper panel about 36in x 70in and the lower 29in x 70in.
Also, I did get 5 more panels laid up this weekend. They still need the tinfoil peeled off, a bit of trimming, and maybe some touchup work but otherwise, I’m thinking the 1st tower will be ready to mount to a steal frame by the end of the week. My shop smells pretty bad from the resin, but at least the nice weather meant I could crank them out with the overhead door open today.
I did have one person take me up on helping out with the layup. I’m still getting the process down, but it definitely helped having someone to talk through the process with and how to potentially improve it.
I am able to carry the 6 panels by myself, but it is definitely a bit awkward. When stacked on top of each other, the pile of panels isn’t even a foot thick. The awkwardness comes from the 30in width and 6ft length.
I’m tempted to order enough material to do the other tower next weekend, but I think I need to hold my horses until we see how a completed tower works out… it’s just kind of frustrating looking at the weather forecast and seeing the temperatures dip into the 50s after the 19th.
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