My New Pet Project. Silicone Rubber Molding

Well for my new post I've decided to recant my experiences on making this project of mine. As of the moment i don't have any pictures since i've only started.

Just a flashback here. This started when i decided to fix up my room. I had installed shelves on the far side of my wall so that i could organize my junk. I've finished that project and went on to my next, which was an enclosure to house all my figures. Made from acrylic sheets, i have also finished that project. All the figures are now displayed properly and are safe from dust and moisture. So i was thinking of making the poses for the figures a bit better. But in order for me to do that i would need a lot of Di:Stages from Figma. So heres the problem the stage itself is a 4"x4" surface area and what i need to cover is a 42" x 12" surface area. Making with the math i would need at least 36 pieces of those Di:Stages. Problem is that it cost 500php each. I'm not willing to spend that much so here in lies the project. Using a single Di:Stage, i will make a silicone mold and replicate the stage using resin. Its more economical that way. Sorry Figma, i would like to buy from you but economy wise, i dont have that kind of budget to spend.

So here we are, i've actually started on the project and unfortunately its strike 1. I made a few mistakes, so i would like to share with you some of the experiences i've gained thu this project. Rest assured when i do perfect this i will post a complete guide to it.

First off, i'm from the philippines and its very difficult to find a place that sells the ingredients for this project. I've actually spent a week trolling the internet and calling before i found a supplier that sells Silicone Rubber RTV and the resin used to make the items. I'm not going to tell you where to buy it so dont even email me. If i found it on the internet you should be able too. Just to help out on your search. If you google it you would find a lot of places in the philippines that sells these stuff but it took me a week to find the cheapest one. If your paying more than 1000php per one kilo of silicone Rubber then your being ripped off. I bought mine almost half that price.

So experience Number 1: Dont mix all the components at the same time. Here how this goes. I dont know what kind of silicone RTV you are using but the one i bought have 3 components. @ basic ones and the extra one is just to make the rubber a bit more thinner so that it will glide into the details a lot better. So the materials are the silicone rubber, the catalyst, and the silicone oil. I dont care what ratio you do, just as long as you mix the catalyst last. I waisted a batch since i measured all components altogether and the mixture hardened while i was mixing it. It wast hard, hard, but didn't flow nicely. I suggest that if your using the oil to make the silicone thiner mix that first and then add the catalyst when you are about to pour. So to get this straight, mix silicone rubber and oil until you ge the consistency you like then mix in the catalyst then pour.

Experience number 2: Say that you have poured in the silicone and there are still leftovers. Don't try to mix in a new batch and then mix the two together. By the time you mix the new batch. The catalyst would have already started on the fist batch and it would be hard to mix the two batches together. If you have some leftover, just throw it away. Its better to throw that away than having to mix anther batch and having to throw them both out.

Experience Number 3: Wear gloves. damm silicone is hard to get off your hands. I needed to wash my hands in oil then soap a few times before i could get it off mine. I dont care if their plastic gloves or surgical gloves, but as long as its gloves.

Experience Number 4: Pour slowly. If you have a lot of detail on the item your making a mold of and or have holes that needed to be filled, you will need to pour slowly. It helps of you mix the slilicone in a plastic cup or paper cup so that you can bend the lips to that you can have a small exit for the silicone to flow thru.

Experience Number 5: If you think theres not enough catalyst, there's more than enough already. In this case its the catalyst that hardens the silicone. More catalyst the faster it hardens. altho it would make things faster for you, its not all that good. Having a slow curing process helps a lot. It gives time for the air bubbles to rise to the surface giving you a better mold. It also helps that you have a thinner viscosity. Same reason, its easier for the bubbles to rise to the surface. So if your pouring the catalyst, follow the instructions on the ratio that you need. Even if it looks like its not enough.

So i guess this is it for now. I'll prob update this again when i finish this project or more life experiences show up.

My Return

Well its been 2 years since i've actually posted. I've decided to run the blog scene again. I'll prob make a lot of design changes since it has been 2 years. Funny thing is that people still come to the site. I'm guessing that is because of the AV girls i've listed on the pages. In anycase, heres to a new beginning.

Play World of Warcraft for FREE

First of, i apologize for the long break between posts. I was, well... occupied with what i am about to blog about.

For starters, yes you read the title right, you can play world of warcraft for free. First of, this is not the official World of warcraft hosted by blizzard. Well it is the same game but it isn't hosted by blizzard. So if you have friends playing there, you wont see them here. This is a totaly different server hosted somewhere else. I dont know how, but someone has managed to get the server side programs to host this game. Its been a while now since world of warcraft has been released, and from that time, i could see pirated dvds being sold around with the title "World of Warcraft offline" Basically it is the server side program and the client which you both run on your computer to be able to play the game. But since this is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game), theres really no sense in playing by yourself unless you just want to try it out, or test a few options or skills. This apparently this was the foundation of this server which was suggested by a friend. Someone actually made a server, hosted the game, and distributed it for free for all to enjoy. This is no small feat mind you, as i have experience with maintaining a private server for ragnarok a few years back. Its a drain on money, resources and time to maintain a server like this one, especially this one where the computing powere needed is way beyond what was needed to run a ragnarok server. Setting that aside, according to the website, the serve has been up for 3 years now, and suprisingly it is up to date. Actually, when you first download the installation, you log in to the official server of WOW (world of warcraft) to update the game, and patch the files, then you just change some settings to direct the game to the raidenwow server, and your off playing.

The server is hosted, well i don't know where its hosted. It looks like some remote country where there are no international, internet piracy laws in effect since its been up for 3 years now. But you can visit the site at RaidenWOW. From here you can download the client side game. Just a note, if your going to download from here, its a torrent file, you'll probably be redirected to mininova, so you must have a torrent client like bitcomet or utorent to download it. Also the game file is over 7gig so you have to have patience before you can play. With a fast internet connection, i was able to download it in a little over 3 days (78 hours to be exact). After downloading the client side program, its not really an installation, its a ready made game structure, all you need is to run the program, after uncompressing it of course, so you'll also probably need a winRAR program. Where was i, oh yeah, after downloading the game, go to the raidenwow website again and click on the link on how to update the game. follow the instructions and after that your ready to play. Oh yeah one last thing, you would need to make an account in raidenwow first. A website account, for logging in to the website, and a game account to play the game. After that just click on the wow.exe and your good to go.

Now for the game itself, I have never played the official WOW game so i have no comparison with this one. but needles to say, i believe that this is close enough to the real thing. The graphics it good, sound is good, movement is good, and the frame rate depends on how good your graphics card is and your internet connection. I've always wanted to try this game out ever since i saw a friend play it with his mage character. At that time, he was fighting a battle of some sorts with other characters online, against other characters online. All i could say is that this is the first time I've seen a mage, charging into battle,... in the frontlines. He was a touch cookie to put down, it took a fighter, a priest and a wizard to kill him. Well needless to say after seeing that, i always wanted to try, but didn't really see the logic to spend and buy the original game, and then pay a monthly fee to just try out the game. But behold, what lands on my lap? a free version of the game itself, for me to try and play so i can decide if it is worth the money i'm going to spend for it, so far it looks promising.

Having said all that, there are a few drawbacks to the game. Yes it is considerably easy to level up. x5 XP i think, it is also easy to get items, x5 monster drop, money isn't an issue (yup x5 money), You even get an auction house where some of the epic stuff which were modified so that a lvl 1 player can use them, are being sold. The game does lack, how should i say this..., players. Its no Blizzard WOW population, but it beats playing alone. There are somewhere 20 players online at anytime. a lot of characters and players have registered. But since their all over the world, you don't all play at the same time, considering also that the maps are huge, gynormous even, so you'd rarely encounter people along the way. Besides that, there are also some glitches to the game itself, like a few quests not working, and some parts of the game not being activated since there are so few people playing. Overall its a good game to play, if you can wait for the 7+ gig download. In the end its up to you right now if you want to be a member of the population and play along with us. Hopefully they'll be more people playing to fully enjoy the experience, so here i am, blogging about it, in hopes that you will read this and be interested enough to register and play the game with us. If you happen to register and play, get your friends into it also, since you already have a copy of the game you just need to just burn a copy for your friends so that they dont need to download it anymore. Who knows, you might see a blood elf warlock running around named Lillandra, if you do say hi, so that she could welcome you to the game.

Movie Reviw: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Ok, lets just get to the point. Yes it is a good film to watch. A very good throwback to the classic Indiana Jones movies where the last film was 19 years ago. Should you go out of your way to spend 100+ php to see it in a movie theater, Yes. its definitely one of those movies you must see in a cinema rather than waiting for the official dvd release. Is it worth the money? Well yes and no. If you want to know more then just read on, if not you have my opinion about the movie, and i suggest you watch it.

Ok, now on to my long winded review. First off, i dont remember much of the old series. i've watched them only a couple of times in the past and i haven't reviewed the old Indiana films for quite some time. But i do remember exactly how the movie felt and the energy and excitement it generated when i first watched them. I can honestly say that this does not disappoint. A classic throwback to the old Indiana Jones movies. Accurately capturing the flow of the past films. Doing the same style of humor, and the same type of exciting action sequences. in a way this is the movies strong point, on the other hand, this is also the movies bad point. I am not sure if it was the movie itself or just me growing up, but it did feel a bit outdated and childish in some points of the movie. But when you look at it in another perspective, i guess all the Indiana Jones films where like that.

Set now in 1954, i think, after the second world war and the cold war was beginning (or has begun), it isn't the Germans that are giving Mr. Jones the hard time, it is now the Russians, or more precisely the physic division of the KGB. The film started out great. It was like landing in the middle of the film, now origins, no pre-setup of plots, just right down to business. Mr. Jones being manhandled out of the back of a vehicle in "Area 51" or so was written on huge door, or gate, whatever. Oh yeah, there was a few min in the beginning of the film, well best i could say, as a filler, i'm guessing it was there to help the audience settle in before they start the action. In which case i should give a fair warning now, If you havn't watched it yet, you might not want to read thru since i'll be posting stuff here that might ruin the movie experience. If your not so concerned about it, then read on.

Where was i? oh yeah, i was a great start to the movie. With out going into much detail, same old routine, something big happens, something was stolen, and its up to Mr. jones to save the day. Please insert comedy sequences and action scenes in between the points. Hahahaha. Just kidding, but frankly i really dont want to go into the details. I will however will go into my usual rants about the movie.

First off is, well' i've said earlier, the movie felt outdated. The comedy sequences were predictable. yes they were different, but they were only different in the way it was acted out. A bit of the rehash of the old jokes that never lost their appeal. Second, the plot this time was somewhat a stretch. without going into the details, what Mr. jones was searching for and what he discovered was really a stretch for me. After watching the film, you might say to me, "but all the plots of Indiana Jones movies were a stretch" but still, for me, this one was a way bigger stretch. Third, well considering the age of Harrison ford, you can definitely tell that its not him anymore doing the action sequences. There are times when you will notice it, but even the times when you don't you'll still doubt your thoughts cuz Harrison's Age is in the back of your mind. for god sakes hes like 65 now.

But after all these things, it shouldn't keep you away from watching this movie. After all the high tech, overly computer generated action sequences we've come to enjoy, watching George Lucas and Steven Spielberg create such an enjoyable film is like a breath of fresh air. The die hard fans are, for sure, loving this movie and so should you.

My Rating: 8.5/10 (great throwback to old style movie making. You'll ride the edge of your seats and laugh at the same time)
Replayability: 4 (its a scale on how many times I can watch the movie over and over before your tired of it.)

Revoltech Gurren Lagann

Well heres my other Revoltech which i bought along with the Regult posted below. Its a very good anime. Its more of a throwback to the old style anime with super robots that defy logic and physics, but hey its an anime, you can do anything in an anime. So just as the Regult, I've posted some snapshots below, and again i apologize for the crappy pictures, i had to deal with a camera phone, a flashlight and a rechargeable florescent emergency light. I edited them as best i could. Just a note, if your planning to buy one, please do be careful while changing the chest accessory. you can actually change the chest, one with the shades and one with out. While taking out the chest with the shades, well it kinda snapped off and i had to super glue it together, so if your replacing yours, just be careful in taking it out.