**Weathering Wax: A Game-Changer for Miniature Builds**

As I sat at my workbench, surrounded by various miniature components and tools, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. Today was going to be a special day - I was going to tackle one of my most ambitious projects yet: building an Ecto Goggles set from Ghostbusters. With a range of materials at my disposal, including styrene, delrin, aluminum, and VHB tape, I was ready to bring this vision to life.

**The Schmutz Effect**

First things first, I needed to create the iconic "greasy" look that Ecto Goggles are known for. I reached for a weathering wax - a product I had been wanting to try out for some time now. With a few quick strokes of my brush, I applied the wax to various areas of the goggles, including the straps and lenses. The effect was instant - it was like looking at a pair of goggles that had been handled by someone who didn't quite know what they were doing. I loved it.

**Bringing Out the Brass**

One of the specific challenges with building these Ecto Goggles was dealing with the brass-colored snaps that are used to secure them in place. As I worked on adding some weathering and wear to the goggles, I realized that I needed a way to create the warm, golden tones that the brass would bring out. That's when I reached for some rub-and-buff compound - a tool that is often overlooked but is a game-changer when it comes to achieving realistic metal finishes.

**Adding Details and Dimension**

As I worked on adding more details and dimension to my Ecto Goggles, I found myself getting lost in the process. From the scratch-built eyepieces to the carefully crafted lenses, every element seemed to come together seamlessly. The weathering wax was still holding strong, and the rub-and-buff compound was bringing out just the right amount of warmth to the brass snaps. It was like watching a piece of art take shape before my very eyes.

**A Day in the Life**

As I worked on my Ecto Goggles project, I couldn't help but think about the process itself. From selecting materials to carefully applying weathering wax and rub-and-buff compounds, every step seemed to require patience and attention to detail. And yet, it was this very process that brought out the beauty in my creation - a pair of goggles that looked like they had been worn by a Ghostbuster on countless missions.

**The Final Touches**

As I finished up my Ecto Goggles project, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. From scratch-built components to carefully applied weathering effects, every element seemed to come together seamlessly. And yet, it was the little touches - like applying some VHB tape to secure the goggles in place or adding a few extra details here and there - that really brought this project to life.

**Conclusion**

My Ecto Goggles project may be over for now, but I'm excited to see where my next creative endeavor takes me. Whether it's building a new miniature model or experimenting with different materials and techniques, I know that the process itself is often just as important as the end result. And so, if you're looking for inspiration or simply want to see some amazing miniature builds in action, be sure to follow along on my journey - I promise you won't be disappointed!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey kids uh adam savage here in my cave uh and i have just completed  uh a giant project and one of the things that happens after you complete a giant project  one of the things that happens after i complete a giant project is i often have a little bit of like  postpartum down feelings yeah uh when i have pushed all my energy into a thing for a few  weeks completing it and like putting it off to the side yeah often leaves me feeling um  yeah down for a few days um  it is like the post push uh mood swing so i'm in that state right now uh and i'm like looking  around my shop i've been cleaning up a little bit and sort of like putting some things away and  tackling some things that needed tackling but nothing feels great so i figurei'll tackle the ecto goggles right you saw it on the title of this so clearly you knew  what this was gonna be about uh yeah i'm going to uh make a really nice pair of  super lightweight durable ecto goggles for my ghostbusters  for my ghostbusters getup many moons ago i did a vacuform project where i made some of these  and i'm very happy with how the sample came out i've got a couple of uh thicker ones i'm gonna  pull them support them paint them dress them and uh yeah we'll get some ecto goggles out of thisdon't know how much talking i'm gonna do don't  don't know how much talking i feel like doing but uh yeah look at this  here we go i think this is the base oh look i've already done some repair on itsoohuhohsoforeignforeignadventuresosouhheywell um it's going really well uh just to remember i started with this this is my vacuform buck  of the eye cup from uh ghostbusters the night vision goggles come that's from ghostbusters  i turned it into something like that well first i that's a raw pull then i turn it into  a nice eye cup uh i took one and i strengthened it here it is  so i added strengthening around that lip i polished it up i gave it a coat of tamiya  olive drab 2 which is a gorgeous color i'm very happy with it i added snaps around and i am now  about to work on the strapping um i i don't have a lot of eyepiece construction to show  you because i made the eyepieces months ago but um we'll get those going in and i'm very pleaseddamn i got it wowdoi'm sorry that i made these earlier but they were made on a lathe they were turned this is delrin  this is entirely aluminum and i actually even went so far as to hog out to go in and hug out  in the inside here so it's light i am really really pleased with how these ecto goggles look  i'm happy with how they feel i'm happy with how they sit they're light as a feather  and i just have to laser cut some glass for the eyes and weather theseand i might add a little bit of electronics in here the fact is is that i think i'm gonna i  think i'm gonna troop in it like this i think this is how it's gonna how it's gonna look  yeah i think i'm gonna go for that look mm-hmm i mean i guess i could go with this and then  because i'll be wearing a mask that would actually yeah see but that's not how the  ghostbusters move through a building they don't have the goggles down they put the goggles down  ray puts the goggles down when he's looking for somethingi'm i'm super happy with this i uh my vacuforms took a lot of cleanup but with the extra  strengthening of this lip it's a very durable prop it's um more durable than the cast resin one i  previously had and i think it looks awesome um i am gonna go through and do a bunch of weathering  on this this last i'll do a bunch of lettering on that um i may go find a piece of rubber and  replace the back of this with the the kind of dive mask piece of gray rubber that the  that the real ones had but to be fair like this is totally sufficient this is this is totally  sufficient i can hang this on my belt um i'll put it on my oh also yeah this piece this lineri cut it out of a cheap 20 pair of uh flight goggles from amazon these these cost  20 bucks 25 bucks a perfect perfect liner i mean i just used a little uh vhb very high bond that is a  dimensional tape yeah you can see its thickness there yeah so uh vhb is very high bond vhb it's  very high bond tape it sticks well um hopefully it looks like it's grabbing nicely there on the edges  we will see but yeah that's i'm really i'm i'm very pleased with the result  i always say like i'm pleased i i never say it's perfect  like i'm always like it's acceptable that like everything is that way right oh man i  cannot wait to put this whole gig this whole thing together this is just it's just gonna be the best  all right let's tighten this up just a little bit okay that's it let's get this going yeah yeah mhmyeah that's it nice right  yeah man yeah that is comfy i mean here uh actually let's take a quick ganderthese are the mattie uh goggles the mattel ghostbuster goggles and these are a fabulous  a fabulous uh these are fabulous they look great they're they're just awesome people still stickers  people sell sticker sets to make these more accurate but they're heavy um they're actually  quite heavy i would have killed for something like this when i was a kid and i'm so glad that  mattel made this but definitely like i would huh yeah oh i would feel this over time i'd say  whatever the mattel is it's probably twice as heavy as this because it's all just  empty plastic with no electronics or batteries um yeah i'm glad i've got these these yeah  when they're all weathered and i get some brass looking stuff going on there it's gonna be sweetall right um i have this one part to make out at the ends of the uh lenses on the  ecto goggles are these guys these um knurled i like camera parts um here is a casting of one  yeah it's not very pretty and i want to make these um and i just did a sample  and i'm pretty pleased with it i'm happy it's a good sample and it's i'm using a knurling wheel  and i'm just pushing it into some aluminum and then i'm going to drill and tap this out i need  to make three of these and that is what i'm about to do yep all right let's um relocateso uhokaythere is the this is this piece of quarter inch aluminum i'm just going to make one of these at  a time and then i'm going to do the drilling and the tapping later post yeah that'll be a  post operation let's see um yep about one inch out so this is the knurling wheel and it is  it is a hardened steel wheel with uh horizontal grooves on it and i'll give you a close-up so  you can see how i'm doing this it's not ideal um i prefer knurling can be done where you could just  push the knurling wheel right into your work and for bigger work that totally is often sufficient  but for like sensitive work like this little guy i want to be able to clamp down on it and  i've got knurling wheels that do that but i don't have any straight wheels on them i only have the  diamond knurl pattern so i'm just gonna have to try this again and go real  slow uh so to do this here let me um give you a better okay so there's my quarter inch aluminum  and stick it out by about an inch my knurling wheel i've got it not perfectly  horizontal but set at a tiny angle um that just gives me a little better of a cut in  i have found so let's uh let's see here i want to tighten this down turn it on and bring it inthere we go so now i just put a little whey oil on there and you see it's nice and  yeah you want to keep this cool and slowand now i'm going to put it on auto feed which will move the cross feed really slowlyand i'm just adjusting the pressure until i feel like i've got lines that i like okay let  me get a little more oil on there and when i stop you'll see that i've got the knurls that i want  and i only i didn't push this this part too much that way i'll stop it before it gets to the uhbefore it crashes i know it's real close but i'll stop itdoneyeah uh i like that so i am going toextend this outit's going to come out a bit more do againso then i go back and i get it to line up with thisand the teeth should engageand i'm going to bring it to the same spot i did before  there we go and i'm just going to start the auto feed a lots of oiland again i'll just do it until this gets almost close to the face i didn't think i'd  be able to do this with such a small piece of material here and up and out and over and donenow i know that when you're looking on camera it may look to youlike oh like those lines are not perfectly straight doesn't matter you won't notice  it once i machine this down uh so here we go  starting again starting and moving in moving on up like george and wheezyall right i'm trying again this time here we go  this time i'm going to uh hold on to this side of the equation with my uh chuck and i'll hold on to  this side of the equation and i'll know the whole length that should make it a lot easier all right  uh yeah here we go i got a nice little bearing in there and we're gonna bring it over  we're going to there we are so let's see here here's how this worksgreat now from back with the knurling wheeland now we're starting to move  oh very happy very very very happy um note as a specific disc difference in come on show me  some problems show me some focus now notice if you press at a medium pressure you get  more knurls where if you press at a high pressure you get less i wanted to see this so this is  wonderful all right now it's time for me to do some cutting and some drilling and some tapping  it is not the most beautiful knurl in the world but it's nice looking yeah it's a little bit of a  of a slight helix all right we're going to cut this on the bandsaw  tunk and then we're going to smooth it out put it in this guy slice slice slicesowell yeah aside from some laser-cut lenses and actually one tiny bit of attachment  to figure out how i want to put these on it maybe i put a little vhb around the uh  around the lips of these but what i have herei thick want to see that what i have here is  uh completed scratch built ecto goggles i am highly satisfied with my work  i think it looks great i think i think it's a respectable troopings set of ecto goggles  yeah yeah and i may deal with the inside but this build we're dealing just with the outside so  it's time for weathering um we're going to separate out  the strapping because that is a separate weathering pass and thenit really so on some of these there's an extra snap here but on some of them there ain't  and on this gb one set of vector goggles and egg goggles on this gb1 set of ecto gogglesno button yeah sorry take a lookno extra button right there so i'm going to assume they had several pairs  and i'm going with the og set so what i want to do first on this pass is do a kind of a dirt pass  um then i am going to do a uhoh you know what maybe first things first let me get a um a dirt pass on the scrappingthis is a brush specifically for weathering fabricand it's meant to just make tiny little tears owwow i gotta be more carefuland we're gonna get a little oh yeah i cut myself uh all right we're gonna get a little schmutz on  here literally schmutz schmear schmear this is a weathering wax that uh makes things look a  little like they've gotten some grease on them and that's great because you can do some stuff where  it's like you figure out you figure out where it's gotten you know some grease it's like  right here where the hand grabs it so i'm gonna get a little more over thereand then maybe take a little off a little acetonesookay so i like the straps um the next pass is let's do a little bit of ayeah let's bring this up a little bitnice that looks like it's holding pretty well good um okayokay i'm gonna also hit this with some weathering on the high spots  that's to kind of bring it down a little bitoh oh that's bad all right let's get a little glue on theremost of this is not super visible on the first glance but boy does it really help  to just take down that kind of new car feeling of the freshly painted thing  and it's mostly i'm just hitting every surface and every piece and slowly just kind of like  you know your eye knows what it's looking at and when you like clean up the top spots  on some of these snaps it really gets that there's been some abuse there and i get thatthe cap head screws yeah that's great great great um okay so let's uh  close up the schmear let's get a little black paint goingall right here we go i've got this kind of gray and i'm just  go in and kind of put it in and take it off and again this is just sort of like yeahjust sort of like a pass okay sort of bring in a little bit of weathering and  then you know there will be spots i can't pull it grab take it offoh one last thing right okay so one of the other specific aspects is that the  high spots on all of these snaps are um brassy they show brass through and i didn't have any  dark metal brass snaps so i'm going to fake the brass undercoatwe are going to throw some rub and buff on there oh yeah let's get that and then i'm  gonna get a little rub and buff on this rag here and i am just going to hit thehit the high spots of the snaps with the rub and buff brass  and what that does is it warms it up makes it look like the right thinghere we goah let's get a little bit of rub and buff on the edges of the brass here of the  closures for the for the claspsjust a little bit of warmth just a little bit of warmth that's all i needsame over herethere there there there it is ladies and gentlemen my ecto goggles y'allah yeah yeah boyoh there we go  that's it yeah what i particularly love is that i particularly love about this build is that thisbecame this let's see this became thisbecame thisbecame this super happy thank you guys for joining me for this uhreally fun one-day build yeah two days it's a two-day build  and we remember that this took a full day to do before so it's really a three-day build but  nothing exotic black styrene for the base of this uh goggles liner from cheap goggles  delrin for the eye pieces aluminum for the other eyepiece uh yeah a scratch built  ecto goggles one day build see you guys out there are you gonna callthese are great i'm really happy with them this uh hopefully the vhb  lasts on there if it doesn't i can probably glue it um these are also purchasable you  can purchase the liners for the original night vision goggles but i haven't tried  um yeah so i'll have some lenses put in those for tripping but yeah and i may eventually  tackle the inside but that's not in today's build but uh i i'm so happy with these yes\n"