A First Attempt (Image Heavy)

[Demascus]

So I know I'm not exactly really far along but I wanted to get some feed back and see what I might do to improve my technique. I started with the Pepakura paper model, and just discarded all the tabs. Cutting out the basic shape from cardboard inserts I got from work. Then I started hot gluing these pieces together. Once it was built I just coated it with Joint compound I had laying around the house.

This was the end result after a bit of sanding,

I ended up having to coat the whole thing again and cover it in mat finish and sanding it again. Then I painted it black, and found out their were still a lot of fissures and grooves in need of filling.

Still more sanding and filling and sanding I finally painted the thing bronze and clear coated that to help cut back on any possible chipping. I chose bronze because that seems to be a popular theme in the comic books so I wanted to go that road instead of using the same movie predators over and over again.

I ended up having to sand it yet again before adding a second coat of bronze and once that dried I began the aging process. When complete I added yellow mirror lenses from a pair of dollar store sunglasses, these were held in by Hot glue.

The end result is now my avatar and the beginning of my Pred suit. I'm now using some of Vinmanmac's tutorials to complete the body armor, which will also be done in the same fashion as the mask for sake of my budget.

I've got one side of the chest plate cut out right now and am struggling to glue all the cardboard pieces together. I modified it a bit so the whole thing would not look so flat and just edged all the successive layers so they will stand up a bit more. I hope to have pictures up when I finish the first side so I can make it more clear what I'm doing.

 

[predatorcrazy68]

Looks good, nice work. Keep it up and have fun.

 

[Dieabolic]

I admire the new creative ways people come up with for bios. Great job.

 

[Demascus]

Thank's for the encouragement everyone. I will continue the work and hopefully I will have a unique and awesome suit by Spocon.

 

[Demascus]

So here is an update for everyone, My chest armor in its first stages. This is only the first half and still in its raw cardboard form.

Back view:

Front view:

Side view:

The templates for this piece started out by Vinman, and I re-sized the plates and built it up a little more. Hopefully the finished product turns out half as good as the pre-sketch looked on paper.

 

[Roydraven]

cool pretty awesome for a first attempt cant wait to see what other stuff you come up with

 

[Demascus]

No pics at the moment as my camera is down. Hoping to have it back up or a replacement with in the next few days. I have made some nice progress all the same. I finished the other half of my chest armor which is pretty much the same as the other side in reverse. No significant plastering going on at the moment, I'm debating weather I want to try Paper mache first to try to cut the insulation fact down but it may just make it worse. Have to see where that goes. I still have to cut out the central pieces but I'm debating a redesign of a few components first just to keep everything from looking to flat and cardboard like.

Changes are being made to my Bio at the moment and a possible repaint in the future. I found that I could use a small Easter egg cut in half long ways to create a unique filter attachment for my air hoses. I'm also looking to add the housing for my targeting system, though its not likely to be anything spectacular.

I've also started work on a ceremonial dagger as designed by VinMan. I've taken his template and divided it into a three different layers for the blade to reinforce the cardboard and to try to give the lower find on the dagger a new dimension. I haven't made up my mind what to do with the handle of the blade yet, I've seen a really nice vertebrae like handle done up on this site and I'm thinking I may go with the bone look though maybe something a little larger then vertebrae, like a part of the shoulder or femur maybe, I'd model it using Skulpy clay I think unless some one can direct me to another method.

Again I'll have some pictures up soon hopefully. I'd love to hear feedback on my methods so far in this madness and possible comments on where I should go from here or how to make it better Thanks.

 

[Demascus]

So Its literally been years now since my last update. I can see all my old links have gone bad but I'm not completely discouraged. I had a lot of down time for a lot of different reasons but now I'm back and I have finally finished remodeling my bio.

Here is the current image:

I used a cut down Easter egg for the ventilation connector, my first attempt was much to large but I think this smaller one works well. Still working out the laser targeting port. I repainted the whole thing, the scuffing was created simply by layering my paint one coat at a time then sanding the whole thing down before brushing on a few light accents.

As for the work I had started on my chest armor and ceremonial dagger I have started over again from scratch. The first chest plate didn't fit well at all and so I'm using the old scale for a Halloween mannequin. The Dagger project took a turn for the worse when my art room got moved and from their the cat finished off the remains.

 

[Demascus]

Going to work on Trophy stuff and maybe some bone dread rings if all goes well today, its a little warm so it may not work out.

Alright so decided to work with some different material, its called cold porcelain, basically its an air dry clay that is vary easily colored with either oil or acrilic paint. I'm sticking to the basic white translucense it starts with for now. I'm going to try to craft a few test peices and if all goes well I'll get some pictures up soon.

The recipe is really simple:
1 Cup (8 oz.) PVA glue like Elmers white glue
1 Cup Corn Starch
1 Tablespoon Mineral oil (I used baby oil)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice or clove oil, witchhazel may also be substituted (This is a natural perservative to help prevent mold)

Combine all ingredients in a pot, cook on low heat stirring constantly untill a dough starts to form and it begins to pull away from the sides. Remove from heat and allow to cool till it can be handled. Knead to a smooth consistency and store in plastic wrap in the refrigerator

When your finished with this stuff you should seal it with something as its water soluble even when dry.

 

[Demascus]

Alright so I managed to get a few small test samples done tonight, the weather was to warm for me to work on anything larger the cold porcelain kept trying to dry out befor I could finish sculpting. Still It looks promising I think. I didn't get a chance to seal either of the items but the texture on them is very appealing though it doesn't show up in the provided images, sorry about that.

The penny is there for scale as I can not for the life of me take consistent photos with my camera.

I hope maybe this provides some other possabilities to the hunters out there.

 

[backbone]

keep the pics coming, love what your doing. makes me want to start working on mine again. i made one of cardboard and wood filler made of wood glue and saw dust then layred paper tape. the most solid mask i have ever made.

 

[Demascus]

That sounds pretty sturdy. Thanks for the support Backbone. I'm working on some wrist blades now but its a slow process I'm making my first trip into fiberglass resin but its gotta wait till pay day to get moving. My initial pep print out was really light to for some reason. I think my printer is running low on ink so I'm tracing it out to clean up the lines and will start cutting this weekend.

 

[Demascus]

Alright so I didn't get to start on my gauntlets like planned but I did still make progress in other places. I started a few dreads for my Pred, but I decided to try something a little different. I used some rope and yarn to make a braided dread using macrame techniques.

This is a close up of the dread textures and the materials I used in their construction. The dreads are a little over two feet long right now, I may make some sorter ones. I know I'm planning on doing some grey that fade down into the red. Its time consuming but I really wanted to trying doing something a little different then what I have seen.