Thorssoli's Vacformed Warhammer 40k Space Marines

[thorssoli]

The ball vent was cobbled together from found items. I started with a 10" syrofoam sphere, flattened two sides on the belt sander, added a cylinder cut from 2" thick foam, then coated it with casting resin so I could smooth it out and paint it without the paint eating the foam.

For the tapered vent end, I cut a couple more circles out of 3/4" MDF, cut the middle out of one of them, and glued them together. Then I set the bench sander up on an angle so I could grind an appropriate taper to the sides. The louvers were 1/4" strips of 1/4" MDF that were cut to length and glued into place. The whole thing needs a bit more sanding and smoothing, then I need to paint it all shiny so I can mold it.

 

[Nessy]

Tell me honestly, does this suit make my butt look big?

No, that suit makes your everything look small. Though I imagine you will look considerably larger when you are wearing the full suit rather than standing beside it.

 

[thorssoli]

Last night I had a couple of the guys over and we made some shoulders:


After a quick trimming, we had them cleaned up and ready for costuming:


Then we moved on to making backpack parts:






Trimming and assembly went much smoother than I'd expected:


The worst part was a bit of webbing on the front piece, but it will be obscured behind the character's back and shoulder:


Here's a shot of it stacked together with the ball vent prototype:


And me holding it for scale:


The absolute best part though, is how ridiculously heavy it's not:


All I need to do now is cobble together forming bucks for the lower vents and mold the ball vents. Then make templates for the cutouts on the back of the cowling.

Today I'm not feeling well, so I'm going to be taking it easy, staying in, and sculpting the last bits of the fingers. Stay tuned...

 

[Mstruvmgc]

WOW... The build is coming together very nicely. I am loving all the pics of details and of the pulls you are doing. Your right, that is ridiculous how light that giant backpack is. Amazing job, keep up the great work

 

[Dreadnaught]

Are you going to have a sergeant or captain with a banner-pole?

 

[Toja]

Once more awesome, I like having fun at work

 

[Starvinartist80]

I am really impressed with how light the pieces are turning out. That will make the size of this thing really managable in long term. Congrats on even more great work.

 

[thorssoli]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I apologize for not posting updates lately, but I've been under the weather and I've been having motivational problems.

Today I finally got back to work on this guy for real (instead of the mild tinkering I've been doing lately) and I ironed out all of the little details I wanted on the grip for the bolt pistol:


It looks ridiculously ginormous in my hand, but it's exactly the right size for the Space Marine's hand:


Looking at the reference images I'm using, the pistol grip for the bolt pistol is the exact same grip used on the other weapons. So it'll fit just fine on the bolter that I started laying out:


Once I mold the pistol grip, I'll be pulling the rest of the pieces for the pistol in the same manner as the chainsword. The main body will be made up of a series of vacfomed pieces with a few cast resin details added on as needed.

On the subject of molding, I started the glove mold for the backpack's ball vent:


I also did the final smoothing on the neck piece:


This part will be slipcast using black latex in much the same manner as a halloween mask. Since I'm making a flexible rubber piece, this means I can get away with using a rigid mold. The best moldmaking material for slipcasting latex is Ultracal 30. Here's the print coat after I'd laid it on:


Here's a shot of the finished mold after it was built up to the proper thickness and reinforced with burlap strips:


It's been pretty cold here these past couple of nights, but I'm hoping that the mold will cure to full strength so I can pull the original sculpt and clean all of the clay out of it, let it dry out, and then start pouring latex copies.

Stay tuned...

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Wow thats awesome! Still moving along smoothly

 

[higdog827]

Hey thor,absolutely amazing work. I do have a question though. I want to vacform a helmet (iron helmet from skyrim) and i was wondering, would the 1/16th inch ABS you use have enough give to it to allow for vacforming a helmet? Or would you suggest something different for a first time vacformer? Thanks!

 

[thorssoli]

Without knowing more about the size and shape of your project and how you've elected to break it into parts, I really can't offer much insight. That said, the 1/16th ABS is pretty inexpensive, so you should be able to do a bit of trial and error to figure out what works for you.

 

[higdog827]

This is the vacformer I made the other day from some MDF and 2x4s. (note that I have sealed off the section of holes that aren't covered by the frame that holds the plastic in the time since these photos were taken)

The helmet also will have the eye holes covered from the inside to prevent the plastic from being sucked in, and the whole thing will be mounted on an old can of bondo to allow for the plastic to make a nice lip under the helmet. Ive been trying to do my own research, the only reason I'm bothering you with this is because I couldn't really find the answer anywhere else. I just need to know if 1/16" ABS will be able to stretch enough to get a pull off this helmet without breaking the thing up into halves or other sections.
Thanks for the help Thor, I really appreciate it.

 

[thorssoli]

You need to cut it into pieces or you'll have undercuts that will lock the master into the formed plastic. As long as there are no surprises on the back, it looks like you can get away with either cutting it into front and back halves or left and right halves. It just depends on where you think it'll be easier to hide the seam. In either case, you'll want to fill in the eye holes and the neck hole and cut out a piece of wood or MDF to act as a standoff so that there's some excess plastic at the bottom edge of your formed pieces so your edges will be nice and straight.

Additionally, while the plastic will probably stretch enough to make a pull as deep as you need for this piece, you should remember that the more you stretch it, the thinner it gets. If you're starting with 1/16th of an inch and you stretch it to a quarter of its original thickness, you'll end up with a piece that's paper thin and flimsy as heck. On the other hand, if you cut your helmet in half, the plastic will hardly have to stretch at all in order to conform to the shape. This will net you a stronger piece.

The only problem is that the rivet details wont' be especially sharp. You can solve this by either removing them from the master and adding them as separate cast parts at the end of the process, or skip vacforming them altogether and just rotocast the helmets using a silicone mold.

Either way, best of luck.

Back on topic, I pulled the stone mold for the neckseal yesterday:


I set it out in the sun to dry out, so hopefully I'll be able to pour the first layer of latex today or tomorrow.

I also built up more rubber on the jacket mold for the backpack ball vents:


As long as I was mixing silicone, I went ahead and started the jacket mold for the hands:


Finally, I managed to do a bit more work on the pistol grip:


Stay tuned. Lots of work coming up in the next couple of weeks...

 

[higdog827]

Ok, against your advice, i decided to try a pull on the whole helmet just for the hell of it, and it came reallly close to working, but the plastic snapped on one of the ear things. So im going to cut it in half to make left and right halves. (This is the last question i need to ask you, i promise) What would you suggest to use to fill in the cavity? I have a bunch of expanding foam, but im not sure if that woild work because of the heat from the plastic. Again, thanks a million, youve been a great help so far.
Ps: that pistol grip looks amazing!

 

[thorn696]

Sweet detailing on that grip.

 

[Starvinartist80]

Every thing is progressing very well. More and more excited every time to see this come together.

 

[Nessy]

I saw the update on your blog, it was nice to get a refresher on the build so far. Your work is amazing and I can't wait to see more!

 

[thorssoli]

What would you suggest to use to fill in the cavity? I have a bunch of expanding foam, but im not sure if that woild work because of the heat from the plastic.

You can get away with using expanding foam. It will deform with the heat and pressure, but since it's an area that will be trimmed away anyway, you really don't need to care about how it looks. The better option would be to glue some cardstock over the holes for the eyes and neck, and reinforce it with fiberglass from the inside. Remember also that you'll want to cut a piece of wood or the like to raise the piece up off of the forming table so your edges will be nice and straight where they get trimmed off.

I saw the update on your blog, it was nice to get a refresher on the build so far. Your work is amazing and I can't wait to see more!

Thanks. I haven't had much else to write about lately, so I figured it made sense to go ahead and do an intro article about this project. The next one will be a detailed explanation of building the backpack followed by a how-to for slipcasting rubber parts. Lots of stuff coming up.

Over the weekend I had a little help and managed to finish the mold for the backpack's ball vent. Here's my friend Matt working up the first half of the mothermold:


Once the mothermold was built up, I went ahead and rotocast the first copy. Here it is (in black) next to the prototype (in lightish red):


I made a bit of progress on the mold for the hands, but they're not done just yet:

Hopefully I'll have the mothermold started today.

I also started slipcasting the first copy of the neckseal. Here I am filling the mold with liquid latex:


After filling it and shaking out the bubbles, the next step is to pour everything back out:


So far I've done two coats. If all goes well I should be able to pour the third coat today and pull the piece tomorrow. I haven't done latex slipcastings in a while, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes it will work out.

In other news, I've finished the sculpt for the skull on the chest:


I've also started cutting out pieces to make the forming bucks for the bolter:


Finally, my friend Matt is convinced that the rotocast helmets are going to be too heavy to wear as a hat, so he's turning one of my beaky helmets into a forming buck:


Stay tuned. Lots of work planned in the coming weeks...

 

[Mstruvmgc]

Everything is looking very superb, i am loving all the updates

 

[Nessy]

No help from Lopez for the bolters?

I see that some of the pieces like the torso and apparently the helmet will be formed in pieces and then assembled. What do you use to hold the pieces together and hide the seams?

Finally, what stops the liquid latex from solidifying in the bucket? I'm assuming you don't add any hardener or catalyst like fo silicone or you wouldn't be pouring it back and forth...

Anyways, I love following your threads and your blog. Thanks for taking the time to share with us!