ShadoKat's Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 3) helmet sculpt - WIP
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Ummm... that's a joke... that's my way of saying "that's awesome." But depending on the cost, I'd love one!
LongShot X
Well-Known Member
I Had to have a look... Love the sculpt! Can't wait to see it finsihed.
Cheers!
Cheers!
I got some advice over at the RPF to try working the clay with Vaseline and a metal spoon. The description of the technique was very sparse on details, but I tried it out on a small section of the sculpt tonight, and it looks to be working out great so far! Still takes a lot of working the clay with other tools, but I'm really really amazed with how well it seems to be working. In the interest of cautious optimism, though, I'm going to come back to it tomorrow, and look at it with a pair of fresh eyes at that time. The sculpt always seems to look different after I let it sit for a day, for some reason. I'll get pics (and maybe even a video of the technique, if anyone's interested) tomorrow night.
It occurred to me, though... Does anyone know if working the clay with Vaseline is going to have any kind of adverse affect on the Rebound 25 that I'm planning to mold with? Petroleum jelly doesn't appear to contain sulfur, but if anyone has any experience with it, I'd love for you to share.
Also, speaking of molding, I had an idea for registration keys... I have an old keyboard, and I'm thinking of prying the keys out of it. The have a really good shape and size. Plus, it would just be perfect because they'd actually be registration keys... get it? Um.. yeah... Anyway, good idea or bad idea?
Wish me luck!
It occurred to me, though... Does anyone know if working the clay with Vaseline is going to have any kind of adverse affect on the Rebound 25 that I'm planning to mold with? Petroleum jelly doesn't appear to contain sulfur, but if anyone has any experience with it, I'd love for you to share.
Also, speaking of molding, I had an idea for registration keys... I have an old keyboard, and I'm thinking of prying the keys out of it. The have a really good shape and size. Plus, it would just be perfect because they'd actually be registration keys... get it? Um.. yeah... Anyway, good idea or bad idea?
Wish me luck!
Hah!! "If it works," indeed!! Sorry, I couldn't get the camera set up properly... I don't have a camera other than the one in my phone which, while a pretty decent camera, is unfortunately not compatible with a tripod. I'll work on it, though, and put something up if I can. However, the technique itself, as I suspected/feared, it doesn't look as good the next day. The shiny-ness of the Vaseline covers up a lot of the flaws. Not to say that it doesn't still work... it's still MUCH better than when I started, but not as great as it looks upon first glance. Really, smoothing seems to be somewhat light-sensitive.
In other news, I think I'm done with this. I've gone just about as far as I can go with clay. Its malleability is far too sensitive for my clumsy hands, so I'm just going to start molding and try to clean it up in the cast. So, here's what I've got...
And, if you're interested, here's a very short 360 video...
Since I've never molded anything before, I decided to do a practice mold with a (1.5 year old) Smooth-On trial kit and a different test subject before tackling a mold of the helmet sculpt...
Pray for the kitty... And wish me luck! Thanks much!!
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PLEASE HELP!!!
The molding has begun... I applied the first layer of silicone, and I think I may need some help...
I'm EXTREMELY nervous about this right now. I didn't make a big enough batch of silicone, and I didn't work it fast enough. I mixed a second batch, but clumps of the still-curing first batch mixed with the second, and the results are shown above. Should I be worried, or is this okay? Also, getting the silicone into the flanges at the back was a terrible ordeal... I pushed some in with a paintbrush, but I'm afraid I've either scratched up the clay (not a big deal) or created some air pockets (which could be a big deal). I know this stuff is relatively self-leveling, but it just looks so messy right now, and I'm starting to freak out.
EDIT: The freak-out continues... It's been over two hours and there are a few small spots that don't seem to be curing... they all seem to be "underneath" spots, but I just read something that is causing me some panic... I was wearing latex gloves while doing this, and I neglected to read the little warning on the material sheet that said that latex can inhibit silicone curing. OMFG, idiotic noob mistake!!! Since they're very small spots, can I press on and still be okay? Will it cure eventually, say if I leave it overnight? I read something about baby powder, too, will that help? Can I use a paper towel to "dab off" the little spots that aren't curing? Anyone have any experience here? Is there any way to save this?
Well, of course I'm too hard on myself
Aren't we all our own worst critics? Actually, I was very very happy with how the sculpt turned out. Not bad for my first try. I agree, after some sanding and a paint job I expect it will look pretty nice, but I think I've gone as far as I can with clay. I just hope I haven't ruined it with a mold-fail.
As for the smoothing, here are the tools that I used...
Working in small sections, I started out with the triangle-head tools, applying light pressure and changing the direction often. They have nice surfaces for scraping large areas. Then I moved on to the metal scrapers (different sizes for different areas), also with light pressure and in different directions. (While using the metal scrapers, I use the wooden tool you see there is to FREQUENTLY clean off the metal scrapers, as clay accumulates on them and ends up smearing.) Then I do the same with the blue rubber kidney-shaped scraper. After using it you can really see the rough spots. After that I applied a thin layer of vaseline with a cosmetic sponge and started rubbing -- using firm pressure in a circular motion -- with the back of the metal spoon. Something weird starts to happen at this point... Clay particles collect on the spoon at the high points and start mixing with the vaseline to form a pasty consistency that fills in the low spots. (Kinda freaked me out the first time it happened until I realized what was going on.) I then go back over the spot with the blue rubber scraper. The vaseline helps the scraper to spread the clay/paste without gouging the surface, and smooths it out pretty nicely. Finally, I use a fresh cosmetic sponge in quick motions with as little pressure as possible to clean up the area. (Quick tips: DO NOT TOUCH IT WITH YOUR FINGERS!!! Also, don't rub too vigorously with the sponge.) At this point, it looks fantastic. After a day, though, the vaseline almost disappears, and you can see the deficiencies, but it's still a marked improvement from when you started.
So, that's pretty much what I did. Small sections, a few steps, but good results. Hope this helps!!
The molding has begun... I applied the first layer of silicone, and I think I may need some help...
I'm EXTREMELY nervous about this right now. I didn't make a big enough batch of silicone, and I didn't work it fast enough. I mixed a second batch, but clumps of the still-curing first batch mixed with the second, and the results are shown above. Should I be worried, or is this okay? Also, getting the silicone into the flanges at the back was a terrible ordeal... I pushed some in with a paintbrush, but I'm afraid I've either scratched up the clay (not a big deal) or created some air pockets (which could be a big deal). I know this stuff is relatively self-leveling, but it just looks so messy right now, and I'm starting to freak out.
EDIT: The freak-out continues... It's been over two hours and there are a few small spots that don't seem to be curing... they all seem to be "underneath" spots, but I just read something that is causing me some panic... I was wearing latex gloves while doing this, and I neglected to read the little warning on the material sheet that said that latex can inhibit silicone curing. OMFG, idiotic noob mistake!!! Since they're very small spots, can I press on and still be okay? Will it cure eventually, say if I leave it overnight? I read something about baby powder, too, will that help? Can I use a paper towel to "dab off" the little spots that aren't curing? Anyone have any experience here? Is there any way to save this?
Well, of course I'm too hard on myself
Aren't we all our own worst critics? Actually, I was very very happy with how the sculpt turned out. Not bad for my first try. I agree, after some sanding and a paint job I expect it will look pretty nice, but I think I've gone as far as I can with clay. I just hope I haven't ruined it with a mold-fail.As for the smoothing, here are the tools that I used...
Working in small sections, I started out with the triangle-head tools, applying light pressure and changing the direction often. They have nice surfaces for scraping large areas. Then I moved on to the metal scrapers (different sizes for different areas), also with light pressure and in different directions. (While using the metal scrapers, I use the wooden tool you see there is to FREQUENTLY clean off the metal scrapers, as clay accumulates on them and ends up smearing.) Then I do the same with the blue rubber kidney-shaped scraper. After using it you can really see the rough spots. After that I applied a thin layer of vaseline with a cosmetic sponge and started rubbing -- using firm pressure in a circular motion -- with the back of the metal spoon. Something weird starts to happen at this point... Clay particles collect on the spoon at the high points and start mixing with the vaseline to form a pasty consistency that fills in the low spots. (Kinda freaked me out the first time it happened until I realized what was going on.) I then go back over the spot with the blue rubber scraper. The vaseline helps the scraper to spread the clay/paste without gouging the surface, and smooths it out pretty nicely. Finally, I use a fresh cosmetic sponge in quick motions with as little pressure as possible to clean up the area. (Quick tips: DO NOT TOUCH IT WITH YOUR FINGERS!!! Also, don't rub too vigorously with the sponge.) At this point, it looks fantastic. After a day, though, the vaseline almost disappears, and you can see the deficiencies, but it's still a marked improvement from when you started.
So, that's pretty much what I did. Small sections, a few steps, but good results. Hope this helps!!
Pray for the kitty... And wish me luck! Thanks much!!
I am praying for the poor kitty =(
great sculpt ShadoKat!
this is haji
Jr Member
Nice job man. lol were you thrown off by how thick the rebound 25 was then you expected?
P-P-P-PANIC OVER! The bad spots still hadn't cured by this morning, so I called Smooth-On tech support this afternoon. After the rep finally stopped laughing, he asked me to repeat the question, which I did... then I heard a lot more laughing... I guess he had put me on speakerphone. Okay, that didn't really happen... Actually, they said it's a fairly common mistake, but still, MOLD FAIL! They said there's no way to make it cure, and the inhibition will affect any subsequent layers of silicone I try to put down, so they recommended I scrap the mold, decontaminate the clay, and start over. Needless to say, I was terrified, but I managed to remove it without messing up the sculpt too much. Stuff comes off NICE! And easy, too, only took about ten minutes. Okay, gonna clean this up and try again... Hopefully I'll have a cast by this weekend.
HAH!! It's funny you should say that, symmetry is one of the main reasons it's taken me so frickin' long to finish this thing! I started working on it in April of 2009, and right around the end of May I realized I have NO eye for symmetry whatsoever! Apparently, I have terrible spatial awareness, and when I hold calipers I can't make sense of the angle at which I'm holding them, and I can't get an accurate picture of how it's off. I can see something's wrong, but I can't figure out what it is or how to fix it. I became absolutely OBSESSED with symmetry and devised all sorts of methods and schemes (including one that involved pasta) to help get the symmetry working for me. I tried, contour gauges, more calipers, weird measuring schemes, and everything else I could think of with no luck. After a couple of months working solely on that problem, I got frustrated and just put the whole project away.
Eventually came up with something, though... a simple, workable design for a symmetry measuring device... machine... apparatus... thing. I just call it the Symmetrizer (it needs a better name). In March this year I got someone to build it for me, and that gave me the energy and motivation to go at the sculpt again. AND IT WORKS!! It still requires a lot of manual labor (it can measure and mark points, but it doesn't actually sculpt, after all), but because of how much I obsessed over the symmetry, I really could NOT have continued without it. The construction of the Symmetrizer isn't 100% ideal, it wobbles and shifts, and any slight bump knocks it off center so it has to constantly be adjusted, and it isn't totally straight. So it's still not perfectly accurate, but the theory and design are sound... and it's WAY better than I could have done on my own. On the Symmetrizer, the sculpt measured symmetrical (with a generous margin of error) at over 300 individual points before I started smoothing. And it looks pretty okay, too, so I'm pretty happy
haji: YES!! From all the videos I've watched, I REALLY didn't expect it to be that thick!! I'm going to watch a few more before I try again so I can get some better application methods!
HAH!! It's funny you should say that, symmetry is one of the main reasons it's taken me so frickin' long to finish this thing! I started working on it in April of 2009, and right around the end of May I realized I have NO eye for symmetry whatsoever! Apparently, I have terrible spatial awareness, and when I hold calipers I can't make sense of the angle at which I'm holding them, and I can't get an accurate picture of how it's off. I can see something's wrong, but I can't figure out what it is or how to fix it. I became absolutely OBSESSED with symmetry and devised all sorts of methods and schemes (including one that involved pasta) to help get the symmetry working for me. I tried, contour gauges, more calipers, weird measuring schemes, and everything else I could think of with no luck. After a couple of months working solely on that problem, I got frustrated and just put the whole project away.
Eventually came up with something, though... a simple, workable design for a symmetry measuring device... machine... apparatus... thing. I just call it the Symmetrizer (it needs a better name). In March this year I got someone to build it for me, and that gave me the energy and motivation to go at the sculpt again. AND IT WORKS!! It still requires a lot of manual labor (it can measure and mark points, but it doesn't actually sculpt, after all), but because of how much I obsessed over the symmetry, I really could NOT have continued without it. The construction of the Symmetrizer isn't 100% ideal, it wobbles and shifts, and any slight bump knocks it off center so it has to constantly be adjusted, and it isn't totally straight. So it's still not perfectly accurate, but the theory and design are sound... and it's WAY better than I could have done on my own. On the Symmetrizer, the sculpt measured symmetrical (with a generous margin of error) at over 300 individual points before I started smoothing. And it looks pretty okay, too, so I'm pretty happy
haji: YES!! From all the videos I've watched, I REALLY didn't expect it to be that thick!! I'm going to watch a few more before I try again so I can get some better application methods!
I got to say I'm learning a lot from your mistakes here, lol. I'm almost to the smoothing stage of my sculpt and this has given me plenty of good info. I really hope your mold works out this time. Please however still update us with every failure along the way haha.
I don't have to worry about symmetry on this sculpt really, but I will in the future and you have me really intrigued about your Symmetrizer TM.
I don't have to worry about symmetry on this sculpt really, but I will in the future and you have me really intrigued about your Symmetrizer TM.
Sorry only just seen this thread wish I'd seen it sooner.
I'm guessing your using a oil based clay maybe chavant?
For smoothing I'd suggest first raking the crap out of it to really break up the surface. Then using a soft artist's brush apply white spirits this will melt the surface of the clay and allow for smoothing.
Another technique is Avon hand cream this also works in the same way and makes your sculpt smell all pretty and nice.
Once your happy with the smoothness then go at it with rubbing alcohol and really take your time buffing it. Your clay when the buffing stage is complete (warning may take you a few days) will then be very very shiny almost glass like. The results will be a very sharp clean and shiny cast.
As I said I'm sorry I didn't see this thread sooner.
I'm guessing your using a oil based clay maybe chavant?
For smoothing I'd suggest first raking the crap out of it to really break up the surface. Then using a soft artist's brush apply white spirits this will melt the surface of the clay and allow for smoothing.
Another technique is Avon hand cream this also works in the same way and makes your sculpt smell all pretty and nice.
Once your happy with the smoothness then go at it with rubbing alcohol and really take your time buffing it. Your clay when the buffing stage is complete (warning may take you a few days) will then be very very shiny almost glass like. The results will be a very sharp clean and shiny cast.
As I said I'm sorry I didn't see this thread sooner.
this is haji
Jr Member
i cant imagine how id feel.... That silicone is so effing expensive and you really have one shot at it. The thing is, i though it over how simple the whole concept is and stopped worrying
I worked with bare hands since i didnt have anything but latex gloves, (lucky me, i watched like 100 molding videos warning not to use latex gloves haha). As long your ratio is close to 1:1 It will cure but latex seemed to made a significant impact
I also worked with small batches and allowed it to cure so i can peel it out of my mixing bowl (20 minutes about). I did a nice job with my first coat but final coat looked horrid. My other half came out much nicer though. I havent demolded it but i think it will be alright
the first coat is the most important, make sure you splash your brush into any details and panel lines and try your best to get an even coat. anything from there is just thickening it so it will be easier to handle and prevent it from tearing
I worked with bare hands since i didnt have anything but latex gloves, (lucky me, i watched like 100 molding videos warning not to use latex gloves haha). As long your ratio is close to 1:1 It will cure but latex seemed to made a significant impact
I also worked with small batches and allowed it to cure so i can peel it out of my mixing bowl (20 minutes about). I did a nice job with my first coat but final coat looked horrid. My other half came out much nicer though. I havent demolded it but i think it will be alright
the first coat is the most important, make sure you splash your brush into any details and panel lines and try your best to get an even coat. anything from there is just thickening it so it will be easier to handle and prevent it from tearing
Hey, no worries (I'm fairly happy with how it came out anyway) and thanks for the great tips! I can use it in future pieces, but for now I think I'll use fine-grit sandpaper and spot putty when I finally get the cast. Can you tell me what you mean by "breaking up the surface?" Which specific Avon cream? What strength of alcohol? Will 70% suffice? I'm guessing isopropyl, yes? What kind of cloth or pad or sponge would you buff it with to keep from scratching up the clay? Honestly, I was more worried about getting an even surface and getting the lumps out than making it shiny, but these are great tips, thank you!
It's okay, really... the silicone came off with only very minor effects on the sculpt. As for the silicone, this was only the first coat, so I only wasted about 6-8 fl.oz. total so far. I, too, watched a lot of videos... but tend to watch them with the sound off :/ The Smooth-On rep said it might never cure, and I didn't want to take any chances... good thing, too, there were a few bubbles on the surface, so it's like getting a second chance. One thing that concerns me about applying the silicone.... I'm very concerned that using a brush will scratch the clay while I'm applying the silicone. I like your idea about using bare hands, but I think I'll use vinyl gloves instead
Umm... SPLAIN, PLEASE!!! Er, I mean... can you please elaborate? No, I didn't seal the clay, but it seems to be working out all right. What would you seal it with, and why? It's oil-based clay, and everything I've read/seen/heard implies that that's not necessary.
LOL!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one learning from this! I think I'm going to start a video series entitled "Trial by Error: Learning through Failure, with Uber-Noob ShadoKat!"
In other news, I applied the final thixo layer to the kitty practice sculpture tonight, and will work on the mother mold tomorrow, hopefully. As always, thanks everybody!!
Castellan Craft
Jr Member
I'm just starting with clay myself, but I noticed Bluerealm talks about "sealing" the sculpt with primer in their tutorial: http://www.bluerealmstudios.com/2009/04/10/sculpting-a-helmet-the-master-cheif-project/
I've seen people make their mold without doing that though.
Also, if you're always looking for more information, Thorssoli's build is fabulous for reference. He's casting off of pepakura, but is doing awesome work on molds. http://protagonist4hire.blogspot.com/search/label/Costuming
And here's his thread here on site: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/7138-Thorssoli's-MkVI-Costume-Buildup
But that has a LOT of pages to get through hahaha. But some useful additional information as well.
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