Steven Universe Gems and Wailing Stone

[Gibbtall]

So at this point I'm not totally done, but I'm nearing the end of the gems. The wailing stone has a few more steps to go.

So first up I started off making Rose Quartz's/Steven's gem, a friend of mine is doing an awesome Rose cosplay, so the first proper one will go to her. I also plan on doing the other gems as well, so far except Pearl, I'm unsure how to get the pearl finish on it. I haven't started work on Peridot yet, but I figure the demand will be there.

I'm sorry for the large pictures if they're too big.

First print, the machine I used had a problem with the top, so I had to do some fixing but it all worked out.

I slopped in a bunch of 5 minute epoxy and turned it upside down on a piece of paper, this is after some initial sanding once the paper had worn away.

Slapping some filler primer on in.

Lots of sanding and primer got me to this, it's actually got some tiny pits in it, but I'm pretty happy, I managed to get it shiny by polishing it with a t shirt.

This was my first time making a silicone mold (full sized, I made a tiny one of a bolt to test and learn), I used Mold Max's Mold Star (i think) 220. I left a big goober of hot glue in the mold expecting to use it as a run off for extra resin, I ended up not needing it, and left it out in my next molds.

First resin pour, I underpoured, so it was a bit thin, but I did a good job, not many bubbles, it ended up being my test piece for finishing. I used Smooth-ons clear cast, the fastest curing version.

Preattyyy, you can see the print lines in this, they ended up showing up a day or so after I decided I was done finishing the master, turns out my primer shrinks a bit once it's fully dry.

So lots of testing of different clear coat sprays and what to do with the back of the gem. This image has a clear coat on the top, on the bottom clear coat on the right and sanded on the left, on top of a piece of silver tape. I decided to go with a white back instead of the silver back, I found it was making the gem too dark and I's rather keep a nice bright colour to stay in line with the cartoon.

Working on Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire, hopefully I'll have all of these available all at the same time.

I left these on a window sill and they had a good melt in the sun This is after sanding them flat again. I was able to get them back to a good shape and shine and you can't really tell that they had melted.

I've since remolded the Rose Quartz gem along with the others using a vacuum chamber, so the molds are super nice. The Vancouver Hack Space is hopefully getting a pressure pot in the future but for right now to get things going I'm going to try and use the vacuum to degass the clear cast, I think that since it's pretty thin I'll be able to take out the air rather than crush it with pressure.

 

[Gibbtall]

And now we have the Wailing Stone, I might be the only one that really loves the design of this thing, but meh. I decided to go with a roughly pop-can sized finished piece, a good desktop sized prop to show off at work. I'm hoping to make a few resin casts of it and paint up at least 2-3, my plan for my own painting will be to use gold leaf instead of paint for the inlaid pieces, which should look pretty cool.



Took the same route as the gems, 3D print, filler, sand, filler, sand.

Weee growing, I ended up running out of time and filament, so I had to come back the next day with a new file of just of the top half.

By our powers combiiineed! I printed the cap bit separately to make it easier to paint in the end. Pop can for scale.

Spot putty is the best thing.

Primer to show off issues I need to address.

This is where I'm at now, nice and smooth. It's not perfect, but It won't be clear so it doesn't need to be perfect. Next step is texture. I grabbed one of those textured spraypaint cans, Volpin said that it will kill my silicone if I try to mold it directly, so I'm going to try and do a test to see if I can seal it enough to protect the silicone from it.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

The show is a hit and miss for me but I do have Rose's sword & scabbard, as well as her flag, on my to-do list.

 

[The Schlitzie]

I just started watching the show, great job!

 

[Gibbtall]

And here we have it! I'm not a fan of the Amethyst, it's too dark, I got a new dye that I'm going to be testing, hopefully it does a better job. I ended up using Future Floor polish as a clear coat since none of the sprays I was using weren't drying hard enough. I went with the white backing.

 

[Darksyde13]

Very cool! Have you tried the smooth on stuff they are marketing at 3d printed items? It would be interesting to hear if that makes any quicker work of a project like this as apposed to putty/bondo. XTC-3D is the name of the stuff.

 

[robotboy]

wow looking awesome!!!!!!!

 

[ammywolf]

This is coming out Fanatic!!

 

[Gibbtall]

Very cool! Have you tried the smooth on stuff they are marketing at 3d printed items? It would be interesting to hear if that makes any quicker work of a project like this as apposed to putty/bondo. XTC-3D is the name of the stuff.

I actually used it on the wailing stone, it was ok, certainly not a fix-all. I was a bit impatient and started sanding it before it was fully cured I think, so it was a bit tough to sand, still a bit tacky, but I've seen it fully cured and it gets pretty hard so I think it would probably sand ok then. I think it really depends on what you're using it on, it's a relatively easy application, especially for large surfaces, but the fact it is liquid means it's going to dribble a bit and fill in detail you might want to keep. I found that it filled in some of my carved loops, and was really hard to carve back out with the tools I had, if I'd done that with bondo or the spot putty I used I can easily carve it back out before sanding it smooth.

I don't plan on using the XTC-3D again, it's ok to get you to a 70% smooth print, but if you want total control over your finished surface I'd rather go with bondo or spot putty, faster working times, more controllable, easier to work on.

 

[Aresh Septango]

Putting some kind of speaker in the wailing stone would be cool

 

[Gibbtall]

Putting some kind of speaker in the wailing stone would be cool

Agreed I hope to try and slush cast a hallow one, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the right combination of even, complete coverage and thickness though.

 

[Gibbtall]

So the gems have been going crazy, I've made over 50 gems the past few weeks and plan on making plenty more. I've moved on to trying some more complicated pouring methods for the more complicated gems and fusions. Lapis is on it's way but the first pour I did was a bit off. Peridot is looking good, I'll have a proper picture tonight, same with Pearl. For the fusions I'm trying a few different things, since they all have very different looks. Opal was the first I was able to nail down, I'm super happy with how it's looking, I used "Cello Glitter" it's made form bits of iridescent cellophane. I'm hoping to find some more in different colours to use with Rainbow Quartz. Sardonyx needs some work, it's tough to make sure everything has a similar streak. For pearl I used Smooth Cast, so they're bright white, this helped a lot since the pearl paint I used is pretty thin, I had one not cure properly and it's still pretty dark even after painting.

 

[Aresh Septango]

any plans to make jasper? or lapis? oh wait, I spy a lapis in there