My first project build: The Fus Ro Tar

Lu22

So while I was waiting for parts to arrive for my strat build, I came across a (knockoff) Jackson Dinky for 900 bucks, including all the hardware needed to finish it.
I thought it would be easy, but my inexperience proved me wrong. The work has been hard but fun and I can't wait to finish her.

The story follows below:

Lu22

When I got it, the body was covered in wall pvc by the looks of things. The wood was not sanded properly before painting, so there are visible bumps and imperfections on the surface.

Lu22

Can of paint stripper, oscillating sander and a ton of elbow grease later, I managed to sand down the entire guitar and neck. The body actually has a really pretty grain, so I decided to stain instead of painting. (I left the cavities like a lazy person. I'm gonna scrape them out when I insulate them later)

Lu22

Stained the body and neck with ebony stain, mixed with thinners for a nice "light black".

Lu22

Then comes the fun bit. Not being content with simply painting the guitar, I decided to make it unique - This is where its name comes in. The dragon language of Skyrim is very similar to old nordic runes. I got the font set from a community site dedicated to teaching, speaking and writing thereof (www.thuum.org). Using the font I had a stencil made on a piece of A3 projector film. I then found a poem in standard alphabet, and translated it to the runic alphabet. This was then etched into the guitar with a pencil.

Lu22

Using a heavy craft knife and 5 replacement blades, I carved each rune out of the guitar. This is extremely stressful and taxing on ones hands at first, but eventually becomes second nature. This step took around 20-25 hours.

Lu22

I then ordered 100g of photo-luminescent powder (At a brutal R350!). This stuff is awesome. A few minutes in the sun and its glow is visible even in ambient indoor daylight. At first we mixed it with fibreglass resin and filled the runes. This worked well at first but came with complications. The resin seeps into the wood leaving a very grainy surface, as well as spilling where it shouldn't. After filling and sanding my stain was ruined and restaining filled the grainy bits in the runes, resulting is a terrible looking mess. Unfortunately I ran out of Easter weekend at this point so I had to put the project on hold (till the end of May). There is a silver lining however, as my Nail tech stepmom volunteered to clean out and refill the runes with a mixture of nail acrylic and the glow powder. This works surprisingly well and leaves a rock hard, smooth, flush surface. I'll update the thread once I start working again. Hope you guys find this as cool as I do. The last photos of the guitar before I ruined it (temporarily):

guidothepimmp

That is seriously epic

Well done, looks awesome!

peterleroux

Nice work, and nice photos- always cool to see projects documented well.

Looking forward to seeing how this ends up.

warrenpridgeon

That is amazing! I wouldn't easily do that to my current guitar cos I like how it looks... I would do something like that to a more plain guitar though.

V8

Now that's original - love the flouro idea! :applause:

I'd think it's gonna tricky to get the edges sharp on the runes - I was wondering if it would have been easier to cast resin inlays to install, instead of trying to fill the etchings? More PT though, it would have meant two rounds of carving - heish!

Nice one, keep us posted!

G-Man

Great work man, this looks really cool!

NorioDS

Noyce! I dig it.

At first, when I saw the etching I thought, "Noooooooo!"

But now I'm like, "YEAAAAAH!" ?

studmissile

Norio wrote: Noyce! I dig it.

At first, when I saw the etching I thought, "Noooooooo!"

But now I'm like, "YEAAAAAH!" ?

My thoughts exactly! Very Intriguing!

Stoffeltoo

Runed guitars. Nice ring to it and an awesome project outcome.
Very original concept Lu.

Lu22

Thanks everyone.

Meron Rigas wrote: I'd think it's gonna tricky to get the edges sharp on the runes - I was wondering if it would have been easier to cast resin inlays to install, instead of trying to fill the etchings? More PT though, it would have meant two rounds of carving - heish!

I thought of doing the same, until I counted the amount of inlays I'd have to make, then make each etching a perfect fit for each individual inlay. Waaaaay too much admin.

The method we're using now is to mix the glow powder 1:1 with nail acrylic. This the gets brushed into the etching with a monomer activator fluid. It sets within minutes and the brush is tiny, so it fills the entire etching without leaving those little gaps some other resins/epoxys do.

Norio wrote: Noyce! I dig it.

At first, when I saw the etching I thought, "Noooooooo!"

But now I'm like, "YEAAAAAH!" ?

I was honestly terrified of carving the body, but the effect is so much better than one would get just painting the runes on. And fortunately I actually have a spare Dinky body so if I did mess this one up there was a backup

buttle

Duuuude, That is AWESOME! excellent document

one of a kind! I love the way the runes came out

...and step MOMS ROCK!!