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

[DW Design Studios]

First I want to say this project would not have gotten finished without Shawn's help. He is a amazing prop build and a hell of a nice guy! I wanted to share some of my build pics. I'm a little embarrassed because these are all over a year old. But it gives you some idea of how I went about sculpting and building some of my pieces.
Here's a pic of my chest build as well as some of the vac bucks and pieces.




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Here's Abby being cute!


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[DW Design Studios]

This is kind of cool. I traded with a friend that does circuit board work.
He has made a little light board that will fit into the buckle. I created a pieces of artwork in Adobe Illustrator that will fit the buckle.
The copy is in the SW font Aurebesh. The final version will read with Shawn's name and info as well as mine. We might throw in some other fun stuff as well.

 

[DW Design Studios]

Here is a pic of the front and back parts that the belt will attach to. I'm not sure if these will be vacuformed pieces or made from rubber. I think it might be more comfortable for the person wearing the suit if they were flexible. The small piece in the bottom corner of the pic is for the chest.

 

[DW Design Studios]

I cast the first bicep/armband for the Shea Vizla suit last night. The main greebles are cast in resin. The band and back greebles are rubber.

 

[thorssoli]

Looking good, Darren. I can't wait to get my copies of those pieces.

In other news, I've made some small progress on the helmet prototype. After filling in the seams, I sanded everything smooth again:


I went back over it with a triangle file and a fine jigsaw blade and re-carved the seams to make them narrower and shallower. Then sprayed on a coat of primer:


So here's how the main body looks now:


I also prototyped the details for the mouth. Since the digital models I had weren't quite as smooth or detailed as the rest of the parts, I decided to build them from scratch. I started by cutting a piece of 3/4" MDF to match the outline, the grinding it down on the belt sander to match the thickness:


Then I sat down for some quality time with my collection of knives and files to do some more shaping:


After a bit, it really looked the part:


Here it is in primer:


I've got a lot more details to add to the main body of the helmet and a bit of fine tuning on the mouth details, but tomorrow I'll be ordering more silicone, so the object is to have the prototype ready to mold before the the rubber arrives.

 

[Nessy]

Loving this!

 

[thorssoli]

Thanks.

Progress continues on the helmet:


I will say I didn't much like it until the mouth details were finally in place. This thing's starting to grow on me.

 

[TommyBuilt]

Awesome!

 

[Daeouse]

Very nice!

 

[thorssoli]

Got some gauntlets cast. The second one from the left is the first cast of the Shae Vizla gauntlet:


Progress continues. Stay tuned...

 

[DW Design Studios]

Looks like Shawn's progress is moving along very well!
I also got some work done this past weekend. Got to try out my bicep pieces, belts, cod and butt pieces on my model. Let just say I was extremely happy to see it all fitting together.

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Biceps have resin detail pieces and a rubber backing. They can also be made to light up.

 

[RepublicArmory]

Are you approaching the visor issue and if so how? (ie the fact that it is not sunken down, but rather the same height as the helmet). Reference: http://s1044.photobucket.com/user/ordomereel/media/SWTOR_BountySneak02.jpg.html

 

[stevechewbacca]

Wow ! very cool !

 

[thorssoli]

I've made a bit more progress on the helmet:


It still needs a tiny bit of tweaking before it'll be ready to mold, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I've also got the first couple of pairs of gauntlets out of the molds:


Here's my friend Jen trying them on:




Hopefully over the weekend I'll get a chance to get something painted.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

Alright. Once again it's been too long since there's been an update.

First of all, I smoothed out the helmet a bit more:


Here it is being test-fitted to Janna, one of my guest models in the workshop:


Once I was happy that all of the little flaws had been sorted out, I gave it a couple coats of my standard lightish-red prototype color:


With the paint dry, the helmet prototype was mounted to a board and a drip tray was built up around the edges:


Then last night I finally got around to pouring on the print coat:


So now that the ball's rolling on that process, I should have a couple of castings in no time at all.

Also, I've finally managed to print the very last piece for this build:


These parts will be combined to form the canister that sits at the back of the belt. Here they are just dry fitted together:


So that's where my end of the build stands right now. Hopefully Darren will get a moment to update us all with his progress on this project.

 

[Zephyranthes]

-appreciative applause-


Kou Uraki.... LAUNCHING!

 

[DW Design Studios]

Looking good Shawn!!!

 

[thorssoli]

The mold is thickened:


And thickened a bit more:


I will have casts out of the mold this week.

I still need to mold the missiles and their mounts for the gauntlets and finish up the belt canister.

Soon...

 

[thorssoli]

 

[Bogleo]

That's awesome!