Rasputin's mecha gloves from "Seed of Destruction" comic

metaweta

New Member
The glove used in the movie adaptation of Hellboy is a beautiful thing, but I decided I'd rather build something closer to the original artwork. Here are the source panels:
Screen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.09.34 AM.pngScreen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.09.27 AM.pngScreen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.08.37 AM.pngScreen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.08.54 AM.pngScreen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.09.06 AM.png
There's an obvious blue vibe going on, with light or white components, lots of wires and cables, and belts and bands of various kinds.

I looked around online for potential components; one of the first things that came to mind were old glass insulators. While evocative and functional, it turns out that they're far too large. The next thing I thought of were ceramic post insulators. I ended up using a bunch of these, but they were too small compared to what I saw in the comic. I paid a dollar on Facebook and asked Mike Mignola what he had in mind when he drew them; he responded, "What you see in the comic is all I know about the glove. I was just drawing shapes." I started looking around for something the right size and shape and hit on Snapple caps. A long screw through the center and an optional mount formed what I called "snapacitors":
IMG_20140929_191635.jpg
To make them match the ceramic insulators better, I used white epoxy gloss appliance paint to cover each cap before assembly.

Mignola clearly got ideas about the Ogdru-Jahad from Lovecraft's monster Cthulhu, who he imagines as a prisoner in the sunken city Rl'yeh. Rl'yeh, in turn, was built using non-Euclidean geometry. There are seven Ogdru Jahad; as a nice coincidence, there's a small finite projective geometry called the Fano plane with seven points and seven lines. The Heawood graph is the Levi graph of the Fano plane, and is visually interesting. I built one out of a rubber seal, some picture hangers and wire, some fork terminals, screws, and ground strap; I call it a "Heawood-Levi motivator":
IMG_20141002_200844.jpg
For the cuff of the glove I used 6" PVC riser; I bought 24 inches and cut it in two parts, one 11 inches and one 13. This difference in length was meant to echo the first source picture.

Walmart had some nice quilted navy blue fabric; I cut a piece about eight inches longer than twice the length of the riser piece, wrapped the pipe in the fabric, pinned it close, then sewed it half way. I turned it inside out and sewed the rest of the way. This let me slide the fabric around the riser, then bring the rest of the tube up the inside, while keeping the rough seams towards the inside. I folded the outer sleeve in at the top and put small screws through it and some gorilla glue to hold it in place.

I bought several black leather belts at Goodwill and some black leather belt scrap off ebay. I wrapped a small one around the top and bottom and screwed it into place. Here's the first cuff starting to take shape:
IMG_20141006_083828.jpg
The comics have several bands underneath the components, so I added more leather strap. It was too bland, though, so I got it wet and added tentacle monster detailing:
IMG_20141007_075325.jpg
I wanted more than just snapacitors, so for variety I bought a box of possibly-burnt-out vacuum tubes.
vacuum tubes.jpg
To mount them, I took an Altoids mints box and cut six holes in the bottom and one slot in the side. I took some femo clay, put it inside, and pressed the tubes in from the top; then I opened it, peeled out the clay and baked it. Finally, I glued the clay in place with gorilla glue. The tin I painted, then mounted to the cuff with some screws. In the slot I put a cold water supply tube for a toilet; the silver mesh worked well with the ground strap.
IMG_20150203_220539.jpg
I made a breaker bar out of some more leather to fill the area under the box. I had a friend with access to a lathe knurl some pipe for me and cut it to make some nice one-tube bases:
IMG_20150203_221513.jpg
For each tube, I drove a screw partway into the cuff, packed epoxy putty aorund it, then put the knurled base over it and packed it full, then pressed the vacuum tube in. When the putty hardened, it bound everything together into a single component.

The other cuff had a lot of the same: snapacitors, post insulators, tubes in knurled bases, black strap with tentacles:
IMG_20150203_221922.jpgIMG_20150203_222240.jpg
The few differences included cutting a piece out of the side so I could bend my elbow, a much larger vacuum tube, a relay, a buzzer,
IMG_20150203_222146.jpgIMG_20150203_222200.jpg
and a tentacly tube. The base is the head from an old VCR, while the "glass" is really a 3-liter bottle preform. The tentacles are made of black and grey femo. To make the suckers, I made small balls of grey clay, then pressed them into the tentacles with the head of a pin.
IMG_20150203_222127.jpgIMG_20150203_222112.jpg
To hold the cuffs up and to match the comic, I got some wide belts to strap around my biceps.
IMG_20150203_221941.jpg
Both cuffs:
IMG_20150203_222347.jpg

I bought some blue welders' gloves:
blue gloves.jpg
and some large chrome grommets for the palm.
IMG_20150203_222440.jpg
The gloves in the comic are ridged, but I didn't feel competent to remake the entire back of the glove; instead I made a ridged pad out of the same navy blue quilt for the back of the hand. It also served to unify the color scheme a bit, since the gloves were a much brighter blue than the cuffs.
IMG_20150203_221854.jpg
To make the robe, I got four yards of black cloth, folded it in half and sewed up the sides. I cut a hole for the head. I made the star out of blue satin ribbon and the dragon out of yellow cloth. I opted to leave off the swastika, since where I live, people are (rightly) far more offended by the actual atrocities committed by Nazis than the imaginary ones from comic books. Here's a half-done picture. I lost the picture where I'm wearing both and shaved my head, but will post it once I take another.
IMG_20141018_181259.jpg

IMG_20140929_191635.jpg


IMG_20141002_200844.jpg


blue gloves.jpg


IMG_20141006_083828.jpg


IMG_20141007_075325.jpg


vacuum tubes.jpg


IMG_20150203_220539.jpg


IMG_20150203_221513.jpg


IMG_20150203_221854.jpg


IMG_20150203_221922.jpg


IMG_20150203_221941.jpg


IMG_20150203_222112.jpg


IMG_20150203_222127.jpg


IMG_20150203_222146.jpg


IMG_20150203_222200.jpg


IMG_20150203_222240.jpg


IMG_20150203_222347.jpg


IMG_20150203_222440.jpg


IMG_20141018_181259.jpg


Screen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.08.37 AM.png


Screen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.08.54 AM.png


Screen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.09.06 AM.png


Screen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.09.27 AM.png


Screen Shot 2014-09-13 at 12.09.34 AM.png
 
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looks amazing, hats off to you its way harder getting good detailed reference pics from a comic. some of the guys/girls who did a kronan build got grief over the ss emblem and swastika but the unwritten rule is.........what happens in comicon stays in comicon :lol be good to see the two glove pic if you ever find it.
 
The glove used in the movie adaptation of Hellboy is a beautiful thing, but I decided I'd rather build something closer to the original artwork. Here are the source panels:
View attachment 435095View attachment 435094View attachment 435091View attachment 435092View attachment 435093
There's an obvious blue vibe going on, with light or white components, lots of wires and cables, and belts and bands of various kinds.

I looked around online for potential components; one of the first things that came to mind were old glass insulators. While evocative and functional, it turns out that they're far too large. The next thing I thought of were ceramic post insulators. I ended up using a bunch of these, but they were too small compared to what I saw in the comic. I paid a dollar on Facebook and asked Mike Mignola what he had in mind when he drew them; he responded, "What you see in the comic is all I know about the glove. I was just drawing shapes." I started looking around for something the right size and shape and hit on Snapple caps. A long screw through the center and an optional mount formed what I called "snapacitors":
View attachment 435060
To make them match the ceramic insulators better, I used white epoxy gloss appliance paint to cover each cap before assembly.

Mignola clearly got ideas about the Ogdru-Jahad from Lovecraft's monster Cthulhu, who he imagines as a prisoner in the sunken city Rl'yeh. Rl'yeh, in turn, was built using non-Euclidean geometry. There are seven Ogdru Jahad; as a nice coincidence, there's a small finite projective geometry called the Fano plane with seven points and seven lines. The Heawood graph is the Levi graph of the Fano plane, and is visually interesting. I built one out of a rubber seal, some picture hangers and wire, some fork terminals, screws, and ground strap; I call it a "Heawood-Levi motivator":
View attachment 435066
For the cuff of the glove I used 6" PVC riser; I bought 24 inches and cut it in two parts, one 11 inches and one 13. This difference in length was meant to echo the first source picture.

Walmart had some nice quilted navy blue fabric; I cut a piece about eight inches longer than twice the length of the riser piece, wrapped the pipe in the fabric, pinned it close, then sewed it half way. I turned it inside out and sewed the rest of the way. This let me slide the fabric around the riser, then bring the rest of the tube up the inside, while keeping the rough seams towards the inside. I folded the outer sleeve in at the top and put small screws through it and some gorilla glue to hold it in place.

I bought several black leather belts at Goodwill and some black leather belt scrap off ebay. I wrapped a small one around the top and bottom and screwed it into place. Here's the first cuff starting to take shape:
View attachment 435069
The comics have several bands underneath the components, so I added more leather strap. It was too bland, though, so I got it wet and added tentacle monster detailing:
View attachment 435070
I wanted more than just snapacitors, so for variety I bought a box of possibly-burnt-out vacuum tubes.
View attachment 435071
To mount them, I took an Altoids mints box and cut six holes in the bottom and one slot in the side. I took some femo clay, put it inside, and pressed the tubes in from the top; then I opened it, peeled out the clay and baked it. Finally, I glued the clay in place with gorilla glue. The tin I painted, then mounted to the cuff with some screws. In the slot I put a cold water supply tube for a toilet; the silver mesh worked well with the ground strap.
View attachment 435073
I made a breaker bar out of some more leather to fill the area under the box. I had a friend with access to a lathe knurl some pipe for me and cut it to make some nice one-tube bases:
View attachment 435077
For each tube, I drove a screw partway into the cuff, packed epoxy putty aorund it, then put the knurled base over it and packed it full, then pressed the vacuum tube in. When the putty hardened, it bound everything together into a single component.

The other cuff had a lot of the same: snapacitors, post insulators, tubes in knurled bases, black strap with tentacles:
View attachment 435081View attachment 435087
The few differences included cutting a piece out of the side so I could bend my elbow, a much larger vacuum tube, a relay, a buzzer,
View attachment 435085View attachment 435086
and a tentacly tube. The base is the head from an old VCR, while the "glass" is really a 3-liter bottle preform. The tentacles are made of black and grey femo. To make the suckers, I made small balls of grey clay, then pressed them into the tentacles with the head of a pin.
View attachment 435084View attachment 435083
To hold the cuffs up and to match the comic, I got some wide belts to strap around my biceps.
View attachment 435082
Both cuffs:
View attachment 435088

I bought some blue welders' gloves:
View attachment 435067
and some large chrome grommets for the palm.
View attachment 435089
The gloves in the comic are ridged, but I didn't feel competent to remake the entire back of the glove; instead I made a ridged pad out of the same navy blue quilt for the back of the hand. It also served to unify the color scheme a bit, since the gloves were a much brighter blue than the cuffs.
View attachment 435080
To make the robe, I got four yards of black cloth, folded it in half and sewed up the sides. I cut a hole for the head. I made the star out of blue satin ribbon and the dragon out of yellow cloth. I opted to leave off the swastika, since where I live, people are (rightly) far more offended by the actual atrocities committed by Nazis than the imaginary ones from comic books. Here's a half-done picture. I lost the picture where I'm wearing both and shaved my head, but will post it once I take another.
View attachment 435090

WOW!!! Your Mecha-Glove is awesome! :thumbsup

When you have time please take a look at my Mecha-Glove build thread. The link is my signature.

Great job for real!
 
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Just fantastic. What a great idea for a build! I think you should replace the flat screw heads with round headed brass screws.
 
Awesome build, it looks realy nice.
I just have one question about your build.

where did you find 'a box of possibly-burnt-out vacuum tubes'?
 
Thanks!
> where did you find 'a box of possibly-burnt-out vacuum tubes'?
It was on etsy. A guy sold me a whole box of them for $25.
 
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Rasputin.jpeg
I couldn't ever find one where I'd shaved my head. Here's one from earlier that week. In my left hand is a broken antenna from an NMR probe.
 
Very cool! You really went all the way, and got the cloak and even the colors. And you look suitably sinister, too :)

"I have not failed, von Klempt..."


-MJ
 
Just fantastic. What a great idea for a build! I think you should replace the flat screw heads with round headed brass screws.
Thank you! I stayed away from brass for the most part because the color scheme was blue and white; that said, I agree that the motivator and breaker bar would look better with the rounded brass. I'll order some and make the switch.
 
I'd like to recreate the source panels in a series of photos. For the tube, the obvious thing to do is fluorescent lighting, but I can't break that without getting mercury all over. Instead, I was thinking of getting a clear plastic tube and frosting it, then lighting it from the inside with small, bright LED flashlights at either end.

Any recommendations for the smoke effects? For the fourth panel, maybe some of that blue glow-in-the-dark powder meant for mixing into silicone? It might be easier to add CG smoke.
 
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