Adopted EX -A 'BLAM!'

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Finally managed to get parts ordering done this week to progress this build, ink stain ordered, full electronics and binding from Real parts and a set of Artist Bullbuckers. Being the first time routing a binding and using a 2 part epoxy and trying to do a burst i think i might make a mock body and run some trials to see if I don't make too big a dogs breakfast of everything first. Started mucking around with the comic collage too and once i get the picture sizing right i think it will look great. Once I get a rough layout right I think I'll go to Officeworks, get them printed out on decent paper then do final cut and positions then re-copy so it is just one layer of paper, hopefully that means the epoxy doesn't have to be that thick to top.

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Just playing around with images and sizing, but fairly promising

[Hardcoretroubadour]

A question for those that have used ink stain before, did you dilute it at all or use at full strength?

[wazkelly]

Depends on how dark or light you want your colour
Most times i have experimented on scrap with various diluted samples to figure out which looked best.
Always easier to go darker but not the other way, therefore go with a lighter shade to begin with and add more or stronger concentrated batch for second coat.

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[Hardcoretroubadour]

I'll put this one out here for the tech savvy, anyone used ADobe illustrator or other programs to make collage? I believe it should be possible, but not entirely sure where to start. I am thinking I need to scan the outline of the guitar body and import this into AI as a template somehow, then add images to it? Sonic, Pablo?

[gordo350]

Picasa 3 will let you do collages very easily. Free download and very simply to use

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[blinddrew]

Photoshop elements (about £70 in the UK) will probably do the job as well and will have a shortish learning curve if you're familiar with illustrator.

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Thanks Gordo, I'll have a gander at that program too, I think my sticking point so far is trying to get the full sized guitar outline into the program so I can then manipulate the images around. If all else fails I'll go back to decollage and cut and place them first, get an industrial printer to them copy that image, then epoxy it.

Thanks for the suggestion Drew, I don't really want to pay for a program that might only be used once, I'm pretty sure if a 3rd build was purchased my life expectancy would be rather short 😀

[blinddrew]

Well understood!

[Sonic Mountain]

I'll put this one out here for the tech savvy, anyone used ADobe illustrator or other programs to make collage? I believe it should be possible, but not entirely sure where to start. I am thinking I need to scan the outline of the guitar body and import this into AI as a template somehow, then add images to it? Sonic, Pablo?

Hey, sorry only just notice this. Illustrator is for vector graphics so it's a pain to try and work with scans (which will be bitmaps) best bet would be Photoshop or GIMP. GIMP is free and although I haven't used it, it does a number of the things that photoshop does - for what you want to do it should be fine. Just work at as high as possible resolution to ensure an nice clear print - 300DPI is pretty much minimum for a good print - it may depend on the processing power of your computer how big you can go. Working at 50% might not be a bad idea - if you get it professionally printed they will use a Raster Image Processor to scale it up to the required size - which generally gives better results than trying to scale it up yourself.

Getting the guitar outline into the software at scale is a bit trickier. For the sake of this I would take a photo of the guitar as square on as possible. Make a file where the artboard is the required length and width of the guitar plus 5mm or so. Place the photo on a layer and lock that as a guide. It will not be mm precise for a number of reasons - primarily the distortion caused by the camera lens. But it will be enough to 'ball park' your layout.

You might need to look at having it printed somewhere to make it big enough. You could potentially go to a sign place and have it printed on wrap material like 3M 180C or Comply. Makes it very easy to stick on with no bubbles or creases and we have cleared over the top of it with various products with no problems.