The Mighty Thor by Thorssoli FINISHED PICS, P4!!

[thorssoli]

My shop robots had some free time lately, so I got them working on something new carved out of some leftover MDF I had sitting around:


After a couple of miscalculations, I finally assembled a helmet with a size that I like:


Before the day was over, I soaked it with primer:


The next day I got started cleaning up some of the details:


After a bit of bondo work, it was looking pretty good:






Here's the wings after a bit more love with a file and some sanding blocks:


At the end of each day in the workshop lately, I've tinkered a bit with this helmet and added a coat of primer:


Here's how it looked last night:


Which means it looked like this this morning:




Here's the inside face of the wings with the cutouts that register to the sides of the helmet:


Once the paint is dry, I'll flip the wings over and give the outside faces a nice, glossy coat of paint. Then I'll be ready to start molding all three pieces and make them into something wearable.

Coming soon: armored boobs.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Gloss coat came out great on the other side of the wings:


Now on to molding...

 

[Mr.Spider]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

I love this, it's beautiful. Keep going !

 

[LorduDesign]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Beautiful work! Will keep an eye out for this one!

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Beautiful work! Will keep an eye out for this one!

Thank you for your kind words. This sort of encouragement is like fuel for these projects.

I love this, it's beautiful. Keep going !

Aye aye, sir.

Yesterday I had one of my young helpers in the shop and I set her to work mounting the body of the helmet for molding:


When my friend Sierra stopped by looking to tinker in the shop, I put her to work building a clay wall for the wings:


At the end of the day, they'd both done a great job:


Once they'd taken off, I set to work mixing and pouring silicone:


After letting it flow over all of the parts, I used a tongue depressor to ladle it back up onto the top of each piece, taking extra care to work out any bubble that were winding up in the undercut areas below the eyebrows:


Here's how the three parts looked by the time I quit last night:


Today I'll be thickening the molds and adding registration keys. Tomorrow I'll lay up the mothermolds and get started on the 2nd half of the molds for the wings.

With any luck, I'll have a wearable copy of this helmet by Tuesday.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Last night I thickened up the silicone jacket for the helmet body:


The ears got the same treatment as well as some registration keys:


The final step for the day was to add registration keys to the helmet body mold and pour on one more coat of silicone to smooth over the surface:


Tonight I will be laying up the fiberglass mothermolds for all three parts. Then tomorrow I can flip over the earwings and start building up the silicone jacket for the insides.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. I worry there's not enough discussion happening here on this discussion forum.

 

[Psicorp7]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

I dig it!

Wondering what you plan for the eyes? Some artists show them as plain white (like Spider-Man) and some show them lit up (like Iron Man).

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

I dig it!

Wondering what you plan for the eyes? Some artists show them as plain white (like Spider-Man) and some show them lit up (like Iron Man).

Really? I haven't noticed white or illuminated. All I've seen is black like this image on the cover of the book that got me started on all this. Link HERE.

The only real variation I've seen is the Sideshow statue that made it look like her eyelids and eyes were both black and visible inside the helmet:


I'm not so fond of that look. The statue is awesome from the neck down, but I like the smooth, clean-looking version of the helmet in the comics, so I'll probably just end up forming some tinted acrylic to make something that'll look a bit more like this:

 

[Psicorp7]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Ah Ha! I can't say I follow the ongoing comic, I had been looking at some earlier art. It looks like the new standard is very set on the black eyes. That will be much easier to make and see out of!

This is what I had seen previously from the Marvel Contest of Champions game.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

It saddens me to be the bearer of bad news. After pouring the last of the silicone for the main body of this helmet the other day I went home and figured everything was going to be okay.

The next morning, I discovered the body of Carl the Crane Fly:


Let us now observe a moment of silence in rememberance of Carl. He was earnest and hard working and all he ever wanted was to be a part of something bigger. At long last, his wish was finally granted. He'll be missed.






Thank you.

Back to the subject at hand, after scraping off Carl, it was time to start making mothermolds. I started with the wings. Here they are with the clay peeled back and smoothed out to prepare them for fiberglass layup:


Then I built up a clay mohawk to serve as a parting wall on the main body of the helmet:


And laid up some fiberglass:


Then more fiberglass:
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The morning after, everything was cured and I set about removing the clay from the other side of the ears. This is when it enlist the help of some bored teenager:


The other side was made pretty much the same way:


Then I started dropping the ball on the whole picture-taking thing. So the next pic I had was this snapshot of the first copy of the helmet out of the mold



That's it sitting on an old, beat-up lifecast of my girlfriend. So I'm pretty confident she'll be able to fit into it.

Stay tuned...

 

[Lear60man]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

RIP Carl.....Hope he ate a bunch of pesky mosquitos.

Hey....I saw an Xwing helmet in the background. You dont happen to have a spare chin cup do you? I built one on a real helmet 25 years ago......but no chin cup. I would like to call it done.

PM if im so lucky.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Hey....I saw an Xwing helmet in the background. You dont happen to have a spare chin cup do you? I built one on a real helmet 25 years ago......but no chin cup. I would like to call it done..

Sorry, I don't. That helmet was built from a kit by DW Design Studios. You can find them on here or on Facebook here: LINK. I hope this helps.

 

[deathstroke132]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

looks amazing! i'm now subscribed to the thread

 

[joberg]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Very well made as usual (I cannot get enough of your mold making) I think you should've left Carl were he was...you know the "part of a bigger thing" section

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

My girlfriend has a tiny little head. I scaled the helmet to be a bit loose on her so I can make it comfy and padded and possibly add a wig to give her hair the requisite superhero volume. Still, I'm a bit sad that it's a bit too small to fit me:


Fortunately, while I was down at SDCC, I brought the first cast of the helmet and she was able to peel away from work long enough to try it on. It fit pretty well with the addition of a little bit of padding.

She also makes it look a hell of a lot better than I do:

I really wish I'd taken the time to get better pictures before we headed out to the pool.

In any case, now I can go ahead and get started on the rest of the armor. Fortunately I have a duct-tape dummy of her from a previous project, so progress can continue while she's out of town.

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

After I was done with SDCC, my girlfriend insisted on hanging onto the helmet. This way she has a placeholder at her apartment until I actually finish a proper painted helmet.

"But wait," you're thinking, "isn't that one already painted?"

No, internet voice I've added to this post to make it more interesting, it's not painted. Instead, I dusted the interior of the mold with a metallic powder:

The main color was called "platinum" and the forehead inlay detail was "fine brilliant gold" or some such nonsense. In any case, after trimming out the eye holes and cutting the excess off the bottom edge of the main body of the helmet, the raw cast parts come out like so:

Here's a closer shot of the surface:

That's the second casting. The wings at this point are just held on with some double sided tape. I'll attach them more permanently after I've had a chance to paint them.

The other night I caught up with Hydra and had her try on the second copy of this helmet:

She makes it look good too. I still need to add a touch more padding in order to get it to sit high enough and far enough back to look right.

 

[joberg]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Those women make your artwork come alive!!:cool

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

Today I took the second, thicker cast of the helmet and found the largest head I can fit it onto. This is "Chuck" (short for Charlotte) who's been helping me in the shop lately:


So, while I sized the prototype with my girlfriend's tiny, child-sized head in mind, it does fit somewhat larger heads after all. Chuck's head is only 1/2" smaller around than mine:


In other news, I made a trip to my leather guy's shop and picked up all of the leather I'll need for this project. Here's a grainy selfie from the warehouse:


Now I have to hurry up and become a leather tooling expert.

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

While I'm learning leather tooling, I decided to go ahead and get started on the painting of one of the helmets. Here's the ears in primer:


Here's the three pieces of the helmet all primed and ready for paint along with a couple of other ladies I'm tinkering with:


Before I can give it a final chrome finish, I have to start with a gloss black basecoat. The paint I used was a single stage automotive urethane paint:






I'm pretty happy with how it all came out, as you can see here:


Now I need to keep it clean and warm while it off-gasses for a day or two. Then it'll be time for the chrome layer.

Stay tuned...

 

[Jango Wes]

Re: Thorssoli Finally Decided to Start a Thor Costume

This may be a dumb question, but putting a plexiglass case over it would keep it clean, would it affect the paint job at all? I'm loving this build!