ShadoKat's Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 3) helmet sculpt - WIP

[ShadoKat]

Thanks, Shadowind and Satchmo! I do hope to post more progress Hey, in fact, why don't I do so now? Here's tonight's work... I need to do some more measuring, but all the lines I've drawn are currently getting in the way, so I decided to hit it with a coat of primer.

I've been really curious as to what it would look like "clean." Also, just so I don't lose it, I put down a strip of tape along the center line. That's all for now. Thanks for looking!

 

[ShadoKat]

Progress for the last couple of days... Took the laser and drew some more lines, then made some corrections based on those measurements:

And then, of course, I had to correct the corrections...

In part of the first incorrect correction, I kept getting lost and confused, and accidentally cut back some points too far because I had measured the intersection of the wrong lines. So, this time, I numbered the vertical and depth lines. Seems to have helped. So, yeah, it's getting there. Slow, tedious process, but I think I'm getting good results.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Sky Walker]

Wow! the shoulders are rather lovely, if i may say so myself. The helmet is turning out to be quite detailed nad is showing lots of promise. Very exited for this build

 

[Mstruvmgc]

This is freekin sexy! Great work so far

 

[ShadoKat]

Thanks, you guys! Here's progress for the last week... I started out with this...

And then I did some sanding. A LOT of sanding. This always makes me really nervous, because every time I sand it, it alters the shape, and I have to recheck all the symmetry, which is tedious and time consuming, but very rewarding when it's done. Then I noticed that the faceplate on the left side sits at kind of a strange angle from front to back (and it occurred to me that I never really measured that properly), so a bit of epoxy clay later, I'm hoping has evened it out. Before measuring it, though, I needed to hit it with more primer. I'm kind of afraid I'll need to do this every time I sand from here on out. It's just so time consuming getting my garage all set up (I actually park cars there, and live in a townhouse with no driveway, so I have to move both cars out, find a place to park on the street X2, put down protective gear, do the deed, wait for the paint to dry, then tear it all down, and finally move the cars back). And I forgot to tape over to protect my center line, so it was a huge pain finding that again.

Then, after getting some more reference models from some members here (BIG HUGE MEGA AWESOME THANKS to PaigeMaster and MissingSpartan7), I decided to indulge in a little study time. and... GAH!!!! Why is it when I think I'm ready to move on, I notice something else that I have to fix? As much as I keep telling myself to just let it go every time it happens... but, for some reason I just can't... Anyway, the ear bananas are not nearly as rounded as they should be. They start off curved at the back, and then flatten out almost immediately. It's easy to see from a head-on comparison shot. So, I need to round those out. Started from the bottom and am working my way up. Here's my reference.

And, on the cast, about two hours of staring, cutting, filing, and sanding later, i now have this.

The squiggles are where I need to build it up and fill it in. Hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow. I'm really starting to see the drawbacks of epoxy clay but, unfortunately the aforementioned garage scenario also takes Bondo out of the equation. I tried to use FG resin in there once, and the smell didn't come out of the adjoining room for nearly a week. Oh well, I can do it, and will eventually. Thanks for looking everyone!!

Ugh... Just reread this post and it sounds really negative. Don't get me wrong, it's totally not, and I absolutely love this hobby, and this project. I'm just a bit discouraged at the moment. I've been working on this going on three years now (albeit with several - shall we say, "generous" - breaks), and I'm still not even close to done. And then I think about how so many people can crank out excellent work in just a few weeks or months, and it kinda gets me down. No worries, I will persevere, this is just one more thing.

 

[ShadoKat]

After a pretty decent bit of work tonight, the right ear banana is now more rounded, and more closely follows the contour started out at the back.

I think it looks quite a bit better, and flattens out toward the front much more evenly. Since I never seem to remember to get pics before I start, here's the other side for comparison...

It's much more obvious from the back. It's not perfect, of course, and will require just a bit more shaping once the epoxy clay has cured, especially at the front. What do you think? Am I on the right track here? Let me know, and thanks for checking out my build!

 

[PaigeMaster]

Glad I could help, ShadoKat. I'm a huge Metroid fan myself; it'd be a shame to just keep the resources to myself for this build of yours.

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Looking righteous. Keep it up!

 

[Iron Monger]

Awesome. Love the "lazer beam" technique too!

 

[ShadoKat]

But wait! There’s more!! Back when I started this project, my wife tried to dissuade me from doing the helmet first. It’s like the most iconic piece of the whole costume, and she suggested that I do other pieces first so that I could take what I learned from those, and apply it to the helmet. That’s just not how I roll. I have to just jump into it, and get in way over my head. One of the things I’m better at now is “reading” the reference material. When the sculpt was first “finished,” I thought it was awesome, and followed the reference very well but, apparently, I’ve learned a lot since then. At this point, I need to stop looking at the references, because I keep seeing things I need to fix. The profile shape of the front and back, for example…

The back comes sharply inward at the back, rather than curving around, as I currently have it. In an attempt to correct it, I drew inward at the bottom of the point, then took a rough file, a Dremel, my handy-dandy plastic cutting tool, and a hacksaw to match the line I drew. This also meant removing the little buds that terminate the heat-sink rib things.

By the way… Hacksaws are great!! They allow you to take drastic action and cross the point-of-no-return very quickly to totally screw up what was once perfectly decent work! They can also make very interesting wound patterns when you slip.

It was a little thin back there, so I ended up having to fill in some holes with my good friend epoxy clay!

Then it was on to the front!

Looks much closer now to what I’m going for, I think. Yup, slowly but surely, it’s coming together… again

Thanks for looking!

 

[ShadoKat]

Dear build diary;

Oh, hello there! Another several months have passed, so it's time to dust off this project and start it up again. I've come to a sort of epiphany about this hobby... I do it because it's something that I enjoy. Sometimes I just get to a point where I don't enjoy it any more, and it feels more like an obligation (or even a problem) than a joy. When that happens, I tend to take an extended hiatus, and don't start up again until I can find the fun in it again, or until I get that "itch" to do it. Sometimes that can take a while. This time I got sick of all the problems with the helmet and, rather than keep at it, I just took another break. After a few months, and with Halloween approaching, I still couldn't find the fun in it, but I felt like I really needed to do something, and I still wasn't "feeling it" with the helmet, so I went back to this last week...

It's turning out pretty well, and I think it's about ready for smoothing. Clay, I think, gives me the most happiness, and it's been awesome to work with it again. The smell of it, the feel of it, and just working with it in general. There's only so much one can do with it, though, until it's time to move on. I think I'm just about ready to do so with this piece, then I'll either try to start up with the helmet again, or move on to a different piece so I can feel like I'm making progress. I mean I already have helmets, so if I can finish the rest of the suit, I should be okay. So, anyway, back again... With any luck, I can actually keep at it this time.

Wish me luck, and thanks for looking!!

 

[Darkstego]

Glad you are picking this up, been seeing photos of your progress for literally years, waiting for a final completed product, and then praying you would offer casts of it haha. Good luck with the project.

 

[ShadoKat]

time for another "good idea/bad idea"

While I was working on the shoulder bell, I had this idea. The internal dialog went something like this.. "Smoothing is a pain! Wish I could just sand it, instead. What if I were to somehow coat it in plastic? I sand that all the time. Hmmm... I have some extra casting resin and some paintbrushes, let's try it!! WHOAH!! Easy there, cowboy! This piece is almost done... if it doesn't work, do you really want to start it all over again? Save it for a smaller piece sometime." So that's what I did.

I'm glad I waited. Just to test materials, I did half of it in SmoothCast 300 and the other half in Magic Smooth. The SmoothCast 300 did not go on very well AT ALL!! I think the viscosity is just way too low. It's meant to get into tiny details, after all. Despite my fairly even brush strokes, it pooled up in some places, was far too thin in others, and dripped a lot, making it extremely unwieldy. It also cured too quickly, which means I didn't get a lot of time to fix it once it was on. It did sand okay, but I sanded through it in a few spots and didn't feel like going further with it by adding another coat. The Magic Smooth, on the other hand, was far too thick, and takes a whole night to cure. I could have worked with it for like an hour or two, but it was SUPER sticky!!! Really, I just wanted to get it off my hands! Also, it does NOT sand well. Fortunately, it comes off fairly easily, unlike SmoothCast 300, which is like trying to peel the sticker off a used game... it just tears. I will likely be digging little plastic bits out of the clay for a while.

[edit] Here's what it looked like...

[/edit]

So, my question is, is it a good idea with flawed execution, or is the whole idea ridiculous? Quite honestly, since it was just an experiment, I think I was just being lazy with it. Given more time, or a second application of material, it may have gone better. Is there a better product for this? Not ten minutes after I was done, for example, I got an e-mail about a new Smooth-On product, Epsilon brushable epoxy coating. It's supposedly intended for EPS foam, but I don't see why it wouldn't work on clay, or any other surface.

Until I get this down, though, I think I'll just mold it and work the cast. It's only one piece, and definitely not the most important. I finished removing the coatings tonight. At least I learned something today! And, really, I only lost the weekend's worth of work. It's not in terrible shape, and it is an easy enough piece, I can recover it.

[edit] It was more than a week's work... here's what it looked like once I was done peeling off the cured plastic...

[/edit]

Well, until next time!

 

[Rheiner]

Is there any more progress on it? I'm super excited to finally see my favorite video game character come to life the right way!

 

[ShadoKat]

YES actually... molding the forearm right now... I'll post pics once complete

[edit] Just for fun, I managed to completely clean all the clay from the shoulder bell off of the styrofoam head! That's a LOT of clay!!

[/edit]

 

[Rheiner]

YES actually... molding the forearm right now... I'll post pics once complete

Fantastic! I'm looking forward to it!!!

 

[ShadoKat]

Dear build diary (and anyone else still paying attention)… IT IS NOW PICS TIME!!

Apparently, I didn’t get any pics of the forearm before I started molding it, so here are some I got after the de-molding. The sculpt survived fairly well. There is some damage, but these pics are a fairly decent representation.

Silicone of choice for the mold? Dragon Skin! Since it was over a year old I decided to test it by making some registration keys. If it fails, it’s a waste anyway, but if it works… hey, registration keys! And it worked!

So, here are the mold-in-progress pics, layers 1 (print layer), 2 (reinforcement and registration keys), and 3 (final smoothing and reinforcement), respectively (and, I must say, I LOVE my sampler pack of Silc-Pig silicone pigments):

A word of note, Dragon Skin bubbles… HORRIBLY! I’m hoping the bubbles didn’t affect the print coat too much but, for the future, I am seriously considering investing in a vacuum degasser.
And now the shell/mother mold, and I have to give BIG MAJOR HUGE props to BLACKULA727 and his UNBELIEVEABLY AWESOME Elite sculpt thread!! The mother mold is made ENTIRELY of Free Form AIR Lightweight Epoxy Putty, an idea I got (once again) from BLACKULA727's SUPER MAJOR MONDO AWESOME Elite sculpt thread (seriously, check it out if you haven't already). This stuff is very, VERY strange, and kind of surreal to work with. Feels a bit like floam. It’s extremely light, stable, resistant to gravity, easy to shape, smooths and blends immaculately with a little bit of water, and seems to be pretty strong when cured. You don’t need to mess with clay walls, mixing cups, majorly noxious fumes, or, with a little care, even barriers like foil or plastic wrap to prevent self-adhesion with cured parts (I used generous amounts of Vaseline from the Dollar Store and a $5.00 spray-on release agent). The only real drawbacks are these, and they are TOTALLY mitigable… first, it’s SUPER sticky (fixed with a bit of water), portioning involves a bit of ambiguity (does not measure well by weight, but you can totally eyeball the volume with no adverse effects), semi-toxic (no respirator required, but you should have good ventilation), and the instructions say that you should wear vinyl gloves (though I used nitrile, which I find superior to vinyl in every way, with no problem) when mixing (apparently it’s okay after it is thoroughly mixed?? After reading the MSDS, it looks like part A is inert, while part B is more hazardous). For what it’s worth, though, I may never go back to anything else for mother molds, like EVAR!! Seriously, the stuff is AMAZING, and comparable in price to Plasti-Paste. So, thanks again to BLACKULA727!! Oh, yeah, and here are the pics:

The pink bits you see there are shaved-off pieces of Rebound 25 registration keys left over from the shoulder bell mold. An idea attributed once again to BLACKULA727, when pulled out, these bits of silicone form small cavities into which a screwdriver may fit. This technique provides convenient pry-points for help in separating the two halves of the mother mold. And the ribs you see in the shell add reinforcement at those points so the mother mold doesn’t snap bits off during the prying-apart process. And, I must say, it worked SPLENDIDLY!

For this mold I chose to try not cutting the silicone, and just pulled the thing off. It seems to have worked so far. Dragon Skin is supposed to have excellent tensile strength, to help prevent tearing, and I fervently hope this holds true. Sure, it de-molded just fine, but we’ll really see after a few casts. A few casts, you ask? Why YES, actually! Even though I only need one cast of the forearm for the actual suit, it’s a small and simple enough piece that I’m hoping to try a few things before I retire it.

So, thanks again for looking, and stay tuned for the casts!

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Well the mold process looks like a success indeed lol. Glad it worked out. I cant wait to see those casts you are going to do.

 

[InnovACEr]

Just noticed: I've been following this thread for years! :O

So, what's the grand total now?
Helmet: Molded and cast, some paint
Shoulders (both): Molded and cast
Left forearm: Molded and cast
Right forearm: in progress?

All we need now is the chest piece, the back, the hips, left and right thighs and calves, plus boots!

 

[ShadoKat]

Just noticed: I've been following this thread for years! :O

Yeah, you and me both... i do hope to finish it someday, and seeing things like this help inspire me...