Body
I wasn't sure how to go about making the main body of the vessel; There's a lot of bulges & curves, & not many flat surfaces at all.
Unless I opt for the 'Stealth Fighter' approach, it's going to be difficult to make from the brass sheet I have.
After some debate, I decided to try making a mould set, to attempt to stamp each side out of the flat sheet.
I first made the male mould section out of modeling clay, using a rough sketch for size reference. The clay was formed in a gas cylinder that I had sectioned with an angle grinder. A smaller mould was also made using a sectioned piece of tubing.
I have cut the gas cylinder slightly off-center, so as the male mould can be inserted into the larger section of the cylinder later, to create the female recess of the stamp.
The clay was removed from the cylinder, the smaller side part added, then left to dry. Once it's dried fully, it can be filed/sanded, prior to making the female mould.
==================
2nd / 3rd September;
After sleeping on it again (usually helps!), I decided that the modelling clay would not be strong enough to stamp the brass sheet. I've used the stuff before, & wasn't confident it would stay together, especially if I needed to have a few goes at stamping.
Never having stamped anything before (aside from a few wayward hits with a hammer...), I thought I better Google the process. Apart from the Male & female moulds being sufficiently strong enough, there also needs to be enough clearance between the two halves to accommodate the thickness of the metal between them, otherwise the metal plate will be sheared off at some of the edges. Also annealing the metal, & lubrication will assist in the process, & guide dowels are needed to make sure the moulds clamp together in the correct alignment.
I decided to use car body filler (aka 'bog') for the moulds, as I know the stuff dries quickly, & as hard as nails.
The clay mould was shaped & sanded, then sealed with a quick coat of black paint. The bog was mixed, & laid in the cylinder, & the clay mould pushed into it.
After an hour or so, the bog was set enough, & the clay was removed to reveal the final female mould. Several layers of masking tape were applied to the inside of the mould, to compensate for the approximate thickness of the metal sheet, & also allow for easy removal of the male mould that is about to be poured in there.
The cavity was filled with bog, a thick alloy plate placed on top, & was left overnight. The next morning, I fixed the newly formed male mould to the alloy plate with a few screws, & drilled through the entire assembly at both ends to add the guide dowels.
The moulds are separated, & all looks good.
I had a small sheet of 0.010" (0.254mm) brass to try first. It was annealed, lubed with cooking oil spray, then I had to slightly hand-form it over the mould to make sure it was in the correct position.
The female mould was placed over the top, the guide dowels inserted, then it was over to the press!
Now it's crunch-time!
The main shape turned out well, albeit with a few wrinkles, most of which will be trimmed off.
I also had some 0.005" sheet (0.127mm), so whacked that in there for another go. I got carried away, & used up the last thin sheet trying out slightly different positions in the stamp, before realizing that I had to do the entire process all over again to make the other side....
That was it for me for the day, so I sent Jack out to the local hobby store to get a couple more sheets of brass. He was gone for quite a while - not sure what he got up to there...
========================
September 7th
Before I went & hand made the mould for the other side, I wanted to try a technique I'd read about, where you could coat an object with latex or rubberized paint, then peel it off & flip it inside out, to get a mirror image.
This would save a little time, & ensure an exact copy if it worked....
...Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well;
So, it was time to repeat the process all over again. Fortunately, the Art Gods were looking out for me, as I managed to knock out a good mirror image from another slab of clay.
Body continued in post #5.
============================