P4r4dox86
Well-Known Member
So I decided to take a bit of time away from my Sterling Archer build to remake my Vortex Manipulator for my Captain Jack Harkness cosplay. The original one I made was made in about 2-3hrs the night before my first ever convention and, to be honest, is horrendous. I have always wanted to remake it, however it has worked as something to have on my arm that basically resembles the Manipulator up until this point, but seeing as I now have much more experience in prop building I thought now was the time. This is V2.0, which is a non-working model, I plan on creating a V3.0 in the future that will have working buttons and lights etc, but for now I won't complicate things as yet again I was on a time schedule.
I began by using Airdry clay to sculpt the faceplate portion of the VM. Yes, I'm aware there are 3D printable files available on the Shapeways website etc, so there are easier ways to go about building this, however I have wanted to try my hand at sculpting/molding/casting a piece for a while now, and this seemed like a perfect small introduction piece. As stated earlier, I had decided to make the faceplate one piece for this version, so the buttons etc were all molded and attached to the faceplate.
Once I had a good base sculpt I cleaned it up a bit, and when I was happy with what I had I gave my first silicone mold a shot. Considering this is my first outing with silicone I was quite happy with the result.
My first cast in resin came out pitted due to the mold release I used still being present in the mold. I think I either used too much, or I was a little too excited and didn't wait long enough before casting. I also attempted to make a 'shell' rotocast rather than a full solid piece which worked to a decent standard, but wasn't perfect in it's thickness and strength. The second casting was much better after I made sure the mold release was smoothed out, and I poured a solid piece this time. This was then sanded slightly and painted up, albeit fairly quickly as I was losing light and needed it ready for today for a costume event.
I used the original clay sculpt piece to cast a Worbla case and used both pieces to then wet form a leather piece to use as the top flap. While this was forming, and between paint coats, I got to work sorting out the leather work. This was my first proper attempt at working with leather as last time my fiancee simply threw it under her sewing machine for a quick stitch and I used a bunch of superglue. This time I wanted to do a decent job, so I hand sewed the leather. I used a piece of Worbla, adhered to the underside of the leather piece, to form the 'window' portion around the faceplate so it would form itself smoothly and properly without wet forming. It worked quite well, apart from some slight 'bleeding' of Worbla around the edges. This is something I would take into consideration next time, however the use of Worbla as a forming agent for leather, at least in this case, worked quite well.
The only thing I haven't managed to get done is to attach the snaps to the flap and base so that the flap can be attached. Unfortunately I ran out of time last night and am at work today, so won't have time before my event tonight, however it can be worn without the flap ala River Song's Manipulator. I'll attach the snaps at a later date when I have more time.
The entire build, minus the sculpting of the clay faceplate, took me around 10hrs.
I'll upload pics of the completed piece once I've got the snaps on the top cover.
I began by using Airdry clay to sculpt the faceplate portion of the VM. Yes, I'm aware there are 3D printable files available on the Shapeways website etc, so there are easier ways to go about building this, however I have wanted to try my hand at sculpting/molding/casting a piece for a while now, and this seemed like a perfect small introduction piece. As stated earlier, I had decided to make the faceplate one piece for this version, so the buttons etc were all molded and attached to the faceplate.
Once I had a good base sculpt I cleaned it up a bit, and when I was happy with what I had I gave my first silicone mold a shot. Considering this is my first outing with silicone I was quite happy with the result.
My first cast in resin came out pitted due to the mold release I used still being present in the mold. I think I either used too much, or I was a little too excited and didn't wait long enough before casting. I also attempted to make a 'shell' rotocast rather than a full solid piece which worked to a decent standard, but wasn't perfect in it's thickness and strength. The second casting was much better after I made sure the mold release was smoothed out, and I poured a solid piece this time. This was then sanded slightly and painted up, albeit fairly quickly as I was losing light and needed it ready for today for a costume event.
I used the original clay sculpt piece to cast a Worbla case and used both pieces to then wet form a leather piece to use as the top flap. While this was forming, and between paint coats, I got to work sorting out the leather work. This was my first proper attempt at working with leather as last time my fiancee simply threw it under her sewing machine for a quick stitch and I used a bunch of superglue. This time I wanted to do a decent job, so I hand sewed the leather. I used a piece of Worbla, adhered to the underside of the leather piece, to form the 'window' portion around the faceplate so it would form itself smoothly and properly without wet forming. It worked quite well, apart from some slight 'bleeding' of Worbla around the edges. This is something I would take into consideration next time, however the use of Worbla as a forming agent for leather, at least in this case, worked quite well.
The only thing I haven't managed to get done is to attach the snaps to the flap and base so that the flap can be attached. Unfortunately I ran out of time last night and am at work today, so won't have time before my event tonight, however it can be worn without the flap ala River Song's Manipulator. I'll attach the snaps at a later date when I have more time.
The entire build, minus the sculpting of the clay faceplate, took me around 10hrs.
I'll upload pics of the completed piece once I've got the snaps on the top cover.
.
