Interdisciplinary Skin: Final Attempt + Final Skin + Reflection

I continue to work on the bulged out body of the skin. Initially I kept hammering the skin on a panelbeater bag, but no significant change had happened. Seems like I could no longer shrink the bulged out part using this method......

I then consulted Peter on how to further push the bulged-out part in, he then introduced me with a useful technique. He showed me how to hammer the skin on top of a dolly, so the shape will curve more naturally and beautifully, and the bulged out part will eventually disappear. This will not be achieved if I kept hammering the skin on a panelbeater bag. 

As you can see, the skin has already be smoothened a lot compared to the above photo. Thanks to Peter.

The skin is now much fitted to the template from this view

I kept working with the dolly for another 2 hours, and the result is promising. I was quite surprised that I can fabricate a skin that adheres so closely to the template. After the final shaping, I used sand paper to get rid of the hammer marks and blemishes on the skin, it was a very long process. Finally, I used a bit of metal polish to do the final touch. The result is below:

Final Skin

I am happy with the final result as most of the goals that I set up through out this project has been achieved. Here I would like to say thanks to my tutor Daniel, Russel and Peter for their helpful suggestions and assistance.

Reflection

This project is an enjoyable experience as it brings new challenges which I did not face last time. For instance, the shoe template has a lot of curvatures in different directions and magnitudes, as a shoe is made to fit a human foot, which is an organic object. Unlike my previous project, a handheld vacuum does not have such an organic shape, it only has a straightforward streamline feature that runs from the back to the head, which means I did not have to deal with a lot of curvatures. 

This project allows me to use the skills that I have developed from last time, and take it to the next level. From dealing with a straightforward streamline to multiple curvatures. For example, in the last project I just used the shrinker to create the whole streamline feature, it did not involve a lot of skills. However, this time I cannot rely merely on the shrinker, as from my first attempt, the edge broke because the curvature is too hard to be made with the shrinker, so I used a hammer and a dolly instead. It was challenging but I am proud to say that my metal shaping skills have improved a lot since this project. I am able to deal with multiple curvatures by using appropriate stretching and shrinking techniques, new skills such as hammering on a dolly has been developed. Lastly, the metal skin adheres to the template much closely this time.