DIY Celluloid Tortoise Knowledge Dump / Discussion

[DeathJag]

That looks so evil, I love it!

[Jaguar018]

Give me affordable tort or give me death!

Here is some death.

[postboredom]

I've been buying 11x17 sheets of 3 ply w/b/w from Aliexpress.
I think some great results are on the horizon.

[powerdroid]

Hey, been thinking about trying this resin-tort thing for a while, thanks to this thread and the inspiring work done here. Finally last weekend I decided to go talk at a local hobby shop, see what they'd recommend. Walked out with a little package of Creartec Cold Glaze resin, and 1 red tint. Their selection of tints was really limited and I also didnt want to spend too much money on this tryout. Plus I was planning on using Stewmac amber, Rustins wood dye and watercolours(!) as well.

So, this was my first time resin-anything.... should have read the instructions twice, as it turned out I should have shaken the hardener WELL before mixing... So I ended up with a nice honey-like consistency when working on it, but the stuff took ages to dry, closer to 24 hours actually to harden properly. This might have been the cause for the colours to get much too blended for my liking, I was aiming for a specked (?) look, and it was there for a while ,when I went to check on it some hours later it had turned into a red mess.

Decided to mix an amber patch with plenty of hardener, and just pressed dents that I filled with the amber mixture. This helped the look, but not the overall end result. It didnt smooth itself out like earlier, as I guess it was already somewhat hardened.

Here's a few photos, from my humble beginnings as a Pointillist Faux Tortoise-artist, to pizza sauce, to the hardened moon surface FakeTort that actually photographs well! Gonna get a few 3-ply guards to try again, I don't reslly know how to deal with the uneven surface, as it's definitely not thick enough to sand flat. Might mix a clear resin layer to see if it would flatten, or just leave it.

[Unicorn Warrior]

The guard hovering over the Jazzmaster doesn’t look bad at all. I think you’re on to something.

[postboredom]

great first attempt. thanks for sharing

[powerdroid]

Thanks for the positive comments. Definitely want to improve on the next try, more variety in the colors, more amber spots, more brownish red. And less bleed happening!

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Those two last pictures made me smile!

They may not look like vintage Fender tort but they still look great!! They have character & (more importantly) depth.
Much better than most of the other dross that's on the market & you're still at the R & D stage of all this.

Keep going, I'm loving it!!

[antisymmetric]

How did I miss this thread? Great stuff happening here!

[postboredom]

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[DeathJag]

Holy SHIT those look great!! Don’t burn your hand holding that hot lava!

[Unicorn Warrior]

That 2nd to last pic looks very promising. I’d like to see what they look like cut into a guard

[powerdroid]

Thought i'd post some more of my experiments here. I have a reddish brown tort that I made for a build.
(Mind the double sided tape residue on the surface)

Really digging this one! Great work! I'd like to see a whole body shot. And those uncut sheets are pure fire, they look like movie explosions!

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Oh man, you're almost there!!

The yellow swirls make all the difference. Excellent work!!

[postboredom]

Thought i'd post some more of my experiments here. I have a reddish brown tort that I made for a build.
(Mind the double sided tape residue on the surface)

Really digging this one! Great work! I'd like to see a whole body shot. And those uncut sheets are pure fire, they look like movie explosions!

Here's the Full thing. Douglas fir body. (still need to finish the trem cavity.)
Maple and rosewood neck.