Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! COMPLETED

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Still waiting for my supplies order to arrive and got bored...what is it they say about idle hands? Yeah...here's what I've been doing since last post.
The "device" has some very ornate features and I decided to get started on those that will be cast separately from the main body and then attached.
Below is a pic showing the underside of the device and you can see all around the edge are 12 pieces I refer to as "The Bee's and the Bee's Knees". They all appear to be Bee's that are looking at you with the ones in the middle, three on either side, six total, having long legs of the device protruding as if it were their noses. I call these middle six
"Bee's Knees" as they make-up the knee-caps for the legs.

I had some scrap blue wax laying around so I started on this detail.

I got out my digital calipers and went about figuring out the size of these pieces and finally figured it to be
0.458" across(wing tip to wing tip) and 0.578" (Top to bottom) which is pretty small and reminded me that I need to get some magnifying glasses.
Here's the wax with an image stuck to it:

And with the lines cut in around it:

Here it is cut almost free from the wax.

And here it is finished after a number of hours working on it:

Now that this is finished I'll make a wax injection mold on it so I can make the other five that way and not have to sculpt them all by hand.
Next up will be the sculpting of the "Bees-Knees" which should be very challenging. The blue wax let's me bend it though so maybe it wont be as hard as I think!

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Just a small up-date and then back at it as some supplies have arrived.

Here's a leg image mounted on wax prior to cutting out.

Cutting in on the leg complete.

Cut out and detailed.
Sorry I didn't bother with a pic of the carving process on this piece.
Both it and the other "Bee" are so small that I found it difficult to break away from the sculpting/carving once I got going on it.

The two "Bee" ornaments completed.
I still need to warm and bend the leg to fit the body prior to casting both pieces up for injection molding. That is the beauty of the blue wax, it's made for just such warming and bending.

Next up: Snake Disk and some minor lower body detailing before creating an injection mold on both halves.

 

[wuher da brewer]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

I love your progress!

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Up-date.
Here's some little progress on carving the device.
Snake dial outlined.
I had to do this part three times before I got it right.
The real problem is lining up those circles evenly within
each other and what I finally hit on was carving the outer circle first and then adding the inner circle as a separate piece.

The finished dial. As you can see, I added metal beads to create the dot detail which is sort of cheating but it saves me having to carve each and every one by hand.
I'll leave it to you all to decide whether or not I should add the litle diamond shaped key-hole in the middle.
They actually made a unique key to wind the device with but it was never used or seen in the movie.

Starting on the hollowing of the bottom half.

Bottom half hollowed to the point where it's ready to be molded up.

Top half hollowed.

A number of you have asked about smoothing out the wax before molding so here's the technique I used.
Below you see a close-up of the top of the device prior to any smoothing.
For small parts I use lighter fluid to smooth and remove excess shavings.
For bigger parts I used steel wool #0000 and rubbed each piece in circular motions until smooth.

After smoothing with steel wool.

Bottom half smoothed with steel wool.

You may have noticed that I left extra wax on the top and bottom halves.
I did that so I have excess wax to work with when the detail carving begins. I'm shooting for both halves together weighing less than a couple of ounces when I'm done.
Next up will be sculpting the legs and making the wax injection molds on the parts.

 

[agliarept]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

wow im really really digging your WIP. gotta say so far so good!!!!

 

[Howlrunner]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Amazing work on sculpting such small and fiddly parts! :thumbsup

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Thanks guy's!
I appreciate your continued interest, it really does encourage me to move ahead with the piece.

The last of the small "fiddly" parts will be the legs...here's a production shot just to give you an idea of how small they are:

Mine will be non-hinged however so that should save me a lot of time.

 

[Eaglewood]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Paul,
you are for sure an artist--great work.

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Thanks Clay! that does mean a lot coming from you.
More soon!

 

[juno]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Looking good! What do you use for your wax injection molds?

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Thanks Juno!
I'm planning on picking something up from Smooth-on's "Sorta-Clear" series for making my wax injection molds.
I'm looking for something that cures almost clear so that I can see the wax models through it for cutting the molds open accuratley.
I also want it to be thick and rubbery and I'm told Sorta-Clear is the way to go for both of these.

Did I actually say that the leg was the last of the "fiddly" parts?
I should have said the needle assembly will be the last.
I now have the leg mostly finished and will be moving on to the "stinger" needle assembly next.
Pics soon!

 

[rollerboi]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Wow. This is really inspiring, thank you. I have really enjoyed seeing the process. :thumbsup

 

[LDR]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

This is great work, and very interesting seeing how youve done it.

How do you do the hollowing inside, what tool is used?

This blue wax looks very interesting i might have to get some to try out, where can it be bought?

You should do more stuff from wax....like...um....a managlore grenade! Lol.

Great work, looking forward to seeing the finished piece.

Lewis

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Thanks LDR and everyone.
You can get waxes in varying types (hard(green) to softer(blue) and in varying shapes (bricks, rods and slices) at RioGrande Jewelry Supply.
I use a number of different tools for wax carving but am also finding a set of German surgical scalpals that I have to be quite handy!

Time for an up-date:

Figuring out how big around the legs are.

And the length.

Almost finished with the leg but it turns out to be too long. I cut it down with my wax pen and refiled a lot of it.

Cut down in length and re-filed and detailed. Notice how it looks insect like?

Starting in on cutting out the Stinger Needle.

Cut out and shaping begun.

Needle finished...notice the little Bee Face on the end? It's a running theme with the device.

Cut a length for the Stinger Needle Track and tried warming it and bending to fit...no good, it broke.
So I ended up cutting out a curved piece to fit.

Curved piece cut and fit.

Curved piece hollowed and Stinger Needle fit into it.

Stinger needle and track fit to the device with a pin as a make-shift hinge.
I still need to add the posts near the base of the track and make slots for them on the device it'self then that's it, the "fiddly" pieces will be done!
Next up will be making the wax injection molds and making duplicates of all the pieces. This next step make take a little bit as I'm waiting for an
E-Bay auction of mine to finish so I have some funds to buy more materials.
Thanks for looking and more soon!

 

[Eaglewood]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Thanks Juno!
I'm planning on picking something up from Smooth-on's "Sorta-Clear" series for making my wax injection molds.
I'm looking for something that cures almost clear so that I can see the wax models through it for cutting the molds open accuratley.
I also want it to be thick and rubbery and I'm told Sorta-Clear is the way to go for both of these.

Did I actually say that the leg was the last of the "fiddly" parts?
I should have said the needle assembly will be the last.
I now have the leg mostly finished and will be moving on to the "stinger" needle assembly next.
Pics soon!

Sorta Claar 18 is great.

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Good to know Clay!
I noticed that they offer two kinds and was leaning towards the 18.
Can't wait to get some and get the bigger molds made!

 

[Howlrunner]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Looking great! :thumbsup

Are you planning on having the stinger moveable on the finished piece then, yes?

 

[Knightjar]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Lovely. I've wanted to do one for ages, but it would be hard to improve on your work.

 

[Mutant-Enemy]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

Thanks guy's!
Howlrunner: I don't think it will be too difficult to make the stinger assembley "moveable",
I'm just at a little bit of a quandry as to whether or not I should leave it loose for manual manipulation or if I should attach a spring or magnet so that it stay's in place.

Just to get it out there: I'm open to suggestions here as to any mechanical expertise you all may have!

I'm looking at having the snake dial be windable as I really want to see that snake chasing his tail and I also want to be able to extend and retract the legs manually.

I have contacted a couple of people on the mechanics.
One was Rick Gamez who lives locally to me but he is apparently too busy to even respond.
The other is a master watch maker and he has promised to help me out when he returns from his vacation in Norway!
More news as it comes in. Thanks again for looking all!

 

[LDR]

Re: Guillermo del Toro's Cronos Device...digging in! W.I.P

NIce work, lookin great.

Very detailed and very fiddly by the looks.

Lewis