The next step in the construction of the LeBlanc staff was to coat it in Shell Shock. We here in Atlanta get the stuff at Engineer Guy, near the airport. In short, it’s a liquid plastic that can be applied onto a myriad of surfaces, and is durable enough that after it cures, it can be sanded and painted, while maintaining a hard and substantial integrity. Coating the LeBlanc staff would give it a little bit of heft, durability, and give it a better surface to paint on than just plain insulation foam.
Like a retard, I set myself up for a ton of extra work, by pre-assembling the staff in its entirety before Shell Shocking it. To be perfectly honest, this was the step that puzzled me the most, and when I did it, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but in the end, this sets me up for a lot of extra work that might be harder than all other alternative methods discussed, that I could have done. No matter, with everything assembled and adhered, there was nothing more I could do to go back, so it’s all or nothing from here.
My rationale is that if I apply the Shell Shock with paint brushes instead of slathering the goo on with popsicle sticks, I could smooth it out and apply it thinner and more refined, resulting in less clumping in the cracks, and do my best to make it look less messy. From what I’ve done in this update, it’s so far so good, but there’s still a lot more to do ahead of me, so who knows how much I’ll hate life as this process goes on.