Shae Vizla Build: a Collaboration Between Thorssoli and DW Design Studios

[thorssoli]

Last November I made it out to the NorCal Prop Party in Marin County, California and I was happy to get a chance to meet up with many of the talented and well-known members of our community in person for the first time. Walking around, I noticed one of the tables was filled with stuff from DW Design studios. Everything looked even better in person than it does in pictures, but mixed in with everything else were a few vac-formed parts and this picture:


It turns out I was looking at the beginnings of a set of Shae Vizla armor. Since DW Design Studios is not too far away and I needed to come up with something else for my girlfriend to wear to the upcoming Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, we started talking about collaborating. They're doing the bulk of the work, but I'm helping out with some of my digital fabrication tools. Namely, my Objet30 3D printer (nicknamed "Jarvis") and my Carvewright CNC machine (nicknamed "Lopez").

Since I'm no good at 3D modelling, I've also been commissioning Fierfek to tune up some of his Shae Vizla parts so I can feed them to the machines. Here's the first handful of parts that Jarvis built:


These are just a few of the detail parts for the helmet:

I also had Jarvis make the belt buckle with the recessed window for a status display:


Here it is all cleaned up prior to sanding:


Out in the dusty end of the workshop, Lopez started carving out jetpack parts:


Here's all of the pieces of the main body tacked together and primed:


With the addition of a few detail parts, everything was shaping up rather quickly:


Then it got a few more coats of primer:


The last few 3D printed parts will be cast separately:


Meanwhile, the main body of the jetpack was given a few coats of my standard lightish-red glossy prototype color:


Today the moldmaking began. Here's the silicone print coat for the main body of the jetpack:

Tomorrow the moldmaking will continue.

While I've been doing that, DW Design Studios has been cranking out most of the vacformed pieces. The other day I got a box full in the mail:


Here's the vacformed parts cut out and fitted onto a duct-tape copy of the girlfriend:


They've got a long way to go and I may end up having to add a few more pieces here and there, but things are coming together. I have until April of 2015 to get it all done, but hopefully I can knock it out sooner and get focused on some of the other outfits we'll be wearing for the event.

Stay tuned...

 

[Strode]

Stunning work as usual. I look forward to everything you build. You could be building a paper cup and i'd follow it.

 

[spoudastis]

Awesome, really looking forward to your progress!

 

[thorssoli]

Molding progress on the jetpack:


One more pass and this side will be ready for mothermold:


Next I'll start the molds for the upper tank and the little rod that runs across the top. Stay tuned for more updates.

 

[thorssoli]

Alright, so I finally got a chance to do a bit more work on this project. Mostly that amounts to molding the jetpack. First, I've thickened up the outside of the rubber jacket mold and added a few registration keys:


Then I laid up a fiberglass mothermold:


Once that had cured, I flipped the whole arrangement over and repeated the process on the other side:

The block of wood will become the pouring spout when it's time to pour the castings.

After spraying it with a release agent (to keep the new silicone from sticking to the the silicone from the first side) I went ahead and poured the rubber for the second side:


Just like the first side, I went ahead and thickened up the rubber, added registration keys, and then laid up a fiberglass mothermold:


I've still got a little work to do on the mothermolds, but hopefully I'll have a casting or two out of the molds soon.

In other news, I got the girlfriend to stop by the workshop for a quick test fitting of the vacformed parts:


There's still quite a bit of work to be done, but so far so good.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

I've finally gotten around to opening up the mold for the jetpack:


After a bit of cleanup, it was time to rotocast the first copy:


It's not too shabby. Here it is with the little upper cylinder on the bench next to it:


So that's a thing.

Stay tuned, more to come...

 

[joberg]

Another winner here! Thorssoli at work...can't get any better:cool

 

[thorssoli]

It's been way too long since I've updated this thread. Between regular work, traveling, and the holidays, I've only just recently been able to dive back into this project. Hopefully I'll be able to build some momentum.

First off, I've had Lopez carve out the base pieces for the gauntlets:


Since my girlfriend has really skinny wrists, there's no way these would ever fit me:


Here it is in primer:


I've got a bit more smoothing to do before I glue on the 3D printed detail piece and mold it:


I've also printed out a couple more of the details for the belt:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/qMEgub]

Next I need to make the cannister that goes on the back of the belt:


And finally, I've got Lopez the Robot Whittler carving out the main body of the helmet:


I'm still working out exactly how I'm going to do the undersuit. Suggestions welcome.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more...

 

[thorssoli]

On Saturday I pulled all of the helmet parts off of the machine and laid them out for cleanup:


Once assembled, it looked pretty good:


Here I am test-fitting it over a lifecast copy of my girlfriend's head:

It should fit pretty well when her real ears can fold out of the way.

After some very rough sanding to round out the faceted surface, I soaked in a few coats of primer:


Then I went over the seams with some Bondo:


After a bit more sanding, it got another coat of primer:


Now I've got a couple more iterations of filling and sanding to do before it'll be ready for fine detailing:


But it's coming right along:


So with all that out of the way, I'm still looking for ideas on how best to make the undersuit. Any thoughts?

 

[Zephyranthes]

Monochromatic wetsuit. Thats what i suggest.


Kou Uraki.... LAUNCHING!

 

[thorssoli]

Progress has been a bit slow lately, but here's an update all the same...

I've printed out the rockets and rails for the gauntlets:


Here's one in place:

I still need to do some filler work on the back side. The plan is to cast the gauntlets without the rockets attached. That way I can use the same mold for the left and right gauntlets.

After a bit of cleanup, here's what the small parts look like right now:


Meanwhile, Darren of DW Design Studios has made some progress on his parts:

More to come. Stay tuned...

 

[Stocos28]

Wow. I'm blown away by this. Amazing work so far.

 

[usajdm]

Your a beast!

 

[thorssoli]

Thanks. It's been pretty slow going lately, but I've made some small progress on my parts of this project.

I will be molding some of the pieces over the weekend:


Hopefully Darren has made some progress on his parts.

 

[Daeouse]

Awesome.

 

[thorssoli]

Yesterday I 3D printed the forearm display parts for the left gauntlet and cut a piece of blue tinted acrylic to fit inside:
[

Here they are assembled:


It's possible that they're a tiny bit too big, but I wanted the lighted parts to be visible and if I make it much smaller, it'll be too thin to fit an LED:


In other news, I made a mold of the belt detail parts:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/q6QciC]

I still haven't decided how I'm going to tackle the undersuit. It has a lot of textural details and I'm hoping to find a way around sewing the whole thing.

 

[Psicorp7]

I love watching your builds come together! This looks great and the details are outstanding! Good luck on the undersuit.

 

[Sni9er]

This is just simply Stunning great build quality and great use of tools! I aspire to build as prolifically as you haha!

 

[Daeouse]

Wicked cool! Excellent skills!

 

[thorssoli]

Finally got back to work on the helmet:


I decided that the seams were too wide and deep, so I filled them in and I'll be carving them back out once the filler cures.

I also added on the 3D printed ear pucks.

I still have to build the mouth and nose pieces:


I'm just about to start feeling the time crunch for this build, so hopefully I'll be making a lot more progress soon.

Stay tuned...