Blue Ranger / Tricera Zyuranger WIP - General criticism & advice needed

F

firion1234

New Member
Hello All! This is my first sculpt and I would like to solicit the advice of this immensely talented community on how to proceed. I have reached a stage in the sculpt where I would trust the eyes of others to better discern its flaws than my own. That is not to say that I don't see any, I see plenty! I could have attempted a great deal more clean up before posting, but fearing your recommendations might require a serious overhaul I didn't want to get bogged down in minutia. Indeed, that is one of the things about which I need advice. I wouldn't know how to handle the minutia if I had tried my hand at it! Obviously, to some degree, the quality of the finished sculpt is simply a function of time spent sitting with it. At least until some point of diminishing returns is reached. What I want in skill I hope to make up for by simply following your sound guidance. So any tips or tricks for achieving clean edges and polishing away tool marks would be greatly appreciated! I want to have a smooth, even surface before sculpting the next two horns. I am using Monster Clay by the by.

Thank you for your time!

PS I am sorry for the terrible image quality, I understand that your input can only be as good as your ability to see the flaws. I can take close ups of certain spots if need be and I may have recourse to a better camera later.
 

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Another day's worth of sculpting down and I wanted to share my progress. I shortened the chin substantially and raised the lips. The lips in yesterday's photos were merely there to make it recognizably a Power Ranger, I literally spent no time trying to represent what I saw in my reference images. As I said, I didn't want to get bogged down in little things when there were still major shapes not up to par. I hope you'll agree that it is an improvement!IMG_0709.JPG
 
Hey, thank you for the kind words! Yours looks great, too! This is your first sculpt of anything ever? Mine represents 4 solid months of working and reworking, and constantly re-checking my reference material. Frankly I'm still off in places, but the plan now is to cast it in a hard material and finish from there. I would mainly suggest you keep on track. Also, constantly check the center line. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like maybe the horn is pointed a little left of center? It's a drag, but you might have to redo certain features over and over again. Also, step way back and look at the thing from a lot of angles and make sure the light is slightly above and in front of. Bad lighting can really screw up your perception. I am working with Chavant medium, and so to smooth I did a lot of raking with a custom tool, followed by a lot of brushing with 99% alcohol, followed by finger burnishing with water. I've not worked with Monster Clay, so don't know if the alcohol works as well. Hope this helps a little. Again good going. Keep it up!
 
Thank you for the pointers! Yes, this is my first sculpt of any kind. I just jumped in an took the triceratops by the horns, if you'll pardon the bad joke! At this stage I am three weeks in. A center line was, unfortunately for me, an afterthought. Thankfully, I established it early enough to not have to do a tremendous amount of reworking. Next time I will start with a line before I even rough out the first feature. By way of a quick update here is a gif I made a few minutes ago. I'll post stills tomorrow. I reworked the lips (again and doubtless not for the last time), straightened and cleaned up the horn, rasped the entire surface to bring down high spots, added the eyes, and did general clean up. Tomorrow will hopefully bring the final two horns!Blue ranger spin.gif
 
Hello all! I'm sorry I didn't post the stills I promised. In my excitement I jumped right into sculpting the final two horns and didn't get them far enough along to warrant a photo-op. However, I did order the jumpsuit and other accessories today! I am STOKED. I will of course post pictures when they arrive. I forgot to mention last night but there is a funny story about that gif. I'm hiding behind the table pulling that red and black string while my girlfriend filmed. I only find it funny because it seems so much more unnecessarily convoluted than simply turning it by hand. It felt like attempting a low budget special effect or a really simple Rube Goldberg machine, but I was adamant my hand not be in frame! I think it came out pretty good and achieved the desired effect. Anyhow, more photos will follow in the next few days. :)
 
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Quick update. I attended Goo-Con (my local Smooth-On distributor's convention) last weekend and didn't have time to work on the sculpture. While I was there I picked up some mighty fine rakes (pun intended) and I'm itching to get back to work. Assuming everything is on schedule, tomorrow I have a surface gauge and a gridded poster board arriving in the mail that I will use as a shroud for my lazy Susan. It's kind of hard to explain the setup, but it should help me true up my symmetry within millimeter accuracy. I have youtuber gordontarpley to thank for the idea. I will of course post photos of it all assembled.
 
tl;dr UPDATE: I shortened the chin even further, raised the lips again, and reworked a TON of bad symmetry. In the end I had to hack off the back horns to fix the eyes. But it's closer than ever to the reference!

Well wouldn't you know that USPS lost half my package? I received only one of the masts to the surface gauge I ordered. The scribe, base, and other assorted masts fell out somewhere along the way. Fortunately, the eBay seller gave me a full refund so I purchased one direct from a company. Well wouldn't you know that it's not as earth shatteringly necessary as I made it out to be? Have any of you ever procrastinated, waiting for the perfect tool, only to find that all that was really needed was fresh eyes? I don't wish in any way to take away from the advice presented by the YouTuber I mentioned in my last post. As a matter of fact, whatever I find lacking about the tool stems from my own inability to make the best use of it. Although, I did make some progress with it today. I have done some major overhauls to the sculpt (See above). I hope to post new pictures in the coming days, I just need to get it to a less embarrassing state. I'm even thinking of making a YouTube video myself. My boots shipped yesterday!! Though, it will take them 15 to 25 days to get here... If I decide a video is in order then I'll review them. It would be neat to document my experience with the whole thing in a series of videos. Congrats if you made it to the end of this and thanks for reading.
 
Finally... At long, LONG last this sculpture is "finished." It's been a slog at times, but rewarding. With the exception of answering any questions (which I would be delighted to do) this will be my last post in this thread, as the rest pertains to making a costume out of it. Really I should have posted in the replica costume section from the beginning, since it has been my intention all along. I'm not sure what I was thinking! Anyway, enjoy the photographs and I hope I'll see you in the next thread!

1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg7.jpg
 
Thank you so much for the compliment! I am itching to start the next thread but I want to take the project through to the very end before I lay out the full progress rundown. Suffice it to say that it's nearing completion and I can't wait to wear it to Dragon Con!
 
firion1234 said:
Thank you very much! I learned a lot along the way and with that new knowledge I can see a lot that's wrong with it. Still, I'm pretty happy with it and I know the next one will be even better!
Click to expand...

Yeah!! you're right!!

That's the main idea!!! to learn and improve our skills!!!

Never give up man, never!! (Y)
 
Looks really clean, firion! Symmetry is great!
How did you fare at dragon con, and do you have any photos of the helmet apart from the sculpt?
 
Crimson490 said:
Looks really clean, firion! Symmetry is great!
How did you fare at dragon con, and do you have any photos of the helmet apart from the sculpt?
Click to expand...

I do as a matter of fact! I have a follow up thread here. Many thanks for the compliment, I'm very pleased to hear it looks symmetrical. I will post clearer photos in the coming days, as the ones from the event were taken with a phone. I had at least one rather dreadful moment at Dragon Con that will explain in full in the other thread, but on the whole it was a wonderful and formative experience. I've never been more sure that I want to commit myself to prop building!
 
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