Ok I have the pauldrons mounted. Had to get rid of two of the elastic straps to make them hang higher, but still not to where I like them yet, not sure what to do and keep it invisible. I will be placing a bit of felt on the back edge of the pauldrons to make them slide smoother against the shoulder supports.
I've been working on a 3D model of the 300+ little slats that join the various pieces of armor together. I plan to have them 3D printed but it's going to cost a bit. Using some Makexyz.com local printers to make samples right now before I go the full monty and have them make all 300+.
So... I've been going over the first few scenes trying to get a super good look at these belt segments. It turns out they are a lot more round in the top than I imagined. I also found a new method for creating the channel in the middle. Instead of carving the channel, I duplicated the body and scaled it up a bit to make the caps on the sides which thusly creates a channel in the middle.
Here are the leg plates. The side part is just a double thick piece of Worbla. The front flat sided piece is the worble foam sandwich method. I found it's MUCH easier to do freeform curves without the foam in the middle. I was drawing lines to help when I formed the curved scalops and stuff. Of course Worbla is stretchy when it's hot so the lines may have wandered but the curves are more or less correct. The black wedges are the big EVA foam tiles that I cut on a diagonal line.
Here's the pattern for the knees. There is a bit of air between the plates but Worbla stretches a bit so I'm betting on them closing up a bit. I figured I'd take care of the knees now because they dip down into the boots and I really can only do the boots once unless I want to go buy another pair.
Thanks a lot. It's been a lot of work to get things just right. There is a 3D printed Jor-El council armor on here and it's fantastic. I don't have the $1000+ he spent to do that though or the 3D ninja skill. I'll be spending $450 or so just to print the 300+ segments for the belts on mine with my limited 3D prowess. Below are those segments.
Again, thanks JJ Just breaking things down into basic shapes and assembling them.
Here's some progress on the knees. The outermost plate is four layers of Worbla. Two for the base shape and two on top of that for the strip in the middle with the circle cut out of it, and just one additional layer on top of the base for that pointed bit with the half round dent it on the top. The middle plate has the opposite half round shape too but I haven't made that just yet. I used a prescription bottle lid to make the dent with wax paper in between or else it will stick. All those layers will make some nice highlight and shadow areas. Now I have to make the medallions in the middle on the round side cutouts...
This is a picture of the medallions that go where you see the blue clamps in the previous post and they are also at the elbows. They are made from Sculpey and I'm surprised I got them to come out on the first try. Yes they are a little thick, that's in case I need to make them thicker than 1/4" or so and I'll just make a second mold with it at a lower depth so they are thicker.
Here are the belt segments with silver rub n buff applied. I've heard friction from buffing sets the wax so I tried to lightly apply a little heat from the heat gun and warped one of them. Good thing it was an earlier version of the part. In the highlights test the segment on the left is the new part version, it has a beveled inner edge, the right one is a vertical edge and the beveled edge has much better highlights. On the shadows test the edge type (bevel or straight) doesn't seem to make much of a difference so that's good. P.S. I'd like to thank my 3D printer guy Joseph L. for beveling the corners of the model.
My 3D printer guy has squeezed out the knee medallions Can't wait to see them in person. No I don't have three knees, there are two extras just in case.
Knees are done. Now I need to kick myself into gear and just DO the boots. From looking at the model it's difficult to tell if they are attached directly to the boots or float really really closely above the boots. I'm thinking they're attached.
Here are the belt segments (now that I have more than three). I used silver leaf and ebony rub n' buff. I think I will also go buy a "fluffy" brush and feather on some flat acrylic, they're still a bit too shiny. Only 300 segments to go. They are arriving in batches from my 3D printer Joe.
Finally figured out how to get the pauldrons to not slump over and poke me in the arm. I attached some 3/4" elastic to the underside bottom of the middle "rib" and strung it up and over the top of the arm cuff. Now it collapses if I put my arm up but holds itself up when my arm is down at my sides.
Now feast your eyes on the cape! It's called "Grizzly" and it's in the fur section at JoAnn's and the inside is micro suede. It cost $96 before a 40% off one item and 15% off the total order coupons which brought it down to about $68. Yeesh. Also, FYI if you sew this stuff, the micro suede stretches and the fur doesn't and it's a pain according to my awesome sister. I still have to adjust the hangers inside a bit it's not quite where I want it yet. The white butterfly thing keeps it off my back too which will keep the heat down.
Just breaking things down into basic shapes and assembling them.
