Mass Effect - Tali'zorah vs Normandy Figure Sculpt[WIP]

Friendly Greetings People!

I'm new to the RPF but I have been lurking around for a better half of a year. Feels good to finally contribute something to the forum! So on to the topic at hand!

Well, Tali is my favorite character from the Mass Effect series, so I was very interested in obtaining a figure of her for my collection.
I discovered that PlayArtsKai had a figure of her, but the price on amazon was a $154 and it was way over my budget of $60++ . The SquareEnix site had it for $64.95 but there was no button to purchase, so I just assumed it was out of stock/production maybe?

I also browsed youtube for a review on the PlayArtsKai Tali figure and I was quite impressed...but sadly, I felt it wasn't worth my $154.

So I thought to myself, why don't I make a figure instead? I could possibly make it cheaper, with higher detail probably?, and learn something in the process. However, I had no sculpting experience whatsoever

My goals for the figure are:
-The final product is intended to be similar to the PlayArtsKai figure. (as a benchmark)
-At 8.7" tall and at least 90% accurate to in-game model/detail.
-hopefully Stay under initial $64.95 budget
-Articulated/posable and perhaps her outfit/suit made from fabric?(instead of carving suit details onto her body)

At this point in time, I need some advice on joints for her body. Especially the shoulders,torso and hip. The torso and hip are probably going to be double-ball joints.
My question is, how would you limit the movement of such a joint?(ie. stop the torso from rotating 360, which is not physically possible ouch)

As for the shoulder joints, the PlayArtsKai figure reviewer called them 'butterfly' joints. I'm not sure what a butterfly joint is...for my figure though I'd like her to be able to arch her shoulders (like in a shrug, out-stretching her arm upwards.)

Any advice/questions/comments/critique are welcomed! Thank you!

TL;DR....I'm doing a Tali Figure, need advice on shoulder joints.


Here are some progress shots



These are old shots. I've redone everything to match the scale and will post new shots soon.

Awww its Tali !
I remember the moment when I first met her in game. This mysterious alien girl... trustworthy ? maybe a cyborg ? Whats with her and the Geth ?
A wonderfull sci-fi "spacesuit" design and a great character. One of my favorit charakters (and alien races) in all sci-fi.

What modeling stuff do you use ? If I may ask. And do you use a frame inside the figure ? I have sculpted some figures myself, but only some 25mm, very small ones.

But... great work so far. Its really looking good. A big projekt.
Good luck with her !

Keelah se'lai

love tali! as far as the modeling goes i can see her already, so thats a good sign! looking forward to more!

I am using Plastilina Clay by Van aken that I bought from a local hobby store (hobby lobby). It never hardens but it gets kinda difficult to obtain symmetry on body parts since holding the sculpt actually deforms it a little. I sometimes put the sculpt in the fridge for a few minutes to make the clay slightly harder.

For this sculpt, I jumped straight into carving her body and head with just my hands and a hobby knife. I was very eager to start haha so I never considered using an armature or skeleton inside the clay as a support. Plus, I'm going to put joints for her limbs, I might be wrong, but I think an armature would conflict with that.

Currently, I'm getting her proportions right and smoothing it enough so that it looks 'organic' or 'lifelike' and will soon make a mold and cast her body. I will be using smooth-on OOMOO for mold and casting.

Thanks for the comments guys! Will update again soon with pictures hopefully.

Update on my progress! I made molds of my work and I have begun incorporating joints into the figure.

They will need some sanding/detailing work to look nice.

Here are some shots and Thanks for following!

Another update! I completed her lower limbs and incorporated her joints. Still needs her arms and lots of joint fixing+sanding+detailing.

Here are the photos

Here's a small update. I'm now making corrections/finishing her entire body, thus the yellow epoxy additions. Once I'm done fixing her body/joints, I'm gonna give her body a final sanding and then a light coat of paint. Then I'll move on to crafting her suit from spandex & poly satin cloth that I obtained from walmart. Probably see this in the coming weeks. **edit** oh and I messed up her hands...please ignore that. I'm thinking of making them out of milliput...or 3d print a copy using shapeways service.


and again thanks for following!

Beautiful ! Nice to see such good progress on this. Im looking forward for the suit. Will you also make the pattern on her cloth ?

Wow, Ive always been a big fan of Tali! I have to say that I liked her from the start and has to by my favorite character in the series.

Fishbeef, I see what you mean by the price of the Tali figure. What I find rather comical is that on Amazon, Tali is selling for almost $200 when ME's main character Shepard sells for only $50. :lol

I use Shapeways for my 3D printing needs and have found them to be quite good. Do you plan on using a 3D design software or do you already have the hands made?

I plan to make her suit from cloth, and yes I will try to my best ability to accurately paint/print her pattern onto her hood .
here are some concept shots to very loosely, give you an idea of what I'm aiming at.


3 shots due to different body suit weaves. I initially was thinking of the 1st one(leftmost) but after close inspection I'm thinking of the 3rd one now (rightmost) :/

As for the 3d printing, I don't have a 3D model of Tali at the moment. I was searching google a few nights back but I came up empty handed. Ideally, I would like to extract the model from the game, but I need to read forums on how to do that.

Thanks for the questions guys. I hope I get more done in the coming weeks

Update again! Did some painting. I applied base color coats. It needs some cleaning and touch up work, but it looks alright I guess.