Female Yautja build - (wip)

MikaPred2 · May 31, 2015

that should work too!

kristen jones · Jun 1, 2015

The bracer looks fantastic! Once you get round to offering casts of them I am definitely interested... though hopefully you can come up with a rigid version.

kehlan1 · Jun 1, 2015

Ok, I know this is a stupid question but I cant quite grasp how you did the mould line. When you have a three dimensional item like your bracer,which does not have a flat side, how do you go about making a two piece mould for it?

spgfx · Jun 1, 2015

The soft actual mold is a latex sleeve with a single seem at the bottom. The 2 piece hard shell is plaster and split on center line in 2 place to get 2 individual pieces. Once the latex mold was done I created the mold lines for the shell with coated paying cards (thank you alphatech)

The mold is slush castes allowed to dry and then the latex is romoved form the shell and then the peeled off the molds part.

Let me know if this makes sense or more pics will help

kristen jones · Jun 12, 2015

The material that spgfx used to make this bracer is PERFECT for ALL of the armour. I have one of them in my hands right now and it is light, durable yet flexible and VERY well detailed.

I hope there will be more armour parts coming soon... because the blade gauntlet is a definite win. It looks fantastic and feels like it would last a lifetime.

spgfx · Jun 14, 2015

Got a lot of work done this weekend. I got the mold done for the 1/2 mask. My 1st mold, the blade gauntlet was needed a bit bulk to it and I had to redo the outside shell after 3 casts. For this mold I think I have went a bit overkill. It's a really nice looking mold and really sturdy

Here is the finished 1 side. With the mold wall pulled off.

Having nice straight lines allowed for a nice edge and alignment in the 2nd side. Here is the layup for the second side. Alignment keys, pry points and mold release.

1st pour - Beauty coat followed by the burlap then a final clean up coat. I polished the mold and broke all the edges for a nice clean finish.

This mold looks really good on the outside. I really excited and scared to see what's on the inside. I'm gonna let it sit and open it up tomorrow. Fingers crossed !

I got some work done on the blade gauntlet also. I had a blade left over from my 1st build so I did a test fit.

I don't know if this is the exact blade I will be using but it's close. I can't decide if I like op open blade design. The casting came out really clean and with a little bit of clean up and primer it looks really good and fit my daughters arm great.

MikaPred2 · Jun 14, 2015

My only suggestion for the wrist blades is to close that rear opening where it cuts into the very back. That support area will prolly snap very easily if not made whole. Just an observation and suggestion.

spgfx · Jun 15, 2015

Thank you for the input. This is just a test blade I had cut from some very flimsy material. If I go with this open blade design I will need to recut it and will fix that wierd cut at the back.

kristen jones · Jun 15, 2015

The undermask looks absolutely ACE! When it's done I will definitely buy one from you.

I like the look of the wrist blade, but I would not make it a cutout blade design... that would be VERY weak. Speaking from experience... I made a solid blade out of MDF and still managed to break it off just getting it hooked on something while getting suited up. Your resin will be sturdier than my MDF, but if you make the blades solid so much the better. The cutout looks very cool... but I don't think it would hold up.

I'll be wanting to buy one of EVERYTHING you make for this

LunaticNic · Jun 15, 2015

Awesome build so far! really digging the gauntlet!

spgfx · Jun 16, 2015

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday and what better gift than to open the mold. It came apart very easy using the pry points. Most of the Clay pulled away from the mold in one big clump. All that was left was a few bits here and there. I left it out in the hot Florida sun and then scrub it with some hot water. All that was left was a few bits here and there. I left it out in the hot Florida sun and then scrub it with some hot water. It won't take much work to get the rest of it clean. All the details came out perfect it's amazing to see. I can't wait to slap some latex into it

Here is what the mold look like just after opening with no cleaning.

And here's with just a little bit of scrubbing. It's funny in these pics it's hard to tell if the features are going in or sticking out.

spgfx · Jun 17, 2015

One issue that I do need to get a better handle on is materials, specifically the clay for the sculpt and the mold wall. I made the sculpt from craft smart plastilina clay from Michaels. This clay works pretty good but it's also pretty soft. I had to be real careful when constructing the mold wall. I tried working out in the garage but the heat made the sculpt really soft. Inside, in the AC was a lot better. I had some air dry clay that I had planned to use for the mold wall but it was to hard and deformed the sculpt when pressing it in. I ended up using crayola model magic. This stuff is really soft and spongy. It worked out ok but I would not use it again. I'm thinking in need a harder clay for the sculpt and then use the Michaels plastilina clay for the wall. It seems there needs to be quite some difference in the hardness of the two clays.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

LunaticNic · Jun 17, 2015

I used monster makers oil based clay for my sculp, and the only time it really is soft is if you put it in the microwave or use a heat gun on it to soften/ melt the clay.

spgfx · Jun 17, 2015

LunaticNic - What about your mold wall. I'm thinking about going with the medium Chavant Modeling clay for sculpting. I know people use air dry clay for mold walls but why ? The air dry clay I have is pretty hard and leaves a residue but it's cheap. Can air dry be softened ?

predtrooper · Jun 17, 2015

Iv just received some oil based clay, which iv never used before and its verry hard and im finding it difficult to use compared to softer clay. I never thought of using a heat gun to soften it

LunaticNic · Jun 17, 2015

I used thin aluminum sheets that were about 6x4 inches. And predtrooper I use the microwave to initially heat it up and then use the heat gun to work on the sculpt if it cools down to far to work with

LunaticNic · Jun 17, 2015

And I'm not certain about air-dry and how to soften it, my best guess would be water, but again not certain

spgfx · Jun 20, 2015

I got my 1st mask pull from the mold. 4 layers of latex slush cast. It took about 10 hours total for all coats. Things went great. I stared by paining a beauty coat on each half when they were apart. I let this dry for a bit then put the 2 halves togather and applied latex to the seam. I was able to situate the mold so that the excess latex pooled in the appropriate areas. The back crown and mandible sides and front are almost solid. I let things sit over night and opened it up in the morning. I had noticed that it had pulled away from the mold in areas but the cast looks good and came out of the mold very easily. I did let the 1st two coats dry almost completely and did not see any pulling.
Here are some pics.

The mask fit back on the head armature great. I slit the back a bit to get it on.

spgfx · Jun 21, 2015

Now that I have this cool under mask done, I get to make a really cool bio to cover it up. I got all the clay from the mask sculpt all cleaned up and ready to go. I plan on building the bio substructure from foam board. This should provide a nice solid base to work the clay on. Here is a pic of the Bio I'm going to model mine from

spgfx · Jun 21, 2015

It's been another very productive weekend. I got the spear tip all cut, glued and roughed in. This spear is going to be long so I'm going to break it up with insert nuts at the tip and 1/2 up the shaft.

I also made a new armature for the gauntlets that is a bit larger and is tapered so I don't need 3 inches of clay to build it up. I got some clay on that and got the left gauntlet roughed in. I still have to decide what I want to do with the front part of this gauntlet. I'm not to crazy about the front section on the Sheila model. I think I'm going to try and bring a design detail from the blade gauntlet over for the front.