Thorssoli's Isaac Clarke Engineering Rig from Dead Space 2

[thorssoli]

I started this project a couple of months ago and now I'm finally at a point where I'm willing to post pictures of it. Here's a reference:


I've started with the helmet. In order to make sure I had a good dome shape to start with, I stripped the padding out of a child-sized, open-faced motorcycle helmet. With the padding removed, there's lots of room inside. Then I stuck it on top of a sculpting armature:


Over the top of the helmet I started sculpting the separate panels in clay:


Once I had roughed out a few of the general shapes, I cut some card stock to give me an idea of how to form up the faceplate:


Using the card stock as a template, I formed the faceplate by heating up some thick styrene sheet and forming them over the side of a bucket to get a uniform curve. Here's the beginning:


The whole thing was formed with two layers of 1/8" styrene for a base, then a variety of details cut from thinner sheet stock. I also used a bit of bondo here and there to fill in some spots and smooth things out. Here's the result with a coat of primer:


In order to make it shiny and smooth, I went ahead and sprayed it with gloss pink:


I also continued to refine the details at the back of the helmet:


The sides too:


I've still got a bit of tweaking left to do, but then it'll be time to mold this guy.

The plan is to rotocast the dome and cast the faceplate separately. This way the helmet can be smaller and more form-fitting while still making it possible to get your head in and out.

I'm also planning on vacforming the bulk of the other parts of the costume with resin cast detail parts as needed.

Stay tuned...

 

[Tactonyx]

Cool. You gonna stick with the standard plasma cutter like everyone else, or are you going to go above and beyond with the pulse rifle. You got my vote for the Pulse Rifle.

 

[BLACKULA727]

SO awesome!!!!! I love what you do. I've seen some pics on FB. I've been waiting to see where this goes. Nice job so far.

 

[ninjalchemist]

this looks pretty great. the RIG helmet is one of the cooler video game helmets IMO, and you've done a good job replicating it so far. keep up the good work.

 

[TheBearMan]

Thats rly nice work man.

I cant wait to see this project at its end!

Keep up the good work i will be keeping an eye on this one!!

 

[Starvinartist80]

Thor,
I love following your work. Keep the updates coming.

 

[SagittariusArt]

Wow, that looks like it came out of the Game!

Can´t wait for the Mold^^

 

[kolinrulz]

I love everything about it.

 

[thorssoli]

So yesterday I finished making tiny changes to the sculpt for the dome. Mostly I added a ridge around the brow and notches along the sides so that the faceplate would mate up properly to the rest of the helmet:
I also finished fixing up the details on the back of the helmet, but I neglected to take any pictures of them before I started slathering them with grape-scented plurple goo.

Here's the beginning of the pouring for the faceshield:


And coating the dome:


Here's the faceshield after the print coat had started to set up:


Same for the dome:


Here's the first coat of thickened pink silicone on the faceplate:


And the dome with a nice thick coat of pink silicone:


Today I'll be adding at least one more coat of pink thixotropic silicone over everything as well as a few pieces of some recently retired molds to act as registration keys. Then it'll all get another coat of plurple to smooth it out.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorn696]

As always it is nice to watch you're work and this will probably turn out as epic as all the rest of you're work. So please keep us posted, for I as one would like to see how it turns out.

 

[thorssoli]

More pink goop today. Here's the dome:


And the faceplate:


In order to smooth it out to mate up better with the mothermold, I went ahead and added another layer of plurple (pourable) silicone over the pink (brushable) layer. It came out like so:


Whenever I wake up I'll be making the fiberglass mothermold for the outside of the faceplate. I'll also be flipping the dome portion upside-down so I can add some more silicone to reinforce the areas around the edges.

If all goes according to plan, I'll also get the jacket mold for the back side of the faceshield within the next 24 hours. That way I can make mothermolds on Wednesday and have casts coming out of the molds by Thursday.

Wish me luck and stay tuned...

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

What is that exciting looking thing on the right in the last pic? I would hazard a guess at a Republic Commando helmet judging by the shape of the chin, and indent of the cheek.
As always this is looking absolutely stellar Thor, you have out done yourself once again!

 

[thorssoli]

What is that exciting looking thing on the right in the last pic? I would hazard a guess at a Republic Commando helmet judging by the shape of the chin, and indent of the cheek.
As always this is looking absolutely stellar Thor, you have out done yourself once again!

You are correct, sir! Here's a shot of the Republic Commando helmet before it went under the rubber:


I'm quite proud of it too. I'm molding that one with the same intended schedule as the Isaac Clarke helmet.

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

Wow, just wow! If I had monay to spare I would definately be wanting you to hook me up with one of those. I mean what can I say, I'm a sucker for a T-visor.
Maybe one day, hopefully in the not too far future...

 

[vshore100]

This is really impressive Thorssoli. You work fast man. I like how you break your builds sown also, it really helps to see what actually goes into making something completely from scratch. Thanks.

 

[thorssoli]

Minor update:

I turned the dome upside down yesterday:


After trimming off the drips, I reinforced the outside edges of the dome as planned:


Today I'll be making the mother mold as planned and get started on molding the back of the faceplate. Stay tuned...

 

[ventrue]

I have absolutely no interest in Dead Space, but the fact that in your shop just about everything comes to life is amazing nevertheless

And yeah, I still envy the grape flavour.

 

[Combust]

Great work as always Thorssoli. I use your posts as reference/learning material for casting

 

[thorssoli]

Made the fiberglass mothermold for the outside of the faceplate today:


Then I flipped it over:


After cleaning the clay out of the inside, it looked a lot better:


Then I coated it with mold release and slathered it all with plurple rubber:


To get the rubber to hang on the vertical surfaces, I made another layer of thicker pink silicone:


That's as far as I got on the faceplate mold today. I should be able to finish that mold in the next day or so. I also went ahead and made the mothermold for the dome portion of the helmet.







Tomorrow I'll be cleaning up the edges of the mother mold and drilling the two halves so I can bolt them together. Then I'll pull the clay sculpt out and rotocast a few copies of the helmet. While I'm doing that, I'll be finishing up the inside of the faceshield mold so I can pour a few casts of that as well.

Once I've got some good casts, I'll probably offer a few for sale to help pay for the rest of the project.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

No comments? Odd. I guess I'll just keep charging along then...

Today I pried the two halves of the helmet mothermold apart:


Then peeled the rubber jacket off of the original sculpt:

Naturally the sculpt did not survive this process.

Then I left the jacket inside-out to let it air out for a while:


I used that time to clean up "Isaac" the sculpting armature and make him ready for the next project:


Then I reassembled the mold parts and made a quick rotocast copy of the helmet:


Here's the first cast once I'd pulled it from the mold:

Clearly it needs some padding to keep it up where it belongs.

With that done, now all I have to do is revisit the mold for the faceplate. I decided this morning that the rubber on the inside was still too thin, so I added another layer of pink stuff. I'd post a picture, but there's not much of a difference between the way it looked today and the way it looked at the end of today.

I'll be out of the workshop for a couple of days, but once I get back I'll be making the fiberglass shell to go inside the faceplate mold. Hopefully I'll have the first pull from that mold sometime on Sunday.

I've also got a couple of things I'm tinkering on in my weapons and props thread. Check it out if you're bored: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/26874-Finally-Started-This...
Stay tuned...