The Half-truncated Cube-My First Mod!

The half-truncated cube is exactly what its name says: an ordinary cube with half of its corners chopped off. This mod turns an ordinary Rubik's cube into a puzzle even more fun and cool-looking!

I'm new to the modding scene and wanted to start with something easy, so the half-truncated cube is a great start. Another one to start with would be a hexagonal dipyramid-something I'm currently working on (and it will be on here when it's done!)

I started by peeling the stickers off of an old cube and marking where the cuts needed to be made. I tried to keep the puzzle aligned with some sturdy rubber bands on each side, which worked until I had made a couple cuts. After finishing this project, I feel that for this particular mod it may have been better to mark each individual piece where to be cut, since they are all the same (corners and edges). I figure that by doing this it would be easier to make sure each piece is almost exactly the same. Sanding away at each corner of the whole cube allowed for small movements out of place to affect for the pieces line up. It didn't end up being a big deal, but for better quality work in the future I will try this method.

After all the shaping of the puzzle, my next step was to tidy up the rough edges created by my Dremel. With some 100 grit sandpaper, I made sure all the edges were flat and ready to be filled. I filled the pieces with JBweld KwikPlastic putty, pretty expensive stuff I think for what you get, but I could not find Milliput or Apoxie Sculpt around here and wanted to get started. I plan on trying some plastic prototyping compound but I have yet to see how it sands down and reacts to the working that would have to be done to it. After being filled and allowed to set, much more sanding was needed to make all the surfaces as smooth as possible before painting.

I cleaned all the pieces with soap and water and then with a little paint thinner before painting. I used Krylon Fusion for plastic, a good quality spray paint that turned out well. I used stickers from Cubesmith, because quite frankly I was too lazy to cut them myself, and the lubricated it with Maru lube. And the end result:

I am very happy with it, and it turned out about as well as I could have expected for my first project! up next: 3x3 hexagonal dipyramid!

Until next time...