Huntorial: How To Make A Bio Armature

PredatrHuntr

Master Member
Huntorial: How To Make a Bio Armature


Want to sculpt a Bio with clay, but don't know where to start? First you'll need an armature. What is an armature? It's the base and basic shape of the Bio on which you will put your clay. It should be hard and sturdy enough to support the weight of 9-10 pounds of clay that you're going to put on later. The way I make mine is to first start off with a basic wire shape of the Bio. I bought the wire at Home Depot and then just started bending it with my hands a set of pliers.

Lethbridge-20110706-00115.jpg


To make sure I had the right shape, I placed it inside the P1 Stunt in order to follow the same design.

Img_280200.jpg


I added more wires to give it more structure and support for the burlap that will go on next

Lethbridge-20110708-00125.jpg


The messy part is mixing plaster of paris and some burlap. Cheesecloth works too. When you dip the cloth into the plaster, there is a very short time that you can work with it before the plaster dries. So, mix up small amounts of plaster, dip the cloth in and smoosh it around so that the plaster gets soaked in, and then place the cloth on the wire frame:

Img_2869.jpg


Depending on how hot it is in your work area, the plaster and cloth will dry within a couple hours or so. Keep adding the cloth/plaster until you have about 3 layers.

Flip it over after it's dried and then you can put more strips of cloth around the edges of the armature.

Img_0139.jpg


If you want to, you can even plaster the inside although it's not necessary

Img_2874.jpg



I let mine dry overnight, and then the next day I wrapped it in tinfoil and started putting the clay on in the generic shape of a Bio

Img_2990.jpg


That's all there is to an armature. I've seen people make armatures that are mounted to a pole, but then you risk the pole breaking and your entire armature with clay on it (because it gets heavy!) toppling over and destroying what you've worked on.

The downside to my method is that I won't have a lip that goes around the edges of the Bio when I go to mold it once the sculpt is done.
 
Damn...Now I know what to do.

Awesome, thank you for this.

Although... what are the exact dimensions of your process Jason? The width/height/thickness of a bio that is complete in the Bio form after being sculpted.

I think I seen some where that a Bio is to be 15" at the widest part of the crown and somewhere around 13" from chin tip to top of the crown. Am I wrong in these measurements?
 
Feb 24, 2012 Payment To
Sculptclayandtools.com
Completed -$52.90 $0.00 -$52.90 USD


I too have decided it was time. This is going to be a blast!!! I cannot wait to start on this project. Wish me luck guys... it's been a long time coming.

I told my wife I was ordering it since she ordered a couch. I would say that is a fair trade. I love/hate tax season, .
 
My only fear is that I wouldn't get the angles right to fit on a mask... in that case shouldn't I bend the wires to sort of fit the angles of the mask? Or am i thinking too deep? lol
 
If you want to make a bio to fit a mask, then you would want to base the dimensions around the mask itself so that it would fit to the shape of the Pred's face.

Thats why i made mine from fiberglass, i wante it to fit my xdmray gen 2 half mask, so i masked the whole thing with masking tape and then added some layers of fiberglass cloth and resin over it
 
Thats why i made mine from fiberglass, i wante it to fit my xdmray gen 2 half mask, so i masked the whole thing with masking tape and then added some layers of fiberglass cloth and resin over it
Like I said... why don't you share your process of making this armature with us so we have a better understanding of how the process works? It sounds pretty durable and fairly well built.
 
so i masked the whole thing with masking tape and then added some layers of fiberglass cloth and resin over it


Sound pretty straight forward to me. Doesn't need any more explanation really. If you don't know how to fiberglass it tells you on the back of the can. Easy peasy. (y)
 
I cant do it ,cause i didnt took pics of when i was doing it and now my mask is finished and im not gonna mask it like that, dont want to get it damaged
 
Okay... now I feel I am being made fun of. :sleep:

Sorry, didn't mean to sound so "adamant" about it. I thought it would just be cool to see other ideas on how an armature is created. I understand if you don't have progress pic's and I will now leave it as is.

Thanks for the basic ideas... I think.
 
No one's making fun of you bro...of course we'd like to see more ways to make an armature. Thomas just made one, and I'd really like to see him add his pictures to this thread too ;)
 
I would think you would want a thin layer of glass over whatever you covered your mask with and then once it is hardened, return to the underside of the armature and continuing laminating from underneath. This would ensure a much tighter fit to your mask. Otherwise your're just building up away from the mask and increasing the gap (The Armature edge becomes the gap). Does this make sense? Now, you may run into a problem with masking tape if you try to do it this way because, from past experience on my latest headache project, the resin doesn't bond with the masking tape and delaminates (At least Smooth-On 320 did). If you do try and glass the underside, just make sure the tape isn't delaminating. Just my two cents...
 
This thread is more than 11 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top