Classic Doctor Who - AUTON Gun Hand WIP

Bumping.

Ohh good project. Sorry I can't offer any advice but I'll be watching this with interest.

Free bump and good luck.

The face of that Auton looks kind of like a more sophisticated Kryten from Red Dwarf - distant cousin maybe???

I know you can do a simple cast to make a plaster "master" of your own hand by using beeswax. You immerse your hand in icy cold water for a little while, put vaseline on it lightly to help the wax release, then dip it into melted beeswax, candle wax or whatever you can get hold of, in the pose you want it in. The wax needs to be just liquid so it isn't too hot, but this is why you use the ice water too. I've even heard of this being done with cosmetic hard wax used for hair removal (as this sets quite hard) but you can experiment and see what works.

You then remove it and plunge into the ice water again. Redip in the wax and keep doing this until a good thickness is achieved, enough to support using it as a mould for plaster, then with your hand in the cold water gently wriggle your hand out and it should come out quite easillywithout breaking (thanks vaseline!). Some people do a couple of dips then remove and dip the empty mould to strengthen it however you can find it distorts with no support inside it.

You can then support this, pour your plaster, resin etc (anything that doesn't generate heat when setting) and you have a master, or you could use the wax mould to do a hollow cast by pouring your medium in, swirling it round and pouring the excess out, repeating this would give you a hollow cast. But casting solid in a softish resin it could be hollowed quite easilly giving strength where needed. They do a similar thing to make wax hands as a gift shop thing at the wax museum.

I have a whole 2 litre bottle of liquid latex sitting here but have no idea what to do with it (it's the type that smells funny and sets kind of like a rubber band consistency). Have to try some moulding some day.

Personally I would rather use dental alginate than beeswax. It is soft enough that it can be cut as long as you were careful. It is easy to get hold of on ebay. The problem is it flexes, so a plaster support is usually used, but the main problem then would be getting your hand out.

Why is it you are after a bent hand? Most autons I have seen have straight hands.

I've ordered in some plaster bandages so I should have those sometime next week.

Looking through some anthropometric hand data I found that although my hand is just under the 50th percentile for length, my breadth is under the 5th and my thumb length is over the 95th. Assuming the data is correct and I'm measuring from the right places my hand is abnormally slim - not great for hiding moving parts and fingers in.
So I might steal my dad's hand and cast that even though the skin on it is a little 'loose' to say it a bit nicer. Which brings me to my next decision, whether to have a hand with feature detail (knuckles, nails and joints) or to have a slightly smoother more generic hand.

Thanks for your support Invicta, much appreciated.

Wow pfillery thanks for the idea, the very thought of using wax hadn't even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind. Luckily I have a block of candle wax I could try this out with (providing I don't scorch myself), the only problem I can foresee would be getting my bent thumb out as the wax above it would be narrower than my thumb joint. I definitely try that though.

Gazongola I would rather use the alginate too but due to the shrinking (halving in size once fully dry) it means the casting would come out shrunken even if I were to pour in the resin immediately.
Sorry for not explaining the position properly, by bent I was referring to the thumb being positioned at 90 degrees (I think it COULD be 45) to the straight fingers, as though it were in the Z -axis.

Actually with dental alginate, once set there is a period of a few hours that if wrapped in a moist towel will still be dimensionally stable. If not we couldn't use them as diagnostic and restorative tools.

If poured up right after setting (note:this does not mean dry) you should be fine.

I just cast the hand in alginate and although I gave it plent of time the thing still flaked off in some areas. When I slush cast it it seems the resin didn't stick to alot of the parts of the underside of the hand, especially the fingers and thumb - so it seems my future involves lots of filling and patching-up. But it is all part of the learning curve and I'm enjoying it - apart from the damn group of flies in my work area driving me insane to were it tried to ghetto-flamethrower them out. I will post pictures once it has curved.

Ahhh. It was worst than I thought. Any suggestions on how to fill in the holes?

Loosewire said:

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I just cast the hand in alginate and although I gave it plent of time the thing still flaked off in some areas. When I slush cast it it seems the resin didn't stick to alot of the parts of the underside of the hand, especially the fingers and thumb - so it seems my future involves lots of filling and patching-up. But it is all part of the learning curve and I'm enjoying it - apart from the damn group of flies in my work area driving me insane to were it tried to ghetto-flamethrower them out. I will post pictures once it has curved.

I'm not 100% sure but i think your problem was that you used resin inside the Alginate. The alginate should only be used to make a plaster cast of your hand, then you would make a better mold from that.

This is where I am after 2 days of filling and sanding and carving in skin creases. It still needs more filling on the pitting and I need to repair the area around the wrist.
For the wrist I will try to add a sleeve of latex, which I think they did on the show.

Then I will add the hinge, make MDF plates to make the hand look solid and add the red cone and yellow hemisphere.

I'm sorry I can't help in anyway, but I wanted to say that this is awesome and I look forward to your completed project. I've always liked the idea of owning one of these.

What might be a good reference is the 30 Years in the TARDIS video, there is a make shift Auton there, in a recreated scene from "Terror" that using a hand gun - good close up to.

Test fitting the hinge I made earlier, I will have to try to recess it in either the finger or palm section atm I am thinking the palm would be best as it is less visible from the front.

Also I don't know how to keep it closed, magnets are the obvious choice but I'm concerned it might be too difficult to open with one finger.

That barrel looks like it might be some kind of found part mini torch tube (maybe the head of the torch is molded right into the hand part, the yellow button could be the igniter). I wonder if they have to remove the end detail to allow the hand to swing open (it might be too long to clear the fingers part) and then screw it back on for the closeup?

This project is great!!!

Thanks phez, that is an avenue I shall investigate, although if that is what they used it would probably be a discontinued line.
Do you mean remove the barrel to clear the fingers? The way it seems to work is the barrel is held within the palm whilst the hand is closed, once it opens the barrel is somehow pushed out. The problem is there is no room to move your fingers and your thumb isn't long enough to push all of the way through so I'm not 100% sure how they actually made it work, maybe a rack and pinion or someone pushing it out behind the actor.

Your unknown photo is from terror of the autons, an auton policeman to be exact

Also I am pretty sure the originals were just pushed out by hand as in all shots of them protruding you only ever saw the hand

It looks great. I think the real prop there were two versions. One with a working hinge and one with a fixed gun barrel. As someone pointed out earlier, you only see it extend in a really, really close shot. We are talking BBC special effects after all.

(Please don't send hate mail, I love classic Doctor Who and enjoy reproducing the props myself)

While it looked fairly finished, is this done now? I'd love an auton hand myself

You could probably do something like this...

BFX Build Plans Fake Hand 2

They used ballistics gel, but I would think it might work with plaster or resin as well.

davidnagel said:

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While it looked fairly finished, is this done now? I'd love an auton hand myself

Hi David, I have sort of been obsessively filling and sanding and priming and resanding and adding more resin to the wrist area so it is not so brittle. Also, I still need to sort out the barrel, hopefully I can get some lathe access soon.

Can't wait to see your progress