Just throwing out there Work in Progress for my latest project. These aren't the first replica out there, and surely won't be the last! I haven't dared tackle them up to this point for a few reasons, among them a lack of excellent reference and the sheer daunting wall of their complexity and number of parts. So far I count 27 unique pieces with varying complexity, just on one hand! I tip my hat to all the makers I've seen tackle these seriously.
A bit of the madness of Photoshop scaling, and my rough scan of screen used gloves.
As of this moment I'm about 13 parts in, and I'm focusing first on the right hand primarily, as it's more complex and has more pieces which need fabricating. That said, I've already finished the spidery bone attachments for both hands as if I'm seeing correctly there are only 3 unique constructs of those, with 8 unique pieces.
These were intimidating but I think I got them all figured out. The screen used pieces appear to use braided wire cast (or glued) into the ends of each piece to function as joints. The solidity of each termination's mounting to the hands provides the stability to the assembly. 5/8 washers are cast into ends that get screwed down and 3/16 brass rods are cast into the ends of the thin straight 'bones' to mount to posts cast into the scissors or bolts screwed to the cuffs. At first I thought the joints were something very fiddly like miniature machined pieces and pins, but my new best hypothesis is much more likely. I'd really have to handle original pieces to be certain but I'm pretty close.
I also finished (including printing and finishing) the standoffs for the right arm (left arm has none) as well as a boom arm for the long right hand spring. These parts are so small and never seen in detail on screen, so getting quality reference for them was a chore.
The plan is to go full monty on this replica, including all the same bits and bobs used on the film hands. This includes stainless wire, shear springs, Crimp style ring terminals, washers and brass rod cast into the bone attachments, 1/4-20 bolts cast into the hand castings, and a custom steel D ring for the right wrist. The blades will be vacuum metalized for the chrome look just as the film blades were. They will be wearable, but I myself don't have big cosplay plans!
Right gauntlet WIP - still needs final touches here and there. Matching these 100% is quite a project without access to original pieces, as they have a lot of compound curves and subtle surfaces. Even as a huge fan of the movie, seeing them bare looks almost wrong since they're buried in handles and rarely seen up close on screen. Some of you are probably even looking at this and saying to yourselves "THAT's not what the hands look like" I've been studying them for weeks now and discover new subtleties every day. Hard bevels twisting 90 degrees around details and things like that. HMS Mike did a great service to the fans in posting near-orthographic views of a raw casting of these parts, without which it would be nearly impossible to make sense of some of the geometry looking only at images of finished hands. Even with decent photos, all the attachments and blades block a lot of detail. I think I'll suck these in slightly, output and do an oil based clay glaze on them to get the high fidelity 'hammered' homemade look of the actual pieces. The grommets and miniature screw details will be real pieces added to the master before molding, much as I did with my earlier Immortan Joe mask.
I can also say with confidence that these will be exactly the same size as the film used gauntlets and blades. I mean at least within 5% or better. On top of being able to scale consistently off of the common-sized hardware used on the gloves, I was able to build a (very) rough 3d scan of the real thing, as well as careful photoshop study using JD's height cross referenced with a genuine scissorhands moon buckle casting to triple check sizing. FInally, double checking fit compared to my own hand.
The digital buck I'm sculpting over in Zbrush here is actually a 100% scale 3d scan of my hand, which ensures proper anatomical proportions. I actually started with a 3d model of a hand I had laying around and quickly found it unconvincing, even though it looked like a pretty decent model. In hindsight I'm super glad I did the scan as it highlighted the inherent strange angle between a hand bent in that position and the forearm, which isn't immediately obvious. It helped make sense of the strap loop at the back jutting off to the side like it does.
Thanks for looking! And anyone out there is truly comfortable with leather work I'm on the lookout for somebody to help me realize the leather cuffs properly. I'm mulling a very limited run to make the cost of metalizing worthwhile.
A bit of the madness of Photoshop scaling, and my rough scan of screen used gloves.
As of this moment I'm about 13 parts in, and I'm focusing first on the right hand primarily, as it's more complex and has more pieces which need fabricating. That said, I've already finished the spidery bone attachments for both hands as if I'm seeing correctly there are only 3 unique constructs of those, with 8 unique pieces.
These were intimidating but I think I got them all figured out. The screen used pieces appear to use braided wire cast (or glued) into the ends of each piece to function as joints. The solidity of each termination's mounting to the hands provides the stability to the assembly. 5/8 washers are cast into ends that get screwed down and 3/16 brass rods are cast into the ends of the thin straight 'bones' to mount to posts cast into the scissors or bolts screwed to the cuffs. At first I thought the joints were something very fiddly like miniature machined pieces and pins, but my new best hypothesis is much more likely. I'd really have to handle original pieces to be certain but I'm pretty close.
I also finished (including printing and finishing) the standoffs for the right arm (left arm has none) as well as a boom arm for the long right hand spring. These parts are so small and never seen in detail on screen, so getting quality reference for them was a chore.
The plan is to go full monty on this replica, including all the same bits and bobs used on the film hands. This includes stainless wire, shear springs, Crimp style ring terminals, washers and brass rod cast into the bone attachments, 1/4-20 bolts cast into the hand castings, and a custom steel D ring for the right wrist. The blades will be vacuum metalized for the chrome look just as the film blades were. They will be wearable, but I myself don't have big cosplay plans!
Right gauntlet WIP - still needs final touches here and there. Matching these 100% is quite a project without access to original pieces, as they have a lot of compound curves and subtle surfaces. Even as a huge fan of the movie, seeing them bare looks almost wrong since they're buried in handles and rarely seen up close on screen. Some of you are probably even looking at this and saying to yourselves "THAT's not what the hands look like" I've been studying them for weeks now and discover new subtleties every day. Hard bevels twisting 90 degrees around details and things like that. HMS Mike did a great service to the fans in posting near-orthographic views of a raw casting of these parts, without which it would be nearly impossible to make sense of some of the geometry looking only at images of finished hands. Even with decent photos, all the attachments and blades block a lot of detail. I think I'll suck these in slightly, output and do an oil based clay glaze on them to get the high fidelity 'hammered' homemade look of the actual pieces. The grommets and miniature screw details will be real pieces added to the master before molding, much as I did with my earlier Immortan Joe mask.
I can also say with confidence that these will be exactly the same size as the film used gauntlets and blades. I mean at least within 5% or better. On top of being able to scale consistently off of the common-sized hardware used on the gloves, I was able to build a (very) rough 3d scan of the real thing, as well as careful photoshop study using JD's height cross referenced with a genuine scissorhands moon buckle casting to triple check sizing. FInally, double checking fit compared to my own hand.
The digital buck I'm sculpting over in Zbrush here is actually a 100% scale 3d scan of my hand, which ensures proper anatomical proportions. I actually started with a 3d model of a hand I had laying around and quickly found it unconvincing, even though it looked like a pretty decent model. In hindsight I'm super glad I did the scan as it highlighted the inherent strange angle between a hand bent in that position and the forearm, which isn't immediately obvious. It helped make sense of the strap loop at the back jutting off to the side like it does.
Thanks for looking! And anyone out there is truly comfortable with leather work I'm on the lookout for somebody to help me realize the leather cuffs properly. I'm mulling a very limited run to make the cost of metalizing worthwhile.
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