Sci-Fi Combat Armour & other things.....

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,
It's my first time posting a thread so stick with me while i figure all this out. Hopefuly it should be fairly self explanatory. Earlier this year i answered an add placed by some film students who wanted some sci-fi combat armour making for their film. I guess its a good place to start so without further ado lets get to it......


Super Sculpey maquette
First uber detailed helmet i sculpted
Second less detailed helmet that i prefered even though it reeks of 40K!! Its what they wanted though.
Sculpture of the armoured torso
Various views of the finished thing



The sculpting on the second helmet is alot rougher & not as neat as i only had a day & a half to do it in. It kind of helped towards the finished look though.The helmet & torso were molded in silicone & cast out in fibreglass using alluminium filler powder. Pauldrons were sculpted & added. The original plan was to create an entire suit but time & money were against us. The upper body & helmet & groin armour was then combined with motorcycle body armour, a wind up torch & rubber tubes! I didnt make the gun & it hadnt been painted when i took these photos. As you can see the design evolved along the way. Hopefuly once the filming is completed i'll have some nice production stills to show you but untill then im stuck with the photos i took in the makeshift workshop!
Hope you like them. If you fancy theres some test footage i shot here:

FOh8fwPZ-8Q


Cheers

[FightingSeraph]

Those are pretty badass! No crits (seeing that I don't know much about cool-looking suit construction), but I'd like to see more of what you're capable of.

[JediDeni]

Very nice, indeed!

I think your translation from 2D to 3D turned out better than the illustration.



Dennis

[taurn7]

that is just too damn cool.

and I agree with Jedi, the maquette is much better than the drawing, maybe its because I like the height of the maquette more.

I am in shock with the level of detail in your armor.... any tips? :D

[Corpsehand]

It never ceases to amaze me how an idea can be illustrated onto a piece of paper and then created into a three dimensional representation. Absolutely incredible work!

[phatzap]

...... very very .... coollllllllllllllll.
your armor look very realistic.
I love it.

[Aizkur]

fantastic,the armor is increible and very realistic,congratulation.

[Lord Cypher]

Hi. Thanks for your comments theyre much appreciated.
JediDeni & taurn7 - thats very true. Im not really up to scratch when it comes to 2d. I find drawing an uphill battle that i tackle every now & then. The drawing of the armour was just a starting point that i knew id be able to kick into overdrive once i got to the sculpting.
As for tips taurn7...i didnt spray the clay down as much as i knew i wanted it to dry out to a state where i could get some really nice edges to stuff but remain useable. I sculpted 90% of the chest armour with a bread knife! This served as a nice slicer & also allowed me to get a smooth finish. I didnt want it pristine though as they had to look a bit worn so i left little imperfections here & there. Same with the helmet. For the nooks & crannies i just used a normal wire loop tool. It took me about 3 days & i probably sprayed it down once a day. I also left it out to air for longer than usual.
Anyway im about to start something new that'll probably pop up here at some point. Untill then i'll leave you with a Roman General that i did for my mum. She likes that kind of thing. The figure is about 30cm tall from head to toe. I think i spent about a week on him. Bye for now........

[Lord Cypher]

Just a quickie for you this morning. Heres some digital sculpting......great fun!

Cheers

[Darkwulf's Talon]

Roman general in 1 week?! You make it sound like it was a casual side project with no real thought...

That general is excellent. I'm looking at it and it draws on my imagination, like the bristles on the helmet I can imagine being wisped about with a bit of wind and his cape actually seems to have weight to how it is hanging.

Are you just a natural at these little details or is it years of experience behind you? :-)

[Bongsplat]

I want one of those suites for work,I work in an accountants office so I'm sure I can justify it:D Ha Ha

Great bit of work on ZB kinda reminds me of Zangief from Street Fighter.

Brilliant stuff,

[dreamsorcerer]

Maaaaaaate!!!!! Woohoo!!! Mighty glad you joined my friend :) Your work is amazing! Wow.. I love the roman soldier too :)

[Lord Cypher]

Hello again....

I wondered when the mighty dreamsorcerer would appear!!
Darkwulf - the roman is one of my favourites & he was kind of a side project but he did get alot of thought. I spent the previous week looking at reference images & combinations of armour etc. My wall was covered. He may not be totally acurate & history buffs may be scoffing at the armour combo....but hey! He looks cool! He owes a significant tip of the helm to a certain General Maximus.....The big hurdle is getting anatomy & proportions right then the pose. I spent a while on that to try & get some flow to it. Once thats sorted youre on your way.
Bongsplat - theyre not the most practical things to wear!! They are comfy though & people WILL move out of your way! The Zbrush is based on Skold Greypelt from the Lone Wolves comic.
Im working away on my latest project & will hopefuly have some pics soon. Till then heres a snippet of creatury stuff!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Thought i'd share some w.i.p with you. This is a reworking of an idea i came up with a few years ago. At the moment im still blocking in the figure but thought i'd show it to you now to see if anyone spots anything ive missed. Obviously shes still very rough! Ive slightly exagerated the pose from the original photo to give it a bit more movement. Im doing her with Sculpey Firm - its ok but very.....bitty, if that makes sense. It kind of crumbles very easily. Its ok but its a bit of a pain. The idea is that she'll be holding a rifle of some sort in her right hand hiding behind her leg. Ive also stuck up some colour ideas ive been doing. As you can see the colour will affect the outcome of the character quite massivley! She'll either look like a sci fi pole dancer, sexy stormtrooperess or a futuristic kind of motorcycle racer (but without a bike cos she's got a jetpack). Let me know what you think. Suggestions for a name are welcome also. At the moment shes just Jetpack girl...which is rubbish!

Cheers

[lucauchi]

incredible!!!

[limion]

cool stuff the combat armour looks a lot like one of the fallout 3 armours. very nice work!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi,
No new sculptures at the mo but some are on the way. Thought i'd show you this that got sent to me today. Still waiting to get some nice stills of the armour so in the meantime this little mock up that one of the guys did will have to suffice. Theres also a link to some more footage that ive edited together the other night.

U1mDvrF1yYs

Enjoy!

[Choob]

I want that armour. :D

[MikeMakesModels]

That armour is excellent :D

Looks great in the videos too

[Fovos]

Yeap i really like the your steps here from a rendering to sculpture to full scale model.

Really nice work. But you just put yourself in trouble now....We expecting step by step photos and explanation how to make the full armor....because deep inside we are all jealous and we want one too :)

[Lord Cypher]

Hi,
Work has had me busy & kept me from my personal projects for the last month now, so theres not alot to see yet! She's had a bit of a reworking since the last pics & has got the beginings of a jet pack. Im hoping to get quite a bit done on her this week.

Cheers

[sculptingmonsters610]

was that a lizardmen saurus i saw up there

[Lord Cypher]

Sculptingmonsters610 - yep it is a Saurus Warrior. He's on a shelf in my mums garage. I might dig him out next time im there.
Some more wip of the JetPack lady. Still no arms but im just getting the suit sorted first. Jetpack is still just blocked in at the mo & im toying with the idea of giving her a scarf & hat...........
Let me know what you think.
Cheers

[tiger76]

Very nice work, good luck

[Lord Cypher]

Added a bit more detail to the body. Just need to tidy it up a bit & sort out her head. Then i can give her arms, sort out the backpack & accesories & see whats what! Any comments or ideas welcome. Thanks for looking.

[Lord Cypher]

Hi Sarah,
Funny thing is i dont actually know how much they ended up costing!! The guys i made them for kept all the money to themselves & their budget was forever changing to the point where i think they were just pulling random numbers out of the air. I just told them what i needed & they got it.
Off the top of my head & VERY roughly:
Clay - £25....i used about 4 or 5 bags. Less than 1 for the helmet, about 2 or 3 for the torso & another for the groin, shoulders & walling up etc for molding.
Silicone...we used 2 tubs which were about £200 each, so £400
Fibreglass....i have no idea what they spent but i think it was about £200
Alluminium Filler....to make it metallic.....i got through about 4 tubs of this stuff. £25 each so £100 (shitman!)
Then theres stuff like strapping, cable ties, lining, various glues, paints, tubes etc etc......i spent at least £150 on these things & bits & pieces along the way.
So far then thats about £875. Then theres stuff like brushes, disposable gloves, mixing sticks, monocups, so say about £50.
I know they DID spend £400 on motorcycle armour to go underneath my sculpted stuff ( i was there for that). And finally the torches on the shoulders were £25 each......£75.
So the roughly estimated grand total is £1,400 ($2,271.99 if youre american). Originally 6 suits & helmets were cast but i only ended up having to complete 3 of them & there was still plenty of fibreglass stuff left to make at least 5 more suits. Hope that answers your question! Im bored of maths now. I need to finish my sculpture.

[Bongsplat]

I havent checked your thread for a while, This sculpt is looking fantastic:)

I really like the pose, and anatomy is great,cant wait to see the final piece

[Lord Cypher]

Hello again,
Progress has been slow but im getting there. She's becoming a bit more kitted up than in my first drawing & she's only holding half a blocked out gun at the mo.........still a bit of work to do on the arms, hands, neck, back & jet pack but its not far off. Anyway, have a see. Cheers!

[Bongsplat]

Lordi!......lordy;)

This is fantastic, i really like the design.

the hat is a fine addition, and the sculpting is really spot on, I'm really looking forward to a painted version?

Nice:)

[Lord Cypher]

Ta!!
There will be a painted version coming along as soon as she's done. Still mulling over which way to go with it. Suggestions are welcome!!
Then theres the base......ive got quite an ambitious idea for that but i might make do with a temporary one for now untill i can do it properly.

[Breath of Life]

Very impressive work!

[ManWithGoatie]

Amazing work!

The work on the armor piece is realy inspiring, Love the little details.

The sculpture is turning out nice also!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,
Im almost done now. The hands & forearms need sorting out & then after a bit of a tidy up she'll be sorted. I spent most of the last couple of days playing around with the backpack & gun. The barrel isnt connected yet to ease off the weight a bit untill she's cooked. Once thats done i'll glue it on & hope it stays! I'll also add the wings last so i can position them properly.
Anyway let me know what you think.......

Cheers

[Maya_The_Bee]

amazing work..

[Pezz]

What did you cast the first suit you made in? Fiberglass?

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,
It's been a while since i last posted due to work getting in the way so theres no updates on the Jetpack Girl yet. I do however have a massive ball to show you. There will be more pics of the work in progress once i get back home!

Pezzle - Yep it was fibreglass

See ya later

[Lord Cypher]

Hello,
I've finally finished the Jetpack Woman. I just need to do a base. I had a mess around with a possible paint scheme in photoshop which i'll put up.
Theres also some pics of the giant rugby ball i helped out on a couple of weeks ago. We got polystyrene pieces CNC'd & stuck them together with a steel frame support welded to a base. Once we'd tidied up the ball & were happy it got hardcoated, which was orange cos the guy had some left over. We spent about a day filling & sanding then spent 2 days masking & spraying. The paving slabs were mdf & painted to match the locations pavement. All in all it took about 2 weeks & was up for one day!

Cheers,
Michael

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,
I originally intended to do a pretty ambitious base for the Jetgirl but resources & time are against me so i've had to put that idea away for now. I may revisit it in the future but untill then i've nicked my cats food bowl & used that as a form to sculpt this temporary base onto. Manhandling has caused a crack to appear in her shoulder but its nothing a bit of filling wont fix. Next time you see her she'll be painted......hopefuly!

Cheers for looking!

[Darkwulf's Talon]

Cool :-) She is looking very mean and I sure as hell love that ball. Just imagine walking around some town centre and then be faced with that! Hehe, I think you're going to get people talking and that means more business for you. Well done.

[Lord Cypher]

Lets hope so Darkwulfs Talon!
Just a quick update today. Ive painted the figure now & just need to do the base, which i hope to get done today. Here's a pic i took last night of the figure. I need to mess around with the light as it massiveley effects the outcome of what colour she looks! This will suffice though. Will have some better ones later!

Cheers,

Michael

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,
Back with some shots of the finished figure & base. Let me know what you think.

Cheers

[Lord Cypher]

Here's something i've been doodling around with. Im going to mess around with him a bit!

[One Eyed Terror]

That's some good work.

[FightingSeraph]

The woman with the jetpack is really badass, and the latest head has a nice, demonic feel.

[Lord Cypher]

Ive added some more to the head ive been playing with. I might do a plaster mould & cast him out in latex & paint him all up to keep my hands busy while i come up with a new poject.

[Lord Cypher]

I've been messing around with a possible paint scheme in photoshop. I think i might do a bit more to it........

[Lord Cypher]

Added a bit more...........

[Jimmi_B]

Man your works are amazing :D
the roman general and the scifi suit have to be my favorites :D
shame you didn't get to make the gauntlets and the leg armor

[madphill]

Awesome work. Do you have a website??

[=Rommel=]

Fantastic!!!

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Cypher, is that hard plastilina?

[BranFlakes]

All excellent stuff. Love everything. Only hope their film can live up to the costume designs - very stoked to see it. :D

[Lord Cypher]

Firstly,


Jimmi B - It would have been cool to do the rest of the suit but the parts i did make kept me more than busy enough.....so i was secretly a bit relieved as time was running out!

madphill - Sir, i dont have a website as such but i do have a portfolio on a freelancer site which is here: http://www.ifreelance.com/pro/43670

Joshua A.C. Newman - The vast majority of the sculpts in this thread are super sculpey (for the figures) whilst the armour & orc head were clay. There are i think a couple of sculpts done with Chavant....the Saurus Warrior being one i can think of off the top of my head.


Which leads me to something ive been playing around with for the last week. Its an 18" Judge Dredd done with medium chavant. Ive been a big Dredd fan for 26 years (shiiiiiiit!!) so i figured it was about time i did a take on him. Ive got skipfulls of reference but im kind of making it up as i go really. The plan at the mo is quite ambitious as the lump of chavant he's got his right boot on is going to be a head thats attached to the body of a handcuffed "perp"....he's also going to be holding another by the scruff of the neck with the other hand........if i get Dredd finished first that is! Quite a bit of work (for one mad moment i also considered sticking Walter the Wobot in there for good measure!).
So heres what ive got so far. Still very early days.
Let me know what you think.

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Managed to get a little bit more done to Dredd. Ive shaved a bit of his torso & started to block in his gloves & belt. Obviously his right hand is missing at the moment!

Thanks for looking!

[Bongsplat]

Dredd is looking very cool:)

I love his face and the pose is really dynamic,Sounds like a lot of work ahead to do the whole diorama, but how cool would that look!

[Lord Cypher]

Yeah......kind of wished i'd kept my mouth shut about the other 2 dudes now. The cool factor will be worth it in the end though i hope! Anyway i've got Dredd blocked in. Needs some refinements in places but nothing major. Im going to leave him like this for now & make a start on the other two. They'll probably be more challenging than Dredd (whose fairly straight forward). I'll start with the guy on the floor whose head Dredd is standing on. He'll be handcuffed & writhing about. Got to make him cool without being too distracting, same with the other guy. Anyway, got to make them yet! Once theyre roughed out i can go back to Dredd & attach him to a proper base then i can get down to the fine details!
Anyway heres how he looks so far............
Oh yeah! Does anyone know how i can change the thumbnail for this thread? Im sick of seeing that crap drawing!

[Bongsplat]

Hi LC

Dredd is looking might awesome, really cant wait to see the "goons!"

If you want to change the thread pic you'll have to edit your first post and change the first picture that you uploaded, which might mean uploading all the pics in the first post again, as it takes the first image you upload as the thread thumb. Hope that makes sense:)

Or at least thats what I had to do

[Mordus]

By order of Judge Mordus, you put Walter in there or face 30 years, creep!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,
Mordus - i think i'll have to do the 30 years cos thats how long it will take me to finish it without Walter getting involved! Dredd's on the back burner for a while as i wanted to do something different before i did the other two bodies.
I wanted to do a zombie but my mate persuaded me to do something more real first. So as a compromise im doing a study of a head starting off with a skull. I havent gone mad with it as i dont mean it to be a stage by stage build up. I just figured it was a good excuse to do a skull! Im going to do a face on it & get it as natural looking as i can. Then when im happy with it im going to turn it in to a zombie! I should be able to get round to painting the cast of the Orc head soon. Then i'll turn my attention back to Dredd. Well thats the plan....im getting a bit of a backlog!

Thanks for looking!

[dawgbowen]

Hi there,
Mordus - i think i'll have to do the 30 years cos thats how long it will take me to finish it without Walter getting involved! Dredd's on the back burner for a while as i wanted to do something different before i did the other two bodies.
I wanted to do a zombie but my mate persuaded me to do something more real first. So as a compromise im doing a study of a head starting off with a skull. I havent gone mad with it as i dont mean it to be a stage by stage build up. I just figured it was a good excuse to do a skull! Im going to do a face on it & get it as natural looking as i can. Then when im happy with it im going to turn it in to a zombie! I should be able to get round to painting the cast of the Orc head soon. Then i'll turn my attention back to Dredd. Well thats the plan....im getting a bit of a backlog!

Thanks for looking!

That is th most amazing Dredd I have ever seen!!! What is your plan for it?? Thoughts on ''kitting it''???? I hope so!!! I want one BAD!!!

[YoZangWu]

I have no idea how you guys do this..... you make it look so easy. I am impressed! outstanding work!!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Been a while since i last posted. Ive been busy with a cool project the last few weeks & i'll be puting pics up as soon as im allowed.
So. Judge Dredd. Im glad people like him. Im such a massive fan of Dredd that i really want to make the coolest version of him that i can. As it turns out i've got quite a bit of silicone left over from the job i was just doing so i may as well use it to mould Dredd. I may have to make a compromise though as theres only enough to mould the one figure & the plan is to have two more guys with Dredd. What im contemplating is the quick fix of replacing the Daystick with a Lawgiver & replacing the perps head that he's standing on with something else......dunno, box or crate or something....robot head perhaps?!. Thats all well & good but its all a bit obvious really. The gun pose would be fine but a bit boring in my opinion. I want to show Dredd going about the normal day to day stuff of dealing with perps on the street that make up the time whilst he's not involved in some mega epic. Moulding him now wouldnt hurt though. When i get round to it i can sculpt the two perps, mould them (hopefuly might have more silicone by then) holster the lawgiver, and put the Daystick hand back on. This might take a long time to happen. And i'll have a billion new ideas in that time that would threaten to make the perps never happen! And i need to finish Dredd first anyway!!
Before that i've been tinkering with the Orc/Ogre thingy & painting him. Im going to get some eyes for him & add some hair. Then i'll turn my attention back to Dredd. Untill then heres some work in progress of the Orc.
Thanks for looking. Let me know what you think i should do with Dredd. Mould him on his own & do the other two perps later or hold out & do it all in one go?

[Osau]

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow. Your sculpting is phenomenal. May I ask how you first started? I have dabbled in clay but it came out horrible. I did really enjoy it though. Any pointers?

[DanielWray]

These are awesome!

I'm just (barely) starting to use clay, as opposed to CG sculpting and your work is very inspirational. I'm looking forward to seeing more :)

[Pavel Sokov]

Hey I noticed your Roman warrior has toothpicks in his mowhawk. So I take it you can use toothpicks in sculpts and they wont light on fire in the oven? Why is that?

[troyboy]

Wow, great looking work throughout the whole thread! It's great to see
sculptors who are so versatile. Just outstanding!

[aadi]

amazing work ,great sculpting keep it up . good luck

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Back with some pics of the Orc, but first i'd better answer the above questions!

Osau - Basicly when i was about 17 or 18 i realised that i wanted to do creature fx & special make up effects. I enrolled on a course that taught the basics of make up effects (though to my frustration the course was very heavily focussed on straight make up & friday mornings was the only official time given to fx stuff). However it became apparent that sculpting was very important so i figured i'd better be good at it. I'd never sculpted in my life & i loved it. About a month after that sculpting dominated everything.....& still does pretty much! As for pointers, all i can say is practice constantly. Immerse yourself in the work of others that inspire you & study it. Good AND bad, you can learn tonnes from both. The fact that youve had a go & enjoyed it is the best start you can have. Above all have fun!

Daniel - Thanks man, to have inspired others is the highest compliment :)

Pavel - Basic answer: It's not hot enough to start a fire!

Troyboy - Thanks man! Youre work consistently blows me away. Do you sleep?

aadi - Thanks :)

Ok, heres the Orc i've been doing. He's painted with PAX paint (50/50 mix of pros-aide & acrylic paint) & the teeth are made of sculpey & glued in with contact adhesive. I brushed some gloss round his mouth & nostrils & got some glass eyes form a taxidermy company (dunno what animal theyre from but it something random like an otter). I cut up an old, cheap halloween wig & attached the bulk of it with contact adhesive. Other strands where added with pros aide. I could have punched the finer hairs in for a better finish but it wasnt really necersary for this. Then i put loads of styling wax in his hair to make it look a bit more matted & manky!
Over all im happy with him & ive now got something to go in the corner of the room thats been empty.
Suppose i'd best try & do something with Judge Dredd. I have no clue where he's going to go when he's done. I'll have to put up a new shelf.

Thanks for looking!

[Lord Cypher]

Removed

[Bongsplat]

holy Cow LC!

Congrats on that M8, and it looks fantastic.

Every details looks spot on, Now make the rest of the suit!!:D:D

[TeaMonster]

Hey Lord, I've been watching your thread for awhile, can't believe I left it this long to comment!
You are producing really cool work. I look forward to your future epicness!!
Nothing but praise dude :)

[Waipunga]

Hey Mate, congrats on the job even if they CGed it! Big ask in a very short time space. And without a good sized workshop! Impressive. Also a most interesting wip thank you. Interesting how we all tackle builds in totally different ways. Cool.

[The Dark Power]

Great stuff, especially to have got it built in such a short time frame. Well done!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your comments theyre much appreciated. Unfortunatly it seems i've caused a bit of a stir by putting up the HazTech photos! I was a bit too eager to show it all off & i've been asked to remove the photos. Hopefuly i'll be able to put them back up at a later date along with the other stuff i made. Apologies to the people i unintentionally pissed off!
May as well put something from the archives up now that i'm here. I made the below dude as my end of year project at uni some eight years ago.

Cheers,

Michael

[jdeegz]

hey lord cypher, i have a few questions, and sorry if they've already been asked!
First off, i just started sculpting for a competition and i really love doing it. It's almost meditative for me. Well i was wondering how you accomplish these really solid looking tech pieces that are smooth and straight. I've tried modeling a gun but it somes out super wonky and the material (sculpey firm) cant hold a good edge like i see on many of your sculptures.
Forinstance, the base of the girl with the gun, looks very technical yet is all made out of sculpey (i am guessing), how do you mend each piece together without completly wrecking the forms and shapes?

Next is a question about a profession. What do you consider yourself as a proffesional, i mean are you a concept artist, are you a modeler? Whats your title i suppose, I'd like to do this type of stuff for movies / games, but I dont know what the position is called and I have no idea how to find out about companies that do this type of work around me. (Boston MA, USA).
Cheers,
Love your work!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there jdeegz,

I'll try & answer your questions as best i can but i can sometimes find it difficult to explain what i mean in written words so i may not make any sense!
Sculpting hard edge surfaces......essentialy i'll block out the shape first as best as possible with my hands taking time to try & get the edges as sharp as i can like this. You wont get a perfect edge but its a good starting point. Depending on the size of he sculpt you can use a flat piece of wood to smack it into shape. Once im happy with the basic shape i'll use a sharp edged metal tool to start slicing along the planes. The trick is to keep your tool as flat to the surface as possible as this will help smooth out the surface nice & evenly. You'll probably have to go over it a few times in some cases. Its all down to practice really. Something to try would be to block out a cube with whatever material you like, clay, sculpey etc. Just use your hands at first & try & get as good a cube as you can. Then with your tool of choice (knife, spatula, or just a clay slicing wire) slice into it to create your sharp edges. Generally the harder your material is the easier it is to create nice sharp edges & flat surfaces. I prefer using softer mediums myself so its just a case of practice again. Some people will say you can only do it properly with a hard material such as casteline or milliput but i dont agree. Sure it helps but if you happen to be super shithot using play doh then you would be able to achieve the same results as you would with rock hard casteline. It's down to personal preference at the end of the day. Its good to be able to use as many different mediums as possible though & be equally as good at using them so regardless of if youve sculpted in clay, sculpey, plastilene or chisseled it from marble the end result will be consistant. Theres also stuff you can do after as well to get your edges sharp. Sculpey can be sanded once cooked so that can help should you need it. If youve moulded the sculpt & cast it out in resin you can do the same.

Wonky guns.....have a proper good look at the gun the Jetpack Assassin is holding. It's far from straight! Ideally things like this should probably be directly modelled...scratch built from other materials....dowel, metal tubing, bits of old model kit etc as this will help it look better. An actual cylinder, be it dowel or copper pipe...whatever, will always be better than a rolled out sausage of sculpey, no matter how perfect you think it is. If you really have no other way to create it other than sculpting it (if you were doing something like a 40k sized miniature for example) then thats where i'd say it's best to use as hard a material as possible..preferably one with some degree of working time like milliput or similar. Maybe even the harder grades of modeling wax that are nice & workable when heated & rock hard when cooled. That way you can rough out your shapes while its still soft & then when its hardened you can go back in with your scalpels & sharp edged tools to get those edges sorted. The only reason i sculpted the Assassin's gun rather than modelmake it is because i had sculpey on my desk & not much else to directly model it with. If i'd been commisioned to do it for a client then i would have gone out & got the stuff to make a perfect gun & jetpack.
Same with the base. That was a time saving compromise. The original base was basicly going to be the blown in half torso of some anime type mech thing, Appleseed kind of stuff with the Assassin stood on top but i soon came to realise that in order to do it
properly would require essentialy a pretty big new sculpt that would have had to be moulded & cast. The Assassin was only ever meant to be a concept piece really for my own fun. Hence just doing it in sculpey & painting that rather than moulding & casting etc. I suppose i could have made the robot with sculpey but it would have been very expensive & impractical & still require some heavy duty armature construction & direct modelling that i decided to wait till a later date & treat it as a whole new project that when finished would end up just being a base. So the sculpey base is kind of rushed as i wanted to move onto something else by then. The approach was still the same. I blocked out the rough geometric shapes, just as you would when sketching in the beginings of a drawing, & then sliced & carved. As for not wrecking it.......well i just had to be REALLY careful. I wasnt entirely successful. Again, look at it & you'll start to see how it can be better. I know it may seem like a super cool sculpted machine thing but youve got to be more critical. The edges on that base arent as sharp as it appears. The paint job helps too. Drybrushing is my friend here.
And now its time for a cigarette & coffee break!

OK. Profession......I guess i'd call myself a sculptor & propmaker. My main expertise is sculpting but its not something i always get to do when im working for a company. Be it creature fx, modelmaking or prop making. So you have to be quite versatile with your skills. The more you can do the more employable you are. Thats my big stumbling block really. Im too obsessed with sculpting. If you want to do Creature FX then its good to be able to sculpt, mould, cast, finish & paint stuff. They'll show you the stuff you dont know & make you better at what you think you know! I can only really talk from a UK perspective as i occasionaly hear that its slightly different in the US. For instance here youre main profession could be sculptor but you'll be expected to know how to do all the other stuff be it mouldmaking, seaming stuff, casting...anything they ask really. I hear that in the US if youre a sculptor you sculpt, mouldmakers mould, painters paint etc etc. Sounds cool to me but i know guys from the UK have worked in the US & came back after a while because they got bored of being restricted to the one task no matter how cool it was & i can see where theyre coming from. But obviously i dont know if this is the case at all really.
If props & models are more your thing then you'll have to be good at building things from scratch using a vast array of materials & skills. It could be anything from delicatly tweaking some tiny little things under a magnifying lens with tweezers or cannibalising model battleship kits to create a space station to beating the shit out of a huge hunk of polystyrene with a plank of wood thats got nails in it.
Computer games wont really require any of the above! You can still sculpt though with Zbrush! I dont know much about the games industry but i do know its bigger than the film industry & there seems to be an infinte universe of employment opportunities for artists be it 2d concept artist, 3d modeller, environment artists, texture artists, fx artists.......i could go on forever. Ive kind of briefly looked into it to see what i'd have to know in order to work for a games company sculpting characters & stuff. You pretty much have to be extremely profficient with at least 3 types of software that do similar things in different ways....zbrush, maya, vue etc etc. Loads of stuff i have no idea what it is. I have dabbled with Zbrush & had great fun & was addicted within a day. Its the perfect digital alternative to actual sculpting. Unfortunatly it also nearly melted my PC as i was far too ambitious & without a proper understanding of meshes, poly groups etc i had my computer on its knees begging for a quick death. So thats on the back burner till i get round to reading the encyclopeidia of zbrush & get a pc from the 21st century.
The best place to look is here:

http://www.datascope.co.uk/

Theres a link to the US site on their homepage. This site will pretty much be able to answer any question you have regarding getting into the games industry & offer advice as to how to go about it. Also just type games jobs in boston into google. There are loads of websites & agencies that can show you how to get into games & all of them list jobs. Theres loads!
Not so much the film industry. But then again youre in the US where theres probably a bit more film work about. Im assuming youd probably be best off in LA but then again theres an fx company in Georgia so what do i know! If you want to do film fx & stuff then write to the people that've done stuff you like & ask them questions, tell them who you are & what you want to do. Most places are helpful. But dont just take my word for it, ask other people on this forum. Theres a wealth of knowledge & experience here! Alot of the people on this website make a living from their art 2d & 3d. Theres a billion different ways of doing stuff. Above all just keep on going. Sculpt, draw, paint. Learn new skills & ways of doing stuff. Challenge yourself constantly or whats the point? No matter how good you think you are or how good people tell you that you are there will always be a billion people out there who are better & youve got to be as good as them if you want people to pay you for it! But have fun!!
And on that note i'm off. Rambled for ages! Hope this has been helpful :)

Cheers,

Michael

[aadi]

i like all over work best of luck

[SeanJM]

Your uni project is very life like. Looks like at any moment he'll start digging into your fridge :-)

Nice work.

[troyboy]

Love the way the orc turned out! Great stuff man. Also, i somehow missed the
Judge Dread piece the first time I went through your thread. He looks fantastic
so far. Ya gotta get back on him and wrap him up! :D

[Lord Cypher]

..... Also, i somehow missed the
Judge Dread piece the first time I went through your thread. He looks fantastic
so far. Ya gotta get back on him and wrap him up! :D

Thanks man, glad you like him. It means alot to have an artist of your calibre say so! Good news then as ive been blocking in the two "perps" that are on the receiving end of Dredd's justice. The poses are quite tricky & are certainly giving me some much needed excersise. I plan to get them both blocked in to the same rough state as Dredd then i'll lock in on Dredd & finish him up then move onto the other two. This one's gonna take some time! Hopefuly i'll be happy with where it is sometime in the week & put some photos up.

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Got some pics of one of the "Perps" that will go with Judge Dredd. He's still in the early stages & will obviously get some clothes at some point & a face. There are areas that still need attention but i'll come back to those as i need to get started on the 2nd perp. Once he's at the same stage as this one then i'll cut off their heads, detail them, mould & cast them, stick 'em back on their bodies & begin fine tuning & tweeking the bodies.
The reason im going to mould them now is the head of the second perp will be under Dredds boot so i dont want to do a nice sculpted head & then ruin it as i position & re-position it till im happy. Once ive got a solid cast i can ruin as many as i want (within reason) till its right. I may as well mould all the heads at the same time so i'll do Dredds as well.
Anyway heres some pics of the sculpt by itself & with Dredd. I'll take some better ones later on. Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.

[hauke3000]

Dredd looks great so far. Looking forward to the finished piece.

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Back again with a few new pics of Dredd & his perps. Ive almost blocked in the second guy, though he is being a bit of a pain. I just set up the figures to see if theyd all fit together & see what the whole thing will look like. It seems to be coming together though i may alter the right leg of the first "hanging" guy as its looking a bit too weird. A few more hours and it'll be shaping up nicely & i can probably start on the heads.
Let me know what you think & thanks for looking :)

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Just a tiny bit further on this time round. What you may or may not be able to see on the last set of pics is the dude on the ground hasnt got any hands.
Ive given him some hands now.....which stop him from fitting into place. So ive yanked his arms back away from the body so he'll fit. Its probably pushing it a bit too far on its own but luckily his arms now line up with Dredds left hand. Seeing as though the perps costumes will have chains anyway im going to bind his wrists with it & have it leading to Dredds fist. If i can get it right it should end up looking like Dredd is yanking his bound prisoner in order to restrain him further (the other guy will still be hanging from his chains as before). If i get it wrong it could look like a bizzarre bondage fetish thing. Ive also changed the position of the hanging guys right leg so that it is now outstretched & works better with the whole piece. So his leg is looking a bit worse for wear at the mo.
Im going to base the Perps on a biker gang called the Ozzy Osbourne Bad Boys. They essentialy wear boots, jeans, leather jackets, nazi style helmets & chains. I'll tart them up a bit with some bits of armour & accessories but wont go too mad as im not sure i'll be able to fit them all back on the base! I was toying with the idea of having their leader "Sharky" as one of the Perps. Hes a cool character with a mental metal jaw but the trouble is he doesnt actually make it to the end of the story as Dredd blasts his face out of the back of his head (literally) so as an UBER nerd i couldnt justify having him there as it doesnt fit that characters timeline. Yeah i know, i should get out more but im a bit funny like that! I did do a Sharky bust about 5 years ago & i plan to revisit him at some point in the year.............

[Waipunga]

Damn but this is cracking cool! Big project Mate and it is going to be excellent to watch it all the way through. Great plan for the perps as well and the Sharky bust is just excellent!

[adm1976]

Sweet stuff! I love judge Dredd too

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Change of subject today. Being all too aware that her son is a penniless artist, my mum is quite happy for me to sculpt her something of her choice every birthday & christmas. This is cool cos it costs me nothing & she always suggests something that i'd never think to do myself. Most of the time she seems to be into historical, military style stuff (such as the Roman General at the start of this thread). She likes them quite quickly done which is a bonus as i can treat them more like quick challenges or sketches that capture the character or energy of a piece without it then getting slightly lost as i refine it more. Something which i watch for on my more finished stuff.
Anyway this year she threw me a complete curve ball & asked for a gorilla. Much to my shame ive never done an animal before so this would be interesting. I did him in super sculpey in about three days & i think he's ok for a first attempt. Any Gorilla experts out there with comments & most importantly crits, let me know what you think.

Cheers

[Evilivo]

I love how the Dread compozition is shaping - the poses are very dynamic. The gorilla is superb - especially for a first animal you do! The face is very expressive. My only crit would be the figers on the legs - they seem a bit unshaped and rectangular, but I like the hands a lot :)

[Waipunga]

First animal! Dude that just so bloody rocks!! Skills Mate, just awesome skills. Yeah great idea of your Mum's. Nice.

[troyboy]

The Dredd piece is looking great dude. Every update keeps getting tighter and tighter.
Gonna be really impressive once it's finished. Love the Sharky bust as well. I never
would have know you'd done it so long ago. I'm a HUGE gorilla fan (NEVER enough
gorilla statues out there) and I think for a first attempt, you did excellent. Great work
all around man. :D

[Lord Cypher]

Hi guys!

Thanks for the comments on the gorilla. I really enjoyed doing him. Evilivo - yeah...KitKat fingers! Thats me rushing & being lazy!! No excuse!

It's been months since my last post. Once again work has taken me away from home & my desk.....& my cat :( which means that i havent been able to do much more to the Dredd figure (since my last update) due to being a couple hundred miles away spending the last month or so crawling around on a dirty workshop floor getting hot & itchy moulding 60 grands worth of sports car. More details on that particular job to come in a future post. I've now been given a new job to do so i aint gonna be going home for at least another 2 weeks yet!
However, before being summoned to the capital i was able to sculpt the heads of the two perps as well as start refining Dredd's helmet & face. As i worked on the helmet the original face started to look a bit weird & wonky due to the slight snarl i'd given him so i basically ended up re-sculpting the face again & aged him a bit & have started to give him a more Greg Staples look.....i think!
As for the two perps: the head of the guy under Dredd's boot pretty much speaks for itself whereas with the other dude i decided to go for a bit of dark humour. So due to the fact that he's been essentialy beaten unconscious by a no nonsense Dredd he's not got too many teeth left & has a severely dislocated jaw, as well as a nice pair of impact related cracked goggles. Im toying with the idea of adding some gory, smashed teeth onto Dredd's Daystick when i get to making it.....but we'll see.
I've also started reworking parts of Dredds body as after sculpting two bodies for the perps i found myself being two bodies better......if that makes sense?! So i could see areas of Dredd that were not working that i hadnt noticed before. And thats about it really for Dredd at the moment so hopefuly when i get back home i can jump in & try & get him done before i die of old age! But then theres the slight problem of the fact that i also started work on a new sculpt of a Vindicare Assassin from Warhammer 40,000 based on some wicked artwork i first saw years ago & always wanted to make! But youre gonna have to wait for him.................
In the meantime check out the photos & also some footage i forgot i had. Listen carefuly & you'll hear me groan as i realise that as i rotate the turntable the armature standing in for the daystick is too close to the wall & is twisting Dredd's hand off! Oh well....he's still a work in progress so im not too precious at this stage & theres alot of manhandling to come yet!!

Take it easy & thanks for looking :)

tL3leXk94hM

[Cryminysakes]

Amazing amazing - Im blown away... more please

[Lord Cypher]

Hello again,

Still away from home so i've not been able to do any Dredd yet, which is getting a bit frustrating! Instead i'll show you what i got up to eariler this year.
Back in March i was asked to design & build two working props for the Ironman 2 Stark Expo viral marketing campaign. I'd already posted about this but was asked to remove it all but now it's ok...............i think!!!
The first prop was a robotic arm & the second was a "sonic fire extinguisher" & by the time i got the official greenlight i had 2 weeks to build them both. I'd already done some research & development of my own over the previous week, just to mull over ideas really, which turned out to save me invaluable time.
So first up is the sonic fire extinguisher. This was based on the understucture of Ironmans forearm but rather than have a repulsor in the palm it was to be replaced with a miniature sonic cannon (developed from the larger ones in the newest hulk film). First off i made a really rough mockup from cardboard that i was able to chop & change till i had a design i was happy with. I drew up templates from the rough card model & produced a more refined, neater model from foamboard which was then shown to the director so he could ok it. Obviously the actual prop would need to be made from something a bit more durable than foamboard so i used foam pvc which is great as it comes in various thicknesses & if you heat it up you can bend & form it, once cooled it stays rigid & strong. I've got a mate who has a laser cutter in his garage which would be ideal for getting the pieces cut with...well, laser precision! I spent a night drawing up the templates in photoshop so that the files could be uploaded into his laser & then the pieces cut.
By the time i got the foam pvc pieces i'd already built, taken apart & rebuilt this particular model several times in card & foamboard so it only took me about 20 minutes to have the pieces formed & bolted together. The wires & cables are ripped from the innards of a long dead PC. The lights are electro luminescent cord that are great & cost less than a fiver! I got two lengths of the cord & it was wrapped around the model. The power supply clips onto your belt which is handy. The actual sonic cannon part is just a little speaker that i got from an electronics store. If i'd had more time i would have liked to scratch build one that more resembled the big cannons from the hulk. Im not happy with the paint job as the metallic paint i coloured it with doesnt look metallic in my opinion. I also kind of prefer the more angular foamboard version (which actually made it into the final ad as a cgi image on the screens behind the lecturer). All in all i'm happy with it though.

RcvnUtjomK8

5AO70CkdZis

Next up was the HazzTech Exo-Skelton. This was to be a full arm that an actor could wear & move around. As before i made made a rough understructure from card then foamboard. Though tis would serve no structural purpose it enabled me to get my head around how the thing would work & also doubled as formers for me to sculpt onto. It was to be loosely based on Ironmans arm so i kept the upper arm & shoulder relatively the same as the original whilst not being exact replicas & the forearm is based on the forearm of the Assassin i did a couple of pages back! i only had 3 days to sculpt it all so the finish is'nt as perfect as i'd like but they do the job. I then made silicone moulds backed with plaster (normally i'd make fibreglass jackets but i was doing this in my bedroom & theres no way i was going to fibreglass inside the house!! Silicone & plaster is bad enough!). The completed moulds where taken to a mates garage where i then cast out fibreglass pieces. These were cleaned up & assembled. I cut the sleeve off an old top & attached it inside & brake cables were added inbetween the elbow gap.......dont be fooled just cos it's Ironman 2 - this was proper no budget stuff to be made as cheaply & quickly as possible! The one thing i didnt have time to do properly was the glove. It was meant to be all encasing but remain totally dextrous. Obviously this is quite hard to the point where 99% of the time whenever you see Ironman using his hands in the films they're cgi hands. So i never had much chance of accomplishing this with not enough time or money. The director decided that they would just replace the hand with a cgi one (just like in the films) & then they eventually just ended up replacing the whole arm! It's cool though & i wasnt really bothered by it. If i, like the film makers, had the choice of plastic robo arm made in 10 days or the actual cgi model from the film then i'd have done the same! The trick is with all this stuff is to do your best to make the coolest thing you can within the many boundaries you'll have but also not get too attached to it as at the end of the day it's not yours! You have to be able to switch off & hand it over. I've yet to meet anyone working in film that does'nt think that something they've done could have been a billion times better if they'd just been allowed to do it! But then thats why you go home & make your own stuff.........such as a Judge Dredd. I'll stick a couple of pics of him up but theres nothing much new to see. Just the new heads on the bodies really.
Anyway, till next time heres the link to the HazzTech arm (does anyone know how i can embed the videos onto the thread rather than putting up links? I've tried but cant get it t work!!).


tGuRKaMxKJk



Thanks for looking :)

[jaroldsng]

aw man, your works are slick, nice clean molds for the arm pieces, awesome pose and gesture aswell for the judge dredd. love your thread, there's so much variety.

[jdeegz]

oh my goodness!

thank you for that amazing reply Cypher!
A wealth of knowledge is on this site indeed. I truly appreciate you sharing with me, and everyone else here.

[Brian.May]

This is some badass work you've got going on!!

[VulgarDragon]

To put insert your videos, you type in "yt" (enclosed in brackets) and then the id number of the video, and then "/yt" (enclosed in brackets).

Hope that helps. By the way, your work is really cool! It would be great if you could team up with a group of robot engineers and make a real iron man suit!

[Lord Cypher]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments. Special thanks to VulgarDragon for the youtube advice - as you may notice i've now replaced the links with the actual videos! I'm sure i'll have more to come in the near future!
jdeegz - no worries dude. I'm glad to be able to help whenever i can!
Well i'm back home (hopefuly not for too long!) & due to my PC dying this morning i've had to go out & get a new laptop which has resulted in me having to sort through loads of old stuff. So i figured that as i have no new updates yet i'd delve into the archives & show you some polysculpting as i've only got the pics of the big rugby ball on here. Sculpting in polystyrene, or polybashin' as it's also known, is great fun & really gives you a chance to get really stuck in & in some cases can provide you with a great workout!
First up is a life size Blue Whale tail that was made for National Geographic & put in the serpentine in Hyde Park as an april fools stunt (& also to advertise their new season of Whale related programmes). It took 3 of us 3 days to sculpt & then a day to cover in foil to act as a barrier for the fibreglass that went on top the next day. I think they spent a day on the paint job but i wasnt involved with that.
Next is a totem that i did for a kids theme park that never got used as it was deemed a bit too disturbing. Cant think why! Theres also a snake head that ended up being motorised & attached to a body. The head of the sculpting department had already made one that i had to copy.....so as you can see he basicaly ripped off jungle book!
Then theres some christmas scenery that was made for shopping centres. I photographed the arches in their poly & painted stages (we set them up wrong!! Didnt ruin anyones christmas though). Unfortunatly the arches were then subjected to the props woman who spent the night vommiting christmas tat all over them & some "animatronic" wizard bears were added to finish the look......which wasnt a good one! I've got video evidence of it that i'll put up once i've sorted all this new laptop stuff.
Finally are some nice little houses that we made for another shopping centre. We made a whole little village that was populated by little gnomes. I've never really been able to enjoy christmas since!

Thanks for looking :)

[Berzerkin' Ape]

Your work is just awesome. Can't make it any clearer.

How did you get the light you attached to the arm blinking?

~Berzerkin' Ape

[MikeMakesModels]

I've got a mate who has a laser cutter in his garage which would be ideal for getting the pieces cut with...well, laser precision! I spent a night drawing up the templates in photoshop so that the files could be uploaded into his laser & then the pieces cut.
Lasering Foamex? I heard that PVC is corrosive and fucks the laser?

(It's also rather toxic... but then what isn't :P)


Excellent work though - all of it. Thanks for posting, keep it up :)

[Lord Cypher]

Berzerkin' Ape - The power supply for the electro luminescent cord had a dial on it that lets you alter the current. So you can either have it permanently on (which is what they went for on the day of filming) or at varying degrees of......err blinkyness!

DuneFishUK - yeah the foamex is pretty unpleasant when it wants to be! Dont know much about it fucking up lasers! The guy who did it didnt mention anything & ive not had him ring me up crying about his broken laser so i guess its ok! Though as you can see from the below footage he sent me its probably not too good for the environment!

tIQ1938hqwI

[MikeMakesModels]

I did a quick google (I do get told stuff by clueless people sometimes) and it seems that PVC may-or-may-not produce hydrochloric acid when you laser it, which is probably the source of what I've been told. I can't find anything definite without more digging though.

Either way, it sounds like you got away with it :P

[Berzerkin' Ape]

Thanks for that Lord Cypher!

Keep it up, can't wait to see more!

~Berzerkin' Ape

[dawgbowen]

DREDD looks fantastic!!!! Just keeps getting better and better! I do hope you contact someone about ''kitting'' this. It's just too damn good to only be one of a kind!!! I would so love to get one and paint it up! Best Dredd ever, IMO!!!!

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys,

It's been a long time. I've been busy with some interesting jobs lately, hence my absence from the forum. I wont be able to talk about my last job until sometime next year so till then i'll show you what i was up to over the summer.
I was part of a four man team that moulded a sports car for a Shell oil commercial.....i cant remember what kind of car it was as it was a while ago now & im not into cars! All i do know is the car we moulded was worth about 60 grand but that didnt stop us from destroying it. The idea was to have a completely transparent car that allows you to see the oil working inside. We spent about 6 weeks moulding the various parts in fibreglass & from those moulds we produced fibreglass casts, or "Tools" as they were called, which were then used to make clear vac-form pieces. There were about 20 other people involved in assembling the car & building the various other parts. I didnt really get a chance to take any photos of the moulding but i did manage to get a pic of the finished car. Luckily the ad is on youtube along with a brief "making of".

W3HM1bQzubw

And now back to Dredd. Obviously inbetween work & moving house Dredd fell by the wayside for a bit so not much has changed. I have managed to finish his head & the perps heads along with Dredds eagle & shoulder pad. Theyre pretty much ready to mould so i'll be getting on with that over the next day or so. Ive attached them to bases & have added risers so when i come to inject the resin into the moulds i can be sure that it's getting into all the nooks & crannys.
A few people have expressed interest in wether or not i'll be kitting him. I really dont know to be honest......for a start i need to buy more silicone for moulding as theres 3 18 inch figures to do so that wont be happening for a while yet. Also theres the whole licensing issue. Im aware that sometimes companies turn a blind eye to stuff like this so it could be ok........besides if i got grief from whoever "owns" Dredd i'd just ask them to give me a job as they would obviously deem my work good enough to be giving me grief in the first place! Ontop of that i have no idea how much i would sell a Dredd kit for.....he wouldnt be cheap! How much would you guys think he'd be worth?
Anyway, thats a long way off yet but he'll get done eventually! Also theres still the small matter of a Vindicare Assassin i started a bit ago that needs my attention. Now, i think i can safely say that if i started selling Vindicare Assassins then Games Workshop would not be impressed at all. Theyre quite protective.
Right, im off. Take it easy :)

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys me again,

Its been a while (as usual). Today ive got some pics of one of the perps from Judge Dredd. He's about 95% finished i just need to add some final little details & sort out the handcuffs which i'll do when i take him apart for moulding. Ive also cast out a Dredd head & eagle as well as the head for the perp. So, only one more perp & Dredd to sculpt then i can see about moulding & casting. Hopefuly i'll have him done some time this year......and all the other projects i'll have going on!

Cheers,

Michael

[Bongsplat]

Hi LC

dude this is looking awesome! I really cant wait to see it finished! the details are spot on.

it looks huge! I love the fluid look to the perps, great action shot! seriously nice!!

[Evilivo]

Great, love it! So much dynamics in the poses and the facial expressions are killer!

[shader]

Hy,
I have a same problem, I try to find sponsors to my works...
Your works are really great i think you will find your way!

This toothpick technique is really intrested!Could you show me the final mold? Is this a two parts mold? How demold it?

[thewaaagh]

Nice adeptus mechanicus T-shirt you got there also outstanding sculptures

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Thanks for the comments. As always theyre much appreciated.

Shader - The toothpicks are used as risers so that when the resin was poured into the mould i could be sure that it had filled entirely....i probably went a bit overboard with them on Dredd's head but i figured it was better to be safe than sorry. It was just a single piece "block" mould that i cut down the back making it easier to get a solid piece out without too much fuss from any seams. I havent got a picture but i'll take one & put it up here next time.

The Waaagh - thanks, it was a present from my ex girlfriend....when she wasnt my ex! She's not into 40k.

Bongsplat - Hey dude. Thanks for the comments man. Dredd measures 18 inches tall & the Perps are around 17 and a half inches (if they were standing!) as i figured Dredd would probably be a bit taller than an average guy in the real world. I was going to do the perps at 16 or 17 inches but that was too small & it looked like Dredd was beating up some children! So yeah he's pretty big.....but no where near anything like what im doing right now...........

I've always wanted to do Batman & i felt like having a go at something that i could really get stuck into after the relatively fiddly business of 18 inch figures! So i grabbed an old life cast from my house mate & got some clay & have set about sculpting a Simon Bisley inspired Bat Bust! He was always going to be life size but i figured that if im doing a Bisley Batman then i may as well beef it up a bit. So he's just slightly bigger than a real life man but not quite as mental as Bisley's proportions. Ive gone for a happy medium using my favourite parts of various Bisley Batmen & interpreting that into what works in 3 dimensions without going all out.......he'd be absolutely massive otherwise. As it is he got too big for my little sculpting room & is currently dominating the dining room. I also chickened out on the ears & made them a bit smaller.....but theyre still pretty big! I took a pic of him with the universal instrument of scale....a can of coke.
Ive spent about roughly 2 days on it so far & he's starting to come together nicely. I love using clay as its fast to work with. He needs tightening up in places & still awaits his cape & all important Bat insignia. Moulding him is going to be fun! Check him out & thanks for looking.

Cheers guys

[Mull]

amazing work from the start mate, looking forward to more updates

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys,

Got a bit more done to Batman today. Tomorrow i'll give him a cape.

Thanks for looking :)

[Jped2D]

WOW! i wish I could say more but every single one of your posts amazes me :] I particularly interested in the Iron Man prop armour. Can't wait to see some more, keep it up!

[Lord Cypher]

Hello again,

Thanks Jped2D. The Iron Man props were certainly fun to do....shame they replaced the arm with a CG one. Oh well, thats show business :)
Right. Heres Batman with a cape. Tomorrow is moulding day. Joy of Joys!

Thanks for looking :)

[Mah ' Crub]

Very cool...very, very cool ... I love the batman...my little brother and i used to read every frayed, and dog-eared copy of the Batman comics we could get our hands on, and found him to be a true American hero...no super powers or stuff like that...just wicked clever and a strong core strength,
took me back several decades...nice work...all the other stuff is killer too. But the bat made me gasp... hi five to you.
Oh...and I read about your ex. Yeah , it's tough when you find out that they are more about the money than the honey...but don't despair..."there are lot of good women who wants to marry, and they wants to live well at home"
Truth is ...they are a lot of work, and very expensive...

Mah ' Crub

[troyboy]

Wow Michael! Everything is just brilliant and so much fun to look at.
That Judge Dread piece is absolutely sick!! Man, that is going to be so
freakin' cool when it's all wrapped up. Awesome as always dude.

[Pavel Sokov]

Batman is solid, but I absolutely can't wait to see Judge Dred finished!

[aadi]

Thats awesome work cool stuff i like how to concept you made and puts on clay that is wonder fulll

[aadi]

pll tell me how is my work and how can i learn more art
my blog is
http://zakir.khaan.blostpot.com

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys,

Once again its been a long time since i got a chance to post anything on here! Ive had some downtime from work recently so decided to crack on with Judge Dredd.
I just need to finish his hands, glove pockets & all important badge. Ive already moulded & cast most of his accessories.....
All being well i should have him done & moulded next week some time.
Anyway, gotta dash.....im supposed to be cooking dinner! Thanks for all your comments.......Mah crub - im honoured that a life long Bat fan approves!!

bye for now :)

[Deon]

Your Judge Dredd is just so stunning!
May I ask what you cast the parts in?

[Lord Cypher]

Hi Deon, glad you like him. The parts are cast in a fast cast resin called Bi-resin. It has a really nice ivory finish & sands nicely as well.....which came in handy for the helmet. The only downside is it VERY expensive for the amount you get. I only used it as a mate of mine had some left over & i used it to cast out Dredds head, i was impressed with it so got some more......after grumbling about the price for a bit. I'll stick with it for Dredd but will cast the other figures in a cheaper fast cast......theyre all pretty much the same really they just have different working times etc.....but yeah you can certainly find suitable equivalents at much cheaper prices for greater amounts.
If you fancy giving the bi-resin a go then you can find it here:

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/subdivision_product_list.asp?Content=Polyurethane+ Resin&Subcategory=60&Subdivision=

Cheers,

Michael

[sloopster]

you can get that resin from the fiberglass shop cheeper i belive.

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Well, Dredd has been moulded & cast......something like 25 or so pieces in the end i think, not too sure. Now he sits in a box waiting to be put together, finished & painted......& also for me to finish the other 2 guys that go with him!!
Im a bit Dredded out at the moment so ive moved onto something else in the meantime to have a break from him.
My girlfriend is a big fan of The Punisher & she hinted at me perhaps maybe having a go at sculpting one for her which sounded good to me. She wants him to be realish & not too comic booky but still pretty buff. Im doing him at 1:3 scale, which puts him at about 23 inches tall......i just felt like it!
Anyway ive been playing around with him for the last couple of weeks when i can & all he needs to complete him is his trenchcoat which i'll do when ive moulded his head & recast it in resin, the collars of the coat are pulled up so i dont want to risk mashing the head up as it took me 3 days! I may as well mould his accessories while im at it as theyre pretty much ready. I got the M-16 from a website in the US and will mould that too so ive got an M-16 mould which will probably come in handy again.
I shot some video footage too:

SGS0HV0JKUI

I also made the mistake of checking out the review of the Sideshow Collectibles Punisher Comiquette that was in the list of vids down the side..............my heart sank. But hey ho!! She didnt want a comic booky Punisher!

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys, gotta warn you theres ALOT of words in this post so please feel free to just scroll down to the pictures!

Back in March i was lucky enough to be part of the team that created the Batmobile for the new Batman Live show thats currently touring Europe & then the world. I was working in the mouldshop at Asylum Models & Effects LTD here in London & our job was to mould & cast out the parts that made up the car.
The car itself was designed by Formula 1 car designer Professor Gordon Murray. That design was turned into a computer model which was then cut out of a high density foam on a CNC machine. These pieces were then reassembled & given to us to mould. I think we made 8 moulds in total - fuselage, both front & rear wings, rear spoiler (which was 2 moulds) , a giant Bat emblem that made up the back of the car & a nose cone.
We made fibreglass moulds of the parts, the largest of which was the fuselage which measured around 15 feet long. That particular mould had steel reinforcements attached to avoid warping of the mould & took at least 8 people to lift one side of it! Once the moulds were done we cast out the pieces with fire retardant fibreglass resin. We also had to place the steel framework inside the pieces that had been created by the engineers. They were then given a basic clean up by us & handed back to the model makers who assembled the parts & sanded them to a pristine finish. Various electrical & working components were added which included & working retractable canopy & an afterburner.......no real flames unfortunately but the custom built smoke jet & lighting rig looked just as good as the real thing. We made two Batmobiles in total which could be mounted onto a track system that propelled the car along.
Everything was pretty much winding down on the Batmobile when the boss strolled over clutching a handful of pictures of the Arkham Asylum Batsuit. It turned out that DC Comics & Warner Bros. dint like the Batsuit that had been created for the show by another company & the costume department had approached us to ask if we could make a new one in time for the shows opening which was just over a month away! Luckily for me i was, at that time, massively addicted to the Arkham Asylum game & set about pestering the boss & being an utter nerd on the subject untill he decided i could sculpt the new Batsuit. I think i had a big cheesy grin permanantly stretched across my face for the next 3 days......despite the fact that i would only have 7 days to do it in!
We were supplied with a lifecast of one of the three actors that plays Batman & i set to work.
The design was based on the Arkham Asylum suit but couldnt be an exact copy (which i was equally gutted & relieved by) but they did want me to try & match the proportions of the video game character....hes a big chap & it was quite a challenge to put those proportions into a suit that a man of average build could wear & perform in convincingly & obviously compromises had to be made, mostly due to the time constraints, but also to avoid it looking ridiculous. I sculpted it so that it consisted of a torso vest piece, seperate arms (with gauntlets on the forearms) & the thighs which were worn like shorts. I didnt have to worry about the lower legs as he was wearing boots (though i did also sculpt shinpads that went over them) or the cowl as this was the only part of the original costume that survived. That was a shame as i would have liked to have done the cowl but ultimately i had enough on my plate already. I managed to complete the sculpt in 6 days. Obviously i wish id been able to spend much longer on it & as a result there are parts of it that im not keen on (MASSIVE SHOULDERS!!) & parts that i absolutely hate (probably shouldnt say really) but ultimately i was happy(ish) with it & thought i hadnt really done so bad for 6 days. Most importantly though all the important people were very pleased with it so we moulded it, made cores & cast the suit with a pre-coloured polyurethane rubber......yeah i made it well known that i wasnt particularly......thrilled with the colour scheme but it was better than the other horrifying schemes (sorry!) that had been considered. In fact it turned out that the costume designers assistant was as big a bat geek as me & we had both been harrassing him about how it should look. Thankfuly he's a very gracious man & all round cool guy & took our concerns on board. Ultimately it works perfectly in context with the show so its all good.
The various suit components were handed over to the fabrication department so it could be made into a working, wearable suit & was then handed to the painters to give it some final touches of shading etc. As i mentioned there are three actors that alternate playing Batman/Bruce Wayne for different performances & as i only made one sculpt on one lifecast the suit obviously looks best when worn by that particular actor. There was alot of chopping & cutting done for the other two suits but im just one of about 4 people that notice.
So, everyone was very happy with the new suit. So much so that the costume designer, Jack Galloway, asked us to do a new suit for Robin too! Yep, 7 days to do it. Luckily it was to be the exact same design (bar the emblems) as Batman. The cool thing about this was it didnt have to have the massive proportions of the Batsuit & was to be a bit more natural. Also id had a week or so to analyze the Batsculpt so this time round i could change the bits i didnt like. So i was essentialy doing the same thing again but armed with a knowledge of what worked & what didnt & as a result i ended up with a much, tighter better looking sculpt which im quite happy with. I took the liberty of making a couple of alterations to the design with the gauntlets & the detail on the arms to give it a bit of difference & to give a nod to the costume in the comics. I think i managed to do this one in 5 days, mostly due to the fact that id already done one so was able to approach this next suit with much more confidence. It also helped that the actor was not much bigger than a hobbit.
The completed sculpt went through the same process of moulding, casting, fabrication & painting & i have to say this is my preferred sculpt. Who knows, maybe theyll need new Batsuits one day & if im lucky enough to be involved again i might be able to convince them to let me sculpt a new one That'll kick this ones arse!
Anyway, enough jabbering lets get the photos out :)
I do have to say that all pictures appear c/o Asylum Models and Effects Ltd & i also said i'd put a link to the companies website on here, so here it is:

www.asylumsfx.com

PD8wi61_2lI#!

[Bongsplat]

Wow Lc, just Wow!

You are such a lucky B@stard!! ha ha! I would kill for a job like this! or any of the stuff this company does! what awesome opportunitys you seem to have! I pray one day i will work in this field.

Excellent stuff, I love the batmobile! and the suits look very cool.

Also the dread is looking amazing! are you making this into a kit? i would love to have a go at painting that bad boy!

As usual, very inspiring stuff :)

[bp.]

Absolutely blown away by the sheer quality of work. Stunning, simply stunning!

I see some Warhammer 40k pictures in the background of some of your pictures, are there are plans to make a quality Space Marine model?

[obloquy]

Is that fran and jenny in the background of some of the pics at asylum? :D

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys me again!

First your comments:

Bongsplat - Its entirely possible that you will work in the industry, you certainly have the talent. However (theres always a however!) bear in mind that you will be freelance like the rest of us & there will be periods, sometimes LOOOOOOOOOOOONG periods, of little or no work. Since the Batman job finished i'd say ive worked for a total of 2 weeks!!! And thats since August which on the plus side gives me a chance to work on my own stuff but on the downside means that im not sure how im going to pay my rent in January!! Its the nature of the job though & to be honest im giving much consideration to looking into the computer games industry as it would seem to provide a greater level of job security. I'd most likely go the route of 3d character modelling as ive dabbled with Zbrush & sculptris in the past & thoroughly enjoyed it. However (theres THAT word again!) im more than aware that the digital sculpting is only one aspect of that job. Theres loads of other stuff you have to know about like retopology & maps & stuff that i have no clue about & lots of other software. Its much like the FX/props industry i guess where sculpting the thing is the first part of the process.....then you have to mould it, cast it, tidy it up, paint it etc & there are many different ways to achieve what youre after. Anyway its just a thought for now & im rambling :)

bp. - Thanks for the kind words.......and yes i have been planning to do a Space Marine for quite some time. He's currently front runner in my mind for the next project. I'll probably do him at 23 inches as i like that scale......he'll require a bit of planning, not to mention deciding which Chapter & armour variant to create. Trouble with 40k is there is SO much awesome stuff in that universe that once i think ive settled on a design i usually see a cooler one within a few days!

Obloquy - Yep it is indeed the delightful Jenny & Fran! Or Steerforth & Thorndean (local street names!) as i like to call them when i pretend theyre my servants!! :) I am obviously now intrigued as to your secret identity......hmmmm

Right. Ive been working on The Punisher & he's nearing completion. Ive already moulded & cast the head, gun, hand & accessories. next im going to detach the coat flaps & mould them so i can work on the legs......i think i'll beef them up a bit. Im also a bit concerned that his head is too big!! I may have to sculpt another slightly smaller one!
Also ive assembled Dredd & given him a coat of primer, so for all intents & purposes he's ready to paint.........i just need to finish the two perps that go with him. I cheated with the badge by getting a mate at work to draw one up in the computer & then got it printed out on the 3d printer. The material that its printed in is much like fast cast resin so i heated it up & formed a nice curve to it as the original printed badge was flat. I also remodelled the detail under the name as i wanted it a bit more pronounced. I havent moulded it yet but gave it a coat of primer anyway so i could have it on there for the photos. The accessories are just stuck on with blu-tak for now so i can take them off when i come to paint it.
So without further ado heres some new pics!

Take it easy :)

[lordluud2]

Damn! Your work is so clean and crisp! I could only dream of becoming as good as you.

Keep up the amazing work, I'm already a fan!

[JI7]

You are definitely an amazing sculptor. I was wondering what types of clay you use. You mention spraying the helmet and armour. Does this mean you were using a mineral clay. Just confused since I always thought mineral clays were a bit of a pain to work with for this kind of sculpting. I would have assumed you would use chavant for something that was going to be cast but you are the expert here so can you clear this up for me. Also, your proficiency and efficiency in sculpting are astounding. I have been working on a sculpture for like a year and still have so much work to do to finish it. Saying that, I don't actually work on it very regularly. Take a look at this introduction video of it if you like; it's nowhere near your level of skill but its a level up for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnoK8achekU

[dreamsorcerer]

Duuuude!!! Wow wee! You have been super super busy haven't you? You worked on Batman Live???? Funk me that's like... wwwwwwwooooooooowwwwww!!!!!!!! Amazing work bro.. When i first met you online, I showed my friends in Birmingham your work and they love it too, and that was some time ago, I have to say that you just go from strength to strength and I'm well happy for you :-) Take care and chat soon!

Best wishes

Kenny!

[Lord Cypher]

You are definitely an amazing sculptor. I was wondering what types of clay you use. You mention spraying the helmet and armour. Does this mean you were using a mineral clay. Just confused since I always thought mineral clays were a bit of a pain to work with for this kind of sculpting. I would have assumed you would use chavant for something that was going to be cast but you are the expert here so can you clear this up for me. Also, your proficiency and efficiency in sculpting are astounding. I have been working on a sculpture for like a year and still have so much work to do to finish it. Saying that, I don't actually work on it very regularly. Take a look at this introduction video of it if you like; it's nowhere near your level of skill but its a level up for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnoK8achekU

Hey there.

Thanks for the kind words. Dredd was sculpted with medium Chavant as i had loads of it lying around. I then took silicone moulds of everything & cast the pieces in fast cast resin. The helmet required ALOT of sanding to get it nice & smooth. Once all the pieces were assembled i sprayed it with bog standard primer from Halfords. Ideally i should have probably used sculpey, baked it THEN sanded it smooth before moulding. Its quite deceiving how smooth something looks in Chavant only to then look at the casted piece & go down to the shop to get lots of sandpaper! In fact the whole thing had quite alot of cleaning up done to it so if i were ever going to turn it into a kit i would certainly remould the fast cast figure!
As for efficiency.........i think i started Dredd about 2 years ago!! And theres still two other figures to go with it! One needs a bit of attention before moulding, the other one, well, im hoping the elves will come one night & do it for me. Trouble is with my personal work is im always getting new ideas for stuff i want to do & its not uncommon for me to heve two on the go at once & i work on whichever one inspires me at the time. Plus work crops up now & then so i spend all my time with that & may not touch any of my own stuff for weeks!

Your Jabberslythe is really cool & you should certainly see it through to completion. It reminds me alot of the creature art of Terryl Whitlach whose famous for creature designs for the film industry & her stuff is certainly worth checking out. Once its done you should go down to your local games workshop & ask them if theyd display it. Dont be put off if they say no though as Games Workshop is infamous the world over for being bastards about that sort of thing. Im sure the dudes in the shop would love to display it, they might just not be allowed to. Ive seen "official" props in various stores over the years, Terminator armour & Orks etc, but between you & me (& the rest of the internet) i dont really rate them at all to be honest. Theyre all a bit naff really! But for all i know whoever made them probably had no time or money as is usually the case. Dont get me wrong though i have seen some amazing Warhammer stuff......just not in any of the store windows (and i dont mean the miniature displays...they are awesome!)

So before i get myself in trouble with the Games Workshop legal team i shall move swiftly on with another Punisher update!
As i mentioned in my last post his head has been bugging me alot so i spent the last few days sculpting a new one which is far more in proportion this time around. I spent about 4 days or so on it & used various reference from the comics that my Punisher mad girlfriend supplied me with. So he doesnt look like any particular Punisher as hes made up from bits of all of them. The rest of the sculpt is pretty much finished & ive started disassembling the figure for moulding. Im taking photos along the way & will have them up as i do it. So for now heres a pic of the new head as it was a day before i finished it.

Bye for now & as always thanks for all your comments theyre really appreciated!

Michael

[OhBrian]

Really great work, I do have a few questions if you can answer? I want to sculpt a helmet from on of my childhood cartoons.

what kind of armature did you use? (any pix available?)

What clay would you recommend?

also do you have any pix of the sculpting process?

[JI7]

His face is spectacular. You can really get a sense of the man behind the Punisher - there is a lot of tragedy and contempt (a life lived hard) in that face. The rest of the sculpt is fantastic of course but it is his face that really gives this sculpture life in my opinion. I actually think he has a kind of John Wayne/Clint Eastwood meets Hugh Jackman as Wolverine look about him. Excellent.

[Lord Cypher]

Hello again! Hope everyone had a good Christmas & new year?

OhBrian - it really depends on what size the helmet is going to be.....will it be life size or a smaller scale? I dont have any pics of the sculpting process other than the work in progress pics on this thread. Saying that though i suppose i could always document the entire process day by day for my next project! I would highly recommend you check out Dreamsorcerers thread as he has a time lapse video of his Nosferatu sculpt from beginning to end:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=109738&page=25

So with christmas out of the way i was able to get the Punisher moulded & cast! First thing i tackled was the bottom of his trenchcoat or "coatflaps" as i called them. I removed the flaps from the sculpt & lay them out on a board. I used clay to build up to the halfway point of the flaps & create a seamline. i decided to mould them in two parts to save on silicone & hopefuly make it a bit easier to cast them out. Once my clay wall was built i poured on a detail coat of silicone & let it set. I also poured a small block of silicone so i could cut it up & use it for keys on the next layer of silicone. Once that was ready (3 hrs) i mixed up another batch of silicone & added some thixotropic to make it nice & thick. This was then buttered on over the detail coat & the keys were added. Another 3 hours later when that had set i removed the clay wall that kept the silicone in place & trimmed off the excess silicone. I then built another clay wall further out from the silicone & mixed up some plaster & applied it over the silicone to act as a jacket that makes the silicone hold its shape when the mould is seperated. Once the plaster had set i removed the clay wall, turned the whole thing over on its back & repeated the process all over again. I had to remodel the inside of Punishers left side flap as when i sculpted it i couldnt really get to it. This was pretty easy though as i just rolled out some sculpey to the right thickness & laid it into the mould.

I dont think ive done a very good job of explaining the process above but hopefuly the photos will help. The body was pretty straight forward as i just made simple block moulds of those parts. I had a bit of a nightmare with the casting as i think i had a dodgy batch of resin as halfway through my part A became milky & weird & when A & B were mixed together it would start to go off almost immediately & then start to froth & expand!!!.....must have been contaminated somehow. Dont really have a clue what happened there to be honest! So i switched to some of the expensive bi-resin i had left over from Dredd to finish it off......only downside is i ran out of that when casting out the coat flaps so hes missing one flap!! I'll get some more though & finish it off when i get paid. In the meantime i can get to work assembling & cleaning up the pieces i do have. In future though when moulding large things like this i think block moulding will have to make way for more time consuming multi part jacketed moulds (like the flaps) as i cained all my silicone moulding this one!! Pricey! Oh well its done now!

Hopefully be back soon with a finished figure :)

Thanks for looking

[Chijts]

Super duper work here! Just finished reading through your thread, those coat flaps looked like alot of hassle.

I have a question if I may, did you ever study anatomy in the way that a 2D artist would (constant life drawing sketches, anatomy classes etc) or was it a case of learning as you go through keen observation of your source material?

Perhaps a better way to put it would be, did you ever say to yourself "Right, today I'm going to sculpt 20 hands, as I suck at hands."

[Lord Cypher]

Hi guys,

Chijts - I did do quite a bit of life drawing at college though ive never really sat down & sculpted a nose or a hand etc. I just observe really & improve (hopefully) with each new sculpt. Its my great weakness that i never really do any "serious" study.....something my life sculpting friends tell me off for quite a bit. My main weak point would be likenesses.......i seriously suck at it & find it virtually impossible. So i should make an effort to improve in that area the most. I do mean to & plan to attempt more likeness studies, its just that all these cool monsters & comic book characters keep distracting me!! But yes i will this year make an effort to do more real world stuff. At the end of the day its your ability to sculpt real things from life that impress potential employers the most. Obviously they enjoy looking at the fantasy creations but ultimately if you can sculpt an accurate & convincing animal or human then they know you can do a cool dragon or monster. Saying that though i know a few sculptors who are amazing at sculpting from life but have no imagination whatsoever & when it comes to fantasy stuff their work lacks a certain flair & they seem to get a bit lost or stuck. Anyway!

So The Punisher has been assembled & given a coat of primer & i'll be painting him up tomorrow. Heres some pics & a video :)

aEuGx1Htd-M

See ya later!

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys,

Just a quickie today. Ive finished painting The Punisher. Im going to take some proper photos tomorrow. Till then heres a pic & another video :)

Cheers

Phjllurr5iI

[Lord Cypher]

As promised ive got some better photos of The Punisher today.

Thanks for looking :)

[GedTasker]

Incredible work on Punisher mate.. this really is a phenomenal piece!!!

I've really enjoyed watching this sculpt progress.. and i'm looking forward
now to seeing what your next will be. I would love to see you sculpt 'Cable'!!!

So is Dredd up next to be casted and painted..? 2000AD is a favorite of mine
and that sculpt you did of him is one of the best i've ever seen!!

Good luck with all your projects mate... you really are a remarkable artist!!

-Ged.

[MadMcGlory]

Fantasticly professional as always. You did say about possibly sculpting some thing from 40k, how about the imperial sniper you have a picture of on your wall?

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Ged - Thanks man! Cable would be pretty cool. Dredd is already moulded & cast i just need to mould & cast the two perps before i get painting. Need silicone first.........
2000 AD is a limitless source of cool characters & id love to do the Dark Judges & maybe even a Fattie!! Judge Anderson would be a possibilty as would Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, Durham Red.....i could go on & on!!

MadMcGlory - Thanks dude. Funny you should mention the sniper. The reason ive got all that reference on my wall is i actually started a sculpt of the sniper. I got as far as blocking in the body & did a helmet. Then i got distracted with work & never really got back to him. I will finish him off at some point & am thinking of redoing the helmet as though i was happy with it at the time, im not so impressed by it now & can do better. Plus i still REALLY want to do a Space Marine!!

This week ive been messing around with Monster Clay & i really like it. Its kind of a mix of chavant & wax. Its very versatile & can be heated up to a liquid for pouring & when cooled is excellent for fine detail work. I noticed lots of sculptors are using it so i thought id give it a go & i highly recommend it. I'll probably be using it for most of my stuff from now on.
Ive been playing around with it for the last week. I stumbled across a cool photo of a Lynx & decided to use it as a practice for the monster clay. It was never meant to be a fully finished sculpt & is still fairly sketchy & very unfinished & i hate its face! I wont be finishing it as it was just an exercise to have a go with the monster clay......& besides ive melted it back into a block now!!

Thanks for looking :)

[Foxhound[DEV]]

looking good

[Lord Cypher]

Hi guys, me again!

As a freelancer i occasionally find myself being offered an amazing job only for it to end up not happening for any number of reasons. Such was the case last week & i find myself with time to kill. Dredd has pretty much come to a standstill as i cant mould the perps due to having no silicone.....i could paint Dredd but i really want to save that for when all the figures are complete (he WILL be finished sooner rather than later though!).
As i mentioned above to MadMcGlory i did start an Imperial Sniper from Warhammer 40,000 a while back but im not happy with the helmet ive done. Not to worry though as soon as i get some silicone i can mould that helmet, melt some monster clay, pour it in to the mould, let it cool down so its hard again & then re-sculpt the helmet & carry on with the sniper.......but again a lack of silicone puts that on the back burner.
So staying with the Warhammer theme ive decided to crack on with something ive wanted to do for a while, a full on Space Marine. Ive spent far too long pondering over what kind of armour variation & chapter etc to use but all that has been cleared up by the PS3 game - Space Marine. Ive been playing online from time to time & as you earn points you can customize your armour. And so i have finally earned enough points to create some pretty cool looking Astartes Plate. If you play the game online at all you may have killed me at some point as im not very good. I go by the name of Inquisitor76 & that is who im going to sculpt.
Although my dude wears a helmet i started off by sculpting a marines head, i'll do a bog standard helmet as well as the veteran helmet "I" wear online.....i'll probably do some other head/helmet variations later on. I did the head in monster clay (my favourite new sculpting medium) & spent about 4 days on it, i just need to finish up his neck area.
Next up i scanned my preferred Astartes proportions into photoshop. There are endless variations of proportions depending on the character & ive scaled the head to fit the body in a way that suits my taste for a Tactical Marine. I got the body from the concept art book that comes with the collectors edition of the game (did i mention im a MASSIVE Warhammer 40K geek?) i swapped the head from the art with another more detailed head & shrunk it down a bit as the original head size was a bit too big for my liking. I then scaled the image up to 21 inches (none of your usual 28mm warhammer figure nonsense for me thankyou - only joking, theres a supernatural level of skill that goes into sculpting those finely detailed little figures, but i like big things!). I did want it to be 23 inches but as id already done the head this was the size the body ended up being or id have to redo the head. I then printed it out to scale, sellotaped the pages together & then traced the figure keeping my tracing slightly smaller as these would form the basis of the core i needed to make to bulk out the figure.
Ive used a dense styrofoam to bulk out the figure. I used my tracings to mark out the shapes then carved & whittled away. Although they dont need to look too posh they still needed to follow the form & basic contours of the armour. I cut the chest piece in half & laid in some box section tube so i could slot the armature for the arms in & out, theres also tube going from the chest into the torso so i can remove the chest for detailing & moulding etc. I roughly assembled the pieces & held them in place with kebab skewers, masking tape & will power.
Next i had to turn on the game & open up my character. I then photographed the tv screen with my character on it, scanned these into photoshop & cut out the background. These are my reference shots for the pose & my armour. With a little bit of swearing & perseverance whilst ignoring the laughter of my housemates as i manipulated my flimsy, limp styrofoam puppet i managed to get him posed without it falling apart. Im not using the back iron this time as my housemate has nabbed it & seeing as though its his anyway i cant say no! With some heated up monster clay pushed into the bare armature joints & left to cool i can safely say hes as solid as a rock now. Oh yes the laughter has given way to a silent kind of "shit! it worked!".
And thats as far as ive got today. Im going to cut out a bigger better base for him tomorrow & then crack on with sculpting the armour. I plan to work on this daily & spend full working days on it, so i can time myself really as usually with my personal stuff people ask how long it took & i can never really be sure as paid work often means that my personal stuff is rather sporadic.
Anyway enough rambling! Get some photos down ya!! :)

Thanks for looking & hopefully i'll be back with regular updates on this one!!

[TeaMonster]

This marine is going to be ace, cant wait to see more lovely lovely pics :)
-and Congrats on the Bats work, fully awesome, and made me very jealous lol.
Keep it up!
(and now you're really rubbing in the monster clay lol, I hear everyone who's tried it loved it. I gotta try some! Did you get it from mouldlife?)

[MadMcGlory]

Cool! I will be following this as it will be great to see how you make it as already its very different to mine. Also I'm going to find out about this monster clay :) A fantastic stocky, serious looking marine face.


Edit:

So I've had a look at monster clay just now and wanted to post more. I've been wanting to try out some new clays/waxes and other sculpting mediums and the Monster clay works out at half the cost of sculpey. This would be great for me as I want to start sculpting with out worrying about how much clay I can use or need. How different is it to make marks compared to SS and SSF?

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Been steadily progressing with the Space Marine......still a long way to go!!

TeaMonster - Yeah i got my first pack of Monster Clay from Mouldlife though beware!! If youre going to get it from there then i advise you get more than one as once theyve added VAT & shipping the originally stated price of 24 quid or something comes in at just under 50 quid! However the shipping is just a one off charge & doesnt apply to each pack so it works out that 2 packs are 70 or so quid. Either way its not cheap but it is worth the price. Also i discovered purely by chance that the 4D Model shop in London also sells it for £36 a pack. So in future if i just want one pack i'll get it from the model shop but if i want a load then i'll order it from Mouldlife.

MadMcGlory - The cooll thing about the Monster Clay is you can pretty much get it to behave & act like any medium you want depending on how long you heat it for. You can melt it to a liquid, let it cool & it becomes like clay, cool a bit more & its like sculpey, then like plastilene then like wax until it cools completely when it becomes like the harder modelling waxes, though not as hard as something like castelene but it will hold fine detail just as well. The best thing to do is get some & play around with it.

I should become a salesman for monster clay! :/

Anyway heres some pics. Ive had to detail the parts of the suit under the armour before sculpting the armour so its taking a bit longer than usual but everything is still in the blocking out phase. The boots have had the least attention. Im hoping to get the chest piece & knee pads done tomorrow. Once the whole figure is blocked in i'll give it all a tidy up & then get on with the detail, but like i said theres still a long way to go!!

Thanks for looking :)

[polybuilder]

Masterful work and creations!! I bet I could learn a lot from you :D!

is Monster Clay very similar to Chavant Medium/Hard Clay??

James

[Lord Cypher]

Just a quick update tonight. Still roughing everything out & ive been hacking & changing bits here & there. The chest gave me a good run for my money & hes currently on his 3rd variation! As you can see he still needs his hands, backpack & weapon blocking in. Once these are roughed out i can go in & start refining the shapes, make it neat & then start considering the details. Gonna have to leave him for at least a week as ive got a job from tomorrow. Its going to be hard concentrating on that instead of thinking about Space Marines :)

polybuilder - yes it is :)

[RichieLee]

Wow amazing work! Have you tried using automotive clay before Cypher? Pretty expensive stuff but a beautiful medium to use.

[Lord Cypher]

Hey guys,

Work has finished now so i've been able to spend some more time on the Space Marine. Everything is pretty much roughed in now, the back pack is still very rough & the Bolter is still just a mock up. Im happy with the proportions & everything seems to fit together nicely so now i can go in & start refining & tidying it all up. Im going to spend the next few days get everything as neat as i can & then i'll be able to start adding all the details & accessories. Oh yeah...& a couple of helmet variations too, though ive gotten used to seeing him without a helmet & quite like it.

RichieLee - Thanks! Ive never used the automotive clay but im always up for trying out new materials & im sure i'll give it a go at some point :)

Bye for now & thanks for looking.

[sloopster]

the pictures of the space marine in pieces on what looks like a cutting matt, were did you get those images from?

[sloopster]

lol i just looked again at the top picture and his face kinda looks like rimmer from red dwarf ... lol now i can stop larghing as i can hear chris barry in my head makeing rimmer type comments.

[Lord Cypher]

Hi there,

Thanks Sloopster i wont be able to look at him the same way again! Good job im going to do a helmet for him. As for the pics you speak of i got them from a model making forum i came across when googling Space Marine reference:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?29899-Space-Marine-WIP-Part-1

Its a step by step process by someone customising the forge world 120mm space marine. Its an impressive thread, though i cant find part 2!! Ive just got the various pics of the original models pieces for reference along with a shedload of other pics from other sources though the proportions im using are mostly taken from the Space Marine PS3 game but with a smaller head.
Saying that ive got no space marine updates at the mo due to work keeping me occupied so he hasnt progressed since the last post :(
I do however have some pics from a job i did at the beginning of last year when i was working in the prosthetics department of Wrath of the Titans & seeing as though thats out now & everyone else has been putting their pics up on Facebook etc i figured i'd put the few pics i took up on here too.
We created prosthetic/prop bodies of the gods of Olympus for a scene which didnt make it into the final cut of the film. I didnt have anything to do with the sculpting i was just there to help cast out the bodies with plat-gel silicone & put them together as well as putting them up on the set & generally hanging around on stand by for their day of filming.
The bodies themselves were attached & blended to hollow rocks that the actors climbed inside & when their heads poked out of the hole they appeared to be part of the decomposing body.
The idea was that Hades had captured the gods & imprisoned them into the rock where their life force was then being drained to awaken Kronos.....or as Ralph Fiennes put it (in a rather dodgy line to Liam Neeson) "This is where the gods come to be milked"......so yeah. We also made a full silicone prop body of one of the gods (dont know which one) that was fused into a spiked rock about 15 feet off the ground & was particularly nasty looking. We also spent the day before filming adding laods of rotting soldier corpses & bones etc as dressing for the set.
I didnt really get any decent photos as i wasnt really supposed to be taking any but i managed to get some pics of Athena, Apollo, & the aforementioned gruesome hanging god when the director was preoccupied with setting up shots etc. The day of filming itself was excrutiatingly loooooooooooooong & although i got to see Liam Neeson (who is fucking massive), Ralph Fiennes (who is very pleasant), Sam Worthington (errrrr yep..... he can run & hold a sword), Rosamund Pike (easy on the eye) & a couple of other actors who i dont know, i was quite relieved when filming wrapped at about 10:30 pm as id been there since 5am. It was cool to see the big flying camera crane rig being used for epic sweeping shots which looked cool on the monitors & i did feel sorry for the actors stuck in those rocks all day, as well as the dudes at the top of the set whose job it was to drop rocks & debris onto the ground below as the underworld caves in as they had to then go & pick it all up, carry it back to the top & repeat about 8 million times.
All in all it was a fun job of 6 weeks making the stuff, a day of filming & now a few months wait for the dvd to see if it at least ends up in the deleted scenes extras!
If i get any better pics from other crew members i'll put them up in the future but for now my dodgy secret photos will have to do!

Thanks for looking :)

[Bongsplat]

Mate, I love checking in your thread! Unbelievable work as always, love how the space marine is turning out awesome.

You are so lucky to be involved with all the special effects stuff, it's a dream job for me! Your work is always inspirational!

Take care

[m3ntor]

As for the pics you speak of i got them from a model making forum i came across when googling Space Marine reference:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?29899-Space-Marine-WIP-Part-1

Its a step by step process by someone customising the forge world 120mm space marine. Its an impressive thread, though i cant find part 2!!


Part 2 can be found here (http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?31535-Space-Marine-WIP-Part-2).

And excellent work with everything, I love your stuff.