Green Honeycomb

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Cwalker935

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I have mixed feelings about this one. I don't find the color very appealing and my cells got a little wonky on the upper barrel. I think that is partially due to how the cells align with the curvature of the barrel. I used the Krud Kutter cleaning and etching on the aluminum before casting and this was a much easier turn. Seemed to have much better adhesion between the alumilite and the aluminum.
Thoughts?

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magpens

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I think that is superb !!!!! . The minor cell distortion on the top barrel just adds to the artfulness of your creation !!!

Dragon scales are not all the same shape and you wouldn't want them to be !
 
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This looks great, I keep saying I will try to do a honey comb pen, if I ever finish that pressure pot I started to assemble.

As for the color it is nice, looks like the tube needed to be painted, you can really enhance colors by doing that. Just some constructive criticism.
 

mark james

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I have no problem with the color; and actually agree that the more variety in the cells would make it look more like scales. Completely uniform honeycombs might be a high bar to achieve with all the variables.

Nice!
 

Cwalker935

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This looks great, I keep saying I will try to do a honey comb pen, if I ever finish that pressure pot I started to assemble.

As for the color it is nice, looks like the tube needed to be painted, you can really enhance colors by doing that. Just some constructive criticism.

Color variations are inherent with the honeycomb aluminum if you use anything other than a completely opaque resin. To me the color variations and highlights where the resin thins over the aluminum are part of the appeal of these blanks. Depending on how your cells align with the tube you will have sections that have a layer of aluminum between the outer barrel and the tube. Back painting the blank would not change the appearance in those areas and you would have color variations between where the painted sections show through and where the aluminum shows through. One idea would be to try to back paint with a silver to try to match the color of the aluminum.

This blank is actually pretty opaque, a lot of what you are seeing is yellow pearl ex that I added to pour. In short, a single honeycomb blank can have distinctly different looks depending on how the holes are aligned, choice of colors for back painting and the opacity of the resin. Even with back painting the blank can look very different from different perspectives. Much like a box of chocolates its hard to know what you are going to get with these blanks.
 

More4dan

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I have also found that if the blank is drilled "off axis" to the honeycomb, the shape will look more distorted as it is turned round even if it started out straight in the mold.

Danny
 

budnder

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I like it. With all the variables, each honeycomb pen can be unique, and I think that's part of the appeal. was there any trick to getting the etching to work?
 

Cwalker935

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I like it. With all the variables, each honeycomb pen can be unique, and I think that's part of the appeal. was there any trick to getting the etching to work?

Not really, my first effort with the etching failed because I had some moisture issues. I let it dry in the toaster oven before trying it the second time and it worked fine after that.
 
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