Samus Action Figure

[Red 3183]

Hello All,

I'm new to CA. hands of caesar (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/member.php?u=95216) suggested I join up. So here I am and this was one of my projects. Hope you like it. :)


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/2118544349_01959a9816.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2224/2119320312_1be88fe0b0.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2385/2118544027_700c485ea1.jpg

Hand made from scratch
Sculpted in Castilene
Molded in Smooth-On silicone rubber
Casted in Smooth-On resin
Hand painted with Tamiya Acrylics
25 Points-of-Articulation
1/6 scale (12")

[gum_drops]

Wow! Damn nice! Is it a one of you did for yourself?

How did you go about articulating it. I assume you fitted in all the joint parts just prior to casting and using an epoxy or glue to put the resin pieces on with.

I had never tried or looked into making an articulated figure so I dont know the usual methods.

[Red 3183]

Wow! Damn nice! Is it a one of you did for yourself?

How did you go about articulating it. I assume you fitted in all the joint parts just prior to casting and using an epoxy or glue to put the resin pieces on with.

I had never tried or looked into making an articulated figure so I dont know the usual methods.

Thanks for the comment.

The ball-socket joints I made myself. You can see the WIP shots here: Joints are on post #46

Link (http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=45924&highlight=samus)

All other joints are just pins from the hardware store.

[egerie]

It's POSABLE too???? Do you realise that this would be a huge hit in the gaming community if we could serialise it? I'm impressed ANd jealous at the same time :) Good job on the sale(s) btw.
you should post the WIPs here too! :D
(I was highly disapointed in the Metroid Prime 3 - corruption's rendition of Samus's head at the end. Gosh I hate it!)

[Fovos]

nice work. yes post some wip pictures here too.

[Red 3183]

WIP shots could be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12421933@N05/

[Camara]

It´s just perfect!!!!

[Red 3183]

It´s just perfect!!!!

Really? Thanks! Your first sculpt was pretty awesome too!

[Moai]

Excellent and ingenious work.

[Shatterdome]

Yeah, this is totally bad ass....the fact it's poseable is ridiculous...my only nitpick would be the face seems a little bland compared to the rest of the piece, but it could just be that one shot of it....

Awesome work, I can't imagine the amount of work this would take (well I can, but don't want to :P) kudos....

[Red 3183]

Yeah, this is totally bad ass....the fact it's poseable is ridiculous...my only nitpick would be the face seems a little bland compared to the rest of the piece, but it could just be that one shot of it....

Awesome work, I can't imagine the amount of work this would take (well I can, but don't want to :P) kudos....

Thanks! Yeah, I don't really like the face either. It was my first time sculpting. I have gotten better. Her head can just pop off, so I might re-sculpt and swap it.

[Dorkthrone]

The face doesn't look too great, but otherwise, it's freaking awesome.

[Shatterdome]

Thanks! Yeah, I don't really like the face either. It was my first time sculpting. I have gotten better. Hear head can just pop off, so I might re-sculpt and swap it.


Good design decision....I think that's what would pain me the most is deciding on joints and all the menial work involved....

[Red 3183]

Good design decision....I think that's what would pain me the most is deciding on joints and all the menial work involved....

Yeah the joints were a big pain. I didn't want to use standard action figure joints cause the movement to me is too robotic/stiff. I wanted a more natural motion to them so I decided to use ball-socket joints where I could. The problem then was how do I make them. So I lost lots of sleep over it.

[reynante]

Like it? No! I loooOove it! It's, it's, it,s.. fantastic! Awesome color choices and combo! :D

[Red 3183]

Like it? No! I loooOove it! It's, it's, it,s.. fantastic! Awesome color choices and combo! :D

Thanks! Well... She is from Nintendo's video game Metroid, so I didn't really choose the colors.

[Maestro Andres]

Haven't seen anything such a cool type of action figure in a while. Really, big kudos to you for going all the way and created your own socket and ball joint. I agree with the face looking odd, maybe if you plan to reworked it later you can use the one from the new Smash Brothers Brawl as reference, as she is looking hot in that game. Nevertheles, it's outstanding what you have achieve with that! Thanks for posting the WIPs as well, this dedication is admirable.

Also, by looking at that flicker photos, do you get to finish the Lara Croft one too? Looks great so far.

[Red 3183]

Haven't seen anything such a cool type of action figure in a while. Really, big kudos to you for going all the way and created your own socket and ball joint. I agree with the face looking odd, maybe if you plan to reworked it later you can use the one from the new Smash Brothers Brawl as reference, as she is looking hot in that game. Nevertheles, it's outstanding what you have achieve with that! Thanks for posting the WIPs as well, this dedication is admirable.

Also, by looking at that flicker photos, do you get to finish the Lara Croft one too? Looks great so far.


Thanks! Lara is almost done. I just haven't had the time to work on her cause of classes. I like Samus' face in Smash, but I wanted to go with the more realistic look of Prime 1. Prime 2 and 3 had horrible face models. I guess I could make both... since the head could be replaced.

[TeaMonster]

Sooooo Shiney!!!! You got skills!!
Hey looks equally as good as the one they flogging on Tokyotoys, maybe you should drop them a line?
I agree with the comments about the head, hope you post up your re-works :)

[Red 3183]

Sooooo Shiney!!!! You got skills!!
Hey looks equally as good as the one they flogging on Tokyotoys, maybe you should drop them a line?
I agree with the comments about the head, hope you post up your re-works :)

Huh? There is another Samus figure out there. I'll have to look it up. Thanks for the comment too.

[madm4tt]

I want one!!!! :-)
Great job...

Bye

[Red 3183]

I want one!!!! :-)
Great job...

Bye

Thank you!

I will be putting the last one (#6) on ebay very soon. I'll post here when she's on ebay.

[Mat Kaminski]

Man, that is just amazing! I just recently starting playing with sculpture. You're my idol lol.

[Red 3183]

Man, that is just amazing! I just recently starting playing with sculpture. You're my idol lol.

Idol?... Thanks! This was just my first project. There are better things to come. :)

[quasimodox]

Hi Red,

Your work inspired me. I am working on an action figure now, I would like to use your design of joints, if you don't mind?

By the way, how did you make the black rubbers to cover the joints? Did you mix Rebound 25 with black paint?

[Red 3183]

Hi Red,

Your work inspired me. I am working on an action figure now, I would like to use your design of joints, if you don't mind?

By the way, how did you make the black rubbers to cover the joints? Did you mix Rebound 25 with black paint?

I used Smooth-On C-1515 Semi-Rigid Resin. I don't have an actual tutorial but there is a link to a quick demo of how I did it on post #3. If you have other questions, just let me know.

[invinciblewombat]

this is absolutely wonderful, the helmet-less head is a little weak looking compared the the superb craft quality of the rest of the figure but still one of the cooler things ive seen in a while (including other samus action figures that were on display at the ny toy fair last week)

[quasimodox]

I used Smooth-On C-1515 Semi-Rigid Resin. I don't have an actual tutorial but there is a link to a quick demo of how I did it on post #3. If you have other questions, just let me know.

Oh Red, I have already read your method of making the joints. I just want to get your permission on using the idea. I case if you see my work on internet, you wouldn't feel like I stole your idea. :-)

[Red 3183]

Oh Red, I have already read your method of making the joints. I just want to get your permission on using the idea. I case if you see my work on internet, you wouldn't feel like I stole your idea. :-)

Oh, go ahead. I wouldn't put it on the internet and not expect people to use it. But thanks for asking. :)

[wyrmnite]

Could You please post a picture of detail on how you make the joints?

also i know you use liquid plastic resin for the parts but what do you use to make the moulds with ?




A+++ its very inspiring

[Red 3183]

Could You please post a picture of detail on how you make the joints?

also i know you use liquid plastic resin for the parts but what do you use to make the moulds with ?




A+++ its very inspiring

There is a link to a quick tutorial on how I made the joints on post #3. As for the molds, I used Smooth-On OOMOO 25 Silicone Rubber. I'm super busy and don't really have the time to write up a full tutorial. There are plenty of general molding/casting tutorials online. You can go to Youtube and do a search. Plenty of videos will show up. Just watch those videos and then apply those techniques to what I said in my link. If you have more questions, I will do my best to help out.

JT

[ovetto]

woot! Its an amazing ACTION FIGURE!!! I'm one of those lucky people out there who are able to play with this figure lol.
BTW its me ovetto from the Life Sculpting class ;P. u've influence me to try castilene for my next project. Hope that my sculpy elf don't crumble and become a million pieces lol... Anyway GREAT job can't wait for you Lara to be complete!

[Red 3183]

woot! Its an amazing ACTION FIGURE!!! I'm one of those lucky people out there who are able to play with this figure lol.
BTW its me ovetto from the Life Sculpting class ;P. u've influence me to try castilene for my next project. Hope that my sculpy elf don't crumble and become a million pieces lol... Anyway GREAT job can't wait for you Lara to be complete!

Hey man! Nice to see you on here now. You should post your stuff too. I just got the Pressure Casting equipment. Gonna try it out soon. I'll let you know how it goes.

[quasimodox]

Thank you Red, I will reference your work if I use your technique.

[oracrest]

yeah man, this looks great!

I have been doing some personal projects lately involving toys, but have been wanting to work with resin for quite some time. It always seemed like it would be a lot of fun.

Have you seen the forthcoming samus ship statue. Its looking pretty sweet.

[pheidias]

Finally, someone else who uses castilene! The figure looks fantastic and seems to have just the right amount of articulation. The face is the weak point, but it looks more like a paint problem than a sculpting issue. Anyway, so what do you think of the material? Personally, I don't think it can be beat for detail and firmness, but the build-up is excruciatingly slow. I microwave small bits in a plastic bowl a little at a time until I've built up the mass, but it seems to take forever compared to chavant clay or sculpey. You've done a fantastic job there. Are you a professional toy sculptor? This is my chosen field, but I'm still building up my portfolio and have no current employment.

[Red 3183]

yeah man, this looks great!

I have been doing some personal projects lately involving toys, but have been wanting to work with resin for quite some time. It always seemed like it would be a lot of fun.

Have you seen the forthcoming samus ship statue. Its looking pretty sweet.

Thanks! Its not all that fun to make molds and cast resin... it's more like a chore. But seeing your sculpted piece in resin, painted, and on your shelf... it gives you a great sense of accomplishment. It's like "Wow, I've gone all the way".

Are you talking about the First 4 Figures ship? I've seen it and it is pretty sweet. I'm not too keen on the Samus figure they have though.

[Red 3183]

Finally, someone else who uses castilene! The figure looks fantastic and seems to have just the right amount of articulation. The face is the weak point, but it looks more like a paint problem than a sculpting issue. Anyway, so what do you think of the material? Personally, I don't think it can be beat for detail and firmness, but the build-up is excruciatingly slow. I microwave small bits in a plastic bowl a little at a time until I've built up the mass, but it seems to take forever compared to chavant clay or sculpey. You've done a fantastic job there. Are you a professional toy sculptor? This is my chosen field, but I'm still building up my portfolio and have no current employment.

Thanks for the kind words. I do agree that the face is a bit weak. And you're probably right about it being the paint job. I'm not a painter :)
I have almost no experience painting.

I love Castilene. It's perfect to me. I've tried plastilene, chavant, sculpey, but they just don't hold the detail that Castilene does. I always smudge the details when working with other materials but Castilene doesn't.

For build up, why don't you microwave the whole container? That's what I do. Do you know the Canned Air trick to cool down the stuff?

No I'm not a professional toy sculptor... yet :) I'm working on it. I hoping to get a few more figures done for my portfolio. I do want to do this for a living.

[pheidias]

We are brothers in our art. I want to do action figures and resin kit figures. I'm starting with mythological figures because they have no copyright. Public domain rules! Anyway, the actual process of sculpting with the castilene is the best, I agree. It's a bit more difficult to get those soft fleshy areas.

I know what you mean with the sculpey being too soft. I hate seeing the work going well except for all my fingerprints covering the surface. It may be best to use for quickly sculpting figures to build a portfolio. That's what I'm going with for the short-term, but I've got a minotaur concept I'm doing in the castilene. I'll post pics as soon as I get it going.

Oh, lesson learned: Don't ever, in the midst of a quick clean-up of your living room because grandparents are coming over, put your castilene sculpture outside the back door and forget about it. Somehow I did this and forgot it was there. It was a Roman centurion, 18" tall, that I had worked up about halfway. I had placed it in a large fabric bag, to leave it for a bit, while I started another project. About a month or so later, I was cleaning up the back porch and came across the bag. When I looked inside to see what was in there, to my horror, the figure was completely covered in nasty mold and the surface was crumbly and ruined. I had to dig down into the figure about a quarter inch before I got to usable castilene. So much wasted, and that stuff's not cheap. Anyway, that's my "I'm a dumbass" story for the day. I do hope to decrease my absent-mindedness in the near future before I start the minotaur, but who knows. I had taken some pics of the centurion before it got ruined, so I can show you what I lost. http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh46/PatientSkeptic/Misc/RomanCenturiontwoviewsA.jpg

[Red 3183]

Anatomy and proportions look great. Keep up the good work. I've actually had to sculpt Samus' head 3 times. The first time it was too small compared to the body. Second time was better... but melted cause I forgot it in my car. Third is what I have now... but looks like I will re-sculpt it again since I'm/people aren't crazy about the face.

[pheidias]

If you're not satisfied with it, go ahead and resculpt, my friend. Just remember, sculpt it until you like it and to hell with what everyone else thinks. And once you say it's finished, it's finished. We could all go back and make improvements to our past artwork, but at some point you have to leave well enough alone. You hear that, Mr. Lucas?

So, in the course of that centurion project, I came up with a way to work with castilene on a large scale that cuts down on time involved. That figure was 18" and would have been a nightmare to build up in castilene. What I did was sculpt the bulk of it in clay, then made a quick, sloppy plaster mold of him. I then cast that in castilene and started the process of fine sculpting. Since the castilene figure is now hopelessly ruined, I can just make another casting from that plaster mold and start again! I'll do that one of these days after I finish the current projects I have in my head. So, anyway, good luck with the resculpt. I can't wait to see the pictures!

[oracrest]

Have you experimented much with ink and paint washes?

I have been giving a lot of the figures that I work on a uniform wash of water/paint, to seep into cracks and crevices, and also give the entirety of the figure a more unified color (which may or may not be what you are going for.) I apply the wash pretty liberally around, and then almost immediately dab it with paper towel, or toilet paper. You can play with leaving the wash on longer to get a more lasting application and whatnot. I think if you darkened up some of those cracks in her armor, it would really punch out the divisions, and give her some stronger contrast. What sticks out to me more than anything is how clean and perfect the coloring looks.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/2118544349_01959a9816.jpg

http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/samus_1.jpg

[Red 3183]

I'm still learning how to paint. Never really painted before. Can you do an ink/paint wash once the piece is already painted? Also what kind of ink or paint should I use? I'm currently using Tamiya acrylics.

[oracrest]

I'm still learning how to paint. Never really painted before. Can you do an ink/paint wash once the piece is already painted? Also what kind of ink or paint should I use? I'm currently using Tamiya acrylics.

I generally do the wash at about where you are. Don't be afraid to fuck up anything. worst case scenario is that you just paint again. Once your main colors are established, which you have, I would mix some acrylic with water, and make it a darker color. Really slap it on there. Youd be surprised how much you can wipe off with paper towels. Since its water heavy, it wont dry right away. After you get some good collecting near the cracks and corners, if the larger surfaces still have a residue of wash that you dont like, you can always drybrush on the original color, to get more of that vibrancy that you have now. Its really nothing more than a matter of playing with it until you get what you are happy with. Dont be afraid to waste time with paint. I often go back and forth with washes, and drybrushing highlights again until I get a balance that I am happy with.

[Red 3183]

I generally do the wash at about where you are. Don't be afraid to fuck up anything. worst case scenario is that you just paint again. Once your main colors are established, which you have, I would mix some acrylic with water, and make it a darker color. Really slap it on there. Youd be surprised how much you can wipe off with paper towels. Since its water heavy, it wont dry right away. After you get some good collecting near the cracks and corners, if the larger surfaces still have a residue of wash that you dont like, you can always drybrush on the original color, to get more of that vibrancy that you have now. Its really nothing more than a matter of playing with it until you get what you are happy with. Dont be afraid to waste time with paint. I often go back and forth with washes, and drybrushing highlights again until I get a balance that I am happy with.

Thanks for the tips. I will try it out.

[cout<mecha]

The only way I know how to do this is to use sculpey III and some copper wire with plumbers epoxy. But this method does not allow you to have smooth joints. If possible could you shed some light on this process. Forgive me for asking "but if he do not ask, his mutha will beat him..."

[Red 3183]

The only way I know how to do this is to use sculpey III and some copper wire with plumbers epoxy. But this method does not allow you to have smooth joints. If possible could you shed some light on this process. Forgive me for asking "but if he do not ask, his mutha will beat him..."

If you go to post #3, there is a link to a mini tutorial.

[<RJMC>]

how you do that?

you make molds and such oe what?

I dont know crap about this

any thing to say to someone who didnt even know of this stuff?

[Red 3183]

how you do that?

you make molds and such oe what?

I dont know crap about this

any thing to say to someone who didnt even know of this stuff?


I sculpt in clay first. Then make molds from Silicone rubber. Then cast in Resin. Then paint. Kind of like this:

http://www.youtube.com/Smoothoninc

[dreamsorcerer]

That is absolutely brilliant mate.. whoa. Are you gonna mass produce it? I can really imagine a whole set of characters that would sit nicely with this.. are you planning on doing anymore? Really impressive, nice one.

:-)

[cupidsart]

Hey thought I'd drop a line and tell you. The GF is amazed by this figure, she abolutely adores the work you've done to it.

I'm certain you'd have way too many liscensing problems in mass production, but that sure would make a fun kit!

[Amusedjester]

I think what I like the best about this figure is not only can it pull off great poses but I can't even see where the articulation joints and pins are until I looked at your Wips. I just had to add your site to my bookmark to look at those pictures at a later time. Excellent job.

[dreamsorcerer]

Hey thought I'd drop a line and tell you. The GF is amazed by this figure, she abolutely adores the work you've done to it.

I'm certain you'd have way too many liscensing problems in mass production, but that sure would make a fun kit!

You know what I mean! lol He should do something with it.. like make lots of money!

[Red 3183]

That is absolutely brilliant mate.. whoa. Are you gonna mass produce it? I can really imagine a whole set of characters that would sit nicely with this.. are you planning on doing anymore? Really impressive, nice one.

:-)

I'm also working on a Ridley Action figure. It's still very early, but you can view WIP pics on my Deviant page in my Sig. I also plan on making the Light Suit. Thanks! :)

[Red 3183]

Hey thought I'd drop a line and tell you. The GF is amazed by this figure, she abolutely adores the work you've done to it.

I'm certain you'd have way too many liscensing problems in mass production, but that sure would make a fun kit!

I am seriously considering a kit... but there are 65 different parts. I'm not sure how people would work with that. I would have to simplify the process. There is still a lot of work to be done on my side to make it easier for me to cast the pieces. This was my very first project so the molds aren't the greatest. There is a lot of clean-up needed. I want to make all new molds. It will be a while before I can release a kit.