Articulated mannequin hands to hold a blaster (PIC heavy)

[DrMaul]

I'm building a mannequin to display my white armor. This semi-anatomically-correct method for making articulated hands which can hold a blaster has been in my mind for a while, and I finally got around to testing it. They are strong enough to hold a blaster in a two-handed pose.
Not finished yet, but I just thought I'd share some photos.





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[Bothan Jedi]

very very cool.

i attempted something similar a few weeks ago, but not nearly as good as yours. i'm gonna go back and rework it now that i've seen this

thanks for sharing

 

[hydin]

awesomeness dude. i like it.

chris

 

[Jaster]

Very sweet

 

[natty15d]

Great idea, thanks for sharing it.
Ill have to make a set of these for my mannequin.

Nathan

 

[Robert McLain]

Thanks for the awesome example.

I'll use the idea for my Vader manequin. Those hands look like they could grip a saber pretty well.


Robert.

 

[M-Pire]

I agree with the rest of these guys.

Thanks for sharing that with us,
cdw

 

[DrMaul]

wow, thanks for the positive comments guys. I am going to do a bit of work on this over the weekend, and hopefully the fully completed project will look something like what I had in mind. I'll post more pics if it goes according to plan.

 

[vaderdarth]

I was thinking the exact same idea for my vader mannequin......great idea and design.
Dave

 

[Soundwave]

Very smart!! how long did it take ya?

 

[DrMaul]

</SPAN><TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>RodianJedi wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>...how long did it take ya?</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
Not long at all. Like I said, the design has been evolving at an abstract level for a while, but once I had it on paper, the cutting/sanding/drilling of the (carefully numbered) finger 'bones' from a length of 16mm dowel took less than a couple of hours for both hands.

I strung everything together with a single length of 12g tying wire (but would recommend slightly thicker wire) for each finger, and two for the wrist (allows some rotation as well as flexion/extension).

Then it is a matter of building up the soft-tissue to refine the shape. I used the bubble-wrap and duct-tape method.

 

[blaydrunner]

Thanks for sharing this! It's amazing how simple a solution that is. Why didn't I think of it! Great work!

Cheers!
GL

 

[Flix4Me]

Very nice work. I wasn't planning on making mine as nice as yours when I do get around to making them. Now maybe I will!

 

[DrMaul]

I still need to even out the knuckles on the right hand, but this is what I'm talking about (shame about my mediocre gloves. I might try and find some good ones to put over these ones):


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[M-Pire]

Sweet! That's perfect

 

[Biker Mike]

Those are very cool. Mine are just the wire with foam around it, so while they do hold stuff well, they don't bend correctly. May have to try your method.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I'm gonna scale this down and use it for my Jawa. I showed it to my dad earlier and he suggested that you could model the tissue on the hand by putting cotton and/or gauze around the fingers and then put a latex glove (for "skin") over top of it, then put the real glove over that.

 

[DrMaul]

</SPAN><TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>Sluis Van Shipyards wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>...you could model the tissue on the hand by putting cotton and/or gauze around the fingers and then put a latex glove (for "skin") over top of it, then put the real glove over that.</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>

Yep, I suspect that would work well. One advantage I found with the duct tape was that, when applied carefully, it was possible to further restrict movement to anatomical planes.

Here is a pic of the finished project (well, excuse the fact that the mannequin isn't wearing any 'pants' yet). The upper limbs have all the expected axes of movement as well (3 at the shoulder, 1 at the elbow, and 3 at the wrist/forearm).

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

That looks great! Really good idea!

I hadn't thought about that, but the duct tape would probably work better.

 

[Jedirick]

Great Innovation!

I think I probably enjoy the posts about original,custom and innovative items guys here have done over the exacting replication.

This took some forethought and you came out with a great gimmick!

I am sure going to borrow the idea for my mannequins!