ALIEN Warrior head refurbishing project.....

[SwampDonkey]

Finished off the jaw mould, and pulled the cast:

The mould does have 2 halves, but the other isnt showing here. The cast is perfect in every detail (luckily) and is actually untrimmed in this pic.
Most of my time has been spent doing repairs and little annoing touch-ups like these:

Much more has been done since these pics were taken, Ill get them all posted soon hopefully

 

[dropshipbob]

Ohhh, I like that!:eek

 

[LDR]

looking great!

what are you using to scuplt the details etc with?

 

[SwampDonkey]

looking great!

what are you using to scuplt the details etc with?

Thank ya much! Its a mix of super sculpey and sculpey firm. I normally use oil base roma plasitlina but am doing my best to get used to these rubbery polymer clays. I kinda like the idea of ebing able to hit a finished section with a heat gun and move on without worrying about messing it up later.

 

[LDR]

Thanks! so you can hit it with a heat gun and it will set hard?

 

[SwampDonkey]

Thanks! so you can hit it with a heat gun and it will set hard?

Yep, its pretty nifty once you get the hang of it

 

[WebChief]

This project is fantastic!

So, let me get this straight because this is giving me a few ideas for a project I'm working on. You can brush on an epoxy to fix issues with the latex piece and it will adhere? Is it epoxy or sculpey. You mention both.

Thanks!

 

[SwampDonkey]

This project is fantastic!

So, let me get this straight because this is giving me a few ideas for a project I'm working on. You can brush on an epoxy to fix issues with the latex piece and it will adhere? Is it epoxy or sculpey. You mention both.

Thanks!

This isnt a latex peics actually, its fiberglass and the jaw is urethane. Epoxy was used on the teeth and sculpey used for all the sculpted repairs.

 

[SwampDonkey]

Say.....Ive never cast a peice this large in fiberglass, what do you guys suggest?

I was thinking painting a smooth resin onto the interior of the cast, then backing it with fiberglass.

OR

Simply painting the fiberglass resin onto the inside of the mould and laying the soaked sheets of glass behind it. Will it pick up all the detail without the resin "skin"?

I was going to try a few things but really would love some input from you guys

 

[BrundelFly]

TROWEL ON-60.

Make a Beauty coat with regular resin. Then, after it dries a bit...get SILPAK "TROWEL ON 60".

it mixes to the consistency of pudding, and you just paint it in. Its used as a MOTHER MOLD JACKET.

OR. Just Fiberglass it all.

 

[SwampDonkey]

How about spraying the inside of the mould with gelcoat? Something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsvgaWHPMF4


Ive never cast anything in fiberglass before so im just exploring my options.

I checked out SILPAK, seems they dont have any prices on their website for some odd reason.

 

[AnsonJames]

Are you taking a mould of the entire piece and if so are you going to be selling copies?

I ask because the original comes from a friend of mine, if you are making one copy for yourself then it's fine - otherwise this is recasting.

However, your jaw mould looks a little too nice to be a waste mould.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Are you taking a mould of the entire piece and if so are you going to be selling copies?

I ask because the original comes from a friend of mine, if you are making one copy for yourself then it's fine - otherwise this is recasting.

However, your jaw mould looks a little too nice to be a waste mould.

He had an interest thread in the JY a short while ago that was closed and deleted (maybe pulled for review!?)

 

[AnsonJames]

He had an interest thread in the JY a short while ago that was closed and deleted (maybe pulled for review!?)

Thanks Carsten,

I'd like to add that Ian's Alien warrior were extensively reworked so a lot of this head is Ian's own sculpt - he estimates about a quarter is his work.

I've spoken to Ian about this and he's fine with moulds being made if only one copy is made.

Anything after that and Ian won't be a happy puppy.

Anson

 

[AnsonJames]

I am also curious to know about the interest thread in the junkyard - does anyone know the specifics of it?

 

[Onigiri]

Yeah...he posted an interest thread and when I called him on recasting he said if he didnt sell here people would just have to look on Ebay. I reported the thread to the mods and the thread disappeared. Correct me if Im wrong, Swamp Donkey, but the gist of what you said was that Ian didnt sculpt the piece he was offering so you had as much right to cast and sell it as he did. Ive been watching this intently just waiting for these to be offered up on Ebay or, as he said in his thread, for people who wanted them just to pm him. Again, he can correct me if he's changed his tune but I saw nothing in his demeanor on that thread that said to me he had changed his plan to offer copies to people. I would ask though, Anson, in the interest of fairness what was the lineage of Ian's pieces? Did he cast a screen used piece? If he simply reworked an existing copy that he bought off somebody else did he have permission to cast and sell copies after he made changes? This was part of the argument on the Interest Thread so Id be interested to know the history of Ian's piece(s). Thanks

 

[kwalsh0000]

Id also be interested in hearing more about the history of Ians piece too. I was comparing the top down view that Swamp Donkey posted and the location and ridges appear identical to the one I have (which apparently came from Bruce Hansing and same molds as the prop store replicas that were sold ages ago, then again I could be wrong) but the jaw appears different

 

[AnsonJames]

Hello Onigiri,

It's cast from a production made foam piece that Ian bought from a guy whom he worked with on Reign or Fire that also worked on Aliens.
He copied the original and then embellished the crappy parts - as I said before at least 25% is Ian's own sculpt.

Ian spent a lot of time and a ton of money on this project so any kind of copy would be unacceptable.

Cheers,

Anson

 

[Onigiri]

So basically its modified from a production piece that was reworked by Ian which falls under fair use here. Ian had the original piece which he fixed up then cast. This current piece being worked on is one of Ian's reworked pieces so any copies of it being sold fall squarely in to the RPF recasting category whether they are sold on Ebay or via PM unless Ian signs off on it.

 

[SwampDonkey]

Ok, just to clear things up:
Ian did a pretty good job when he refurbished the foam cast, but ive reworked and repaired roughly 40% of this peice to get it up to snuff. Ive invested hundreds of hours into getting this head to the absolute best possible shape it can be. To anyone who would lable me a recaster, I think you vastly underestimate the effort ive put into this peice and how much of it is my work. I just choose not to share because of whats happening in the last few posts.