hello from the Rockies

[Medryn]

I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. I can design sets and lights, build both of those and have a bit of experience with costume design and build. I staged managed, TA'd, designed a whole host of shows for my college before moving on to being a shop monkey in the Denver Area.

I'm also a Deputy District Attorney, so my time for theatre is unfortunately small.

I am currenltly working on designing a building a functional, portable faux castle for a medieval recreation group. It needs to be durable abd functional and light. So that's what brings me here. tips for my castle

 

[gafftaper]

Welcome to the Booth Medryn!

Be sure to post any specific questions you have about your castle in the scenery forum. My strategy would be to use foam either cut and glued to a substructure or carved... or a combination of both. Nothing like sheets of insulation foam from your local home improvement warehouse to make a cool rock wall. However it chips and breaks easily so if your set has to be portable that may be a problem.

Van, our resident scenic guru will be along tomorrow and solve all your problems.

 

[Van]

Welcome Aboard Medryn! I PM'ed you with a couple o'suggestions. Hey a DDA as a Technician! I've known a few lawyers who acted but never tech'd.
Remindas me of a joke I read yesterday;
An TD dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, "Ah, you're an TD -- you're in the wrong place."
So, the TD reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the TD gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After awhile, they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the TD is a pretty popular guy.
One day, God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer, "So, how's it going down there in hell?"
Satan replies, "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this TD is going to come up with next."
God replies, "What??? You've got an TD? That's a mistake -- he should never have gotten down there; send him up here."
Satan says, "No way. I like having an TD on the staff, and I'm keeping him."
God says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue." Satan laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"

 

[derekleffew]

...I am currently working on designing a building a functional, portable faux castle for a medieval recreation group. It needs to be durable and functional and light. So that's what brings me here: tips for my castle.

I suspect we have lots of tips, but need more information. Exactly what are the functions of a faux castle? To protect the occupants from the faux Moors?

 

[Van]

I suspect we have lots of tips, but need more information. Exactly what are the functions of a faux castle? To protect the occupants from the faux Moors?

Can you say "Faux Moors" I think Faux Gauls or Faux Franks would have been a much better choice .......

 

[Grog12]

Welcome to the booth from a fellow Coloradin...I'll be making my return home (specifically to Westminster) shortly! Hopefully I'll never have to see you as a DA...but as a TD.

 

[Van]

..... Hopefully I'll never have to see you as a DA...but as a TD.

But now, if you ever do get in trouble.......

 

[Medryn]

I suspect we have lots of tips, but need more information. Exactly what are the functions of a faux castle? To protect the occupants from the faux Moors?

*grin* well actually....

The castle is used for foam boffer combat. It has to be durable enough that folks can climb on it and run in to it (occassionally, it shouldn't take too much of a deliberate beating, so we don't have to worry about faux battering rams). But at the same time portable enough that it can be set up, used for a weekend and then taken down fairly quickly. It also has to be able to be exposed to the elements during the time it is in use. Storage is also an issue. It needs to be take up as little space as possible when broken down.Cost is (as always) an issue as well.

I am pondering using foam for the walls but am a bit worried about the abuse it may have to take in use as well as in transport.

 

[derekleffew]

Ever worked with fiberglass before? You may be about to. It's actually kind of fun.

 

[Medryn]

Ever worked with fiberglass before? You may be about to. It's actually kind of fun.

I haven't. For some reason it seems intimidating

 

[Spikesgirl]

Welcome to the Booth and nah, fiberglass isn't hard to work with. Just know what you're going to do and have everything ready before mixing stuff. I learned all about it when making a shower for SOUTH PACIFIC. It was a lot easier than it seemed that it would be.

 

[Van]

Ahhhhhhh Now that I have more info..... Forget those PMs I sent you about Foam. Well actually you could still carve it out of foam < extruded polyethelene> then you're going to need to take it to, or have someone come to you, to spray the foam with "Pro-Coat" I'll have to dig for som more info for you, but basically Pro-coat is a two part sprayed coating used to treat foam. It adds a little weight but when set its hard as a rock extremely durable and still paintable. It's expensive and terrribly toxic < when being applied.> For Long term abuse it's really your only choice. Unless you did a Urethane filled Vaccu-form, which will probably cost more, weigh less, not hold up quite as well.

 

[gafftaper]

What about that semi-rigid coating I see used to make the children's play toys at the mall. It's padded like foam but has a vinyl like skin. I get the feeling it's a sprayed on treatment over a solid frame. Any ideas?

 

[Van]

What about that semi-rigid coating I see used to make the children's play toys at the mall. It's padded like foam but has a vinyl like skin. I get the feeling it's a sprayed on treatment over a solid frame. Any ideas?

I belive that is a version of Pro-coat. The biggest issue being long term paint retention. The vinyl covered stuff in the malls gets it's colors directly from the vinyl, as almost nothing will stick to vinyl, except my thighs on a hot day in a car that is 300 degrees inside.

 

[derekleffew]

...except my thighs on a hot day in a car that is 300 degrees inside.

I really didn't need that visual stuck in my head..."it's a hard knock life, for us. Steada treated, we get tricked"...

 

[Medryn]

Alright, I need some more thoughts. If I decide not to go with foam for the walls, what thoughts do y'all have on facing material for the walls? I plan on doing hard studwalls out of steel to leg up the platfroms and create the walls. Thoughts on cost effective and durable facing? 1/4" ply or Luan are currently topping my list, but I had one vendor suggest tempered hardboard. Thoughts?

 

[derekleffew]

Aluminum Honeycomb Panels.

Good, Cheap, Quick. Pick any TWO.

 

[gafftaper]

Wow Haven't seen that aluminum stuff before. That's a cool option. I think I would take a real hard look at fiberglass before going with wood. A steel structure with fiberglass over the top would be really durable. I wouldn't trust Luan or hardboard to be strong enough. While you describe the structure as hopefully not taking a lot of abuse... it sounds like there is a possibility of it getting knocked around a bit. 1/4" would be strong enough to survive a fairly substantial accidental jolt.

I think the lowest budget approach would be to build a steel tube frame and face it with 1/4", take hardboard and cut it into squares . Attach the hard board squares to the 1/4" ply to create some depth to your concrete blocks. Texture with Van's V.S.S.D. (Van could he skip the hard board squares and texture the 1/4" directly? Sounds a little more tricky to get it right).

Should be strong and not terribly heavy. Remember that "light weight" and "strong" are words that can only be combined through the application of a lot of money.

 

[Van]

........... (Van could he skip the hard board squares and texture the 1/4" directly? Sounds a little more tricky to get it right). .......

As a matter of fact I'm getting ready to do some CMU walls < concrete block> with just VSSSD rollered out over the luan, after applying a base color and taping out the grout lines. It's doable, but ti might require quite a bit of pateints while waiting for a really thick coat of VSSSD to setup. 'Course you could use a bit more water putty in the mix to help it setup faster, or even a bit of Portland Cement, but thet would require a bit of expiremental time.

 

[gafftaper]

As a matter of fact I'm getting ready to do some CMU walls < concrete block> with just VSSSD rollered out over the luan, after applying a base color and taping out the grout lines. It's doable, but ti might require quite a bit of pateints while waiting for a really thick coat of VSSSD to setup. 'Course you could use a bit more water putty in the mix to help it setup faster, or even a bit of Portland Cement, but thet would require a bit of expiremental time.

Just to clarify is that tape out the grout lines, layer on the VSSD over them, then pull the tape up while the VSSD is wet to reveal the lines and give them depth?