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

[ShadoKat]

You gotta redo the whole piece now???

Kind of. It's just a tad too small. I'm trying very hard to avoid the "bobblehead" look that I've seen in other Samus builds, and I already had to make the helmet a bit larger than I had originally wanted (I tweaked the scale and proportion as much as I could, but that beak area is just not designed for a real chin to fit inside). So when I put a helmet cast and a life cast torso next to the shoulder bell to check for scale, I could see the beginnings of the dreaded bobble taking shape (no pics of that, I don't have enough hands to hold everything next to each other and get a picture). Took some foam board and roughed out a profile template to try to get a good size going on.

Never done this before... I've seen real sculptors do it, and I can see why they do it, but it's a bit hard to work with for me so far. Maybe with more practice. The diameter will only be increasing by about an inch, maybe an inch-and-a-half, but it makes a huge difference, proportion-wise... and material-wise, too, actually. It's not like you can just hit a "scale up" button The second pic is where I am with slapping on more clay. It's not that much bigger, but it's a LOT more clay! Finally had to open up my ten-pound-block. I think, all in all, I'm going to end up with about twenty pounds of clay on this sucker (out of curiosity, I'll weigh it before i start hacking away). Had I known I was going to do it this way, I would not have used the helmet as a base. As for starting over, after putting it into perspective, it's not really that big a deal. All told, even though it's been put away for two months, I've only put about a week's worth of work into it so far. I don't mind doing everything over. As an example, here's the original "almost finished" version of the helmet

So, yeah, I'd rather it be done right than be done quickly. Of course, there is something to be said for doing it right the first time, but, hey, I'm still new at this

 

[DarkBebi]

Well I give you props for not giving up after a little hiccup and we all know you can do it with your amazing sculpting ability.

 

[Surmainey]

At least you won't have to worry about making the two shoulder pieces symmetrical seeing as you are using one shape for both. That is what you said right?

 

[Ravenwolf]

This is looking awesome so far. I've personally lack the ability to do anything freehand semetrical, (and it bugs the bejeebers outa me lol )
But i deffinitly applaud you on having the motivation to keep pluging away at this.

 

[ShadoKat]

Finally got the full volume of clay added today, and actually used the full 10 pound block!! That's right, 28 pounds of clay on this sucker!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!!!! Well, actually more like 27.something... I'm sure I lost a bit in there... Now to start scraping it down I'm using the Symmetrizer to get it (as near as) perfectly rounded out (as I can), then I can start re-detailing it. With only two more days of vacation, I wonder how far I can get?

And yes, surmainey, I only have to sculpt it once, then make two casts, which is why it needs to be as close to perfect as possible.
To DarkBebi and Ravenwolf, thanks much! As I've said before, for what I lack in talent I compensate with perseverance.

Pics tomorrow, yeah?

 

[Shadow Slayer]

so do you just wear it as clay or what?? very nice so far bye the way

 

[Castellan Craft]

so do you just wear it as clay or what?? very nice so far bye the way

The answer is in the thread. In a heavily simplified nutshell, ShadoKat makes a sculpture, dumps silicone over it, pulls the silicone off, dumps liquid plastic in the silicone, sloshes it around, then wears the plastic piece.

 

[Spartan 343]

Be better to do it right the first time =p

So far your sculpting is looking amazing, so keep it up and don't stop!
Every good project takes time and dedication, and you are clearly showing it.
It may be a while, but this suit will look awesome!

 

[Shadow Slayer]

thanks castellan and shadow kat im prettie sure if a profeional saw this and you said youve never done this before i think theyd be impressed and to keep going

 

[ShadoKat]

shoulder bells, shoulder bells, shoulder all the way...

Just a quick update...

Work continues. I've been having a lot of fun trying to make a giant, perfectly round ball on this thing. Had no idea how hard that was going to be, and even considered getting a couple of 13 inch EPS foam balls to use instead of clay at one point (only 25 bucks apiece, already round, and definitely lighter). Aside from actually enjoying the challenge of sculpting (and, stupidly, not being able to shake this irrational desire for some misplaced sense of pride for doing it all in clay), I noticed the actual shoulder bell is not quite spherical. It's based on a slightly smaller diameter on the sides, so I spent a good bit of time getting that fixed, but I think it's going pretty well. It's now based on two circles, one with a 13" diameter (profile you see above) and one with 12" diameter (viewed from the front). Cut out a few more templates to check the roundness, and it's almost spot on, so that makes me pretty happy. Not quite smooth at this point, obviously, but I have just started roughing out the details, so it will get there... eventually. Basically, I'm right about the same point of progress I was before I started increasing the size, maybe even a bit further, as it's already gotten the first pass on the Symmetrizer! As critical and iconic as the shoulder bells are, there's not a lot of detail on this piece, so most of the effort has just been in getting the size and the shape right.

Tonight I started digging out those trenches where the lights will go. After I'm done with that, I just need to pretty up the bottom part, do a last symmetry check, and then I get to start smoothing the whole thing and refining the details. Oh yeah, I also need to make those funky fin things. Those will be separate pieces, since permanently attaching them to the sculpt would make the piece almost impossible to mold as a whole. I figure I'll just sculpt one fin, mold it, cast it four times, and attach them to the casts. Think I've already figured out how I'm going to do that.

Quick note on the weight... you see all that junk sticking out of the front? I stuck that in there to counterbalance it, and hopefully keep the sculpt from tipping over backward. There are a few more scraps of metal stuff up there, as well. It's been there for about two weeks now, and it seems to be holding okay. Going to have to do something else when I start molding it, but I'll burn that bridge after I cross it.

Oh, and, just for fun, I had four helmets, so...

Be better to do it right the first time =p

HAH!! If I knew how to do it right the first time, I would... believe me!! Then again, the learning process is quite a bit of joy in itself, so I'm okay with it. And, yeah, it's going to be a long while. I'm already starting to wonder if next Halloween might be too ambitious

And, Shadow_Slayer, Castellan_Craft is correct (thanks for taking that question, Castellan!), the process of molding and casting is documented in this thread (and will continue to be repeated as I do it to more pieces), and elsewhere by others.

Thanks, all, I appreciate the comments and encouragement!!

 

[Shadow Slayer]

sorry bout that but you should try to sell the "mess ups" i bet someone would want them unless they are truley deformed guarantee that someone would want them

 

[Shadow Slayer]

sorry this isnt in last reply just thought of it would the silicone stuff work with bondoed or resigned pep models?

 

[Castellan Craft]

sorry this isnt in last reply just thought of it would the silicone stuff work with bondoed or resigned pep models?

Depends on what you're asking. Are you asking if you can make a silicone mold off a pepped/bondo-ed piece? Or if bondo could be dumped in the mold and a pull made from it?

If the former? Yes. Thorssoli's build is one of the more prominent examples of that.

 

[King Ramna]

Do you fire it then old it? I would be scared of an air bubble erasing all your work.

 

[Shadow Slayer]

yeah im asking can you make a silicone mold off of a pepped/bondo-ed piece because it souns very effective

 

[Castellan Craft]

Do you fire it then old it? I would be scared of an air bubble erasing all your work.

If you take a closer look at ShadoKat's materials and all the sculpting tutorials kicking around, an oil based non-drying clay is what is being used. No firing. No hardening. It's why the helmet could be mashed into pulp again and reformed into a shoulder bell. It's just very stiff stuff which keeps details from being ruined by the weight of the silicone.

yeah im asking can you make a silicone mold off of a pepped/bondo-ed piece because it souns very effective

Yes you can, you can make a mold of anything that doesn't chemically react with the silicone's curing process essentially. Though, unless you're making a number of helmets for a group for example, it's not worth the investment. A bondoed pep piece is perfectly wearable, and the materials needed for the process of molding and casting are rather expensive.

And ShadoKat? Feel free to slap me anytime for jumping the newbs. It's just too much fun to avoid my poetry homework like this. XD

 

[Shadow Slayer]

im not a newb i was just wondering for the metroid other m costume that im making from nintendudes obj files....

 

[LinkGreenleaf]

that's pretty awesome. you should add some lights or something

 

[EMPERORSHEN]

I have a samus aran unfolded helmet and body pep but i won't upload unless someone has the arms shoudler bells and rest of peice seeing i need to complete this project if anyone has them pm me please and i will piece together the all the pep files and upload the links here.

 

[Shadow Slayer]

i have all the parts unfolded accept the body and arm cannon for the moment cant save unless someone gives me the password and i could post them asap