Vintage hacked army theme - epoxy techs

[kilogeek]

Hi all,

I'm currently customizing my Bull micral ALPS (like DELL AT 101 ALPS series), the work is in progress,
can already show you a pic but it's not the final look it will have^^

Used glycero paint, brush painting (don't really like spray work), but I know glycero won't resist
hand palms, sweat, etc... so I'm currently adding an epoxy layer, but I want it to look tough,
the epoxy I used is glossy and takes 24h to harden, so as I remembered I used sugar on surfboards
for anti-sliding zones, I did this first on the shell bottom, it truly gives a tough aspect but I feel these
powder sugar not to be thin enough.

Does anyone has an idea of something that you can melt with liquid epoxy to get a nice "granit" style
as mate as possible ?

I have a spare IBM model M shell, and someone gave me the idea to use sand, real nice beach sand,
thin enough, to get a desert-strike look and feel, the other option is carbon fiber shell but this is much
harder to craft, mainly once the epoxy has hardened^^

[kilogeek]

other alts can be very nice, I found in a local store rubbers that are used in weddings, it looks like a nice diagonal grid pattern and this can also give awesome rendering on an epoxy layer, will send pics ASAP

[Findecanor]

What kind of sugar did you use? Powder sugar or grainy sugar? There are grainy sugars with larger or smaller grains that normal.

A problem with just brushing epoxy is that it flows out - unless you have enough of the right fillers in it. I have used colloidal silica, but I think that you would need quite a lot of it in this case.
I have done imprints with rubber stamps on Milliput (an epoxy "clay"), but those objects were quite small and Milliput is too tough and hard to spread out over a larger surface.

There exists also different types of paints, but I don't know what to use. I have never seen any "fleckstone" surface that looked good.
I have used "crinkling" spray paint that form crinkles as the paint cures. The thicker layer - the bigger crinkles. To get a surface that looks sandblasted you have to paint a very thin layer, evenly. I was painting a cylinder, and I found that I could put it in the middle of a turntable from a record player and paint it while it was spinning to get it right. A flat keyboard surface could be more difficult...

[Dreamre]

A green vinyl could be an alternative solution!

[kilogeek]

I'll do other tests with sand or thinner sugar powder, but the current result is not that bad^^
IBM model m is a medium tank, here is the heavy one



I think I'll add a mate clear because this epoxy I used is far too glossy, and it's dedicated to crystal mouldering (artistic),
industrial epoxy shall give better result and harden faster, this one needs at least 24h, far too long.

Anyway, it's tough enough yet (1 glycero layer + epoxy layer)

I know a beach close to where I leave with a fantastic thin sand... and a spare Model M shell ready for the hack