Bob the Alien (Giger inspired Alien)

[Leigh]

Hi folks, I thought I'd share my project with you guy's. I'll admit from the off that I'm after some advise here & there & I'd like to know what people think so here goes....

Firstly he's called Bob as my missus doesn't share my enthusiasm for this sort of thing & it add's a little lighthartedness when talking to her about him

I'm having a go at making an Alien creature (head & neck) loosly resembling the creature from the first Alien film, its something I've wanted to do for years. Now I've never really sculpted anything before & I've never used silicon moulding material before so I'm a bit of a novice in this field but I've commited myself to finnishing this to a standard I'm happy with.

I'm not trying to make an exacting copy of one of the original prop head's, I'm making it how I think it should look so it may not be to everybody's taste but hopefully you'll like it.

It's at a fairly early stage at the moment & I'm learning as I go. I've read a few posts on here in search of info & found that this community seems to be just what I'm looking for.

I'm using pic's I've found on the net & I have the book Giger's Alien for reference material as far as trying to capture the features of the Alien so heres some pic's....









I started off with blowing up a good profile image of the original & using it as a rough template. I then made a hardboard armature, then pinned insulation foam to the armature & then carved the foam into the shape above. From there I started adding detail with the pipework & I'm using Newplast clay for the rest.
The Newplast happened to be available at my local artshop & it turns out its free from sulphur so I should'nt have any funny reactions from the silicon (hopefully).







The shape of the mouth has changed a little bit as its progressed & yes there are two too many teeth in the bottom jaw, thats deliberate as I've made the front teeth slightly smaller & closer together, I've also added more detail to the sides of the jaw as I've gone along.





With regards to the top of the head I wanted it to look right as a complete thing so I've started by roughing out the outer shell & when thats shaped up I'll start work on the bit underneath. At the moment I've just got the bottom jaw to a standard I'm happy with so I'm ready to take a mould from it so it can be reproduced in resin, I can then handle it without leaving marks in it & I can start to scuplt the underside of the head & neck to it.





I've bought a kilo of Repsil E30 with a thickener to use on the jaw to mould it & I'm intending to brush it on all over & then use a cut line & a resin shell & separate it into two peices.

The last pic show's the jaw textured, I lightly brushed white spirit over the surface & then textured it with a brush & a sponge.

So what do you think?? How am I doing :confused??

Thanks Leigh

 

[StevenRogers84]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

I think you are doing...............a great job! That is looking spectacular!

 

[Bubbaman]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

It's a fantastic project that you just start !!!
I hope to see more soon, it looks very nice for now !!!

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Many thanks for the kind words chaps

I forgot to mention, the lips & tendons will be added later, I'll sculpt them onto it after I've moulded & cast the head & jaw & then cast them in a rubber of some sort, thats the plan anyway.
I'm just not sure wether to make the mouth poseable as yet but I'm intending to leave myself the option.

 

[Kerr Avon]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Wow! Coming along nicely!!!

 

[thegreatgalling]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Can you talk about how you carved the foam? This is turning out fantastic!

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Thanks again.

The foam.... theres not much too it really, I'd say its the easiest bit.
Its meant for loft insulation, comes in sheets 50mm (2") thick with foil either side. Its not ideal really, blue foam (styro foam) is better.
The foam I used is very fragile, dusty but cheap. It cuts very easily with a kitchen knife & you can sand it very easily. Once I'm happy with the shape I used PVA to seal it which works well & makes it alot tougher however once its PVA'd its not so easy to sand & makes a bit of a mess if you try.
Sealing it also allows things like car body filler & clay to stick to it.

Shaping it is very quick, I cut the parts out of the sheet oversized slightly, peel the foil off & then I just cut a little off at a time untill I was nearly where I wanted it to be & then sanded it smooth. I didn't try to do the whole thing in one peice...I made up the lower part of the head in 4 sections, after I'd shaped them I glued two sections together to make 1 for either side. I used PVA to glue them together (not ideal but sort of works) & I used 12" kebab sticks to pin the parts to the armature & to reinforce the glued parts.

Thats about it really with the foam, Hope that helps.

Edit, Heres a pic showing it with the top of the head off:



you can see the foam sections one either side & there temporarily help in place with the kebab sticks. The upper jaw required something a little more substantial than just the foam when I started adding weight to the lower jaw so I made that part from stainless steel sheet.

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

OK my silicon (repsil E30) will be here in a couple of day's & I'm hoping to get right on moulding the jaw.

I cant afford to cock this up so I need to get it right first time.

Can any of you moulding guru's offer any tips or constructive critisism with with regards to the moulding process & materials I'm intending to ues??

Heres some more pic's of the jaw :





I'm intending to brush the silicon on all over & then use a cut line from the chin, down both sides, arround the tube mountings at the rear & across the throat with the intention of pouring a solid cast from the areas that are currently in yellow.

Can anybody see any problems I may not have considered here?

Thanks :confused

Edit: Should I have started this in General Modeling or is it OK here?

 

[crypto]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

WOW...This is looking awesome.

What have you used for the teeth, it doesn't look like you sculpted those (unless you did them before the rest of the sculpt ).

Again looking awesome.

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Thanks, Yeh I made the teeth out of car body filler & then painted them with white enamal gloss paint, using enamal seemed kind of fitting.

Heres an early pic of the teeth:



Leigh

 

[madmax]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Nice work are you planning on selling any?if so please make them cheapish for us uk guys,if you make any that are'nt 100% let me know i love a fixer upper.
Keep up the good work and welcome to THE RPF

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Nice work are you planning on selling any?if so please make them cheapish for us uk guys,if you make any that are'nt 100% let me know i love a fixer upper.
Keep up the good work and welcome to THE RPF

WOW :$ Thats the ultimate complement to me Many Thanks,
I'll bear it in mind for when its all finnished but for now I still have alot of work to do.

I was thinking Maybe I should add shoulders & a small part of the back & chest ommiting the tops of the arms making it a proper bust?? in a similar fashion to the Sideshow warrior but without the pose....Any thoughts??

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

OK my silicon (repsil E30) will be here in a couple of day's & I'm hoping to get right on moulding the jaw.

I cant afford to cock this up so I need to get it right first time.

Can any of you moulding guru's offer any tips or constructive critisism with with regards to the moulding process & materials I'm intending to ues??

Anybody?? :confused

 

[knightdriver2001]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

First let me say that BOB is looking completely awesome. thumbsupthumbsup:thumbsup

As for the shoulders and upper arms/back piece. I say do them. It's
always great to see the top part of these bad boys.

You could always make the shoulder/back piece as a seperate section
to where you could place the head and neck in place should you want
to display it with or without them. Just a thought on that.

I definitely can't wait to see more.

Gooooooooooooooooo Bob!

 

[dropshipbob]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

That's looking great!

As for molding, I think most people when they are ready to mold, they cover the piece with some sort of acrylic sealer first? That may fill in the fine detail, so someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Azurial]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

this is sweet! I always look at the Alien creatures and cant help but notice how similar in diesign they are to the innards of the Android they hack up in the first one. I wonder how much of the creature was based on some sort of vision of what future tech might look like...

That said, if you get the gumption to, why not take another whack at one with some really cool looking metal plates and cables all over for an experimental look - that would be sweet!

what kind of foam are you using and how are you cutting it (exacto knife, hotcutter, ect.)

as far as sealing for the mold you can use pretty much anything. a friend of mine used shilack on a helmet before casting and gave it a quick spray of Pam to keep it from sticking.

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Cheers guy's some great replies there, I must admit it didn't occur to me to use a sealer :confused Something to look into.

knightdriver2001's comment has motivated me this afternoon......





& heres the foam & the tool that does most of the work:



I still have alot of shaping On the upper body & I need to add more foam, its in its rough cut state at the moment but its what I had in mind.
He's going to be leaning forward slightly rather than just posed in an upright stand.

 

[knightdriver2001]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Sweet! Man, you work fast too!

I too would go for the leaning forward stance.

When an aliens stands upight (as many of the first movie stills show)
it looks to much likie a guy in a suit. When they are arched forward
and posed, they look much more menicing.......

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for sure........

 

[Finhead]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Wow that is looking fantastic, I love it. :cool
Good choice on leaning him forward a bit, it'll give him some life so to speak. :thumbsup

 

[Leigh]

Re: Bob the Alien creature

Leaning forward a bit more....



But it looks kind of awkward at the moment :confused I think I'll have to employ the missus to pose for me. I'll do that tonight then glue it together so I can start sanding it tomorrow.